MEd Program Diigo Group

This blog site talks about what type of "Blended Learning" setting would be the best fit for a math classroom. The benefit in this is that it helps teachers find ideas for what to use in a blended classroom specifically when it comes to math instruction.

This article provides the basics of blended learning which addresses the 4 key elements of effective math instruction as identified by The National Dissemination Center For Children with Disabilities.

"Efficient transitions save valuable time (and effort) and prepare students for learning."

The following article is a great argument for the importance of informing students on their educational data. It discusses the trend in teachers and administrators having all the numbers and students are the outsiders. The article argues that real gains can not be made unless students are analyzing their data and scores, then using that to set goals.

"When students themselves identify, analyze, and use data from their learning, they become active agents in their own growth. They set personal goals informed by data they understand, and they own those goals. The framework of student-engaged assessment provides a range of opportunities to involve students in using data to improve their learning. "

This website is a collection of many science and social studies related math problems. Users connect math to issues like sports, natural disasters, and ancient civilizations, and "hunt" for math answers among various resources. There are lots of opportunities for language-development in the process, too, and its accessible to Intermediate English Language Learners.

This video describes how to effectively re-engage a disruptive student without shaming them--which could escalate the situation or lead the class off-task.

Blog post: This is a collection of educational resources by high school teacher and prolific blogger and author, Larry Ferlazzo. These resources are organized by subject, such as art, music, science and Web 2.0. Each link takes you to a blog post that describes a resource, activity or lesson and how it can be used in the classroom. Be sure to scroll all the way down the page to see all the many subject matter resources available! Students of EDTC 615 might wish to start their Strategies Search here!

In this blog post, contributors Libby Woodfin, Tony Frontier, Laura Cabrera and Alice Mercer provide examples of the power of formative assessment to improve student learning. I was especially intrigued with first grader Austin and how his classmates used concrete, descriptive feedback to help him improve his scientific drawing of a butterfly. Check out the link! This would be a great article to assign for a PLC text-based discussion using any of the protocols described by Venables on pp. 85-87 in his book, Turning Data into Action.

This article describes the need to address the cultural gap that exists in our society. The author focuses on a first grade teacher, Lauren Mead, in Kirkland Washington and her journey to connect with her students on a deeper level. The article goes on to highlight sentiments from other educators about cultural awareness. The remarks of one teacher were very profound: "First and foremost, let your students know that their lived experiences are valid and valued. They have every right to hold on to who they are, what they know, and what they live, even if sometimes they have to stop and work through differences," he says. "But you also have to show them how to navigate our school culture so they can succeed." Understanding that more than achievement gaps exists in our classrooms will help educators engage students and begin to see progress in closing the learning and instructional gaps that are present.

Wow, very interesting article. I agree with the article in that it is important to value your student's diversity. I have a melting pot of students in my class and I am trying to get to know each family on a deeper level. This will allow me to make connections with this student and hopefully understand any barriers that may be relevant to their learning.

Instructional and Learning Gaps aren't always attributable to pedagogy or technology. I find it's more often the teacher-student relationship.

This paper discusses the importance of vocabulary instruction and instructional strategies in order to support vocabulary learning across all grade levels and content areas. Using direct and intentional vocabulary development in the educational setting provides students with the tools and language skills necessary to progress and thrive. This focus is instrumental in narrowing achievement gaps between students, and is particularly beneficial for ESOL students. As a language teacher, it was an excellent reminder of the need to continue vocabulary focus across all skill levels. The lower levels are very vocabulary-centric, but the higher levels become less vocabulary-focused and more communicative in nature. However, there are always more words to know and as concepts and themes of study become more sophisticated, so too becomes the language and word level. Various strategies must be employed, both emanating from the teacher's intentional instruction and students' independent work. This paper has concrete and specific instructional strategies that teachers of all content areas and across all age levels can employ.

I found this paper particularly interesting because it highlighted that when teachers explicitly teach vocabulary to students, it results in not only the increased retention of words learned, but of increased comprehension skills as well.

By: Jason Lange. The push for data-driven instruction has been widespread since the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act, which was signed into law in 2002. Yet the number of individual classrooms regularly practicing DDI remains startlingly low.

The article acknowledges that schools often collect more data than is needed in order to determine what student(s) need for instruction. The 6 methods schools can put into practice in order to lead effective data driven programs is helpful, particularly the first 3 methods - keep it simple; think small; and analyze your efforts.

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.

Sight word acquisition is an important building block in the construction of a child's ability to read. This article has teacher and parent strategies.

Great resource! I have about 10 students (of 48) who are reading at a DRA 10 or less in 3rd grade. I'll have to use these strategies and share with parents!

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.

This article discusses how professional development for teachers will help close the achievement gap. This blog centers on how the improvement of teaching practices will best assist students and that there should be universal teaching strategies. EDTC 615. k-12

Details 4 critical ways in which we can improve the quality of instruction by focusing on improvement as instructors. Standardizing practices, strategies, assessments, etc. Interesting read and turns the system around to look at instructors what we are able to change.

This article is great at recognizing necessary checks and balances for teachers. Changing standards will not along close all of the achievement gaps. The improved curriculum must come with a way for teachers to know they are delivering appropriately and sufficiently.

Week 9: This is a great website to connect students to real life math problems. By doing math with real life problems students are problem solving like they would in a word problem, sometimes without even knowing it. This site gives sample lessons and projects to help teachers and parents connect math to the real world. Math covers so many topics that hopefully you can connect to your students that like music, design, weather and so much more.

The different resources on this site that give activities and ideas to introduce real world math situations to students gives an alternative way to teach mathematical concepts. Teaching these math concepts from multiple perspectives increases the chance of student success. By connecting math to the real world, students will become more invested in their learning.

This website provides links to many different websites that provide activities that students can participate in that will help them incorporate real world math problems. The article was sectioned off into four distinct sections including collections of real world math problems, online math activities, math collaboration, and more real world math activities. This is certainly a website that is worth saving and coming back to over a course of the year as there are many valuable resources that can be used.

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 blog post explains the way to close the achievement gap in a mathematics classroom. The article touches upon stereotypes and ethnic and racial disparities, and other ways for educators to close the gap for their mathematics students.

Wow, what an interesting article! I'd never really considered racial inequality in math instruction before, but after reading the article, something to consider. One of the suggestions was to remove homework from math instruction due to some studetns unstable living situations. This makes sense and I think as teachers we often forget what some of our students are dealing with at home.

I really liked this article and the ideas in it. I try to celebrate the mistakes in my classroom, using them as a lesson within a lesson. I understand the point about homework, however I will continue to give my students homework. We are supposed to be preparing them for college. I don't remember one college class where most of my grade didn't come from work outside of class.

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.

Differentiated instruction is a great way to help close learning gaps, and this article is a great read for teachers who may be skeptical about the process.

This article is interesting as it addresses many of the concerns that teachers might have about differentiation in the classroom. One of the myths is that whole class instruction saves time, however if students are falling behind and failing, it is not a successful approach. Learning how to effectively apply differentiation techniques in the classroom is beneficial for students.