4. What happened to the 4 skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing?
The four skills are imbedded in the Performance Guidelines. They have been repackaged into language modes, which place the primary emphasis on the purpose of communication and the context in which it happens, rather than on any one skill in isolation.
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Back to school: How parent involvement affects student achievement (full report) - 7 views
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Good article on how involving parents in the school community can lead to better student achievement and attendence.
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I agree with you, Katherine. I think that this article typifies the heart of our EQ in that enumerates important statistical macrodata concerning parental involvement in overall student achievement. A nice find, indeed.
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The report provides plenty of research results to support the more parental involvement in schools, and specifies which types of parental involvement yield the greatest academic improvements: programs and interventions to increase family engagement in homework, targeted programs on parenting practices regarding attendance, and regular school communication with parents such as orientations and newsletters. This quote from the Conclusion summarizes the research well: "While all forms of parent involvement play significant roles in the health of the school and the community, home learning activities are perhaps the wisest investment of school dollars and effort to produce long-lasting academic gains. While such involvement is fairly straightforward in elementary school, it's also possible later on. At the middle and high school level, school activities that promote the parent's role in maintaining high expectations for their children benefit students."
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"Parent involvement can make a difference in a child's education." I know this is true in my school. I know for a fact that my students who have parents that are involved do better academically. This does not mean that the parent necessarily has to have a high level of education. I have had students really succeed because their parents check their agenda and homework each night when they come home. Sometimes, just knowing or having a parent that cares and that is there to push you is enough.
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I agree wholeheartedly with the quote that states "Parent involvement can make a difference in a child's education." Once I read this line, I was intrigued with the rest of the article. I am a very driven individual when it comes to education, and I want that for my son as well. My wife and I are constantly coaching our son on the importance of education, and making sure that he completes his work on time and correctly. I have seen first hand in my two years of teaching what parent involvement can do for a students school work. I have seen students whose parents are actively involved in their school careers, and the students performed on a much higher level than those of students whose parents did not seem to be involved.
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The Real Versus the Possible: Closing the Gaps in Engagement and Learning | EDUCAUSE - 0 views
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(Week 9: Tolulope Oladipo and Michelle Bear) This is a journal article that is available in Diigo. The link to the article is also provided below: The Real Versus the Possible: Closing the Gaps in Engagement and Learning. Retrieved from https://www.educause.edu/research-and-publications/books/educating-net-generation/real-versus-possible-closing-gaps-engagement-and-learning. This article explores the generations of learners, how we can utilize technology in learning, the discovery of education community and learning science. The authors discussed further educational Goals about learning, improving student's success, engagement and learning through people to people interaction, people and tools, using information technology device as a vehicle by which concepts are presented (such as using simulations, and animations), using collaboration and rich media communication to promote interaction an engagement. The author discusses how access to technology determines generation of learners, such as the Net generation. According to the authors, many students in the K-12 and post-secondary education do not have adequate access to advanced instructional technologies or the web. Despite the engagement created by technology-enabled interactive instruction, many students, teachers, do not have the requisite experiences. The authors went further that internet resources are not yet fully integrated into the day-t0-day classroom routine. The authors cited a finding that proposed that motivation is a key factor to learning, and that engagement and learning can be achieved through competency and control, curriculum, instruction, the organization, management of the schools and the environmental conditions. Furthermore, according to the authors, the Board on Children, Youth and Families 2004 National report recommended that we can keep young people in school and making learning worthwhile by forming a good connection between learners and the context in which learning occurs. We sh
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shared by simonebh on 22 Oct 16
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Information Gap in Communicative Classrooms - 2 views
americanenglish.state.gov/...01-39-4-h.pdf
EDTC615 Language Instruction Information Gaps Communicative Approach
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When looking for information about learning and instructional gaps in language classes, I found this paper about encouraging communication with second language learners through creating information gaps. The concept is that students use language in authentic ways by answering questions that are open ended and relevant or by doing other activities that encourage communication and discussion rather than very set and inauthentic uses of language. As a language teacher, it gave me ideas for games or activities to do with my students as well as a reminder to use open-ended questioning in order to promote more diverse student responses. It seems a little dated based on the reference materials, but is still relevant in the modern World Language classroom.
