TASANov

" it's not just how much students read that matters, but also what they read. In particular, students need to read and comprehend informational texts as often-and as fluently-as they do narrative texts." "we should ask what the research says about the benefits of reading nonfiction. Is it really worth tearing kids away from The Hunger Games, the Harry Potter books, or Diary of a Wimpy Kid? After all, with multimedia consuming so much of students' time, shouldn't we be happy they're reading at all?"

"the hidden skills and cognitive processes that underlie reading comprehension. A number of researchers (see, for example, Pressley & Afflerbach, 1995; Wyatt et al., 1993) focused their attention on a simple but unexplored question: What do great readers do when they read? By studying the behaviors of skilled readers, these researchers reached some important conclusions about what it takes to read for meaning, including these three:"

Tips for creating and assigning collaborative writing opportunities

"By engaging teachers and the technology integrationist in conversations about the curriculum, specific class dynamics and capabilities of the technology, we are now able to talk about what we would like to do, the tools best suited for that purpose, ways to tweak units or lessons, and what is not working. This collaborative, co-teaching model has allowed for us to find connections across content areas, classes and our district. We all recognize how much is gained when we are allowed to really talk about our curriculum and our students, and this model allows for that creative, collaborative time to work through complex and interesting questions and ideas about integrating technology effectively. "

Including Groups & Sparks

"Many of the tools above also publish feed related to the search queries. The only effective way to keep up with all of them, in my opinion, is through an RSS reader. While you can still receive Google Alerts via email, I find it more convenient to use an RSS reader because of the amount of information I track on a daily basis."

"This chart is cross-posted on our new site at Personalize Learning. After writing the post "Personalization is NOT Differentiating Instruction," I received some very interesting feedback and more hits than any other of my posts. I think I hit a nerve. :o So Kathleen McClaskey and I did some research on what personalization is and the differences between differentiation and individualization. We found very little information on the differences. And what we did find, we disagreed with many of the points. That lead us to create this chart:"

"Get the complete lesson plan for this video at http://flocabulary.com/fivethings Flocabulary teaches about the 5 elements of the short story in this song. That's plot, character, conflict, theme and setting."

"he topic of BYOD continues to be a hot topic in schools, with many schools I visit looking at investing in wireless technologies to support students (and staff) bringing their own device to school. While there appears to be agreement that the notion of BYOD is something to be pursued, there isn't a shared understanding of what that might mean in a school context. "

"The author shares findings from her action research, focusing on the question, "How can I use critique to improve the quality of student feedback, student work and create a culture of collaboration?" "

"The essence of character is not mere backbone. As Dewey said, it is good judgment borne of having learned to really think and to be held accountable for one's judgments by the demands of schooling:"

"small setbacks that encourage learning. What does that mean and how can you, as a student "fail" and still be successful in your educational goals?"

"As teachers, we all know that we should create time to reflect on our professional practices… we need to experience the process of reflecting, in order to be able to guide our students… ….but what get's cut the easiest from our schedule if there is little time available? How can we see reflection as a high priority item on our never ending list of things to do? How can we get into the habit of making reflection time?"

" Returning to a learning experience or recapturing a learning event some time after it has taken place may allow the learner to revisit the entire experience from a fresh and different perspective. Learners may uncover previous knowledge that had been learned but was now buried or simply forgotten. "

"Collective Reflection Monday, October 15, 2012 4:30pm - 6:00pm SHCP - Herbst Library and Information Center "Reflection is what allows us to learn from our experiences: it is an assessment of where we have been and where we want to go next."~ Kenneth Wolf "We do not learn from experience…we learn from reflecting on experience." ~ John Dewey "

"Reflection is a form of mental processing - like a form of thinking - that we use to fulfill a purpose or to achieve some anticipated outcome. It is applied to relatively complicated or unstructured ideas for which there is not an obvious solution and is largely based on the further processing of knowledge and understanding and possibly emotions that we already possess (based on Moon 1999) Moon points out that one of the defining characteristics of surface learning is that it does not involve reflection (p.123). She points out the conditions for reflection: time and space, a good facilitator, a supportive curricular or institutional environment, and an emotionally supportive environment. Moon further points out the qualities of tasks that encourage reflection: Ill-structured, 'messy' or real-life situations Asking the 'right' kinds of questions - there are no clear-cut answers Setting challenges can promote reflection Tasks that challenge learners to integrate new learning into previous learning Tasks that demand the ordering of thoughts Tasks that require evaluation"