Webinars - Patricia Davis Webinar Archives Common Core State Standards Webinars Teaching to the Rigor of the Common Core State Standards Recorded May 13, 2013 This webinar examines the effect of the Common Core State Standards on instructional rigor. Resources Addressing the Role of Text Complexity in the Common Core Recorded April 10, 2013 Are you prepared to teach to the rigors of the Common Core State Standards? This webinar will help prepare teachers to deliver lessons that support the student learning expectations set in the Common Core standards. Participants will Gain an understanding of text-complexity framework (qualitative measures, quantitative measures, and reader and text considerations). Webinar presentation handout (PDF) Archived Webinars ASCD webinars presented by Patti Davis from McREL.
6 Steps To A Flipped Classroom by Josh Corbat, TeachThought Intern Students today are vastly different from when we were in their shoes. We were brought up on the age-old tradition of lecture, practice, and assessment. Lather, rinse, repeat. Think about it. Self-Directed Learning is the new learning. Students in the age of iPads and Google have been doing this since before they could walk. The Flipped Classroom model (or blended learning model, if that is your cup of tea) is based on very simple, logical principles. My advice to the teacher deciding whether or not to take the leap to the Flipped Classroom is just this: If you decide to go for it, there is no turning back. If you’ve made it this far, I’m guessing you’re truly interested in giving this a try. At any rate, here is one approach to flipping your classroom. Step 1: Decide which technology you will use. Low tech or high tech? The videos themselves are not meant to be worthy of the silver screen. There are so many ways you can flip your lectures.
Appreciating Hemingway: ELA 9-12 Afternoon Session | NTINotebook The Hemingway classic, “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” was center stage during Tuesday’s 9-12 ELA afternoon session. The story illustrated to teachers, coaches and administrators the greater value involved in the process of close, analytic reading. During discussions, it was said that one or two well-chosen short stories that are read deeply would be sufficient to teach a variety of literary techniques. As a bonus, some joked, they have a newfound appreciation for Hemingway. Further conversations centered around the creation of text-dependent questions (TDQs). background knowledge questionshunt and peckscavenger huntuniversal truth“according to the text”too many “one-offs” Just as important was the guide to creating TDQs (soon to appear on EngageNY.org). Participants practiced this skill on the Hemingway story and came up with TDQs of their own. Like this: Like Loading...
Vitamin HB | My Favorite New Coffee Scrub!!! « huda beauty Vitamin HB | My Favorite New Coffee Scrub!!! Sun, 13 Nov 2011 DAILY DOSE | BODYBy Huda Heidi Kattan I know I loooove coffee scrubs (remember my HudaBeauty party with the little coffee scrub giveaways), but this one kind of takes the cake when it comes to pure awesomeness! Ingredients 1 Orange, Peeled 2 Cups Yogurt 2 Tablespoons Coffee Grounds 2 Tablespoons Honey Blend the yogurt, orange and honey together in a blender. Infor.Text Research Nell K. Duke We should not wait to address this problem until students reach late elementary, middle, and high school, when learning from text is a cornerstone of the curriculum. Four strategies can help teachers improve K-3 students' comprehension of informational text. Teachers should: Increase students' access to informational text. Increase Access Chances are that your personal bookshelves, magazine racks, and Web site bookmarks are replete with informational text. Young students need to learn about the range of purposes that text can serve (Duke, 2003). When teachers include informational text in the classroom, they also expand opportunities for home-school connections that support literacy (Duke & Purcell-Gates, 2003). Increased access to informational text can also better motivate the many students who prefer this kind of text or who have strong interests in the topics addressed in such text (Caswell & Duke, 1998; Jobe & Dayton-Sakari, 2002). Increase Time References Caswell, L.
ReadRank Index By Alan Jacobson, Editor & Publisher TweenTribune & TeenTribune he Common Core identified six computer-based tools for measuring text complexity. The authors said: “Because of the limits of each of the tools, new or improved ones are needed quickly if text complexity is to be used effectively in the classroom and curriculum.” Why the urgency? Because education is making increasing use of technology – some of which is unreliable. For instance: Computer-based text analyzers do not parse the true meaning of words, so some novels with adult themes, like The Catcher in the Rye, get 3rd grade scores. But this is the real problem that proponents of analyzers refuse to address: Very similar passages can generate very different results when measured by some analyzers, including The Lexile® Framework for Reading. If you want to confirm our results, just copy and paste each of the six examples (one at a time) into the window, below. 1. 2. Post a comment, below, or contact us.
Developing Cognitive Competence: Learning the Skills of Argument | Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz Earlier I shared an educational problem that scholars have described as a crisis in poor critical thinking training found in American schools today. We must still better appreciate the value of an argument-skills curriculum. Over the last 20 years, there has been an increased interest in the study of the skills required for argument. Humans have the unique capacity for reason like no other living creatures and many scholars have claimed that the primary function of reasoning is argumentative (Sperber, 2000a; 2001; Billig, 1996; Dessalles, 2007; Kuhn, 1992; Perelman & Olbrechts-Tyteca, 1969). Argumentation has been investigated from within a large range of subjects: juror reasoning (Pennington & Hastie, 1992; Kuhn, Flaton and Weinstock, 1994), political science (Finlayson, 2004), economics (Voss, Blais, Means, Greene and Ahwesh, 1986), moral thinking (Anderson et al., 2001; Narvaez, 2001) and media analysis (Limon and Kazoleas, 2005). This is the key for our future.
