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Rubrics provide clear criteria for evaluating a product or performance on a continuum of quality.  Rubrics are not simply checklists with point distributions or lists of requirements.  Well designed rubrics have the following in common: 1. They are task specific: The more specific a rubric is to a particular task, the more useful it is to the students and the teacher.  The descriptors associated with the criteria should reference specific requirements of the assigned task and clearly describe the quality of work at each level on the rubric. The rubrics to the left are all posted as Word documents so that teachers can tailor them to a particular task. 2. They are accompanied by exemplars: The levels of quality described in the rubric need to be illustrated with models or exemplars.  These anchor papers help both the students and the teacher to see and understand what quality work looks like as it is described in the rubric.  These models or exemplars can come from past student work or the teacher can create a model to share with the class. 3.  They are used throughout the instructional process: The criteria used to evaluate student work should be shared as the task is introduced to help students begin with the end in mind.  Rubrics and models should also be referenced while the task is being completed to help students revise their work.  They should also be used after the task is complete, not only to evaluate the product or performance, but also to engage students in reflection on the work they have produced. Ideally, students should be involved in the process of generating rubrics through the careful analysis of exemplars; by studying the models, students draw inferences about the criteria that are important to a successful product and then describe different levels of performance for each criterion.

through images and the research of the storyteller.

Because of timing instead of 20 slides 20 seconds a slide. We went with 15 slides x 20 seconds for an even 5 minute presentation.

Class time was used to teach about creative commons pictures, creating compelling presentation, research skills, a clear thesis statement and answering the "so what" factor as the presentation related to the book. In other words class time was used to teach skills and context of the presentation.

Using Short Stories to Teach Literary Elements and Reading ComprehensionTheme, symbolism, foreshadowing … there are so many literary elements for readers to understand in order to comprehend and appreciate what they read! Novels are great for reinforcing this knowledge, but may be too lengthy to introduce and teach specific elements properly. Students need multiple examples of literary elements being used in writing in order to understand them and identify them on their own, so the short story is perfect for this! Below are some resources to help you use short stories to teach literary elements. Additionally, you will find ideas for using short stories to develop students' reading comprehension, including active reading and vocabulary skills. The brevity of short stories can keep struggling readers from feel overwhelmed with the comprehension process, and teachers will find them easy to modify and organize for different audiences. For these reasons, teachers using stories to raise reading comprehension may also find these links helpful. Teaching About Theme Teaching About Foreshadowing Teaching About Symbolism Teaching Multiple Literary Elements Teaching Vocabulary with "The Lottery" Teaching Vocabulary with Stories of Your Choice Graphic Organizers to Help Understanding Listening Activities for ESL Students

It is teaching towards each student's strengths, and allowing their weaknesses to develop into future strong points.

Quite frankly, the course of action begins with the very basics of how you run your classroom. Begin the year by getting a grasp of the strengths and weaknesses of your students through the use of the available data, like benchmark testing results, standardized test scores, pre-tests, student inventories, portfolios, guidance folders, and/or classroom grades from the previous year; although those important items are just the beginning of your learning process. They give results and information, but they do not tell you how the student got there.

a responsive classroom that differentiates is one where the teacher prides him or herself on getting to know the students as individuals. From my own experience, once you tap into that resource, you can more easily find ways to connect with everyone in the classroom.

We’ve been getting a lot of questions ever since our GMAT Choose Your Own Adventure video went up. Well, one question, really: How can I make one for my students?

Youtube has a great tool called Spotlight that lets you make any video interactive. It’s really handy for lessons and quizzes.