resource: What You Can Do With Photos: 10 Creative ESL Games/Activities
Thought Bubbles
Creating "thought bubbles" will help students communicate what the characters are thinking, etc.
resource: Using Photos With English-Language Learners
Pictures are worth a thousand words
Give your students some pictures related to the subject before you start throwing out new material. By linking new information to what they already know about the topic, your students will have better retention and absorb more linguistic information.
resource: What You Can Do With Photos: 10 Creative ESL Games/Activities
Thought Bubbles
Creating "thought bubbles" will help students communicate what the characters are thinking, etc.
resource: Using Photos With English-Language Learners
resource: What You Can Do With Photos: 10 Creative ESL Games/Activities
Thought Bubbles
Creating "thought bubbles" will help students communicate what the characters are thinking, etc.
resource: Using Photos With English-Language Learners
ESL Conversation Questions - Teaching / Learning ESL with Questions
ESL Conversation Questions - Teaching / Learning ESL with Questions
Organized by subject, these conversation starters will help you establish a relationship with your ESL students.
Students whose first language is not English will feel more comfortable responding in one-on-one situations or in small groups.
Entertainment Example:
Which American movies have been popular in your country?
What's the last movie you saw? When did you see it? What was it about? Did you like it?
Organized by subject, these conversation starters will help you establish a relationship with your ESL students.
Students whose first language is not English will feel more comfortable responding in one-on-one situations or in small groups.
Entertainment Example:
Which American movies have been popular in your country?
What's the last movie you saw? When did you see it? What was it about? Did you like it?
How to Write a Superhero Story
My granddaughter was turning four last weekend and I needed to think of a gift ASAP. When I saw a kit to build a puppet, I was immediately inspired to go in that direction. Knowing she loves to wear a cape like a superhero, I searched online for a superhero puppet suitable for a little girl...found one that even came with a cape and mask. I was sold, so I made the purchase and sent it in the mail since we live states apart. Well, to my dismay, she hated it! Loved the cape, but the puppet "freaked" her out!
I am committed to helping K love this puppet, darn it! Her mom helped her with a name for the puppet and I drew up some super characters in the hope that would endear her to Freaky Francine . Now I want to write a superhero story for a little girl. Hmmm....where to start.
With the help of this article I found, and my granddaughter's input, I am pretty sure we can create a pretty darn good story.
So far, K has told me that her super power is to fly so she can save the day. When I asked her just what she was saving the day from, she said, " Dinosaurs like T-Rex, alligators, and Dora." Most of those creatures with enormous size and big teeth I can work with, but Dora the Explorer I may have to leave out. I'll keep you posted!
So far, K has told me that her super power is to fly so she can save the day. When I asked her just what she was saving the day from, she said, " Dinosaurs like T-Rex, alligators, and Dora." Most of those creatures with enormous size and big teeth I can work with, but Dora the Explorer I may have to leave out. I'll keep you posted!
How To Write A Superhero Story
This image is the property of Lori Vanden Berghe. All rights reserved.
Apps that inspire creativity
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/apps-for-creativity-diane-darrow?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=blog-creativity-apps-repost
Top 100 Children's Books of All Time
These well written, entertaining, and fabulously illustrated books will surely help your young ones develop a love of reading.
TOP 100 Childrens's Books of All Time
TOP 100 Childrens's Books of All Time
What is Balanced Literacy?
Periodic Table of Visual Literacy Tools
This link will take you to a periodic table that contains amazing illustrations of visual learning tools
375 Free eBooks: Download to Kindle, iPad/iPhone & Nook | Open Culture
375 Free eBooks: Download to Kindle, iPad/iPhone & Nook | Open Culture:
Open Culture is a terrific site. They even have instructions for those needing the know how to download ebooks.
This collection features free e-books, mostly classics, that you can read on your iPad/iPhone (purchase), Kindle (purchase), Nook (purchase) or other devices. It includes great works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. To learn how to load books to your Kindle using the links below, please watch this video. This other video explains how to upload epub files to a Nook.
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Open Culture is a terrific site. They even have instructions for those needing the know how to download ebooks.
This collection features free e-books, mostly classics, that you can read on your iPad/iPhone (purchase), Kindle (purchase), Nook (purchase) or other devices. It includes great works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. To learn how to load books to your Kindle using the links below, please watch this video. This other video explains how to upload epub files to a Nook.
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Lee & Low Books interviews Tony Medina about Reading
from the website:
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Tony Medina: This is a bit complicated, because I was one of those unfortunate kids who did not grow up with books in the house. The only person I ever saw reading was my grandmother and she’d read her Bible and cheap paperback novels. I didn’t even have children’s books. The only time I saw a children’s book was at school when we went to the library as a class. I developed a love of reading when I was around fifteen years old. I had to write a make-up book report that I had neglected to do because I didn’t have the patience or attention span for reading (all I wanted to do was watch TV and go outside and play). My teacher, Mr. De Los Reyes, gave me one last chance to do the report and handed me a list of books to choose from. I took the list to the library and chose a title that intrigued me for some reason, Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. I wanted to know what an "Algernon" was, so I looked up the book according to the librarian's instructions and was surprised to find it in the contemporary fiction section. I took the book home that Friday night and could not put it down.
Tony Medina: After I read Flowers for Algernon, I received an A+ on my book report. I was hooked and started reading more books on the list my teacher had given me, which included A Separate Peace by John Knowles, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, and The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. Those books led to other books. I became a bookworm. I always had a book in my hand or in my pocket. I read everything that John Steinbeck wrote, and what was written about him. I developed a love of J.D. Salinger and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. I started studying the writers I read, trying to teach myself how to be a writer. I loved reading so much, I wanted to have my own books. So I used what little money I would get for candies or allowance and instead of spending it on junk food, I'd buy paperbacks, which were relatively inexpensive. I began building my own personal library. Whenever I'd get depressed or lonely, I’d end up in a library or bookstore. Books became important friends to me. I developed a kinship with the writers I read. The more I read, the better my writing became. I really couldn't understand what my English teachers were talking about when it came to the rules of grammar and punctuation, but when I began reading James Baldwin's essays, I consciously began to study the way he structured and punctuated his sentences. These were some of the longest and most involved sentences I’d ever come across, and I was fascinated with how well he punctuated them.
Beyond Mr. De Los Reyes's second chance assignment and the librarian at the Throgsneck Library who helped me understand the card catalogue, I think I was inspired to love reading by words, language, the dream world that fiction transported me into, and, like Langston Hughes, loneliness. Reading, which is a solitary activity, actually took away my loneliness and blues. And reading made me want to be a writer. That was the one thing that stuck with my ever-changing mind. Reading opened all types of doors for me—from understanding myself and others, to trying to figure out the world, to achieving my goals and living out my dreams.
About Tony Medina: born in the South Bronx, raised in the Throgs Neck Housing Projects, and currently lives in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area. He is the award-winning author of twelve books for adults and children, and a poet.
What were some of your favorite books as a child?
Tony Medina: This is a bit complicated, because I was one of those unfortunate kids who did not grow up with books in the house. The only person I ever saw reading was my grandmother and she’d read her Bible and cheap paperback novels. I didn’t even have children’s books. The only time I saw a children’s book was at school when we went to the library as a class. I developed a love of reading when I was around fifteen years old. I had to write a make-up book report that I had neglected to do because I didn’t have the patience or attention span for reading (all I wanted to do was watch TV and go outside and play). My teacher, Mr. De Los Reyes, gave me one last chance to do the report and handed me a list of books to choose from. I took the list to the library and chose a title that intrigued me for some reason, Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. I wanted to know what an "Algernon" was, so I looked up the book according to the librarian's instructions and was surprised to find it in the contemporary fiction section. I took the book home that Friday night and could not put it down.
Did you enjoy reading as a child? If so, what about reading gave you pleasure?
Tony Medina: What gave me pleasure was being transported into different worlds through words and language, and being able to imagine the characters, places, and situations as if they were starring in my own personal TV shows. I enjoyed having my imagination actively involved in the creation of the story, interpreting it in my own way. I thought this was far better than television because the images were already provided for me. I also loved the intimacy of entering into a conversation with a narrator or character whose thoughts I was privy to. This allowed me to find a certain level of solace in my overcrowded apartment full of aunts and uncles and cousins and TVs playing in every room. With books I learned to sit and be still and travel to different places. This really helped enhance my interior world, the world of my own thoughts and ideas, a world of dreaming. Falling in love with books and reading made me want to be a writer.
