{12 Days: Tool 11} Infographic: Anchored Word Learning Strategy Anchored Word Learning: A Read Aloud Strategy Anchored Word Learning, by Isabel Beck, is one of my favorite strategies for integrated word learning. The Anchored Word Learning strategy uses the power of read alouds to introduce targeted words within context. Tradebooks and picture books provide excellent sources of higher-level, sophisticated words. Beck suggests selecting three, Tier Two words each time you read aloud. Tier Two words are high-utility, cross content words. Download today’s tool by clicking on the tag below the infographic. Like this post? Please read our Reblogging and Reposting Policies here before reblogging or reposting. Have you found these posts helpful in supporting your literacy efforts? The following two tabs change content below. Kimberly Kimberly is an educational consultant who works with district leaders to improve instructional effectiveness and student learning.
Are We Teaching Kids To Be Too Dependent on Technology? Edudemic writer Jeff Dunn recently wrote an article about a technology bus that is making headlines at a middle school in Mississippi. This bus, sponsored by the tech-ed company Promethean, is a vehicle filled with products that enrich the classroom through the latest technology tools, gadgets, and software. While it may be a smart marketing tool for tech companies, is technology bulldozing its way into the classroom? Traditional Schools Are Way Behind to Begin With Technological advancements move at lightning speed, with the average device losing its edge over a new and better device after about two years. It may appear that schools are being barraged with new technologies, but where have they been in the last decade? However, the majority of jobs in the current market require at the very least, a basic understanding of the computer, the Internet, and how to navigate software like Microsoft Word. Technology Does Not Nullify Critical Thinking But What Happens if Technology is Taken Away?
The 4 Newest Ways To Make Education More Interactive Sorry to have to say it, teachers, but few students want to listen to you talk about a subject for an hour, no matter how much you may love it. You think that you have prepared a nail-biting lecture of suspense about every war in which the United States has fought, and, by the War of 1812, your students are staring out the window, hoping for a superhero to fly in and rescue them from the classroom. Even for the most dedicated of students, books and lectures get boring. Keeping lessons fresh and challenging means keeping them interactive, and given it is almost 2013, incorporating this task is actually much easier than ignoring it. The incorporation of technology into classroom settings has shown a positive impact on the attention and scores of students. Below are some advances in 2012 which have changed the face of education and how students interact with technology, and each other: The Kineo Tablet : an 8-inch 1.3 GHz dual-core tablet aimed at schools that starts at $299. 2013 is coming.
classroom engagement strategies | The LectureTools Blog | LectureTools LectureTools provides an active learning platform that makes it easier for professors to teach more interactively, engaging students with laptops during class. Matt Stearmer, an instructor at Ohio State, however, finds that LectureTools helps engage his students not only during, but also before and after class. Here are the 3 ways Matt uses LectureTools to teach his Introduction to Sociological Theory class: 1. Matt posts the material the class will be covering for the week on LectureTools in advance. Giving students exposure to the concepts for upcoming lectures allows Matt to teach beyond a surface understanding. 2. Matt uses the interactive activities in LectureTools as a way to create times for telling . 3. Because students see changes made to published lectures, Matt also uses activity slides to put practice quizzes online on Friday. Learn How to Improve Engagement in Your Classroom In 2005 Dr. LectureTools: An Active Learning Platform on Vimeo . To a new beginning, Special Features
Reviving Reviews: Refreshing Ideas Students Can't Resist | Review Games Is review time a deadly bore for you and your students? Add a little fun to review time and you might be surprised. Games will spice up reviews, revive interest, and ensure retention! Included: Five activities for use in all subjects, all grades. Stop the yawns. Put an end to indifference. This week Education World offers five lessons (and a sidebar of hundreds of additional ideas) to spice up boring reviews and tedious skill practice sessions. Looking for a place to start? PowerPoint Activities PowerPoint Games Jeopardy PowerPoint Click each of the five lesson headlines below for a complete teaching resource. Four-Corner Fun: A Review Game Multiple choice review questions are center stage in this fun activity that can be used to review any subject matter, any skill. Round Robin Post-It Review This small-group activity is a fun way for students to review new skills or prep for an end-of-unit test. "Concentration" Review Game Adapt the game of Concentration to review hundreds of skills.