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Educational Leadership:Schools as Learning Communities:Partnering with Families and Com... - 2 views
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This article provides a wonderful overview of ways to involve families in a learning community at school across multiple subject areas. However, there is a large focus on reading and ways to foster family involvement in developing early literacy skills at home. This will be an excellent resource for our group as we begin to design a plan for supporting students in Kindergarten in their ability to blend words and recall high frequency words in text.
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Community Schools Bridging the Gap Between School and Home - 0 views
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Closing the Achievement Gap - Educational Leadership - 38 views
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In order to increase the achievement levels of minorities and low income students, there are three components that are the focus: high standards, a rigorous curriculum, and effective educators.
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Caryn, I like that this article not only realistically talks about the historic and growing achievement gap, but that it also provides potential solutions. Not surprisingly, most of the solutions whether they be standards, curriculum, or teacher-based are all easily manageable. The only trick is to actually get some forward momentum on this decade's old issue. Victoria
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Caryn, I'm reminded of the old educational psychology experiment where teachers were given false information about student abilities. Teachers who were told that a class was full of 'high performing' pupils ended up doing more high end assignments and pushing the students to do better while teachers were told their pupils were 'low achieving' did remedial assignments and barely pushed them to improve. I teach in a very diverse and low SES school, but I always do my best to assume that all of my students are able to do the high level work I assign in Physics. I also agree whole heartedly when then article claimed that teachers have to give extra help to students who are already at a disadvantage. My students do quite well when they apply themselves, but often that means they have to see me during lunch, after school, or even on Saturdays (when I work at a Saturday school program). Many students have jobs to help out their families or need to be home right after school to babysit siblings or to cook supper, etc. I find that the more time I can devote to being available to students, the better my classes perform. I must say however I would like to see an update to this. When it was talking about the lack of progress of students in the 1990s and then discussed 'data in the last 5 years..' I had to scroll up to the date of the article. Being that it is almost 15 years old, I was sad to see how many of the gaps still exist in our schools...
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Combining standards, high standards for all learners and highly qualified teachers helps to close the learning gap.
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I was very interested in this article because I teach at a title 1 school in MCPS. Majority of my students are minorities or low income students. Our FARMS percentage is extremely high. I do not mean to repeat what Caryn had posted earlier but I mean to piggyback on her comment "To increase the achievement levels of minority and low-income students, we need to focus on what really matters: high standards, a challenging curriculum, and good teachers." I know this to be true in my classroom. For my students I have to high expectations and structure. I have to present them with a challenging curriculum. I need to devote myself and give them all I can. But, progress has come to a halt, which happened around 1988, and since that time, the gaps have widened. To me that is frightening and it makes me want to act immediately. "Because if we don't get the numbers out on the table and talk about them, we're never going to close the gap once and for all." People need to not be afraid of talking about the data, addressing the data, conquering the data. But in order for none to take offense everyone needs to know the correct data. Before speaking, people need to be educated. There simply cannot be "downright wrong-notions about the whys beneath the achievement gap." This article is great and goes on to give us proper data. It informs us of what needs to happen in order to close the gap: standards are key, all students must have challenging curriculum, students need extra help, and teachers MATTER A LOT.
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Looks into why the instructional gap has widened after 1988 after having been narrowed the previous 18 years. Offers patterns and key concepts to look at when trying to understand how to close these gaps.
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I thoroughly enjoyed reading this article as it relates to the student achievement gap. I currently teach at a Title 1 school in Prince George's County where majority of my students are working at a level below their perspective grade. This article does a great job breaking down the statistics and providing steps to move forward in solving this major issue. Lesson 1 spoke to me directly because the teaching and comprehension of standards are the building blocks of students growth. I reinforce the focus standard(s) of the week by way of intervention, homework, informal, and formal assessment. This article is very VALUABLE!!!
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I love the lessons outlined in this resource. I especially like how Lesson 4 places a focus on the teachers and how they matter. In impoverished schools, many times the most qualified and effective teachers do not want to be there, therefore limiting the quality of teachers present. It is unfortunate that this happens but it is very common.
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Helpful article on closing the gap with low income and minority students.
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While this article came out too long ago to have up to date technological solutions, it still offers a brief, helpful framework for looking to improve classroom outcomes.
