Articulating an Impact on Student Learning by Elizabeth Burns, Assistant Professor, School Library Program, Department of Teaching & Learning, Darden College of Education, Old Dominion University The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), passed in December 2015, positions school librarians as Essential Personnel and provides potential dedicated funding to effective school libraries–IF we make them understand why school librarians matter. ESSA falls short, however, of identifying what characterizes an effective school library program. School systems follow the new norm in education: accountability is standardized in the evaluation process. When we discuss the multiple ways library program is critical to student learning, school librarians should: Looking to ESSA requires us to carefully and intentionally articulate the librarian’s instructional roles and the expertise required in an effective program. Traditional library statistics are one way school librarians can demonstrate an effective school library program. Tags: ESSA
Weekly Writing Assignment » Blog Archive » Weekly Writing Assignment #2: The Mirror Mirrors and reflections play an important role in our lives. Most of us look in them every day, sometimes multiple times a day. We check our clothes, our hair, our makeup. We seek to ensure that our outward appearance signifies the person we want to be. Yet as the revered poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote: These faces in the mirrors Are but the shadows and phantoms of myself. Or, that great actress of our time, Tori Spelling put it: Sometimes, when I’m alone, I put on six inch heels and wear nothing else and dance around in front of the mirror and do my little stripper dance. The truth is that we rarely see who we really are when we look into the mirror (though, I’m sure many of us can imagine Tori Spelling as a stripper). The Assignment For this week’s writing assignment, write a description of someone looking into the mirror. No need for a complete narrative on this assignment. Entries should be 300 words MAXIMUM. Send your completed assignment to weeklywritingassignment@gmail.com.
Wikipedia In The Classroom For Wikipedia and the classroom … The National Writing Project published an article, “Wikipedia: Friend, Not Foe,” that outlines the benefits of using Wikipedia in school, and offers advice on how to do it. Find the full text of the article here. Wikipedia Selection for schools is a handpicked and vetted assortment of Wikipedia articles that have been deemed useful for students. Articles are organized topically, and separated from the Wikipedia main page to prevent students from accessing irrelevant or inaccurate information. For evaluating information quality … FindingDulcinea has a primer on assessing the credibility of online information that can be applied to student use of Wikipedia. National History Education Clearinghouse has information and links to help students evaluate Web sites for accuracy and relevancy in research, and includes links to YouTube slideshows and articles written for young students. MakeUseOf offers a list of popular wikis in addition to Wikipedia.
Note Taking Skills for 21st Century Students Note taking skills aren’t just automatic. We tell students “take notes” but they have no idea what that means. What makes “good notes.” Ever since I went through the Writing Across the Curriculum Course at my school I realized the tremendous gap between “writing” as we’ve taught it traditionally and 21st century writing skills. Now I have a new frustration that has me grappling with noteaking. So, now, I’m taking the approach of helping students master analog notetaking. A note about In-Flip: The kids love it. I want to know what they are getting out of the videos and if they are pulling out the essential questions I’m giving them. So, here are some of the essential notetaking skills I’ve taught them so far. Cornell Notetaking System My favorite Cornell notetaking video is by Jennifer DesRochers. This method is THE SINGLE MOST important reason (besides studying myself blind) that I graduated first in my class from Georgia Tech. If you don’t believe me, look at student notes. You did it!
