Books That Tweak (Not Twerk!) Great Classics Originally posted on Kirkus Writers are always borrowing from one another, across centuries and continents. It’s the writers who aren’t just borrowing but building on what previous writers have created who we’re interested in. Ronald Frame’s novel "Havisham," for example, puts the jilted malefactor from "Great Expectations" on center stage, imagining the life of a woman Charles Dickens left a mystery. For more from Kirkus, click here! "Havisham" by Ronald Frame "An intelligently imagined Dickens prequel." "Hardly a false note in an extraordinary carrying on of a true greatness that doubted itself."
GUYS READ History Lecturer : On the stretching of brighter history pupils The education twitter-sphere has been all a-buzz today with stuff about helping (or failing) bright pupils. I am not at all qualified to contribute directly to the debate; I can only recount my own experiences, and anecdotal evidence is not very valuable in such a case. Because of my work as an examiner I meet history teachers from scores of other schools every summer, and I do not think my approaches were in any way unusual. Yes, I taught at an independent school, so it was selective in terms of ability to pay fees. It was not very selective in terms of ability; plenty of our pupils did well to get C passes at GCSE with a couple of Bs thrown in. However, I think I do have some credentials when it comes to helping bright history pupils make good use of their time in school. We laid great emphasis on free reading, both quantity and quality. This emphasis on free reading started with the juniors (and we had three years before exam-pressure kicked in). Back to the advert.
Research: How SEL Classroom Management Techniques Build Academic Achievement Respect, responsibility, and a community-based learning atmosphere promote success at Mount Desert Elementary School, a K-8 public school in Northeast Harbor, Maine. An important aspect of the culture at Mount Desert is allowing students and teachers autonomy to determine what works best in their classrooms for promoting students' learning. Credit: Alyssa Fedele Mount Desert Elementary School is a small, K-8 public school in Northeast Harbor, Maine, that has successfully created a strong learning community that is the basis of the school's academic success. Since 2006, this elementary school has consistently outperformed the state of Maine in the percentage of students at "Proficient with Distinction" or above on state tests, and has been awarded National Blue Ribbon Schools Program status for academic excellence in 2008. Responsive Classroom An Approach That Helps Build Positive Relationships Using Discipline Challenges as Learning Opportunities Credit: Rebeccas Heniser Making Math Relevant
Make Your Students “Poetry Geniuses”! by Abi Frost I recently discovered a web resource called “rap genius”. This Brooklyn-based startup allows users to explore and understand the meaning behind song lyrics, poetry and literature. Teachers have started using the platform to teach students critical reading skills, so I decided to try it out in my small seventh grade reading class for struggling readers. RL.7.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of rhymes and other repetitions of sounds (e.g., alliteration) on a specific verse or stanza of a poem or section of a story or drama. I designed a review lesson for my poetry analysis unit using the Poetry Genius tab on the Rap Genius website. I was very happy with how the lesson turned out because the students were actually engaged in deep text analysis! -Abi Frost, Middle School Special Education Reading Specialist Like this: Like Loading...
Grammar and Comprehension: Scaffolding Student Interpretation of Complex Sentences I'm a fourth grade special education teacher in NYC. Our school has acquired a new reading/writing program and has discontinued a grammar program we've used for several years. In the new program the grammar component is virtually non-existent. On a gut level I feel that students are struggling with test questions, even math ones, due to lack of practice/knowledge of grammar. They simply don't understand what the questions are asking. I was wondering what your opinion/research shows as far as the relationship between grammar instruction and reading comprehension. Great question. Also, readability measures are able to predict how well students will comprehend particular texts on the basis of only two variables: vocabulary sophistication and grammatical complexity. There are also experimental studies that show that there are ways that grammar can be taught formally that improve reading comprehension. Let’s slice the sentence at the first “that” and the first “or:” “that needed adjustments”
Lexile Level Is NOT Text Complexity CCSS.R.10 | Resource - Full This Tweet from #tcrwp (Teachers College Reading and Writing Project) on August 15th caught my eye. A quick glance at the twitter stream confirmed that it came from Stephanie Harvey’s keynote (sigh of envy across the miles). @amandalah: Careful of lexile: Harry potter, old man & the sea &Alexander & the horrible no good very bad day. All similar lexile. #TCRWP Hmmm. . . Was I interested? Did I independently check? Those three books are typically read by readers at these levels: Alexander and the Horrible, Terrible, Very Bad, No Good Day – primary gradesHarry Potter – upper elementary gradesOld Man and the Sea – high school But yet they all three have similar lexile levels! The initial connection to Stephanie Harvey was further confirmed in Twitterverse later: So what is a lexile? The Lexile Framework® for Reading claims to measure a student’s reading ability based on actual assessment, rather than a generalized age or grade level. What examples of “Out of Whack Lexiles” have you found?