Who or what inspired your love of reading as a child?
Tony Medina: What gave me pleasure was being transported into different worlds through words and language, and being able to imagine the characters, places, and situations as if they were starring in my own personal TV shows. I enjoyed having my imagination actively involved in the creation of the story, interpreting it in my own way. I thought this was far better than television because the images were already provided for me. I also loved the intimacy of entering into a conversation with a narrator or character whose thoughts I was privy to. This allowed me to find a certain level of solace in my overcrowded apartment full of aunts and uncles and cousins and TVs playing in every room. With books I learned to sit and be still and travel to different places. This really helped enhance my interior world, the world of my own thoughts and ideas, a world of dreaming. Falling in love with books and reading made me want to be a writer.
Who or what inspired your love of reading as a child?
Tony Medina: After I read Flowers for Algernon, I received an A+ on my book report. I was hooked and started reading more books on the list my teacher had given me, which included A Separate Peace by John Knowles, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, and The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. Those books led to other books. I became a bookworm. I always had a book in my hand or in my pocket. I read everything that John Steinbeck wrote, and what was written about him. I developed a love of J.D. Salinger and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. I started studying the writers I read, trying to teach myself how to be a writer. I loved reading so much, I wanted to have my own books. So I used what little money I would get for candies or allowance and instead of spending it on junk food, I'd buy paperbacks, which were relatively inexpensive. I began building my own personal library. Whenever I'd get depressed or lonely, I’d end up in a library or bookstore. Books became important friends to me. I developed a kinship with the writers I read. The more I read, the better my writing became. I really couldn't understand what my English teachers were talking about when it came to the rules of grammar and punctuation, but when I began reading James Baldwin's essays, I consciously began to study the way he structured and punctuated his sentences. These were some of the longest and most involved sentences I’d ever come across, and I was fascinated with how well he punctuated them.
Beyond Mr. De Los Reyes's second chance assignment and the librarian at the Throgsneck Library who helped me understand the card catalogue, I think I was inspired to love reading by words, language, the dream world that fiction transported me into, and, like Langston Hughes, loneliness. Reading, which is a solitary activity, actually took away my loneliness and blues. And reading made me want to be a writer. That was the one thing that stuck with my ever-changing mind. Reading opened all types of doors for me—from understanding myself and others, to trying to figure out the world, to achieving my goals and living out my dreams.
About Tony Medina: born in the South Bronx, raised in the Throgs Neck Housing Projects, and currently lives in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area. He is the award-winning author of twelve books for adults and children, and a poet.
LEE & LOW BOOKS
is a family-owned company whose major goal is to meet the need for stories that children of color can identify with and that all children can enjoy. In addition, they make a special effort to work with writers and illustrators of color, and take pride in nurturing many talented people who are new to the world of children's book publishing with their annual New Voices Award.Did you know...
- On average, 25% of schoolchildren in the early grades struggle with reading
- Approximately 40% of students across the nation cannot read at a basic level
- Almost half the students living in urban areas cannot read at a basic level
- Almost 70% of low-income fourth-grade students cannot read at a basic level.
(President's Commission on Excellence in Special Education, 2002)
- Early literacy activities
- Quality of childcare and preschool programs
- English-language proficiency
- Parental income
- Quality of reading instruction
Recently I was asked if I thought too much funding goes to Early Childhood/Head -Start programs in this country and aren't those programs just draining our system since the parents should be taking care of their children's needs not society/government programs. These statistics help me to point out that no funding should ever be cut when it comes to education of our youth. And sure, in an utopian society where all parents are functioning literates and have the where-with-all to provide outstanding early childhood care, etc. that would be terrific. But in this country the numbers are rising for people who are living below poverty and struggle with their own literacy skills. So we have to get real about the children. No cuts to federal funding for any education programs. We are not going to become stronger as a nation if we take away one iota from education.
If a child falls behind in the first grade, the system as it functions now has two options once a students starts to fall behind in class. The school's team of professionals may decide to follow the IQ discrepancy model used to identify children with learning disabilities,which means the student will have to wait to be tested in the fourth grade to receive special services if their scores indicate such, or alternatively, they may use the RTI(Response To Intervention) method to provide early support to students who are having academic difficulties.
