https://www.readworks.org
An excellent site which gives units for reading novels/passages.
An excellent site which gives units for reading novels/passages.
ASCD 2014--Brains and Best Practice Joan Moser
With more than 300 sessions to choose from in four short days, I found it really hard to narrow down my selections. Offerings on brain research often won out. Here are some of my favorite takeaways.
From "Brain Science Based Strategies Close the Achievement Gap" with Spencer Kagan:
Allison Behne's thoughts from ASCD Conference
ASCD 2014—Highlights, Frights, and Sound BitesLori Sabo
Highlights
Frights
In a session titled "Reading as a 21st Century Skill: Understanding Text Complexity and the Practices That Produce Strong Readers," Jeanne Tribuzzi, a director of English Language Arts, ESL, and Second Language in New York, said this:
Being genuinely excited about the things you are wanting students to learn and explaining how the target strategy will help them will make the students more focused and eager to learn, they will want to share the excitement.
Each day gives us a new opportunity to catch the power of enthusiasm and to share it with our students and colleagues.
Tip of the Week—February 21, 2014
Empower Yourself
Allison Behne
Last night when my son, Nathan, asked me to play a game with him on his new PlayStation, my response was "I can't figure out the controllers. If you want to play a game of cards, I will play, but if you want to play PlayStation, ask your daddy." Nathan smiled and quickly responded with, "I am eight and I know how to use the controllers. You can learn to play the PS, you just don'twant to."
Wow. What could I say to that? He was entirely right! I certainly could learn, but I really have no desire to. This made me think about the word can't and how often it is used inaccurately.
How often do you hear someone say the words, I can't?
When an individual says, "I can't," do they really mean there is no possible way of doing it? Usually it means one of three things:
Next time you think "I can't_____", stop and correct yourself. You can learn if you want to and if you believe in yourself.
Tip of the Week—February 28, 2014
3 Lessons to Make Our Teaching Stick
Joan MoserWhile waiting to pay for my purchases at an office-supply store, I observed as a store clerk approached a gentleman asking if he could provide any help. The gentleman explained that his grandsons had given him an iPad as a gift and that he needed to get something called Wi-Fi to make it work. He kindly asked the clerk what Wi-Fi was and if he could please direct him where to find it.
The clerk went into a too-technical explanation of what Wi-Fi was and why he couldn't just "find it" in the store, and then tried to describe how Wi-Fi worked. The gentleman listened patiently before asking again, "But what is it?"
Now, those of you who know me are well aware that keeping to myself is not one of my strong suits. I walked over and asked if I could help explain.
I asked the gentleman if he had ever used a transistor radio. He had, and could even recall the different radio programs he and his family had gathered to listen to in the evenings. Building on that background knowledge, piece of paper in hand, I proceeded to draw a picture of the working parts needed to set up Wi-Fi in his home, labeling the parts and connecting them as often as I could to the transmission of a radio signal. His look of confusion turned to understanding and a readiness to tackle getting Wi-Fi.
I have been tutoring a friend of mine who is learning to use an iPad. On Saturday we worked on organizing photos. She wanted to learn how to save all the photos her grandkids have sent her, as well as organize all the photos she was taking. Opening up the file drawer in the office, I anchored my explanation to that of the physical files. Pulling out some photos I had in my desk, I explained that right now they were just a pile of photos, and that by creating, labeling, and moving photos to the files they would be easy to access.
Both of these wonderful people taught me three valuable lessons that translate to the work we do with children.
Lesson One
When there is an imminent personal need (setting up Wi-Fi, organizing our digital data), there is a greater motivation and desire to learn.
Lesson Two
We often hear about anchoring our teaching to something students already know. I don't know if the importance of this was ever so clear to me as it became during these two interactions.
Lesson Three
Talking is not nearly as effective as showing.These are simple but powerful reminders of how we can really make our teaching stick.
Although there may not be one secret, there are perhaps a few critical things we can do to ensure that each child reaches their potential when they are with us.
Tip of the Week—March 14, 2014
The Secret
Lori Sabo
Tip of the Week—April 4, 2014Three Keys to Helping Children Become the Best They Can Be
Joan Moser
Talks about her nieces who are part of a basketball team and how they have got to be so good.- she then compares this to our learners
With more than 300 sessions to choose from in four short days, I found it really hard to narrow down my selections. Offerings on brain research often won out. Here are some of my favorite takeaways.
From "Brain Science Based Strategies Close the Achievement Gap" with Spencer Kagan:
- When students turn and talk, have them stand. Oral sharing and processing activates the motor cortex, or upper part of our brains. When we have students stand and share, the movement activates the left temporal lobe, growing dendrites between the motor cortex and temporal lobe, thus increasing the likelihood that the information will stay in the long-term memory.