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Excellent resource laying out the achievement gap problem (with data) and valuable solutions to close the gap.
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This resource does an excellent job of breaking down and making sense of the achievement gap. When the numbers are presented in this way, it makes it clear just how wide that gap is and how worrying it is that the gap is once again increasing. The most interesting piece of the article was the stark contrast in the reasons for the gap between adult stakeholders and student stakeholders. The adults appear to place blame on factors beyond the classroom that are difficult to control, while the students highlight the growing concerns within the walls of the schools that are much more actionable.
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The points in this article are personal to me as I teach adults at a Community College. In every cohort that I have 50% of my students have difficulty writing a cogent paragraph and 90% of them have never heard of an academic journal. While this is not part of my curriculum, I also teach these things. My students need to be sent into the workforce being able to participate in conversations in the workplace.
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The article really breaks down what happens to students during high school where they fall behind to move forward in attending college. One thing they mention is test scores. To attend college students have to take and pass a standardized test that determines of they will get into college and what college they can get into. I believe community college is a great way to bridge the gap between high school and a university. There they can determine a major and may attend school part time while still working. This gives them the time to determine what they want to do in life while still being able to survive.
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We should understand how race, poverty and the environment influences a child's potential in education before they even start Kindergarten. But like a disabilites or inequities there is diversity in the factors that cause these disparities and our solutions to remedies these gaps must offer a multifaceted approach. An approach that offers rigors instruction in the classrooms, access and guidance for continued learning at home and within our communities.
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This post hits home, as I see it at my Title I school. Students struggle but even the students passing AP classes and Honors courses, yet when they see the SAT's or the ACT's. Last year, my school's valedictorian only got a 1000 on the SAT and did not get to attend her first choice. We, as a school, and larger, we as educators need to ensure that we are doing everything we can to get these students to get past whatever challenges exist outside of the school and have strict standards that need to be met.
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Creating Math Talk Communities - 2 views
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This article details how to establish mathematics discourse in the classroom. The article details specific steps to model, scaffold, and encourage mathematics discourse between students throughout a math block. Discourse supports collaboration, justification of ideas, and flexibility with mathematical thinking. The article is geared towards elementary students; however, the ideas are universal for all grades.
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This article helps teachers create a friendly and safe math community. Students will be able to use math vocabulary to explain their thinking and reasoning when solving a problem.
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Communicative Discourse in Second Language Classrooms: From Building Skills to Becoming... - 1 views
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This paper gives a broad overview of key historical and current theories to language development and learning. It provides a nice overview and review of various approaches and schools of thought. The author's premise is that teachers should look both collectively and uniquely at these in order to make informed instructional decisions when teaching students who are learning a second language, either English as a second language or another foreign language. While the information is not new, it is a well-presented consolidation of information that educators can use to diversify their instructional approach to promote language development in their students.
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Discovery Education Web2014 : Web 2.0 Tools - 0 views
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Education World: Homework Study Hall: Making Up Missed Work - 4 views
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How one principal managed to turn around failing grades by instituting a mandatory study hall for missed homework. He also communicated with parents when 5 assignments were missed. The teachers had indicated that grades would improve if students did their homework and were better prepared for class as a result.
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A mandatory homework policy has been successful at our middle school. Students must complete all homework and quizzes before they are permitted to take summative assessments, and parents are notified when assignments are missing or when students do not pass a summative. Resource time, aka study hall, is time set aside for students to make up missing work and get extra assistance as needed. It's good to read about a similar successful program for high school, and I wonder if this kind of program could be helpful for addressing our team's identified learning gaps.
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Our school does this as well, especially our math department. Of course it is up to the teacher as to whether or not they want to implement this strategy but administration seems to fully support the cause. I have a science teacher friend and a math teacher friend who both to do this. They give the students detention slips and they come after school to make up or re-take work or assignments. I cannot see myself doing this (an art teacher) but I can see why math and science would want to. I feel that most teachers should make themselves available at lunch for students. I would not suggest every day availability, but students could come meet and get help by appointment only. Too often I hear from students that the teacher tells them to come in the next day for lunch and there is no one to be found in the classroom.
