5 Fantastic, Fast, Formative Assessment Tools I thought I could read my students' body language. I was wrong. As an experiment, I used Socrative when I taught binary numbers. What I learned forever changed my views on being a better teacher. Why Formative Assessment Makes Better Teachers Common Core Open Resources Resources produced through work with the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) Educator Leader Cadre (ELC) are now available to all educators. These free resources for our teachers provide information about the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and PARCC assessments. This includes information for educators at all levels on a wide variety of topics such as Curriculum Tools and Instruction, Diverse Student Populations, Higher Education, Communication, Leadership, etc. To access these free resources, click on the “Get Free Resources” button below and create a profile. Once registered, you will have unlimited access to these resources and all new resources created in partnership with PARCC, Achieve, and the state Educator Leader Cadres. Get Free Resources
Sight-Reading with your Middle Level Ensemble? Take a New Look at a Word Wall. - National Association for Music Education (NAfME) By Casey Clementson Have you ever sight-read a new piece of music with your middle school band and it went really well? Your students were intrigued by the music and eager to “dig in”? Or did the opposite happen and sight-reading turned into a chaotic mess of notes and mistakes followed by reactionary student chatter?
Item and Task Prototypes PARCC Task Prototypes and Sample Items Samples can be found by clicking on each grade level on the left menu. There are two types of samples found on these pages: The Ultimate Common Core and Arts Resource-Education Closet 300 teachers, 55 curricula and 1 school. For two weeks this summer, I have been helping to coordinate the Curriculum Innovation Writing Academy with Anne Arundel County Public Schools. It has been an amazing experience: the collaboration and brain power when you combine all of these resources in one location is mind boggling. Teachers being able to walk across the hall and ask questions from other content areas is an essential component of any integrated curriculum, and the fact that every single content area now has integrated components makes me do the happy dance. What I have noticed from these past few weeks from the arts perspective has shown the need for today’s Free Friday resource. Our arts writers are diligently trying to find authentic and purposeful ways to embed and integrate the Common Core into their own curriculums, as well as provide support to English/Language Arts and Math in terms of integrating the arts into their new standards.
Transition Tools: Ohio' New Learning Standards: K-12 English Language Arts The State Board of Education adopted Ohio's New Learning Standards in English Language Arts as a guide to teaching and learning in the classroom. The Kindergarten – Grade 12 standards will be fully in use in Ohio classrooms in the 2014-2015 school year. Introduction to Ohio's New Learning Standards for ELA, Model Curriculum, and Assessment Ohio's New Learning Standards Addtional Resources for Diverse Learners
Academic Vocabulary and the Arts This week, let’s start with an experiment: Take a look at this artwork by William H. Johnson. Imagine yourself as a student who has just experienced a study of William H. Johnson and artists of the Harlem Renaissance, and then running into this task: s New Learning Standards: K-12 English Language Arts The State Board of Education has adopted the Common Core State Standards in English language arts as part of Ohio's New Learning Standards for academic learning. The Kindergarten - Grade 12 standards will be fully in use in Ohio classrooms by 2014-2015, when assessments that align to the standards are in place. ODE encourages districts to start implementing the Ohio's New Learning Standards now to better prepare students for 2014-2015 and beyond.
Peer Editing At this time in the school year, I find that my students and I need to regroup and discuss the role of a peer editor in writing workshop. My students have made a lot of progress with peer editing, however, we need to regroup and talk about what is going well and what can be improved. This helps recharge and refresh everyone’s understanding of peer editing. I started this conversation with this simple chart. I asked my students: “What’s helpful?” and “What’s not helpful?” Common Core Support Tools Below you will find unpacking standards documents to support teachers in their understanding of the common core and essential standards. The unpacking documents demonstrate at a granular level the knowledge and skills students are expected to master at a particular grade. Important Note: The current Standard Course of Study will continue to be taught and tested during the 2010-11 and 2011-12 school years. New standards and assessments are to be implemented for the first time beginning with the 2012-13 school year.
Quest - Write text adventure games and interactive stories Quest lets you make interactive story games. Text adventure games like Zork and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Gamebooks like the Choose Your Own Adventure and Fighting Fantasy books. You don't need to know how to program. All you need is a story to tell.