Activity Speaks Louder Than Words: Improving Student Engagement by KENDELL DORSEY Think about the level of cognitive engagement that occurs with each activity in this list: Watching/listeningNotetakingNotemakingDiscussingSummarizing The learning style of your students plays a key role with things like "watching/listening." For example, I realize as I get older that I am definitely a visual learner. I often can't remember a name until I see it in print. Teacher-led instruction and discussion have a place in the classroom. Here's a personal example of how learning can benefit from this cognitive demand. Imagine the power of this exchange of ideas with students in your classroom. The Down Side of Down Time As teachers, we lead classrooms filled with learners of all styles. The rule of thumb is simple. Here are some instances where down time happens: The teacher is asking specific "popcorn" type questions of one student at a time in a whole-group setting -- what are the other students doing? Strategies for Engagement Making It Stick
Are we too dependent on Technology in the Classroom? Technology And The Classroom Technology has become an increasingly important part of the teaching armory. Children now learn to use computers and other educational technology from a very early age, and most teachers incorporate technology in some form into their learning and teaching resources too. There can be no doubt that technology in the classroom has many benefits. [1] Utilizing different forms of technology in the classroom can help to hold children’s attention and keep their focus for longer periods of time. It can also make them more excited to learn, by introducing an extra aspect to their learning, and enable them to learn at their own pace. Too Much Dependency on Technology? Children gravitate towards all forms of technology:[2] they love playing computer games and checking their Facebook statuses. Leaving Underprivileged Children Behind? Additional Reading [2] “Technology in the classroom: Helpful or harmful?” About the author
A Pedagogical Framework For Digital Tools As a consequence of society’s digitization it becomes increasingly important to use technology in education, in primary as well as in secondary education. Students must achieve a number of digital literacies and competences that can enable them to succeed in a world where digital tools are a natural part of everyday life. In order to ensure that students acquire the necessary digital literacies and competences, and to ensure that they can critically think, it is important that they are presented with a range of digital tools and gain an understanding of the tools’ capabilities. This places high demands on the teacher. As a teacher it can be difficult to keep up with the new digital opportunities, and it can be hard to assess which digital tools students should be presented to, and in which contexts it is appropriate to use them in education. The framework is based on a distinction between a monological , a dialogical , and a polyphonic form of teaching. The monological form of teaching
Student Engagement and Optimizing Learning Questing: A Tool to Improve Student Answers, Class Participation All teachers strive to encourage active class participation and learning. What some may not realize is that the way we ask questions and respond to students’ answers in the classroom determines the depth of thinking that follows. If you want to increase class participation and encourage active learning, then you will want to try questing. Here we will take a look at what it is, and how it works. What is Questing? The Thoughtful Education Press defines questing as the process in which students and teachers work together to explore and search for answers. Procedure Here we will take a look beyond textbooks, and see which learning tools are the... If you've been swearing all year to get students online using some amazing... Common Core State Standards: How to Assess Knowledge The exceptional teaching strategy called the Frayer Model is widely popular and... For many teachers, the mentor who supervised their student teaching played a... Here we will take a look at the five steps to “Questing.”
Helping Students Set Goals and Find Success Photo credit: iStockPhoto The idea of New Year's Resolutions is very appealing but their success rate is low. Cognitive psychologists know why: Resolutions tend to be too big (like losing 20 pounds), too vague (like getting more sleep), very hard to control (like having less stress), or something the person is ambivalent about (like becoming a healthier eater). When students come back for the second half of the school year, we often want them to "turn over a new leaf," or address particular difficulties they faced in the prior weeks. Focus on Short-Term Success So let's travel back to my blog in August and revisit the idea of the End-of-Year Legacy. For fourth to twelfth grade, ask each of your students to pick two things that it is important for them to learn, or to improve on, in the next three weeks. Then, have them share with a classmate and have the classmate help them write a plan for how they will be successful. Is It Worth It? Why is this worth the trouble?
33 Graphic Design Tools To Publish Visual Content 33 Graphic Design Tools To Publish Visual Content by TeachThought Staff Digital literacy is, in part, about digital publishing. Digital publishing is, in part, about the writing process–choosing an audience and purpose, drafting content, revising and editing that content, and then sharing it with the world. But digital publishing is also about the right tools for the right platform and the right device. Education is no different; digital publishers in your classroom need the right tools to do amazing things. If you think this isn’t true, sit down to create a book cover with Microsoft Word instead of Adobe InDesign. In an era of digital literacy and digital publishing comes a new genre–visual content. So this list of graphic resources from Kimberly Reynolds for visual content fits right in this context–for you as a teacher, or your students as creators. 33 Graphic Design Tools For Digital Publishing; 33 Graphic Design Tools To Publish Visual Content
13 Ways to Learn in 2013 Sharebar In The eLearning Coach New Year’s tradition, I’m presenting another list of compelling ways to learn online this year. Opportunities for learning seem limitless, applications get smarter and the content gets richer. I just hope we don’t all evolve into robot heads at some point. 1. This collection of speech collections will thrill speech lovers as well as history buffs. 2. If you don’t have access to a college library you can pay for online access to a journal database, make the trip to your nearest university or try this Directory of Open Access Journals first. 3. Learn to write and design a comic book or graphic novel. 4. Expand your knowledge of current events and other cultures by reading newspapers from around the world. 5. Twitter Chats are scheduled online meetups that take place through Twitter. 6. Google Art Project: Istanbul Museum of Modern Art 7. Fulfill the auditory needs of your brain with SoundCloud. 8. 9. 10. Can you hold conversations in several languages? 11.