The RTI three tier method begins with intervention as soon as the child shows signs of struggling in their academics and their first grade teacher is the one who identifies and remediates. If schools use the IQ discrepency method, then this means that by the fourth grade those kids are not only failing but their self esteem has suffered so significantly that they are not likely to recover from that pitfall. I would wager that the majority of those 25% mentioned above are males, but I will save that discussion for another post. Schools must assure that all first grade teachers are developed and prepared to provide high quality instruction in the general education classroom. Funding should not be the a reason why students who struggle are not serviced.
Concerns About the IQ-Discrepancy Model
Advantages of RTI
- The likelihood that inadequate instruction is a cause of
- learning difficulties decreases.
- Bias inherent in the referral and the assessment processes
- decreases.
- Identification is based on actual classroom performance (i.e.,
- progress monitoring data).
- Fewer students struggle before receiving help.
- The amount of time students struggle is significantly
- decreased.
- The progress monitoring data aid in placement decisions and
- may be used to inform and evaluate the instructional process.
- Students who are struggling academically receive immediate support and intervention.
RTI Model
- Results from assessments do not inform the instructional process.
- Assessments do not always discriminate between disabilities and the
- results of inadequate instructional strategies.
- Bias can result in the misidentification of students.
- Students must first fail in order to qualify for special education
- services.
- Many students do not meet the discrepancy criteria but would still
- benefit from early identification and support to remediate their skills
If you aspire to be a great writer...
There was once a young man who, in his youth, professed his desire to become a great writer.
When asked to define "great" he said, "I want to write stuff that the whole world will read, stuff that people will react to on a truly emotional level, stuff that will make them scream, cry, howl in pain and anger!"
He now works for Microsoft, writing error messages.
(Unknown author)
When asked to define "great" he said, "I want to write stuff that the whole world will read, stuff that people will react to on a truly emotional level, stuff that will make them scream, cry, howl in pain and anger!"
He now works for Microsoft, writing error messages.
(Unknown author)
Guided Reading
First developed by Pat Cunningham and Dottie Hall, Guided Reading is one component of the shared reading block during which the teacher provides support for small, flexible groups of beginning readers. The teacher helps students learn to use reading strategies, such as context clues, letter and sound knowledge, and syntax or word structure, as they read a text or book that is unfamiliar to them.
- Before reading: Set the purpose for reading, introduce vocabulary, make predictions, talk about the strategies good readers use.
- During reading: Guide students as they read, provide wait time, give prompts or clues as needed by individual students, such as "Try that again. Does that make sense? Look at how the word begins."
- After reading: Strengthen comprehension skills and provide praise for strategies used by students during the reading.
The goal: students will learn to use these strategies independently on their way to becoming fluent, skilled readers.
Response to Intervention (RTI) and Reading Instruction
What happens when a student of any age in a regular classroom falls behind because their reading skills are not on level with their classmates and they are not part of a special education program?
- RTI is a process intended to shift educational resources toward the delivery and evaluation of instruction, and away from classification of disabilities.
- RTI is not a particular method or instructional approach. The success of RTI depends on the timely delivery of research-based instruction by highly qualified instructors. Although RTI can be implemented at any grade level, it is likely that the development of language and literacy skills will be addressed most prominently in the early grades, kindergarten though third grade.
- First, a group is identified. There are different ways of identifying a group: last year's test scores, or some other screening method.
- Next, a teacher who has had the professional development to do so begins to work with that identified group with the use of a research-based, proven successful reading program.
- That group is monitored for achievement and growth.
- If there are students do not respond sufficiently to the "research-validated instruction" then they move to another tier of instruction that is more intensive.
- More intesive means: small group instruction that meets more often and supervised by someone with greater expertise than the regular classroom teacher.
- AT this point is is hoped that they instruction for this identified group has given them a boost, however, there may still be a small percentage of students who need yet another tier of instruction.
- The third tier of intervention, if needed, is delivered and monitored by multidisciplinary team.