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I like the idea of a before and after homework study hall. I can contest to being so busy that you do not want to chase your child around to get their homework done. My son is only five and it is a hassle to get him to do his homework, therefore, I can only imagine how it will be when he gets older. I believe that this might benefit more students if this were implemented nationwide. Students can get the extra assistance they may not be able to get at home with their assignments. I wonder how well this would benefit my school?
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I think this is a great idea, especially in high school and middle school! I have been speaking to middle schools in Pennsylvania, and the principals discussed how they have decided to implement homework/tutoring study halls. I think it encourages students to stay on top of their own homework. Also, it allows teachers to have one on one interaction with students, who are struggling. I thought it was smart of the principal to have another administrator oversee the process of tracking missed homework. Data has become such an important part of being a teacher, and using it to help students strive to be better in school is great.
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8 Proven Ways to Help Close the Achievement Gap | EdSurge News - 13 views
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An informative and engaging article that provides eight solutions to tackling the achievement gap. It is well organized and written with clear reasoning for each solution.
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Emotional start, easy to read eight part checklist that can help bridge the instructional gap; good tools to make sure all is being done to properly cater towards the full comprehension of material by students.
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This short article highlights years of research that examined the racial achievement gap. Research and finding suggest that much of what accounts for the disparities in achievement is attributed to socioeconomic factors. The article offers 8 ways for closing the gap among those most impacted based on the findings and best practices.
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Great article. Another source of proof that higher levels of expectations and rigor really do help close the gap. I also like that they reinforce the value of school and home connection.
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This article talks about using assessments to tell if interventions are working, this like a response to intervention. Raising the bar for the student to they can be successful. Monitor the students progress on a monthly basis and get the parents involved
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When we met, April's mother was in drug rehabilitation and her father was in jail. She would stare at the ground and rarely utter a word. I was a sophomore in college and was serving as April's mentor; I feared that we might never develop a close relationship.
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When we met, April's mother was in drug rehabilitation and her father was in jail. She would stare at the ground and rarely utter a word. I was a sophomore in college and was serving as April's mentor; I feared that we might never develop a close relationship.
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This article highlights 8 ways to provide educational gains to students needing them most. The goal is closing the achievement gap between struggling learners and high performing students. 1. Use Evidence-Based Instruction, 2. Provide a Rigorous Curriculum, 3. Increase Instructional Time, 4. Introduce Supplemental Instruction, 5. Monitor Progress, Ideally Monthly, 6. Motivate & Engage, 7. Deepen Professional Development, 8. Link School and Home
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This is a great article that highlights different things that can be done in the classroom to close the achievement gap the two that I think are most important are the increased instructional time, and link between school and home. I think almost every teacher has wished for more instructional time in the classroom, I know I only see my students every other day and I often think about how much more I could teach them if I saw them every day like math and ELA. I also think the communication between home and school is important to a student's ability to learn.
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Great article! I like how it was connected to an inspirational story. I like how each of the ways was described. Often in the busyness of teaching, it's good to have reminders of what is needed, so that you can strengthen weaknesses.
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(Week 9: Sheila, Suzanne and Cathy) This article is accessible through the link above. This article explains eight ways educators can inspire academic advancements in students, especially students from lower socioeconomic statuses. While mentoring the author gain insight on how to help close the achievement gap. The writer and her team identified that evidence base instruction, a rigorous curriculum, increased instructional time, supplemental instruction, progress monitoring, motivating and engaging, professional development, and a link to school and home would accomplish those gains. The author believes that "if teachers know about and follow those suggestions they could help close the achievement gap." (Fisher, 2015) This article can be a great resource for teachers. Many of the suggestions could be incorporated by most teachers. However, the article also assumes that if followed these eight tools will close the achievement gap. The author also does not explain how teachers can increase instructional time. Reference: Fisher, O. (Oct 2015). 8 proven ways to help close the achievement gap. Istation. Retrieved from https://www.edsurge.com/news/2015-10-27-8-proven-ways-to-help-close-the-achievement-gap
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The article was very informative. I especially liked the 8th suggestion, "Link home and school." This is an essential piece that I think educators need to do a better job with for at-risk students. When there are more people engaged and involved, students have a broader network of support to ensure success. We need to do more community outreach to help our students improve both academically and in the broader sense.
