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This site gives an array of strategies and tips to cater to struggling students.

The website created by Kathleen Bulloch does offer a lot of great tips. I especially like how they are broken down into manageable chunks for a teacher who is working to accommodate a special needs student. Suggestions were provided for certain areas of concern, such as: "If a student has trouble expressing himself verbally, then try....If a student has trouble expressing himself writing, then try..." and many more categories with similar setups. Good resource for supporting special education students with quick ideas for how an educator can differentiate their instruction to support student learning.

Week 8 Google Scholar is among the best scholarly search engines online yet only a few select of educators know its secrets.As a rule of thumb that applies to all Google products, the effective use of any service from Google s can only be achieved through mastering its deep and hidden features.

In this quick article it identifies a formulaic way to create good thesis statements. I love giving students a map or tool to help them remember how to structure a solid thesis statement that anchors a good essay. These four steps are dead on but we will have to adapt it to the 6th grade level for my PLC practice.

Week 9: Claire and Melissa This article is accessible though Diigo using the link above This article provides instructional strategies for language arts teachers trying to teach writing to their students. While it is well-known that teaching by example is an effective strategy for writing instruction, this article provides steps for teaching students through mentor texts in a way that mitigates frustration and maintains engagement. Resource: 8 Tips for Teaching with Mentor Texts Edutopia

This resources provides teachers with strategies to support English Language Learners with participating in meaningful math discussions. This supports my SMART goal to help students explain how to solve for the unknown in an equation. This resources is really great because it gives the teacher tips on how to facilitate discussion and a breakdown of roles for teachers and students.

This is a blog post with tips for teaching both advanced and struggling students in the same classroom. This could provide some ideas for our goal of improving AP Bio scores for a sub-group of students in the class.

This blog post discusses the advantages of doing a search in Diigo using the 'community' search function as opposed to doing a search in Google. This can be used to demonstrate to colleagues as well as students the benefits of doing educational searches via curated social bookmarking sites such as Diigo.

This article discusses the need for implementation of student-involved classroom assessment to aid in closing the achievement gap. The authors discuss how motivation occurs at both ends of the spectrum for learners; high achieving learners are motivated by their continued success while low achieving learners are motivated to give up as they have had few to little successful experiences in the classroom. The article goes on to discuss three methods of embedding students into the learning process that will prove to help them take ownership of their learning experience. The first is student involved classroom assessment. This tool allows students, "under the careful management of their teachers," to give input into how they will be assessed in the classroom. The second is student-involved record keeping. Here students are responsible for tracking their progress, allowing them to see and take charge of their personal growth in the classroom. Finally, student-involved communication is discussed. Students have the opportunity to advocate for themselves in setting such as parent/teacher conferences. The article also discusses four conditions that are necessary, in the opinion of the authors, to assist in closing the achievement gap.

I enjoyed this article, Jason, especially the premise that essentially enforcing the idea that students are underachieving as a whole by a set of arbitrary test scores can, consequently in some empirical cases, produce negative self-fulfilling prophecies in students' beliefs. This promotion of subconscious failing, if replicated and shown to be universally significant, holds dramatic implications. Looking back on my own experiences, Jason, I can remember the pride that I constantly felt in elementary school because we were known to be the leaders in our county; conversely though, if that were not the cause, I think it would be fair to conjecture that a pall of hopelessness may have replaced my academic banner of proverbial pride and high morale.

Learning and memory specialist Marilee Sprenger writes about vocabulary critical to the Common Core and offers 11 strategies for helping students learn it.

Vocabulary strategies presented here makes it necessary to be reflective of how new words are introduced to students. The strategies require students to interact beyond knowing how to correctly spell a word but how a word is used and what it means for students to engage with the word.

I love Edutopia! Some of their resources are really great. I think that this specific article is FANTASTIC for information about how to teach students the critical vocabulary necessary for them to become successful 21st Century Learners!

This is from Skills You need, Helping You Develop Life Skills. These guidelines and tips are to help students become active readers and improve their learning. Effective note-taking strategies while reading are provided depending on the task involved as well as organization of notes. The strategies can be shared with students of any discipline and any age.

This is an awesome resource for teachers, parents or anyone working with students with Autism. It provides helpful tips, challenges, and treatment and therapy options for these students. I like to reference it as it covers a lot of information on behaviors and how to handle them. It is applicable for any age pre-k though adulthood. -I am a special Educator serving students in the Autism Program.

Steps on how to improve reading comprehension.

Closing Achievement Gaps: An Association Guide (NEA), (Pg, 18-19), 2015, Retrieved from http://www.nea.org/home/13550.htm Retrieved on 10/16/15 This article is extremely useful for teachers. The article delivers important information on strategies to use when trying to close the achievement gap.

List of ways that you can close the gap that can be used as a good starting point but does not provide any real substance.

This website provides tips and strategies that can be used in the classroom to help close the achievement gap. The strategies include family outreach, multiple learning opportunities and classroom support strategies

This article looks at the importance of technology use in the classrooms in the 21st century and how this technology can be used to help close learning gaps. It specifically looks at students who are "at-risk". This article addresses great points but also cautions that in order for technology to be effective, it needs to be accompanied by professional development.

This article highlights a report completed by the Alliance for Excellent Education and the Staford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education in 2014. The article notes that students can make significant increases in learning and engagement through the use of technology. However, students from poor socio economic backgrounds may not have the same instruction or access to technology as those from more affluent neighborhoods. The auther then presents a list of solutions.

I like that this article encourages a blended learning approach with technology. I think that tech is a powerful tool that needs to be paired with hands on activities for the early learners.

This article, How We Learn. Ask The Cognitive Scientist. The Usefulness of Brief Instruction in Reading Comprehension Strategies, was found in Diigo. Written by cognitive psychology professor Daniel T. Willingham, he surfaces the importance of teaching reading comprehension strategies that students may benefit and receive all they're supposed to out of their reading.

Dimension chosen: rigor & relevance Rating: 4- students think and work This is a blog that includes helpful tips and activities for teaching theme. With my SMART goal, by the end of quarter 1, 60% of students will score a 70% or higher on the Quarter 1 Literacy Assessment. The Quarter 1 literacy assessment is on theme, standard RL 4.2. The activities and suggestions from this blog will help me better prepare my students for the assessment.