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I have not had much experience with gaming in the classroom, but I have seen other teachers use it and have much success when it comes to motivating students and bridging the learning gap. One interesting point the article mentions is the the "platform" model strategy. In this, students have one log in, and are able to access a variety of games which can be reported t to the teacher as a formative assessment. Teachers are also able to log in and track students progress.

I see the ideas for digital game-based-learning as a method of differentiation that can be particularly effective for students with special needs and learning disabilities. Interest in using games in the classroom continues to grow, as evidenced by the recent Library of Congress grants to build civics applications for classrooms. The full report mentioned in this article is linked within, and worthwhile reading. The learning gaps that we see in our team's data could possibly be addressed using digital games from iCivics, Shephard Software, and other sources.

I agree 100% with Andrea's quote "I see the ideas for digital game-based-learning as a method of differentiation that can be particularly effective for students with special needs and learning disabilities." I only have to think back to this morning in my 2nd period where this worked with one of 8th grade students in special education who has a severe visual disability. In fact I even have the link to the game I use in that class all the time. I encourage everyone to set up a free account: https://kahoot.it/#/ !!!! Kahoot was introduced to me in my Electives Professional Development. More than one of the teachers has issues with incorporating technology into their health classroom. I agree with this article when they write "Additional teacher training, as well as creating a common language between educators and developers, was recommended."

I am a little familiar with a few digital games. In my classroom, I use Kahoot.it to assist my students in learning their vocabulary. I use this website to make a classroom game that we all play together. Everyone can participate at the same time, competing for first place in points. I can create the questions on my smart-board, and the students can play on another computer or they can download the app on their phones. This makes our lessons more interactive, and the students get more involved and enjoy the class more.

Just like the article suggests, I use games to help students review or understand a lesson. A great one that was mentioned, and that I use is iCivics. Since Government is tested in my county, we have to make sure that our students fully understand the purpose, how the government works, and why it was created. When it comes to making sure the students are comprehending the information I will use iCivics, Kaoot.it, and a Jeopardy game I find online. It promotes students to take learning and their education into their own hands. I think the games don't have to be created by us or super complex, as long as you find one that relate to your content and engages students.

I love the idea of using these types of games to keep students engaged. At my son's school, he often has online math games given for homework. He loves IXL and it keeps him motivated to practice skills and learn new ones. In my 6th grade Spanish class we are exploring quia.com. Students can play vocabulary building games while I work one-on-one with students. It is a great way to keep kids engaged while doing assessments, too.

The SMART Goal I will be using: "By the end of the four week close reading intervention, 80% of students will be able to demonstrate improvement in their writing ability by composing a paragraph with less then 5 grammatical, spelling, and structural errors. Students will meet with the teacher three times a week for a 30 min session". Planning Protocol: I would evaluate this video as a Rigor and Relevance of 4 as each student has an opportunity to engage with the content through differentiated activities suited to their individual learning needs. I feel this particular video was very useful in demonstrating various strategies for differentiating the lesson content to make it accessible to learners of various levels of proficiency. These methods could be extremely helpful in differentiating the content of my SMART Goal to ensure that every student has a opportunity to improve their writing skills according their level of skill.

Planning Protocol: Impact on Learning would be a good reflection on this video because the instructor is differentiating the lesson based on the data she has to make sure each student has some type of impact on his or hers learning. I think differentiating the lesson will have a huge impact on each students learning. The SMART Goal that I will be using is "Students will be able to solve an on-grade level math task, that will require them to respond and defend their work to explain their reasoning 3 out of 5 times by the end of the 1st marking period." I think this video will be a great instructional tactic because the lesson is differentiated based on the student. With the data the instructor has, the student will be able to receive more help that will help them respond and defend their work on grade level. With students that need more help with sentences.... a sentence starter can be used to help support them.

From the Planning Protocol Rubric I choose to relate this video to the dimension "Rigor and Relevance": At the Highest level-Students think and work. All students in this video are being challenged in very different ways this leading them to think and work independently and collaboratively. This teacher does a phenomenal job at differentiating her material on all levels. All students are doing the same work on the reading assignment however the avenue in which they give there response are different. She is able to give each student the support they need ahead of time so that students don't feel singled out. By doing this the students often feel empowered to be able to complete the assignment because they know the supports they need will be available to them. This also allows the teacher to go directly to the students who need extra support because the higher students have the challenges they need as well to not become board with the lesson. The SMART Goal I am focusing on this is one of my team members "After three weeks of targeted instruction, students will increase their pre-assessment scores by 3 or more points, or 75 percent or higher on the post-assessment" Our team could defiantly translate the instructional tactic used in this video to the above SMART goal. The teacher in the video is targeting specific learning goals in her instruction by reaching students at their specific needs and helping guide them all in the same direction teaching the same topic just in different ways. The above SMART goal is all about targeting instruction for the PARCC assessment to improve students scores. All students will have to take the same assessment however the supports they need along the way will be different.

Article presents rubric for teachers to use to close instructional gap. Based on student performance can select interventions. This is critical to developing reading comprehension. The article stress the need for students to interact with vocabulary in multiple ways.