WI Focus: Faculty Resources, UH Manoa Informational brochure for students (newsletter for instructors of Writing-intensive courses) Available as a web page (HTML) or an easy-print format (PDF). Effective Writing Assignments: HTML PDF Responding to Student Writing HTML PDF Writing and Research HTML PDF Overcoming Writing Errors HTML PDF Helping Students Make Connections HTML PDF Working with ESL Students' Writing HTML PDF Peer Review & Feedback Forms HTML PDF Teaching Forms of Writing HTML PDF On-line Interaction HTML PDF Using Writing to Improve Reading HTML PDF Getting Students to Think HTML PDF Quick Tips Tips for Teachers of WI Courses - What to do the first day and how to design and respond to writing assignments. Handling the Paper Load - Dispels myths about responding to student writing. Designing the Writing-Intensive Course Syllabus & Course Materials - Items students find helpful on a WI syllabus. Teaching a Summer Session Writing-Intensive Course - Tips on teaching a six-week (accelerated term) WI course. Citation and Plagiarism
Backchannel Backchannel is the practice of using networked computers to maintain a real-time online conversation alongside the primary group activity or live spoken remarks. The term was coined in the field of Linguistics to describe listeners' behaviours during verbal communication. The term "backchannel" generally refers to online conversation about the conference topic or speaker. First growing in popularity at technology conferences, backchannel is increasingly a factor in education where WiFi connections and laptop computers allow students to use ordinary chat like IRC or AIM to actively communicate during class. Twitter is also widely used today by audiences to create backchannels at technology conferences. History[edit] The first famous instance of backchannel communications influencing a talk occurred on March 26, 2002, at the PC Forum conference, when Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio famously lamented the difficulties of raising capital. Books[edit] Use in education[edit] Experiments[edit]
Knowledge Quest | AASL Welcome to LEO: Literacy Education Online 10 Awesome Tools To Get More Out of Wikipedia Wikipedia is an ocean of information. While you may still want to seek secondary information sources before trusting it entirely, you cannot argue that the site contains a plethora of useful information. That said, it’s tough to navigate through so much data. You can get much more out of it in less time if you decide to ditch the conventional way of using the built-in Wikipedia search for scouring through the information. The following ten tools will help you search and use Wikipedia like never before. NavifyNavify is an excellent web service which shows a lot of additional information related to a Wikipedia article like related images, videos and articles. So if you are searching for Barack Obama, you can see the Wikipedia article on him, his photos, and the Youtube videos of his speeches, all on one page. PowersetPowerset is a Wikipedia search engine which certainly produces much better results than Wikipedia’s in-built search. Hope you like the tools. Cheers, Abhijeet
Visions of the Future Imagination is our window into the future. At NASA/JPL we strive to be bold in advancing the edge of possibility so that someday, with the help of new generations of innovators and explorers, these visions of the future can become a reality. As you look through these images of imaginative travel destinations, remember that you can be an architect of the future. Click on any of the thumbnails below to learn more and download a free poster sized image. › Learn more about the posters Can I get copies of these posters from NASA or JPL?
Best Practices For Writing For Online Readers I have less than 30 seconds to capture your attention with this post, so here goes: if you read some, most or all of the next 750 words or so, you will know how to write Web copy that is more useful to readers of your blog or Web site. As we reported yesterday visual content is continuing its steady rise in dominance over written content. But that doesn't mean we should give up on good writing: if anything, it means we need to think harder about how we write for online readers. Online Readers Are Different Seems pretty obvious, right? With offline readers, we can take our time and develop points with long blocks of text and narrative, and with fewer visual elements. In Plain English, Please Your writing - offline or online - is effective when readers take away your message. People who read our blog posts come from all over, and from a wide range of backgrounds. Best Practices Write compelling but clear headlines: Don't get cute. How long should it be?
Technology Integration Technology Integration is the use of technology tools[citation needed] in general content areas in education in order to allow students to apply computer and technology skills to learning and problem-solving. Generally speaking, the curriculum drives the use of technology and not vice versa.[1][2] The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) has established technology standards for students, teachers and administrators in K-12 classrooms. "Curriculum integration with the use of technology involves the infusion of technology as a tool to enhance the learning in a content area or multidisciplinary setting... Integrating technology with standard curriculum gives students a sense of power, but also allows for more advanced learning among broad topics. Technology Education Standards[edit] National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) served as a roadmap since 1998 for improved teaching and learning by educators. Pedagogy[edit] Paradigms[edit] Tools[edit] Mobile Learning[edit]
10 Online Resources to Improve EL Literacy Many elementary school ESL teachers are now looking at materials for their 2016–2107 classroom. During a recent #ELLCHAT discussion, we shared ideas for choosing materials for ELs. One of the liveliest discussions was about online resources. I’d like to share some online resources that feature books for children and really work well for ELs. The best books sites for ELs have an audio component, and the words are highlighted as they are read. Fiction Resources EPIC is a free website for U.S. and Canadian-based elementary teachers. I also want to mention another site that is just for teachers. Nonfiction Resources I would also like to include these online articles that can be adapted for ELs in Grades K–12. Newslea takes news articles from around the world and rewrites them at up to five different lexile levels and in Spanish. In my next blog, I will discuss apps for ELs that help build literacy.
Glossary of language teaching terms and ideas Language teaching, like other educational activities, may employ specialized vocabulary and word use. This list is a glossary for English language learning and teaching using the communicative approach. Glossary[edit] Accuracy Producing language with few errors. Achievement test A test to measure what students have learned or achieved from a program of study; should be part of every language program and be specific to the goals and objectives of a specific language course. Activate The phase in a lesson where students have the opportunity to practice language forms. Active listening A technique whereby the listener repeats (often in other words) what the speaker has said to demonstrate his or her understanding. Active vocabulary Vocabulary that students actually use in speaking and writing. Active Related to student engagement and participation. Alphabet Aptitude The rate at which a student can learn a language, based on raw talent. Audiolingualism Audio-visual aids Aural Related to listening. Chorus