RECAP:
Tier 1 - students are identified and research-validated instruction is delivered by a trained teacher.Tier 2 - students who do not show growth from the first tier are instructed and monitored by an expert, one professionally trained in intensive delivery of intervention.
Tier 3 - students who have not responded sufficiently to tiers 1 and 2 move to a group that is led by a multidisciplinary team for more formal instruction.
Entertainment - Emily Temple - 10 Important Life Lessons From Children's Books - The Atlantic
Entertainment - Emily Temple - 10 Important Life Lessons From Children's Books - The Atlantic:
The Sweetest Fig by Chris Van Allsburg
there's more...follow the link!
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The Sweetest Fig by Chris Van Allsburg
The Sweetest Fig isn’t Van Allsburg’s most well-known work (that would have to be The Polar Express or, of course, Jumanji), but it was one of this writer’s all-time favorites as a child. Monsieur Bibot, a cold-hearted dentist who is especially mean to his dog Marcel, grudgingly accepts two figs from a strange woman as payment for extracting a tooth. ”These figs are very special,” she whispers. “They can make your dreams come true.” And make his dreams come true they do — whatever his dreams may happen to be on any given night — but Marcel has other ideas.
Life lesson: Above all else, be kind. Also, your dog is never thinking what you think he’s thinking.
there's more...follow the link!
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Graphic Map - ReadWriteThink
Graphic Map - ReadWriteThink:
This interactive tool helps plot significant points or events of during a day, month, year, or life and allows the user to add a ranking and images to those points or events. This could be a useful tool for pre writing, pre reading, during or after reading too.
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This interactive tool helps plot significant points or events of during a day, month, year, or life and allows the user to add a ranking and images to those points or events. This could be a useful tool for pre writing, pre reading, during or after reading too.
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Reading Expository Texts: Seven Patterns of Organization
Graphic organizers are fundamental to thinking and provide opportunities for analysis that reading alone and linear outlining cannot . These strategies are especially beneficial to low-achieving students (Jones, Pierce, Hunter 1988).
This website provides an explanation of the Expository Patterns of Organization for those struggling with reading comprehension and offers writers a refresher of the patterns used in their own pieces.
Text Structure | Reading Worksheets:
Cause and Effect:The results of something are explained.
Example: The dodo bird used to roam in large flocks across America. Interestingly, the dodo wasn’t startled by gun shot. Because of this, frontiersmen would kill entire flocks in one sitting. Unable to sustain these attacks, the dodo was hunted to extinction.
Learn More About Cause and Effect
Chronological: information in the passage is organized in order of time.
Example: Jack and Jill ran up the hill to fetch a pail of water. Jack fell down and broke his crown and Jill came tumbling after.
Learn More About Chronological Order
Example: The dodo bird used to roam in large flocks across America. Interestingly, the dodo wasn’t startled by gun shot. Because of this, frontiersmen would kill entire flocks in one sitting. Unable to sustain these attacks, the dodo was hunted to extinction.
Learn More About Cause and Effect
Chronological: information in the passage is organized in order of time.
Example: Jack and Jill ran up the hill to fetch a pail of water. Jack fell down and broke his crown and Jill came tumbling after.
Learn More About Chronological Order
Compare and Contrast: two or more things are described. There similarities and differences are discussed.
Example: Linux and Windows are both operating systems. Computers use them to run programs. Linux is totally free and open source, so users can improve or otherwise modify the source code. Windows is proprietary, so it costs money to use and users are prohibited from altering the source code.
Learn More About Compare and Contrast
Example: Linux and Windows are both operating systems. Computers use them to run programs. Linux is totally free and open source, so users can improve or otherwise modify the source code. Windows is proprietary, so it costs money to use and users are prohibited from altering the source code.
Learn More About Compare and Contrast
Order of Importance: information is expressed as a hierarchy or in priority.
Example: Here are the three worst things that you can do on a date. First, you could tell jokes that aren’t funny and laugh really hard to yourself. This will make you look bad. Worse though, you could offend your date. One bad “joke” may cause your date to lash out at you, hence ruining the engagement. But the worst thing that you can do is to appear slovenly. By not showering and properly grooming, you may repulse your date, and this is the worst thing that you can do.
