Call to Action! (Improving Adolescent Literacy)

In our book talks so far, we've discussed a number of strategies to improve literacy in each of our content areas. Some of us are already using or have tried a few strategies. Before our next session with Bruce (Feb. 10), you should try at least one of the teaching strategies described in our reading. In a blog entry, tell which strategy you chose, how you felt it worked, the positives/negatives of that strategy for your particular class, the impact on student learning, etc. Read other blog entries to see what others are doing!

The questions the group came up with for Chapters 4 and 5:

Vocabulary:

*How do we maintain kids' curiosity and motivation to want learn new words?

*When a student is substantially behind in his/her vocabulary, how or where do you start and how do we develop a differentiated vocabulary curriculum?

*How do we get students not to define a word by using the word (i.e. corresponding angles correspond with other angles)?

*How do we hone vocabulary to essentials? There are so many words that are so important in each content area.

Read Alouds and Shared Reading:

*Who has had success? Why was it successful?

*How much is too much?

*Is it beneficial to read aloud to kids in their teen years, or should they be reading all on their own? We read a lot to elementary students, both fiction and non-fiction. Should we be doing more of that in junior and senior high school?

*How do we make sure that students learn to communicate face-to-face when so many are often texting or facing a computer screen?

Feel free to blog about these questions, too, and any other ideas that sparked your interest.

Peer Observations

Part two of your assignment is to observe and videotape a lesson (from 10-30 minutes, approx.) of one of your colleagues. After you've been in each other's room to do this, set up a time to meet to discuss the following questions:

• To what extent were your students actively engaged in their learning? How do you know?
• What was your intended objective for this lesson? Did your students meet this objective? How do you know?
• What were specific procedures and teaching strategies you used in the lesson to support student learning? Why did you choose these procedures and strategies?
• How did you ensure fairness, equity, and access for all students?
• How would students apply the information from this lesson to their worlds outside the classroom?

Let Neil or Matt know if you need us to cover your class while you are observing your partner's class. We will follow up on this work in December.

After you've completed your observations and have discussed them with your partner, please post comments about the experience on this section of our blog.

Enjoy the experience!

Iowa Core Curriculum: EC Q&A

Congratulations! You've posted some great questions in regard to the Iowa Core Curriculum. Good job! Now you get to answer those questions. Why? Simply because this is relatively new for all of us and there's a plethora of information out there on the ICC. It's quite possible that some of the answers to those questions will not only require us as educators to think outside the box, they are also going to require us to learn outside the box and ultimately to teach outside the box. We can do this! AND we can make it worth doing!

• Please start your post by listing the members of your group.
• Then list all 3 of your questions, followed by your group's response.

You can do this with a concise written summary via the blog OR by more creative (outside the box) ways such as linking a video, pdf, power point, doc, url, picture, etc...

It should not be necessary to complete this assignment outside of the school day. Collaboration is the key! Have fun with it!

pre-inservice response (11-4 staff development)

Our next professional development inservice will be on the Iowa Core Curriculum (ICC). In an effort to better address our staff in regard to our collective knowledge base concerning the ICC, please respond (in groups of 2 or 3) to the following via this blog:

1. List your group.
   
2. Briefly summarize what the ICC is (limit to 1 paragraph).
   
3. Pose 2 questions that you have about the ICC (no duplicates, read what others are posting first).

rolling the dice with reading strategies in your classroom

So what is working in your classroom with direct instruction of reading fluency strategies? How do you know? Please give specific examples.

reading concerns in your classroom

1. Give a specific example of a student's (or a group of students') struggles with reading in your classroom this year. Do not name the student(s).
2. In your opinion, what would fix the problem?
3. Read what your colleagues are posting about reading concerns in their classroom -- feel free to add your comments.
   

9-23-09 Improving Adolescent Literacy Inservice

Our reading for yesterday from Improving Adolescent Literacy described metacognition on page 13 as "thinking about one's thinking." It also said metacognition "is being aware of what one knows and does not know." So...where are you after our first couple of inservices? What do you know that you didn't? What areas are still unclear? More importantly, what are you going to do that you haven't tried?

To make this a learning experience, it's best to see these ideas in action. Who's trying some of the strategies suggested? Can you use the Flip Camera to tape a bit of it? Let colleagues know when you're going to be employing any of the strategies described so they can come in and visit. Plan to share with us on the blog and during our inservice time.

4-1 Staff Development

While we're not quite all the way through the book yet... the chapter presentations have been very well done! So at this point we would like you to answer the two questions below AND comment on at least two postings. You will have until the end of April to complete this assignment.

Through the first eight chapters of How to Grade for Learning:

What have you learned?

What needs to change?

3-18 staff development

Assignment:

1. Find a blog, article, source of information, or something out there relative to your content area and add it to your "reader" -- Google, Pageflakes, etc...
2. Post a comment on the EC Perspective blog about what you've found of interest. Feel free to add a referenced quote, link, picture, or whatever.
   

TQ Session 1

Teacher Quality Professional Development Assignment (2/25/09):

1. read chapters 1 & 2
2. post 1 question or comment -- first come, first served (no duplications and that means you'll have to read through all the posts)
   
3. respond to at least 3 postings -- to a question, comment or response to your post(s)

Rules:

• think "professional development"
• (simply) agreeing or disagreeing does not a post make
• have fun
• staff will vote and be awarded for "best post" at the next session
  

Your thoughts?

After reading the Bill Ferriter article, what are your thoughts?