- Long-term and short-term memories are different systems in our brains. To move information from short-term to long-term memory, we must process and DO something with it. If we as teachers don't stop talking and give students a chance to process, they won't be able to move the learning to long-term memory.
- Processing clears the working memories. Humans can hold four pieces of information in their working memory. By processing, info moves from short-term memory to long-term memory, so the processing clears room for more information.
- Verbalization leads to processing and retention.
- Young brains are different from adult brains. We used to think brains were developed by age 12. In the last 10 years, we have learned that brains are not fully developed until age 20 in girls and age 26 in boys.
- The brain develops from the stem forward. The last part to develop is the prefrontal cortex, where cause and effect, impulse control, rational judgment, and organization take place.
- If we want kids to exhibit these skills earlier, they must be explicitly taught.
- Discover successful efforts worth emulating.
- Illuminate the road map for action and spark the hope that change is possible.
- Remember that making change takes skill and will.
- Swift, dramatic improvement requires an encounter with the brutal facts—those awkward, unpleasant thoughts that organizations prefer not to think about, address or even talk about.
- Use data and build relationships. Focus on learning. Foster healthy, safe, supportive, learning environments.
- Improve school culture: have high expectations for everybody, with support to get there.
- Someone needs to take risks or nothing will change.
Allison Behne's thoughts from ASCD Conference
- We must be able to tell the difference between a mistake and an error. When a learner makes a mistake, he understands what he did wrong and knows what to do next. When a learner makes an error, he does not know what to do next and needs further instruction. As teachers, we must be able to distinguish between the two so we don't waste valuable instruction time with mistakes (Fisher & Frey, 2014).
- Attunement helps with effectiveness. Can we get out of our heads and see situations from others perspectives? Can we meet them where they are instead of trying to get them to come to us? Feeling powerful causes us to function heavily from our own perspectives. Feeling powerful has the ability to blind us. To increase our effectiveness, we must decrease our feelings of power and level the playing field. Always be willing to look at the world through the eyes of someone else (Pink, 2014).
- Kids need to be able to run their own brains and choose their own thoughts. Stress is about your perception of control over life. When kids have choice, they feel their voices are heard and therefore find they have more control over their lives (Jensen, 2014). Give choices, but give choices you are okay with.
- We must set and communicate lesson objectives. Connecting your content to prior learning or real-world examples helps to give students a purpose for learning. When you make the objective clear to learners, you increase the likelihood that they will meet the target (McBride, 2014).
ASCD 2014—Highlights, Frights, and Sound BitesLori Sabo
Highlights
- Spending three and a half days being learners together with Joan, Gail, and Allison at the ASCD conference was a definite highlight. Having time to excitedly share what we'd heard, what pushed our thinking, and what we'd taken to heart was a true gift. Usually coworkers and collaborators, we relished being colearners together.
- Twitter has become a powerful source of professional development in my life. I have learned from and befriended amazing educators in my Twitter universe. Getting to meet two of them in person was a definite highlight. Though it was our first face-to-face encounter, it felt as comfortable as if we'd been hanging out for years.
Frights
- Cab rides. Enough said.
- Being woken up as a 4.4-magnitude earthquake shook my bed.
- Sitting all day. The importance of giving our students brain and body breaks and chairs that fit their bodies was impressed upon me in full force.
In a session titled "Reading as a 21st Century Skill: Understanding Text Complexity and the Practices That Produce Strong Readers," Jeanne Tribuzzi, a director of English Language Arts, ESL, and Second Language in New York, said this:
- Our instruction must include increased practice time, stamina, and independence.
- What we do in school has to be drenched with meaning or kids won't learn it.
- Common Core reading brings with it a shift from prereading to rereading.
- Eighty-five percent of a student's independent reading should be books they can read with 99 percent accuracy at a rate of 90–100 percent comprehension. Fifteen percent can be spent with instructional-level text. She emphasized that zero independent time should be spent in challenging/frustration-level text.
- Teaching is a performance art that must be practiced on one's feet. It is hard work. But hard work can be joyful work.
- All principals and teachers must be knowledgeable literacy leaders if sustainable change is going to happen.
- Culture is key. We must create school cultures of high trust, collaboration, and enjoyment.
- If we can engage their hearts and minds, we can teach kids anything they need to know.
- If our expectations are low, we are holding kids back.
- Failure is a normal and expected part of all success. Try, try again, and try some more.
- We must provide our students with unconditional positive regard.
- Students will work harder and challenge us less if we value them as "human beings" rather than "human doings."
- Access where kids are and give them the education they need. They will not reach their academic potential if we don't.
- If it is important, talk to children as though it is. Help them feel the importance.
- Exercise promotes learning because it brings more oxygen and blood to the brain. We must provide opportunities for movement.
Being genuinely excited about the things you are wanting students to learn and explaining how the target strategy will help them will make the students more focused and eager to learn, they will want to share the excitement.
