MEd Program Diigo Group

The projects you will find here have been curated by BIE and were gathered from online project libraries. They are easily searchable by subject area, and are a guide to PBL lessons to be used or to inspire lesson plans.

This article from ISTE discusses how blended learning can be used to bridge the achievement gap for students who don't have access to technology (or who have minimal access) outside of the school setting.

Since standardized testing has seem to surface as a way for schools to be graded on their "performance", an increasing number of schools have embraced the data driven curriculum.

This article gives good insight on using data with our instruction. Although the idea of using data to drive instruction has always been out there, within the last 2 years, this has become more of a focus in my school. Last year we started holding monthly "data meetings" in order to look at data gathered from weekly assessments, unit assessments, county and state assessments. Based on the scores we would work to create a next steps in our instruction. As a school, we also set goals to reach across grade levels.

Good article. As I was reading this article one thing hit me. One of the first things that is mentioned is NCLB, RTTT, and CCSS. I was thinking, maybe if the government would let teachers get used to a curriculum our instruction would get better and higher level learning could go on. Just my short rant.

This looks at both pros and cons of standardized testing. It helps to see the other sides of the argument. I think as critical thinkers we need to embrace the benefits of education with and without standardized testing.

This article highlights the struggle that teachers face when "teaching to the test". As educators, we want to show our best qualities. However, that is limited when we must teach to the test. The quote I want to pull is "We are measuring temperature with a tablespoon"

This is an excellent guide for early childhood teachers on one strategy to differentiate math instruction. This article outlines how to develop high quality math games related to children's literature, as well as, examples of activities that relate to specific books. I found this particularly helpful in developing math engaging math activities for my students.

This is the position statement developed by the National Association for the Education of Young Children related to mathematics in early childhood education. This document outlines 10 strategies for high quality math instruction in the early childhood classroom, as well as, 4 strategies for educational institutions, program developers and policy makers. I found the 10 strategies for teachers to be particularly beneficial in my own reflective practice.

This article provides developmentally appropriate strategies for supporting math instruction in the early childhood classroom. Strategies include how to set up a math rich classroom, as well as, how to children to engage in mathematical play.

It is no longer assumed that productive language competence naturally develops from receptive language competence. Now the noticing and the focused output hypotheses are considered in order to arrive at solutions for addressing the gap between receptive and productive competence.

This article is a case study on how better teacher preparation for instruction and assessment of writing can lead to improved writing instruction.

(Week 4: Frances and Claudio) This article is accessible through the link given above. This article focus on teachers ability to improve their instruction skills by eliminating their weakness to overlook students needs by pretending the problem is non existent. It focus on the inconsistencies of teachers' techniques for class deliverance and the missed learning opportunities for students. The readings present that students are not always given the opportunities to write or be assessed in the context of classroom instruction by teachers who feel uneasy on how they deliver the class subject. Other areas of the article points out that students get low exposure to variety forms of writing and become in prepared when there is a change in writing format.(Graham & Perin, 2007; Hillocks, 2008). Through the SMART goal, Group#4 can utilize some of the examples by providing opportunities to students by offering different writing assignments that are more realistic to meet writing abilities of the students. Students will be more in line with the SMART goal if they are allowed to provide the feedback to the teacher once the assignment is complete so they can see their own improvements. Also, teachers can improve in the teaching efforts and will be able to provide the appropriate assignments to those students who extra help which will move the teachers' uneasiness about their preparation to teach and assess writing at different learning levels. Read, Sylvia and Landon-Hays, Melanie M. (2013) "The Knowing/Doing Gap: Challenges of Effective Writing Instruction in High School," Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education: Vol. 2 : Iss. 2 , Article 3. Available at: http://scholarworks.wmich.edu/wte/vol2/iss2/3

This program allows the user to trim You Tube videos and insert a question for students as they watch, to check for understanding.  An innovative way to monitor input processing and output production in second language learners, and also with all learners, depending on the content of video selected. EDpuzzle would work well with a flipped classroom, too, as the video "lesson" could be completed at home.

Thank you so much for this resource! I am definitely going to use this in all of my classes moving forward!

Wow! If you have not taken a look at this yet, please do so now! This website is an asset to any instructor!

This article details an instructional model called Interactive Learning (IL), which contains ten best practices for educators to follow that must be implemented in all lessons. Using these practices can help student achievement tremendously, as evidenced by the example school, which doubled student achievement in three years using these practices.

This is a informative article about 10 strategies for engaging underperforming students. Since my SMART goal is all about giving additional resources for success to my lowest performing students (students who previously took Biology I) this fits perfectly. This will help me create a plan to reach out and engage each student and write up resources for each of them.

