edutopia A while ago, I wrote a post called Doing It Differently: Tips for Teaching Vocabulary which spells out (get it?) the process and rationale for selecting certain vocabulary words and also describes six steps for teaching new words. Here, I'm going to add to that earlier musing on this topic by offering up some must dos that took me a few years down the teaching road to figure out. Must Do #1: Be Very Selective 50 Important Links for Common Core Educators Educators across the nation are working hard this summer to begin developing updated curricula that will fit into the new Common Core State Standards, which will be fully applied in 45 U.S. states (Texas, Alaska, Nebraska, Virginia, and Minnesota have opted out of statewide participation) by 2015. Yet despite the hubbub about the new standards, which were created as a means of better equipping students with the knowledge they need to be competitive in the modern world, many teachers still have a lot of unanswered questions about what Common Core will mean for them, their students, and their schools. Luckily, the Internet abounds with helpful resources that can explain the intricacies of Common Core, offer resources for curriculum development, and even let teachers keep up with the latest news on the subject. We’ve collected just a few of those great resources here, which are essential reads for any K-12 educator in a Common Core-adopting state.
Transforming your Content into an Experience. Is it just a matter of ‘tweaking’ our existing PowerPoint decks to be delivered via a web browser? No. Throwing your existing slide decks (with minimal tweaks) up on the intranet and calling them e-learning is guaranteed to bore your learners stupid, send them to sleep, complain bitterly about this rubbish, and have your boss calling you into his office ‘for a quiet word’ and asking you to shut the door behind you! Lots of bullet points and text heavy slides are boring, unengaging and makes learners feel like they have fallen into a horrible time loop of ‘Click Next to continue’. Teacher Websites - Free Resources for Teachers Find just the right books with book wizard The easiest way to level your classroom library and find the perfect books in a snap. Search 50,000 books by reading levels, themes, and genres Use BookAlike® to find books similar to student favorites Easily create your own booklists Engage your students with student activities Interactive units, lessons, and games to bring learning to life.
Upper Elementary Snapshots: Rethinking the Rough Draft: A Simple Strategy that Leads to Better Revising Of all the stages of the writing process, doesn't it feel like revising often gets the short end of the stick? One of the obstacles that always seems to be in the way is the simple logistics of where to do it. Students write their rough drafts in their composition notebooks, filling the lines, front and back, eventually "finishing," and we move them into the revising stage. Okay, make it better, we say. And students caret in a few adjectives.
Smarter Balanced Assessments The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium is developing a system of valid, reliable, and fair next-generation assessments aligned to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in English language arts/literacy (ELA/literacy) and mathematics for grades 3-8 and 11. The system—which includes both summative assessments for accountability purposes and optional interim assessments for instructional use—will use computer adaptive testing technologies to the greatest extent possible to provide meaningful feedback and actionable data that teachers and other educators can use to help students succeed. Smarter Balanced assessments will go beyond multiple-choice questions to include extended response and technology enhanced items, as well as performance tasks that allow students to demonstrate critical-thinking and problem-solving skills. Performance tasks challenge students to apply their knowledge and skills to respond to complex real-world problems.
Teacher Resource Websites Common Core State Standards provide a consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn, so teachers and parents know what they need to do to help them. The standards are designed to be robust and relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people need for success in college and careers. With American students fully prepared for the future, our communities will be best positioned to compete successfully in the global economy. The K-5 Student Center Activities (SCA) and K-3 Instructional Routines search tool provides teacher's access to the 522 individual SCA and the instructional routines from Empowering Teachers. Use this search tool to find and print specific instructional routines or student center activities and their accompanying activity masters by grade level, reading component (PA, P, F, V, C). The regular easyCBM progress monitoring assessment system (this website) is available for free, for teachers to use world-wide.
Mapping the School This project is used to help students enhance their ability to use and understand ... This project is used to help students enhance their ability to use and understand the coordinate plane by creating a map of their school. Subject(s): Mathematics Grade Level(s): 6 Suggested Technology: Document Camera, Computer for Presenter, Interactive Whiteboard, LCD Projector, Speakers/Headphones, Microsoft Office Teaching Character Traits in Reader's Workshop The Common Core State Standards in 3rd grade fictional literature calls for students to identify and describe characters’ actions, thoughts, and motivations, which is no small task for an 8-year-old who is just beginning to read longer text. This week, I will share with you how understanding and making inferences about character traits improves my students’ inferencing skills and comprehension. Next week, in part two, I’ll share how my students are incorporating character traits to improve their writing. Introducing Character Traits Lessons on character traits are truly lessons on the comprehension skill of inferencing.
illustrativemathematics Illustrated Standards Count to 100 by ones and by tens. (see illustrations) Teaching Resources VocabularySpellingCity’s Teaching Resources pages provide free lesson plan ideas and supplemental materials for teachers in all subject areas and grade levels. K-12 teachers can access background information on grade level topics to assist in creating extensive lesson plans for English Language Arts concepts like grammar or figurative language. The Educational Topics section offers teachers information on research-based best practices, such as how to effectively implement literacy centers. To further enhance lesson plans, teachers will find free K-12 literacy teaching resources and K-12 content specific vocabulary lists.