Learn More About Order of Importance
Example: Here are the three worst things that you can do on a date. First, you could tell jokes that aren’t funny and laugh really hard to yourself. This will make you look bad. Worse though, you could offend your date. One bad “joke” may cause your date to lash out at you, hence ruining the engagement. But the worst thing that you can do is to appear slovenly. By not showering and properly grooming, you may repulse your date, and this is the worst thing that you can do.
Learn More About Order of Importance
Problem and Solution: a problem is described and a response or solution is proposed or explained.
Example: thousand of people die each year in car accidents involving drugs or alcohol. Lives could be saved if our town adopts a free public taxi service. By providing such a service, we could prevent intoxicated drivers from endangering themselves or others.
Learn More About Problem and Solution
Example: thousand of people die each year in car accidents involving drugs or alcohol. Lives could be saved if our town adopts a free public taxi service. By providing such a service, we could prevent intoxicated drivers from endangering themselves or others.
Learn More About Problem and Solution
Sequence / Process Writing: information is organized in steps or a process is explained in the order in which it occurs.
Example: Eating cereal is easy. First, get out your materials. Next, pour your cereal in the bowl, add milk, and enjoy.
Learn More About Sequence
Example: Eating cereal is easy. First, get out your materials. Next, pour your cereal in the bowl, add milk, and enjoy.
Learn More About Sequence
Spatial / Descriptive Writing: information is organized in order of space (top to bottom, left to right).
Example: when you walk into my bedroom there is a window facing you. To the right of that is a dresser and television and on the other side of the window is my bed.
Learn More About Spatial Organization
Example: when you walk into my bedroom there is a window facing you. To the right of that is a dresser and television and on the other side of the window is my bed.
Learn More About Spatial Organization
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Jones, B.F., Pierce, J. & Hunter, B. (Dec., 1988- Jan.,1989) “Teaching Students to Construct Graphic Representations,” Educational Leadership, 46: 20-25.
· Copyright date: 2002-2011
· All links are functional and the website is current.
Author: Jacqueline Woodson. This is the award winning author’s website that is up-to-date with first-person musings for the children and young adults that already love her books, or who may be discovering her for the first time.
Website Design: Ms. Woodson’s interactive webpage is bordered by images/links to her books (that her audience is most assuredly already familiar); she uses language that is hip and in-tune with her audience and throughout the site Woodson includes graphics/photos that are personal, friendly, fun, and inviting. In the bio section she tells the story of how she became a writer…
”I wrote on everything and everywhere. I remember my uncle catching me writing my name in graffiti on the side of a building. (It was not pretty for me when my mother found out.)”
- Woodson wants to inspire those who may be hesitant about putting their own stories to the page by answering questions about her process and providing autobiographical examples of what has motivated her to write. Included are short videos too.
- The sidebar navigation is descriptive and user friendly for her youthful audience. Main page titles are: Books I’ve Written; All About Me; Frequently Asked Questions; Some Awards I’ve Won, How to Contact Me, and Where I’ll Be.
- Each brightly colored page contains three bullets with links for readers, teachers, and caregivers to whom she offers this advice:
· To her readers Woodson says, “Keep reading and writing.”
· To the teachers she says, “Encourage young people to ask lots of questions.”
· To the caregivers: “Teach them the value of reading early on.”
- Children and young adult readers will love this website for its interactive, colorful, informative, and personal qualities. Teachers will find guides for suggestions in the classroom, and caregivers will be inspired by the fact Woodson understands that not every child is being raised in a home with a mother and father. Woodson gets her readers and those with whom they live and are taught. Follow on Twitter @JackieWoodson. I wish I was attending the NCTE Conference in Chicago this year so I could meet her.
Reading Comprehension Strategies
Focused strategies for teaching vocabulary and reading comprehension benefit our special populations and struggling readers, but strategies that are research-based and proven winners also raise the levels of our “regular” students too.
Here are three sites for more information about cubing and how to use them:
How to make a comprehension cube
Primary Source Designs: Cubing
Differentiated Strategy 101: Cubing Strategy (a ppt download)
How to make a comprehension cube
Primary Source Designs: Cubing
Differentiated Strategy 101: Cubing Strategy (a ppt download)
More about portfolios
Portfolio assessments are not some new idea to education in the 21st century, they have been around for a little while now. Students as young as first grade are collecting their best work and reviewing their assorted artifacts from a variety of subjects with their teacher through a focused discussion of their growth over time.
Portfolios can be digital with multimedia pieces that showcase progress, or they can be a collection of pages in a folder or box. Reflection is a key element of the portfolio review process, allowing students the opportunity think about their thinking (metacognition) and learning.
“Kids forget what they didn’t know when they learn something new.”
Self evaluation helps students think about what they do to become good learners and what evidences there are of their learning present in the collection of artifacts. Through this process, students become stronger and more motivated learners. They are able to point to concrete evidence of that learning, or conversely , they can point to their weaknesses and areas where remediation is necessary.
For parents: tests do not provide global information of their child's knowledge, only a snapshot of how their child is measured against a standard. Portfolios provide a broad view of their child's knowledge and growth (or trouble areas/weakness).
The entire process takes time to collect, reflect, and discuss. Guidance must be provided by the teacher in which artifacts are appropriate for the collection, how to reflect, and points to bring to a discussion/review.
The entire process takes time to collect, reflect, and discuss. Guidance must be provided by the teacher in which artifacts are appropriate for the collection, how to reflect, and points to bring to a discussion/review.
* * * * * * *
In the mid 90s, I was at a high school in El Paso, TX chosen to participate in a field study for developing a new teacher evaluation tool. Portfolios were a large part of that new Professional Development Appraisal System (PDAS). WE were encouraged to photograph, videotape, and collect lessons that were student-centered and successful. "Student-Centered and Learner-Centered" was part of a paradigm shift in the educational atmosphere where teachers were moving from the "sage on the stage" to the "guide on the side," so we wanted to showcase just how were were achieving this goal.
We went through the painstaking process of learning what to collect, how to reflect, and the review. Some teachers went crazy with their portfolios that looked like mulitmedia scrapbook masterpieces, while others put their Xerox copies of lesson plans in a folder. There was not a standard at the time for how the teacher portfolio should appear, so there was a range of what those early portfolios looked like.
I must say that the process was tremendously beneficial for me as an educator. My own paradigm did shift. Had I not gone through that experience, I would not understand the full impact and benefits of portfolios as an assessment tool.
As it turned out, portfolios did not become a part of the Texas appraisal system for teachers, but it is a part of the National Board Certification that many states require for their educators or offer for monetary incentives.
Basic Steps for National Board Certification:
National Board Certification consists of two parts:
- Teaching Portfolio
Teachers typically videotape their teaching, gather student learning products, and analyze their teaching practices. - Assessment.
Teachers answer questions that relate to content specific to their fields. The assessments focus on breadth of content knowledge.
Cracking the Alphabet Code
Children love to work with interactive websites because they are more than point and click; they are fun!
These sites contain multimedia with top quality content. They are the sort that teachers will recommend to each other again and again, and new readers will enjoy learning how to break the alphabet code.
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Can't go wrong with Professor Garfield -. |
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Portfolio Assessment: A view of "self" within a system of educational expectations
In 1996, Bonnie S. Sunstein, Associate Professor of Education at the University of Iowa, wrote
"Assessing Portfolio As s e s sment : Three Encounters of a Close Kind " offering an explanation of this form of assessment . I especially respect her explanation of portfolios being a way for one to view themselves against a standard of an"other". The questions she gathered from professionals to use with students are helpful to jump-start the highly complex processes of reflection and reflextive thinking.
From: Voices from the Middle Volume 3 Number 4 November 1996
"...we don't allow ourselves or our students to look hard enough at what they've learned. When we can't look, we don't see..."
The difference between portfolios and other forms of school "assessments" is the voices of the portfolio-keepers looking internally at their own growth as it happens (reflection), and then looking externally toward what the school expects (reflexive). They create materials, examine their progress, and design the opportunities to assess their own collections, self-evaluating and reflecting about their work while documenting how it stands up against a school's expectations. Curriculum should not be a mystery to students. When students assess their own work by reviewing it-describing, listing, and analyzing what they've done-they begin to articulate their own learning within a teacher's curriculum.
Three Types of Portfolio Analysis
I. A Reflective Encounter: Self to Self
- Taking the time to re-see one's self in light of the other is a highly sophisticated "higher order critical skill."