Lexile Level Is NOT Text Complexity CCSS.R.10 | Resource - Full This Tweet from #tcrwp (Teachers College Reading and Writing Project) on August 15th caught my eye. A quick glance at the twitter stream confirmed that it came from Stephanie Harvey’s keynote (sigh of envy across the miles). @amandalah: Careful of lexile: Harry potter, old man & the sea &Alexander & the horrible no good very bad day. All similar lexile. Hmmm. . . Was I interested? Did I independently check? Those three books are typically read by readers at these levels: Alexander and the Horrible, Terrible, Very Bad, No Good Day – primary gradesHarry Potter – upper elementary gradesOld Man and the Sea – high school But yet they all three have similar lexile levels! The initial connection to Stephanie Harvey was further confirmed in Twitterverse later: So what is a lexile? The Lexile Framework® for Reading claims to measure a student’s reading ability based on actual assessment, rather than a generalized age or grade level. What examples of “Out of Whack Lexiles” have you found?
History Lecturer : On the stretching of brighter history pupils The education twitter-sphere has been all a-buzz today with stuff about helping (or failing) bright pupils. I am not at all qualified to contribute directly to the debate; I can only recount my own experiences, and anecdotal evidence is not very valuable in such a case. Because of my work as an examiner I meet history teachers from scores of other schools every summer, and I do not think my approaches were in any way unusual. Yes, I taught at an independent school, so it was selective in terms of ability to pay fees. However, I think I do have some credentials when it comes to helping bright history pupils make good use of their time in school. We laid great emphasis on free reading, both quantity and quality. This emphasis on free reading started with the juniors (and we had three years before exam-pressure kicked in). As far as A2 work is concerned serious reading of adult history was taken for granted. At this point I am going to chuck in an advert. Back to the advert.
GUYS READ Books That Tweak (Not Twerk!) Great Classics Originally posted on Kirkus Writers are always borrowing from one another, across centuries and continents. It’s the writers who aren’t just borrowing but building on what previous writers have created who we’re interested in. Ronald Frame’s novel "Havisham," for example, puts the jilted malefactor from "Great Expectations" on center stage, imagining the life of a woman Charles Dickens left a mystery. "Havisham" is newly released in the United States but check out the other enticing sequels of a sort in this week’s list. For more from Kirkus, click here! "Havisham" by Ronald Frame "An intelligently imagined Dickens prequel." "Hardly a false note in an extraordinary carrying on of a true greatness that doubted itself."
Webb's Depth of Knowledge Rigor. Text Complexity. Difficulty. What do these words all mean in the world of thinking? Teaching? I learned about Webb’s Depth of Knowledge just last year when I was at a Larry Ainsworth Professional Development workshop about unwrapping Common Core State Standards and aligning our instructional sequences to those standards. So, what is Webb’s Depth of Knowledge and what’s the big deal? Branching off of a “flipped classroom approach” and because I don’t pretend to be an expert on Webb’s Depth of Knowledge, click here to review (or learn about) the four levels of Webb’s Depth of Knowledge continuum: DoK1. DoK3. DoK4. I believe that each unit needs a mixture, or a balance, of all of the levels above. How do we apply Webb's Depth of Knowledge into our classrooms? If we are asking students to research, for example, here are some ways that we might be able to integrate DoK into a research unit sequentially: DoK1. DoK2. DoK3. DoK4. How does that look in Writing Workshop? DoK1. DoK2.
Research: How SEL Classroom Management Techniques Build Academic Achievement Respect, responsibility, and a community-based learning atmosphere promote success at Mount Desert Elementary School, a K-8 public school in Northeast Harbor, Maine. An important aspect of the culture at Mount Desert is allowing students and teachers autonomy to determine what works best in their classrooms for promoting students' learning. Credit: Alyssa Fedele Mount Desert Elementary School is a small, K-8 public school in Northeast Harbor, Maine, that has successfully created a strong learning community that is the basis of the school's academic success. Responsive Classroom An Approach That Helps Build Positive Relationships The foundation for a community-based learning atmosphere at Mount Desert begins in the earliest grades, where a Responsive Classroom approach is used in all K-3 classrooms. Every morning, the entire class comes together as a community to greet one another, share news, and warm up for the day ahead. Using Discipline Challenges as Learning Opportunities Galantino, M.
Make Your Students “Poetry Geniuses”! by Abi Frost I recently discovered a web resource called “rap genius”. This Brooklyn-based startup allows users to explore and understand the meaning behind song lyrics, poetry and literature. The long term vision is to annotate all text, including news stories and long-form works like War and Peace. Teachers have started using the platform to teach students critical reading skills, so I decided to try it out in my small seventh grade reading class for struggling readers. RL.7.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of rhymes and other repetitions of sounds (e.g., alliteration) on a specific verse or stanza of a poem or section of a story or drama. I designed a review lesson for my poetry analysis unit using the Poetry Genius tab on the Rap Genius website. I was very happy with how the lesson turned out because the students were actually engaged in deep text analysis! Like this: