Staff resource for instructional materials, student learning strategies, using technology in the classroom, Google Suite, and many other tools for the world of an educator.
Performing Arts, part of the Google Cultural Institute, is a website that allows you to experience music, opera, theater, and dance in 360 degree images and videos.
What Independent Readers Do October 12, 2017 | Volume 13 | Issue 3
Joyful Independent Reading: Choice, Agency, and Engagement with Books
Irene Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell
Choosing books to read and enjoy is at the heart of what it means to be literate. Our classrooms provide a learning community in which each child falls in love with books. Children taste the language and art of wonderful authors and illustrators and expand their worlds through books. When they walk into a classroom that features a library of appealing categories—authors, topics, illustrators, genres, award-winning books, or series—they learn that their days in school will include
What Independent Readers Do October 12, 2017 | Volume 13 | Issue 3 ASCD Express
Accelerate Learning Through Independent Reading
Nancy Frey and Douglas Fisher
In his address to the American Library Association in 2005, then-Senator Barack Obama noted that "literacy is the most basic currency of the knowledge economy." The knowledge economy relies on people who can communicate with others, engage in self-reflection and self-direction, and learn autonomously. In a world where information and technology are moving at ever-increasing rates of speed, our students need to know how to build their
Teachers don't just walk into a classroom, hand over a basal reader, and expect all students to read on the same level or at the same rate of speed. Nor do they expect that students independently read for lengthy chunks of time while deeply comprehending everything that they are reading.
Teaching students to read requires intentional planning, instruction, assessment, and support. Successful teachers create a classroom environment where reading doesn't just happen through luck but grows because of small, simple actions by both teacher and student.
Beyond the Bake Sale (2007) is a comprehensive book discussing community and family partnerships in education. A few weeks ago I was assigned to read chapter 6, Addressing Differences, along with three others. Together we created a Slides presentation to share with and present to our class. The link below is a PDF version of the presentation. At your leisure, or if you can't fall asleep one night, please take a look. Leave a common with a question or feedback about the topic. The second link is a PDF version of the book via Google books. Enjoy. I am looking forward to reading your comments.
I love finding quick, fun tips to do the math. Here is a fun site with some interesting and new ways to perform math skills. Your students will probably have a lot of fun with them along with you.
Do you have a lesson you create that went very well? Are you looking for a new approach to a skill, idea, or content for a lesson? Check out www.sharemylesson.com and share or search for lessons. All lessons on sharemylesson.com are created by teachers. Search by grade level, subject, discipline, or standard. And it is all free!
How does PBL lead to deeper learning for students? The article below helps us as educators understand and use project-based learning strategies for the classroom.
I am loving this site, www.agoogleaday.com , as quick Do Now activity, or a What Can I Do Now? This would be great for grades 3 or 4 and up due to some of the older content. Have you students practice their research skills using Google by answering questions, earning points, in a timed manner. Check it out and see how you can start using it today. A fun way to infuse current events as well.
As I continue to look for materials and content to improve and expand my social studies curriculum I a came across the following site. OurDocuments.com offers documents for students to study the diversity of our country to help learn about our rights and responsibilities as citizens.
To help us think, talk and teach about the rights and responsibilities of citizens in our democracy, we invite you to explore 100 milestone documents of American history. These documents reflect our diversity and our unity, our past and our future, and mostly our commitment as a nation to continue to strive to "form a more perfect union." (continue reading here >>)
Analyzing and interpreting maps is part of the Social Studies learning standards for most elementary and middle school grades. Mapping History, produced by the University of Oregon, features lots of animated maps illustrating problems, patterns, and events throughout history. Mapping History is essentially a digital atlas of American, European, Latin American, and African history. Each section is divided into modules based on historical themes and eras.
Applications for Education Mapping History is a resource to bookmark for the next time that you need a thematic map to illustrate a pattern in history. I found that some of the maps will also be useful as question prompts. For example, this map prompts students to evaluate the extent to which the expansion of slavery in the U.S. was connected to the demand for cotton.
Scholastic's Character Scrapbook is an online activity that could help your students analyze the characters in the books that they read. The Character Scrapbook asks students to create a digital drawing of what they think a character from a book looks like. The Character Scrapbook allows students to create digital drawings of people or animals. After creating their drawings students then complete a list of ten things that they know about the character, ten words to describe the character, ten details about the character, ten challenges facing the character, and ten things about the character's personality. When students have completed each page of the Character Scrapbook the pages can be printed.
Applications for Education Character Scrapbook isn't a revolutionary tool. In fact, you could do the same activity on paper. The one thing that I really like about Character Scrapbook is that digital drawing tool allows students who might not think of themselves as creative artists to create a visual representation of their favorite characters from the books that they read.
When we think about what a scientist or a mathematician looks like, we rarely see a pen or pencil in hand composing a report or writing an essay. No, we think of the more glamorous side of conducting experiments and solving intricate mathematical situations.
However, one must realize, Writing is a tool to make thinking more lucid. Think about it; to be able to put words onto paper, one must extract information and then be able to portray its meaning clearly via words on a page. Carly Fiorina (former executive of Hewlett Packard) sums it up, “The goal is to transform data into information and information into insight.” Can a scientist or mathematician be considered successful with his/her theories if he/she has solved a complex problem yet cannot elucidate and interpret the solution in words? Root-Bernstein (2011) says, “Since words are our primary means of communicating, anyone who has not mastered their creative use is simply underprepared for any discipline, including STEM subjects.”
This is why writing must be a significant part of a STEM curriculum. In fact, it should accompany every assignment or problem proposed. Not only does it make one career ready because writing is a big part of any profession, but it helps one organize thoughts and clarify thinking.
There’s a simple way to connect with a challenging student, according to “The Two-Minute Relationship Builder” from the July issue of Education Update. Spend two minutes a day for 10 days having a personal conversation with the student. Talk about whatever topic interests him—sports, cars, family life, Legos, whatever—but keep discipline and academics off the table.
Lisa Kitzmann, a 3rd grade teacher in California, tried the strategy several times over the course of a year, and the results were surprising. As she developed a personal connection with the students she targeted, their behavior in the classroom improved—and so did her outlook.
“When you become closer with [children] who used to drive you absolutely crazy and you begin to understand why they’re acting the way they are, your attitude changes,” says Kitzmann.
The Two-by-Ten strategy is more than an icebreaker; it’s a trust-building exercise that goes both ways. At first, it can be difficult to break through, Kitzmann admits, especially when students affect the mood of the classroom or interrupt the learning that’s taking place. But by taking the time to really get to know the students, you can begin to uncover the reasons behind their misbehavior.
“Most often it is because [children] lack a sense of trust and respect for the adults who are supposed to be their role models or because they lack structure, routine, and discipline at home,” says Kitzmann. “We often forget that children need just as much respect as adults do—and they are taught by actions.”
By practicing Two-by-Ten, Kitzmann had the extra push to give her most disruptive students structured one-on-one time, and they responded by opening up to her on a whole new level. “When a child told me that he had to meet his dad at the police station for weekend visitation exchanges so his parents wouldn’t fight, it made me much more understanding of his situation,” she says. “He was dealing with grown-up issues and circumstances that were beyond his control. My sense of patience and self-motivation to instill safety for him in the classroom became more important than reaching him academically. The child had more to deal with than learning to write a complete sentence and not being disruptive. The only world he knows outside the classroom is a disruptive one.”
As Kitzmann emphasized in her article in Education Update, “you begin to see the child in a different light” when you initiate conversations that go beyond “how are you today, nice to see you.”
“Deeper conversations lead to a compassion that only comes when you invest your time, listening ears, and an open heart,” says Kitzmann. “The difference is learning about what’s in the inside of a child’s heart and head—not just focusing on the external casual talk that seems easy. [Children] know when you truly take those extra minutes to talk about their feelings on a personal level.”
For Kitzmann, Two-by-Ten wasn’t the answer to classroom misbehavior, but it was a start.
Feedback is essential for learning. It is the necessary dialogue that informs what we know and what we can do better to improve. Traditionally, teachers have been responsible for being the sole providers of this learning goal, but they shouldn’t be working in isolation.
As students grow toward empowered learning environments, we need to teach them how to provide excellent feedback to each other in meaningful ways. This exchange does not only help the person receiving the feedback, but also the person providing it.
If we hope to have a class where students can be the experts, we must first model the feedback we want them to be able to provide. Showing them what actionable feedback looks like, and then allowing them to practice giving and receiving feedback, increases their ability to both identify strengths and challenges, and provide strategies for increasing the strengths.
As we work our way through new learning, teachers will be helping to fill student feedback toolboxes with direct instruction through mini-lessons to help provide better strategies for actionable feedback.
8 Tips for Teachers to Increase the Learning:
Model what feedback looks like and how it should be given. Regardless of the age or subject you teach, we must show students that feedback stretches way beyond “this is good” or “this is wrong.”
Have students track the feedback teachers provide, so they have a list of strategies and language to help provide better feedback.
Create expert groups in class that allow students to get excel at one skill you are working on. Groups can be selected by strength or challenge. It is useful for students to be in mixed groups. These groups shouldn’t be larger than four.
Use expert groups to help workshop learning and provide ongoing feedback throughout a unit.
Make sure to continue providing feedback that students are giving each other. Check-in with expert groups and with students to ensure that the groups know what they are looking for, what strategies to provide, and how to use the language of the standards. Check-in with the individual students to ensure that they are getting the help they need.
Work with expert groups to continue growth in the area of focus, adding additional strategies where needed.
Provide reflection time in class so that students can consider the feedback they have been given and to review the growth and continued areas of need.
Switch groups periodically to make sure students in the expert groups are still deepening their knowledge and students receiving the feedback are still getting fresh perspectives.
Offering feedback is a nuanced process that when done correctly can really improve student learning. Imagine the power of putting “feedback” into the hands of our students. Teachers must consider allowing students to have this control. There will be a need for continued vigilance as some students may not pull their weight fully. Take the opportunity to shift groups and work with students differently if this occurs.
Who gives the feedback in your classroom and how can you involve students more in the process? Please share.
Starr Sackstein is the author of Peer Feedback in the Classroom: Empowering Students to be the Experts with ASCD. She blogs for Education Week Teacher on “Work in Progress” where she discusses all aspects of being a teacher. Sackstein co-moderates #ecet2 and #sunchat and contributes to #NYedChat. In speaking engagements, Sackstein speaks about blogging, throwing out grades and homework reform, BYOD helping people see technology doesn’t have to be feared. Follow her @MsSackstein on Twitter.
I wanted to share with you an excellent Google Extension I have been using for over a year. It is called Black Menu for Google. When you go to Google Web Store and search Black Menu for Google.
When in use and you click the icon, you will have a drop-down menu that looks like this:
Customize the scrolled menu on the right by scrolling all the way down and clicking add. Your dropdown will look like this:
When you click on one of the apps on the right, all the items of that kind will appear on the left side of the drop-down. Here, you can scroll through all the items of that time (Documents, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, etc.) Or, you may click the button at the bottom right corner of that window to create a new. You can even compose a new email with Google email in the drop-down menu.
This is a great tool to use if you don't want to open a new window and search for your items or create a new one. It is quicker and easier, in my opinion, to use and makes your work more effective.
Go ahead, give it a shot. My students have been using it for the last few weeks and have been able to find items a lot quicker, saving on class time.
The use and analyzing of timelines is a skill we try to teach our students each year. As teachers we usually pull out the ruler or yardsticks, some bigger paper, or attempt to fit into a notebook. Sutori.com is a free, web based application to create digital timelines. What a great tool to use in Social Studies, Language Arts, or any subject to show sequence/chronological order.
Explore, and share with your students. Create beautiful, colorful, and engaging timelines for project-based learning projects.
Embed videos, photos, texts, maps, and graphs on timelines for projects.
Extreme Planet Makeover is an interactive activity produced by NASA as a part of the Exoplanet Exploration website. Extreme Planet Makeover lets students choose the size of a planet, position relative to the largest and nearest star, and planet age. Students instantly get feedback on the characteristics of the planets they create. For example, if it is too small and too far from a star students will see that they created an iceball planet.
Extreme Planet Makeover is one of four Exoplanet Exploration interactive activities. The other three are Interstellar Trip Planner, Alien Safari (I previously featured these here), and Five Ways to Find a Planet (review coming next week).
Applications for Education
Extreme Planet Makeover is a simple interactive that students could use for a few minutes to see how the relative size and position of planets contribute to their characteristics.
(I found this on the following site. The author has many more posts and links for teachers who use technology on a regular basis, or for those who want to implement more technology in the classroom. Please make sure you bookmark his page and use as a constant resource. There is a lot of useful information.)
Performing Arts, part of the Google Cultural Institute, is a website that allows you to experience music, opera, theater, and dance in 360 degree images and videos. 
Scholastic's Character Scrapbook is an online activity that could help your students analyze the characters in the books that they read. The Character Scrapbook asks students to create a digital drawing of what they think a character from a book looks like. The Character Scrapbook allows students to create digital drawings of people or animals. After creating their drawings students then complete a list of ten things that they know about the character, ten words to describe the character, ten details about the character, ten challenges facing the character, and ten things about the character's personality. When students have completed each page of the Character Scrapbook the pages can be printed.