I think these ideas have come a long way and are being implemented in many classrooms. This seems like a norm for my school or even my classroom. Although, I say that and I think it is hard to incorporate all components every day. Especially when I think of student movement. I think this is an excellent article to pinpoint instructional strategies.

An article written about relating the real world to learning every day in class. Students partake in internships and jobs to help them learn the importance of high school and what they are learning every day!

An ASCD article that describes in detail the topic "learning target", which is a main focus for Data Meeting 3. It delves into what a learning target is and how to develop criteria for success in the classroom. Overall, this resource speaks volumes and, as an added bonus, it lists in its reference section two books (only a few captures available) that I recommend browsing through as well.

In my data meeting, I learned that I needed to focus on what this article is calling a "learning target" for my student. Great article.

Sacha Richards Great article, i loved how it focused on knowing your learning target which is the students.

The abstract included really says it all: "This reflective essay describes a teacher's development of a student-centered approach to teaching which bridges the gap between students' knowledge before and after a course. In 'mind the gap teaching,' students' prior knowledge leads the conversation and, in turn, the teaching, allowing them to integrate new information more effectively." The essay does a really great job of addressing the need for a lot of personal reflection as a teacher in an effort to improve instruction in the classroom.

I think this is a great article that shows the growth of a teacher throughout the years. The idea of calling the instructional gap between students knowledge as "mind the gap" speaks to the history nerd in me. I'd love to share this teachers journey with my fellow faculty members because we are making the switch in my school to a more student centered classroom, and we have a lot of skeptics. I think the section of benefits is the best, particularly the line about "the quality of comments" that students started sharing. It shows that the students are interested in what is going on in the classroom.

This article is a way to focus on student knowledge. Closing the gap between what is being taught and what is actually being retained by the students.

The NEA published this wonderful compilation of "research-based instructional strategies, school change activities, and family/school engagement efforts for closing the achievement gaps." Within its pages, the acronym C.A.R.E. - Culture, Abilities, Resilience, and Effort -- is referenced and connected to strategies for teachers to employ in order to make improvements in their classrooms. Teacher checklists, lesson plans, and student worksheets are included for each of these areas, which is great! The chapter on abilities is very interesting. It references the 8 different learning styles and challenges teachers to consider incorporating activities that touch on all. Overall, this booklet of sorts contains a lot of information that provokes much thought and reflection.

This article shows the success a group of schools have in teaching instruction when there is a purposeful, intimate focus on individual teachers. When teachers are given proper tools, instruction, and guidance, they will succeed in instructing students and therefore a greater percentage of students will have a better understanding of what is being taught.

Focused teacher development is needed to achieve student success! This is 100% true and this article talks about this in a great way. Great find!

I found this article helpful in the importance of providing individualized professional development to teachers so they are able to grow their practice around targeted skills students need to master.

This website offers fun, interactive, online games for students to play over the summer to assist in closing their learning gap. This would be a great resource for teachers to give to their students at the end of the school year, or even over long breaks, for them to practice skills they are lacking.

The main takeaway from this resource for me was where the onus falls for the learning gap. Unlike the instruction gap, the learning gap seems more focused on the student needing to bring up their learning to ensure that they maintain over the summer, or reach new levels. The common denominator is that these all seem to take place outside of the classroom. However, I could see a teacher recommend these resources to different groups or having centers set up to ensure that students are working in areas that they need to improve to close their learning gaps during class time.

Resources and exposure to programs like this are imperative for underprivileged students who's family's do not have an understanding of how to maintain and increase their child's educational progress during the summer.

This brief article discusses the importance of Summer Programs to help lessen the learning gap that happens over the summer. It also mentions the challenges of creating and/or keeping these programs but shows how beneficial they can be.

This article had a very interesting view on summer programs. Every year during the annual review for IEP/504 meetings, the team will decide if a student qualifies for our extended school year (ESY) summer program. Students are only recommended if we determine there will be a great regression for a student during the break. Although many students would benefit from this, students in our autism program are mostly placed in ESY. This year, we are looking into having a "family night" where parents can learn about skills/strategies they can work on over the summer in order to help their student from regressing during the summer. While some parents may work with their child over the summer, the reality is those students who really need it, will not work over the summer. I am hoping more counties will create more programs to help all learners during the summer months.

This article mentions how much of student learning is forgotten over the summer because of the gap in the school year. This article also mentions the difference in socio-economic levels and how student from higher incomes are more likely to participate in summer activities that encourage learning. Whereas students from low incomes are often spending the summer at home with limited activities.