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I really enjoyed this article. As a new instructor I am constantly looking to engage my adult students. Through my instruction, making that personal connection is so important. Once you make that personal connection I find that students start making a personal connection with their assignments as well. I find having a non-academic conversation at the beginning of class can help the students feel involved classroom citizens.
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This article really gives great advice on how teachers can help close the achievement gap by changing small things they do in the classroom. The two things that stuck out to me was allowing more time and progress monitoring. Sometimes time is all a student needs to succeed. When students feel rushed they end up just picking whatever answer they think is right or just something to complete the assignment. Allowing students to return to their unfinished work could really help students concentrate knowing that they don't have to rush to finish an assignment. As far as progress monitoring goes, it helps when the teacher really cares about making sure the students are on the right track and that their parents are aware of the work they have completed or would need to complete to get them on track.
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shared by kwashington904 on 25 Jun 15
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Closing the Achievement Gap Through Teacher Collaboration: Facilitating Multiple Trajec... - 4 views
files.eric.ed.gov/...EJ786607.pdf
instruction education PLN professional development collaboration EDTC615 Fall17 Research
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Two prominent methods for closing achievement gaps are discussed in this article: 1. increase district control over teaching and curriculum, and "minimum standard of instruction", 2. using teacher teams to develop curriculum and teaching methods. Because district control leads to set curriculum, methods, and assessments across schools, progress is easily measured. However, talented and creative teachers tend to feel less valued as educators, and more like tools of implementation. This could cause less effectiveness for having to fit lessons within such a strict construct. Teacher teams, or Professional Learning Networks, empower teachers for contributing to development of effective lessons. Educators tend to enjoy this approach, since it is more natural to teaching and learning, though it is difficult to measure what is being learned. Under district control, the focus can be on research based interventions, where measurement relies on teachers not straying from the mandated processes. Alternatively, it can focus on teacher learning, which would output teachers with similar goals, but who can draw from their own experience and knowledge. Mountain High School in Pleasantville, California, was divided into "learning communities" of around 80 students. Teachers were to serve as advisors, regularly contact families, collaborate with colleagues, and ELL and Special education students were divided amongst the communities. The teacher lack of experience with PDs showed, as they were more focused on student problems rather than ways to improve instruction. Teachers were also not used to contacting parents outside of problematic situations. It was also necessary to provide accommodations that help struggling students to strengthen the lacking skills that are preventing further growth. The proposed methods seemed sound, though implementation in the case study, was still problematic. The lack of success was potentially due to lack of understanding of what compris
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(Week 9: Amber, Angela, And Kenneth) This article is accessible through the link given by accessing Diigo. This article discusses two methods for closing the achievement gap due to teacher collaboration. The article discusses how teachers can collectively have discussion that may identify and address the structural issues that are built into the school system. Teachers can use this article to begin to understand how their instructional practices can be hampered by systematic inequalities. The idea of all of this is for these "Collaborations to require and build trust, routines and skills for further collaboration efforts. This also means that the collaborators will need training in order to help them talk about issues of teaching and learning and critique each other's practice (Levine and Marcus, 2007). This would be useful for our practicing teacher because (1) They teach in different districts so there will be some disparities, (2) critiquing each other can be more helpful and a great learning experience. References Levine, T. H., & Marcus, A. S. (2007). Closing the achievement gap through teacher collaboration: facilitating multiple trajectories of teacher learning. Journal Of Advanced Academics, 19(1), 116-138. From http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ786607.pdf
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EDTC615 closing learning gap.pdf - 12 views
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The article references stats that involve demographics pertaining to elementary reading and math. High school graduation rates and dropout rates amongst minorities in a californian community. The author looks at closing the achievement gap by getting parents involved and placing more emphasis on pre-K programs. The article states that when it comes to intervention, the way to look at it is, the earlier the better. The author provides suggestions to closing the gap.
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http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED528919.pdf - 2 views
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The research looks at academic gaps of low income communities. They looked at 3 factors, teacher performance, class abilities and classroom size. The researchers found that the better teaching practices significantly increased students scores, but the class abilities did not. They also found that class size was a factor. Although class size is important, teachers can not completely control that. However, this research shows that students fell into instructional gaps due to instruction that was not meeting teaching standards or not provided adequate instruction on the material.