- Reflection is what we call analysis in literature, documentation in science, or exegesis in liturgy. It is hard to explain and even harder to arrange.
2. A Reflexive Encounter: Self to Other
- The reflection bridge is a two-way street.
- A student comes to learn as she reflects on her work, "but if you tell me what your standard is, I'll tell you how the stuff in my portfolio shows that I can meet your standard."
- This process is a reflexive one.
- A portfolio-keeping process must be at once reflective and reflexive
- Establishing opportunities for reflexivity is a matter of allowing students to represent processes in a portfolio as well as in products.
- Representing processes requires responsibility, ownership, a sense of agency
3. A Dialectical Encounter: Teacher as Mediator
- Portfolios are valuable because they offer the opportunity for a "self' to set itself next to an "other" in order to understand itself better.
- They are valuable because they allow an individual to assess-internally- her own developing sense of standards, and then to assess-externally-how she meets those of her school and the communities to which she wants to belong.
- And teachers must be at the center of this process with students.
- A curriculum should never be a mystery to a student who keeps a portfolio; it should provide a framework and a set of goals that the student ought to be able to meet in her own way
The Reflective Encounter
Questions that Identify, Clarify, and Look for Change
(from experienced teachers)
Alan Purves, SUNY Albany
- What do you know that you didn't know before?
- What can you d o that you couldn't do before?
- What do you d o that you couldn't do before?
Jane Hansen, University of New Hampshire
- What is different in your portfolio now than six months ago?
J Sommers, Miami University, Ohio
- How are your writing and your composing processes different now than they were when you began compiling this portfolio?
- Which class activities (journal writing, peer response groups, revision, etc.) have affected your writing and your composing process this semester, and what effects have they had?
Sally Hampton, New Standards Managtng
Director; 1992-95 Portfolio Project,
English/Language Arts
- If you were to choose one piece of work that represents your best effort, what would you choose?
- Why is it a significant effort?
- When you revise your work, what lenses do you use to determine what to change?
Lora Wol f f , Keokuk High School, Iowa
- After looking over all your artifacts, what is missing?
- What connections exist among the artifacts in your portfolio?
- Explain the connections.
Brian Huot, University of Louisville
- Why have you chosen these specific pieces for your portfolio?
- What makes these pieces interesting to you?
- What surprises you about your work?
- What would you do differently?
Eunice Greer; Harvard PACE; University of Illinois
- What do you want people to learn about you from reading your portfolio?
- Show me where or how they would learn those things from looking at your work.
- What's something that you've been working to improve?
- Trace your growth in that area through the collection of your work. (I want them to follow a thread of an idea through a series of works that have been built over time and read their portfolio as a single body of work, not as a random set of unrelated works.)
Nancie Atwell, Center for Teaching & Learning, Edgecomb, Maine
- How many pieces of writing did you finish this semester?
- What genres are represented among these pieces?
- What's the most important or useful information about conventions of written English you've learned this semester?
- What will you try to do in your writing in the future?
Judy Fueyo, Penn State University
- If you think of your work according to "level of difficulty," what would you choose as hardest and why?
- Please describe what you were trying to do, even if you did not achieve it.
The Reflexive Encounter
Questions that Encourage Representing the Self to an Other
Chris Sullivan, Plainville High School, Connecticut
- Within the context of the overall picture of yourself that you are trying to create, what does this artifact show?
- Think in terms of skills, knowledge, and personal impact as you answer. What does this piece tell you about your goal for this period of time?
- Does it say you are getting there? Have to work on a certain skill? Need more evidence for evaluation?
Miles Myers, Executive Director; NCTE, Urbana, Illinois
- If you are reflecting for personal reasons about your work, do you have a life or a school career pattern into which these reflections fit?
- If you are trying to show someone else something about your reflections, how will you make these reflections visible and meaningful for the other person?
Linda Carstens, San Diego Unzjied School District, California
- What should I know as a reader about this piece that will help me understand your thinking and work?
- What would you do next to this piece to have it "tell your story" even more clearly?
Sara Jordan, SUNY Albany, New York
- What do you want your work to say about you? What does your work say about you?
Tom Romano, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio
- What things can you show me about your learning that I would otherwise not know about you.
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