Developing Cognitive Competence: Learning the Skills of Argument | Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz Earlier I shared an educational problem that scholars have described as a crisis in poor critical thinking training found in American schools today. We must still better appreciate the value of an argument-skills curriculum. Over the last 20 years, there has been an increased interest in the study of the skills required for argument. The understanding of arguments has been studied in social psychology (persuasion and attitude change) and in cognitive and developmental psychology (reasoning). There are many ways to know in addition to reason such as through emotion, sense perception or authority, but my interest here is in the development of reason. Humans have the unique capacity for reason like no other living creatures and many scholars have claimed that the primary function of reasoning is argumentative (Sperber, 2000a; 2001; Billig, 1996; Dessalles, 2007; Kuhn, 1992; Perelman & Olbrechts-Tyteca, 1969). Theories of experiential learning are relevant to this research project.
ReadRank Index By Alan Jacobson, Editor & Publisher TweenTribune & TeenTribune he Common Core identified six computer-based tools for measuring text complexity. The authors said: “Because of the limits of each of the tools, new or improved ones are needed quickly if text complexity is to be used effectively in the classroom and curriculum.” Why the urgency? Computer-based text analyzers do not parse the true meaning of words, so some novels with adult themes, like The Catcher in the Rye, get 3rd grade scores. But this is the real problem that proponents of analyzers refuse to address: Very similar passages can generate very different results when measured by some analyzers, including The Lexile® Framework for Reading. If you want to confirm our results, just copy and paste each of the six examples (one at a time) into the window, below. 1. 2. These results reflect the findings of the Common Core, above. Post a comment, below, or contact us.
Infor.Text Research Nell K. Duke We should not wait to address this problem until students reach late elementary, middle, and high school, when learning from text is a cornerstone of the curriculum. Four strategies can help teachers improve K-3 students' comprehension of informational text. Increase students' access to informational text. Increase Access Chances are that your personal bookshelves, magazine racks, and Web site bookmarks are replete with informational text. Young students need to learn about the range of purposes that text can serve (Duke, 2003). When teachers include informational text in the classroom, they also expand opportunities for home-school connections that support literacy (Duke & Purcell-Gates, 2003). Increased access to informational text can also better motivate the many students who prefer this kind of text or who have strong interests in the topics addressed in such text (Caswell & Duke, 1998; Jobe & Dayton-Sakari, 2002). Increase Time Teach Comprehension Strategies References
Appreciating Hemingway: ELA 9-12 Afternoon Session | NTINotebook The Hemingway classic, “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” was center stage during Tuesday’s 9-12 ELA afternoon session. The story illustrated to teachers, coaches and administrators the greater value involved in the process of close, analytic reading. During discussions, it was said that one or two well-chosen short stories that are read deeply would be sufficient to teach a variety of literary techniques. Further conversations centered around the creation of text-dependent questions (TDQs). background knowledge questionshunt and peckscavenger huntuniversal truth“according to the text”too many “one-offs” Just as important was the guide to creating TDQs (soon to appear on EngageNY.org). Identify the core understandings and key ideas of the textStart small to build confidenceTarget vocabulary and text structureTackle tough sections head-onCreate coherent sequences of text-dependent questionsIdentify the standards that are being addressedCreate the culminating assignment Like this:
6 Alternatives To Bloom's Taxonomy For Teachers - This post is updated from an article we published in April. At the end of the day, teaching is about learning, and learning is about understanding. And as technology evolves to empower more diverse and flexible assessments forms, constantly improving our sense of what understanding looks like–during mobile learning, during project-based learning, and in a flipped classroom–can not only improve learning outcomes, but just might be the secret to providing personalized learning for every learner. This content begs the question: why does one need alternatives to the established and entrenched Bloom’s? Because Bloom’s isn’t meant to be the alpha and the omega of framing instruction, learning, and assessment. So with apologies to Bloom (whose work we covered recently), we have gathered five alternatives to his legendary, world-beating taxonomy, from the TeachThought Simple Taxonomy, to work from Marzano to Fink, to the crew at Understanding by Design. Six Facets of Understanding with examples
Webinars - Patricia Davis Webinar Archives Common Core State Standards Webinars Teaching to the Rigor of the Common Core State Standards Recorded May 13, 2013 This webinar examines the effect of the Common Core State Standards on instructional rigor. In this session, Davis explains how instructional rigor in the standards isn't about more or harder work but the integration of complex thinking skills. Resources Addressing the Role of Text Complexity in the Common Core Recorded April 10, 2013 Are you prepared to teach to the rigors of the Common Core State Standards? This webinar will help prepare teachers to deliver lessons that support the student learning expectations set in the Common Core standards. Participants will Gain an understanding of text-complexity framework (qualitative measures, quantitative measures, and reader and text considerations). Webinar presentation handout (PDF) Archived Webinars ASCD webinars presented by Patti Davis from McREL.