Each day gives us a new opportunity to catch the power of enthusiasm and to share it with our students and colleagues.
Tip of the Week—February 21, 2014
Empower Yourself
Allison Behne
Last night when my son, Nathan, asked me to play a game with him on his new PlayStation, my response was "I can't figure out the controllers. If you want to play a game of cards, I will play, but if you want to play PlayStation, ask your daddy." Nathan smiled and quickly responded with, "I am eight and I know how to use the controllers. You can learn to play the PS, you just don'twant to."
Wow. What could I say to that? He was entirely right! I certainly could learn, but I really have no desire to. This made me think about the word can't and how often it is used inaccurately.
How often do you hear someone say the words, I can't?
- A child: "I can't clean my room by myself."
- A colleague: "I can't get my whole class to grade level expectations."
- A friend: "I can't lose weight."
- Yourself: "I can't __[fill in the blank]__."
When an individual says, "I can't," do they really mean there is no possible way of doing it? Usually it means one of three things:
- They don't want to do it.
- They don't believe they can do it.
- They don't know how to do it.
Next time you think "I can't_____", stop and correct yourself. You can learn if you want to and if you believe in yourself.
Tip of the Week—February 28, 2014
3 Lessons to Make Our Teaching Stick
Joan MoserWhile waiting to pay for my purchases at an office-supply store, I observed as a store clerk approached a gentleman asking if he could provide any help. The gentleman explained that his grandsons had given him an iPad as a gift and that he needed to get something called Wi-Fi to make it work. He kindly asked the clerk what Wi-Fi was and if he could please direct him where to find it.
The clerk went into a too-technical explanation of what Wi-Fi was and why he couldn't just "find it" in the store, and then tried to describe how Wi-Fi worked. The gentleman listened patiently before asking again, "But what is it?"
Now, those of you who know me are well aware that keeping to myself is not one of my strong suits. I walked over and asked if I could help explain.
I asked the gentleman if he had ever used a transistor radio. He had, and could even recall the different radio programs he and his family had gathered to listen to in the evenings. Building on that background knowledge, piece of paper in hand, I proceeded to draw a picture of the working parts needed to set up Wi-Fi in his home, labeling the parts and connecting them as often as I could to the transmission of a radio signal. His look of confusion turned to understanding and a readiness to tackle getting Wi-Fi.
I have been tutoring a friend of mine who is learning to use an iPad. On Saturday we worked on organizing photos. She wanted to learn how to save all the photos her grandkids have sent her, as well as organize all the photos she was taking. Opening up the file drawer in the office, I anchored my explanation to that of the physical files. Pulling out some photos I had in my desk, I explained that right now they were just a pile of photos, and that by creating, labeling, and moving photos to the files they would be easy to access.
Both of these wonderful people taught me three valuable lessons that translate to the work we do with children.
Lesson One
When there is an imminent personal need (setting up Wi-Fi, organizing our digital data), there is a greater motivation and desire to learn.
Lesson Two
We often hear about anchoring our teaching to something students already know. I don't know if the importance of this was ever so clear to me as it became during these two interactions.
Lesson Three
Talking is not nearly as effective as showing.These are simple but powerful reminders of how we can really make our teaching stick.
Although there may not be one secret, there are perhaps a few critical things we can do to ensure that each child reaches their potential when they are with us.
Tip of the Week—March 14, 2014
The Secret
Lori Sabo
- Build relationships. If we get to know our students personally, we can more readily make connections that will lead to inspiration, motivation, and progress.
- Focus on learning. The fundamental purpose of our lives in the classroom must be student learning, not our teaching.
- Use assessments. We must analyze assessments and use the data to make instructional decisions. It's when good instruction intersects with student readiness and effort that the magic happens.
- Be reflective. Extend grace to ourselves when things don't go the way we want, and refine our practice so they will next time.
Tip of the Week—April 4, 2014Three Keys to Helping Children Become the Best They Can Be
Joan Moser
Talks about her nieces who are part of a basketball team and how they have got to be so good.- she then compares this to our learners
- "They start early. Girls begin playing as a team as early as first and second grade. Foundational skills are taught, practiced, and built on each year.
- They play more. They practice and play more games than other teams. It is the basic practice factor that Richard Allington so often talks about. The more you practice at something, the better you get.
- They have a brilliant coach who works tirelessly, studies the game, is always prepared, and puts into place strategies to meet the needs of each player. He teaches, guides, motivates, takes a vested interest in their lives, and inspires each one to become the best she can be.
- Beginning with our youngest students, build strong foundational skills, increasing complexity each year.
- Provide extended opportunities for students to practice authentic reading and writing.
- . Hire teachers who are smart and progressive, who can motivate and inspire, who become personally invested, and who will teach tirelessly. Provide excellent professional development, ensuring teachers become and remain skilled and brilliant in best practice.