Group items tagged

Socrative uses a “room” system, and students enter a teacher’s “room” to begin an assessment.

Selection: the development of criteria for choosing items to include in the portfolio based on established learning objectives. Collection: the gathering of items based on the portfolio's purpose, audience, and future use. Reflection: statements about the significance of each item and of the collection as a whole. Direction: a review of the reflections that looks ahead and sets future goals. Connection: the creation of hypertext links and publication, providing the opportunity for feedback.

Electronic portfolios are more popular in higher education than in K-12, Barrett added, because they require access to technology in classrooms.

based on what is important to them, their unique knowledge, and their unique skills.

4.  Spotlight Respect For All Cultures: Reaffirm the message about being supportive of one another, kind, understanding and patient. Encourage everyone to openly talk about their personal cultures, traditions and languages. Have parties celebrating the different cultures in the class, sharing music, historical family photos, dances, games, food and traditions.  Hold discussions about the history of America, immigration, and the value of diversity and differences. Encourage students to share their own stories of immigration, passed down from generation to generation.

5.  Community: If the parents and/or guardians do not speak English, request an interpreter if possible for all school communication, including parties, conferences and special events. Invite parents to all school community functions to encourage and foster a sense of belonging. If possible, introduce other students and/or families who speak the same language as the ESL student. Sharing cultural commonalities will provide strong bonds for students, parents and teachers.

6.  Assess Students Informally: Assess ESL students on an informal basis when they first arrive to class, and ongoing during the school year. It is imperative to primarily check for understanding in regard to basic and social needs. Pay attention from the sideline to see if they know numbers, letters and/or short English phrases. Continuously check for comprehension and growth informally, make notes and never be afraid to raise the bar and challenge a bit.

7.  Don’t Discourage Native Language Use:  With all good intentions, this is a common mistake teachers can make. ESL students who have a stronger foundation of their native language will have a shorter route to acquiring English. Don’t discourage native language use, as this will result in negative feelings about the student’s language and culture, and may cause delay in English language acquisition. Provide free time for the ESL student to read and write in their native language

8.  Use Manipulatives, Visuals, Games, Music and Hands-On Activities in the Classroom: According to William Glaser, we learn 80% of what we experience, and 95% of what we teach others. ESL students do exceptionally well when this theory is followed. Involve them in projects that will encourage them to talk as much as possible with their classmates.   Some ideas for projects are the following:  cooking (following easy directions), art (drawing, painting, sculpture), musical activities (music provides an amazing platform for learning), and acting (for example, charades).

9.  Provide Various Opportunities For Talking and Consider Seat Placement: It is very important to consider seat placement in the classroom for the ESL student. All too often, ESL students are seated in the back of the classroom, which leads to a great lack of contribution, listening, and  participation. Try and seat the ESL student close to the front, especially with other students who are inviting and enjoy conversation. Provide the most opportunities as possible for talking and listening to others in the class via group work. You will be surprised how much shorter the silent period will end. 

10. Communicate with the ESL teacher: Maintain communication with the ESL teacher as much as possible. The sooner both teachers are working together, the quicker the student will learn English. Be open to the ESL teacher’s suggestions, let him/her share in the modification of classwork, and invite the ESL teacher into your classroom. 

opportunities to receive immediate feedback on their writing from teachers and peers

Digital brainstorming sessions

Self-Grading Quiz

School administrators and teachers grappling with the often confusing and contradictory premises of these popular initiatives can draw on three useful sources of information: (1) meta-analyses of research studies regarding program effectiveness and instructional practices that support and enhance achievement, (2) studies of the initiatives' effect on English language learners' English language acquisition and academic achievement, and (3) databases that compile language assessments administered to large populations of English language learners over time and across grade levels. Several myths about the instruction of English language learners do not stand up to scrutiny when examined through the lens of this research base.

The "One-Size-Fits-All" Myth

Schools throughout the United States use a variety and range of theoretically sound programs to meet the needs of their specific populations of English language learners, who vary in demographic and linguistic characteristics.

For instance, bilingual programs are appropriate and effective in schools that serve concentrations of students who use a common native language

In many schools, however, English language learners speak a number of different native languages; such schools often use English as the common language of content-area instruction. Therefore, some state agencies and language-minority educators advocate a mix of services and program types in response to each school district's demographic mix—an approach that contradicts the state laws requiring a default model of sheltered English immersion

The "Language of Instruction" Myth

But according to Education Week, cumulative and comparative studies based on National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP) scores suggest that statewide mandates limiting bilingual education in California, Arizona, and Massachusetts have produced "less-than-stellar" results (Zehr, 2008, p. 10).

