This is an excerpt of a Grade 8 mathematics lesson plan revision. The teacher valued the conceptual soundness of the lesson, but wanted to insert additional elements of formative assessment, such as adding tasks that allowed students to provide feedback to each other.
‘Both and’ Literacy Instruction K-5: A Proposed Paradigm Shift for the Common Core State Standards ELA Classroom
This article proposes a language arts curriculum congruent to the new, English/language arts (ELA) college and career ready standards, particularly to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). The idea of behind “‘both and’ literacy instruction” is that all of the following elements are needed for students to form a coherent literacy experience:
Foundational literacy practices: alphabetic knowledge, phonological processing, vocabulary, fluency
Reading comprehension: the role of read alouds/shared reading of grade-level text, building knowledge, attending to syntax
High volume of reading: using the technique called Guided Reading with Accountable Independent Reading
The purpose of this article is “to help teachers determine which aspects fo their current practice are inherently aligned with the CCSS and which aspects of existing practices must be added to, adapted or shifted” (p. 1).
Argumentation in History and Science
Boston College professor and scholar Katherine L. McNeill developed a series of resources to support middle school science and social studies teachers’ use of argumentation. The resources are organized in a course format and include a syllabus, slide decks and class materials for each session, and assignments. As teachers work through each session, they learn about the claim, evidence and reasoning (CER) framework, and how to use this framework to engage students in argumentation. The resources support teachers’ understanding of evidence and reasoning, as well as distinctions between science and history. The resources also support teachers’ instructional planning of lessons to support students’ development of argumentation.
Effects of Interim Assessments on Student Achievement: Evidence From a Large-Scale Experiment
The study uses data from a 2010-2011 school-level randomized experiment of 70 Indiana public schools to examine the impact of two interim assessment programs, mCLASS in Grades K-2 and Acuity in Grades 3-8, on students’ mathematics and reading achievement. Results indicate no overall treatment effect for Grades 3-8 but a statistically significant negative effect in Grades K-2 (i.e., kindergarten and second grade), indicating that students in control schools perform higher than students in treatment schools.
Helping ELLs Meet High Standards
This presentation, centered around the Gettysburg Address, provides an overview of general techniques for providing English language learners (ELLs) with a content preview. Methods include: the use of guiding questions; building background knowledge; bootstrapping on L1 knowledge and skills; pre-teaching academic and domain-specific vocabulary; and instruction in word learning strategies.
Lesson-Sized Learning Goals and Success Criteria
This tool is used to record the Learning Goals and Success Criteria of lesson-sized stacks of Building Blocks. Teachers may choose to use one template per stack or record multiple stacks on the same template.