Group items tagged

"ewordify.com is powerful, free, online reading comprehension and vocabulary development software. It helps people understand difficult English faster, helps them learn words in new ways, and helps teachers create high-interest learning materials from any English text passage. See the yellow box at the top of the page? Just paste in a difficult English sentence, paragraph, or more, or enter a web page URL and click the button. You'll instantly see an easier version, for fast understanding now. No dictionary needed! Plus, the easier version is specially highlighted to help build vocabulary."

"The National Assessment for Educational Progress does not measure performance in English class. It measures performance in reading, reading across the disciplines and throughout the school day."

"The Parents' Guide to Student Success (listed below in English and Spanish) was developed in response to the Common Core State Standards in English language arts and mathematics that more than 40 states have adopted."

"Rewordify.com is powerful, free, online reading comprehension software. It helps people understand difficult English faster, and helps them learn words in new ways. See the yellow box at the top of the page? Just paste in a difficult English sentence, paragraph, or more, or enter a web page URL and click the button. You'll instantly see an easier version, for fast understanding now. No dictionary needed! Plus, the easier version is specially highlighted to help build vocabulary."

"The best kind of teacher evaluation The Los Angeles Times on Sunday published a massive story that rocked the education world by using student test scores to evaluate more than 6,000 teachers and then to declare which teachers are effective and who should be shown the door. Any regular reader of my blog will know that I take a dim view of any teacher evaluation scheme that uses test scores as a sole measure. Here is a piece on real teacher evaluation by Larry Ferlazzo, who teaches English at Luther Burbank High School in Sacramento, California. Ferlazzo writes a popular blog for teachers and is the author of two books, Building Parent Engagement In Schools and English Language Learners: Teaching Strategies That Work. He is also a member of the Teacher Leaders Network, a network of teacher leaders dedicated to student success and the transformation of teaching into a true profession. It is a national initiative of the Center for Teaching Quality."

Rewordify.com is powerful, free, online reading comprehension and vocabulary development software. It helps people understand difficult English faster, helps them learn words in new ways, and helps teachers create high-interest learning materials from any English text passage.

"Since the dawn of time, English teachers have been requiring their students to write and present persuasive speeches.  By integrating student use of a number of technology tools, we have not only enlivened our rather tired persuasive speech unit, but also enhanced critical thinking opportunities for students and teachers alike.  Our new unit, a partnership between English teachers and the teacher librarian, integrates activities that meet virtually all the ELA standards."

"Our school is an inclusive school. Students involved in general education; students with mild, moderate, and significant disabilities; and students considered talented and gifted learn together and from each other. Therefore, we use and adapt Massachusetts Mathematical and English Language Arts Curriculum Frameworks to help all students learn and succeed. "

"Those are all key components of what the National Council of Teachers of English feels a "literate person" should be able to do right now. You can see all six parts of the definition here. Go look. Each of the six requires a real understanding of the changes and opportunities that online social learning networks and communities are bringing about. But after a combined 12 years of formal schooling, my 13 and 11 year olds are no where near to being on the road to "literate" in those contexts."

Nearly every state has signed on to use the Common Core State Standards as a framework for teaching English/language arts and mathematics to students. Translating them for the classroom, however, requires schools, teachers, and students to change the way they approach teaching and learning. This report examines the progress some states have made in implementing the standards, what preparations need to be undertaken, and the challenges that policymakers and educators face in achieving the goals of the standards"

recently assigned a new project to my 11th grade English students: The 20% Project. Although it's called a "project", that term is merely for student understanding and lack of a better word. This project is based on the "20 percent time" Google employees have to work on something other than their job description. It has been well documented, and Google has exponentially grown as a company while giving this 20 percent time

"Hopefully this list of 11 YouTube channels can help steer you toward some of the best ESL/ELL content YouTube has to offer in 2014. "

Greetings from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, English Language Arts Section! This binder provides an organized collection of resources for the ELA Common Core State Standards.

"The SimScientists program in WestEd's Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM) program is comprised of a portfolio of research and development projects that focus on the roles that simulations can play in enriching science learning and assessment. The capabilities of technology allow modifications of simulation-based activities to offer accommodations for English learners and students with disabilities. Science simulations can be used in curriculum activities, as embedded, formative assessments, and as summative assessments."

"The U.S. Department of Education [ED] conducts the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), formerly the Elementary and Secondary School Survey (E&S Survey), to collect data on key education and civil rights issues in our nation's public schools. The CRDC collects a variety of information including, student enrollment and educational programs and services, disaggregated by race/ethnicity, sex, limited English proficiency and disability. The CRDC is a longstanding and important aspect of the ED Office for Civil Right's overall strategy for administering and enforcing the civil rights statutes for which it is responsible. Information collected by the CRDC is also used by other ED offices as well as policymakers and researchers outside of ED."

from National Council of Teachers of English

"Children, like adults, learn concrete words more readily than abstract words.  A way to close the vocabulary gap for students (especially English Learners and students of poverty) is to support them in connecting written words and the concrete objects these words represent.  TextProject Word Pictures provides a vault of carefully chosen pictures to assist educators in making such connections."

"Recently, ACT disaggregated its 2014 test results and college retention rates in order to get a closer look at the college aspirations and preparation levels of ACT-takers who reported a family income of less than $36,000 (the poorest 24 percent of test-takers). An astonishing 96 percent of these students reported plans to enroll in college. Despite their aspirations, however, only 11 percent met all four of ACT's college readiness benchmarks, which include English, reading, math, and science. Even more troubling, a whopping 50 percent of low-income students failed to meet a single benchmark."