Proponents of the ballot initiatives mandating sheltered English immersion argue that bilingual education is the reason for low levels of English proficiency among immigrant students—especially Latinos, the group served by the vast majority of the bilingual programs.

(Parrish, Pérez, Merickel, & Linquanti, 2006). The study found that students participating in English-only education programs had no statistically significant advantage in terms of academic achievement over those in bilingual education programs that parents chose through the waiver process under the law.

Thus, ballot initiatives have not realized their goal of improving English language learners' academic achievement.

In denying the injunction against the implementation of Proposition 227, the U.S. District Court in Valeria G. v. Wilson (1998) ruled that structured English immersion was based on delivery of English language and content instruction that was "sequential" rather than "simultaneous."

This focus is based on the belief that the "problem" facing these students is essentially a "language problem.

K-12 Program Continuity and Coherence Programs for English language learners must be proven models with a demonstrated track record. Programs must have long-term goals and continuity in the curriculum as students move up through the grade levels. As students' listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills in English grow, the focus of instruction should shift, and instruction should be differentiated according to students' language levels (Mora, 2006). Differentiating the curriculum in this way requires monitoring students' progress toward performance benchmarks in English language proficiency, literacy, and content-area learning (Gottlieb & Nguyen, 2007)

Targeted Professional Development Educators must view the education of language-minority students as a shared responsibility. Teachers must have ample professional preparation in how to use appropriate curricular materials and teaching strategies to promote English language learners' achievement. Both new and experienced teachers need intensive professional development above and beyond the teacher education coursework required by the state credential and certificate programs. For example, teachers should be knowledgeable about second-language acquisition and cross-linguistic transfer so that students learning in their second language can capitalize on the commonalities in literacy with their native language, regardless of whether their instruction is in dual languages.

Local school districts must have the freedom and support to establish sheltered English immersion programs and/or bilingual education programs depending on community values, parental choice, and available resources. Policies must allow flexibility in use of students' native languages—especially for development of literacy skills. In states with anti-bilingual mandates, local jurisdictions should apply liberal and open interpretation of petition and waiver requirements to support parent empowerment and involvement in program selection.

Research-Based Policies to Replace Politically Based Policies

In terms of making a project feel meaningful to students, the more voice and choice, the better.

A project should give students opportunities to build such 21st century skills as collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and the use of technology, which will serve them well in the workplace and life. This exposure to authentic skills meets the second criterion for meaningful work—an important purpose. A teacher in a project-based learning environment explicitly teaches and assesses these skills and provides frequent opportunities for students to assess themselves.

Formalizing a process for feedback and revision during a project makes learning meaningful because it emphasizes that creating high-quality products and performances is an important purpose of the endeavor. Students need to learn that most people's first attempts don't result in high quality and that revision is a frequent feature of real-world work.

In addition to providing direct feedback, the teacher should coach students in using rubrics or other sets of criteria to critique one another's work. Teachers can arrange for experts or adult mentors to provide feedback, which is especially meaningful to students because of the source.

When students present their work to a real audience, they care more about its quality. Once again, it's "the more, the better" when it comes to authenticity. Students might replicate the kinds of tasks done by professionals—but even better, they might create real products that people outside school use.

Even more than selecting the right devices for the classroom, professional development is the key ingredient in successful 1:1 computing programs in K-12 classrooms.

that everyone is working at the appropriate level of understanding, allowing students to construct learning and providing learning in easy-to-digest nuggets. Those principles will also help build effective professional development.

Next, design training to fill in gaps and give teachers what they want. Ensure that each session is designed to be self-contained so that teachers can choose to attend workshops only in the areas where they need extra learning.

Of course, some computer skills are valuable, like keyboarding, creating multimedia projects, manipulating programs they'd use in life and school,

"They can run an iPhone like a champ, or the iPads we have here at school. But they're not that exposed to keyboarding skills or using the mouse to move something up and down on a screen."

said her students have been honing their keyboarding skills while using an online curriculum for computer coding.

Using an online math program, they learn to move and click a mouse, and cut and paste text. As they move through the grades, they add more skills, integrated into their core-content study, Ms. Warr said.

"If we were trying to teach the tech skills in isolation, there would be a huge pushback [from teachers], but we integrate them into other subjects," Ms. Warr said.

But because the Smarter Balanced assessment expects more "writing in one shot" online, he's encouraging teachers to shift their "quick writes" to the computer, he said.

1st graders are starting with a free online game called Dance Mat, where they pick out letters one at a time, and work up to typing their names, Mr. Decker said. In 2nd grade, students begin using an online program called Type To Learn three times a week. Third and 4th graders continue it twice a week, and by 5th grade, it's down to weekly.