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Providing the right kind of feedback to students can make a significant difference in their achievement. There are two key considerations. First, feedback that improves learning is responsive to specific aspects of student work, such as test or homework answers, and provides specific and related suggestions. There needs to be a strong link between the teacher comment and the student's answer, and it must be instructive. This kind of feedback extends the opportunity to teach by alleviating misunderstanding and reinforcing learning. Second, the feedback must be timely. If students receive feedback no more than a day after a test or homework assignment has been turned in, it will increase the window of opportunity for learning. Feedback is a research-based strategy that teachers, and students, can practice to improve their success.
Via Nik Peachey
"My [Sue Waters] session was meant to be an Introduction to blogging. I’ve spent the week interacting with #ETMOOC participants through their blogs, Google+ community and through the ETMOOC Twitter hashtag to identify what they really needed to know. All participants have been ask to participate through their own blogs. Quite a few participants are new to blogging and it’s really hard to appreciate how you might learn through blogging as part of a connectivist MOOC if you’ve never blogged before. So I’ve decided to focus my session on what they really need to know to get the most out of their blogging as part of #ETMOOC; as opposed to a more traditional introduction to blogging session. More of an intro to the pedagogical aspects of blogging as opposed to the technical."
Get Index Card on the App Store. See screenshots and ratings, and read customer reviews.
Via Ana Cristina Pratas
Explore a world of publications by people and publishers alike. Collect, share and publish in a format designed to make your documents look their very best.
"Sharon J. Washington, executive director of the National Writing Project, said:
'Today’s young people are using a range of digital tools to compose and create in new and exciting ways. It is a game-changing moment for teachers of writing. The very notion of what it means to write is shifting, and educators are faced with adapting their teaching practices to integrate new technologies while redefining writing and learning for the 21st century.'
Google Docs is an online suite of digital tools that provides teachers with some powerful features to help students develop 21st century writing skills. Since Docs are collaborative and available 24/7, the tool is well-suited for facilitating digital writing workshops that combine peer editing with cooperative grouping and small group fine-tuned writing instruction.
Writing Workshop at a Glance
Teachers start by defining cooperative grouping jobs for peer editing that are appropriate for the the level and needs of the learners in the class. While students are writing drafts, teachers take advantage of opportunities to work with small instructional groups to focus on specific job-related writing tasks to prepare students to put their new skills to work and contribute to the peer editing process. Here is an overview of some of the integrated writing supports available in Google Docs to include in small group instruction to that will empower students and help redefine the writing process."
"The art of writing can be reduced to a few simple rules. I share them with you now.
Rule No. 1: Show and Tell.
Most people say, “Show, don’t tell,” but I stand by Show and Tell, because when writers put their work out into the world, they’re like kids bringing their broken unicorns and chewed-up teddy bears into class in the sad hope that someone else will love them as much as they do. 'And what do you have for us today, Marcy?' 'A penetrating psychological study of a young med student who receives disturbing news from a former lover.'"
"Teachers Write! is an online virtual summer writing camp for teachers and librarians who understand how important it is for people teaching writing to walk the walk. If you’re a teacher or librarian who would love to work on your own writing, we’d love to have you join us. Here’s how it all works: Location: www.katemessner.com/blog (Post Category: TeachersWrite) New posts will be shared each weekday morning, and you can check in whenever it’s convenient. Dates: June 4th- August 10th Schedule: ....."
"This year I stopped assigning the reading responses altogether. It no longer felt right. I have been respectfully questioned, again, about whether I am preparing my current students as well as my previous students. Some parents truly miss the reading responses. I clarify that my current students are more prepared than before because they truly comprehend what they are reading through asking questions, making connections, creating multi-sensory mind pictures, making inferences, and finding the author’s message.
I can provide evidence that my students are successfully able to write any message clearly, and with great voice, regardless of the topic and genre. My students love to read and write because they choose their own topics and they read and write often. They are constantly reflecting on their literacy goals and creating new ones, thus becoming excellent readers and writers as well as passionate ones who trust the learning process. All of this is so much more meaningful than making them write about their reading which creates resentment. (Read a little more about this idea here.)"
Early in the video Godin notes that blogging is not about the number of readers, but about the other benefits gained by blogging. That is a great point for all bloggers, but especially new bloggers to remember. Focus on consistently (it doesn't have to be every day, some of my favorite bloggers write only twice a week) producing quality content that you find beneficial to yourself and a small group of peers or colleagues and eventually your audience will grow. I started this blog for the purpose of keeping a record of things that I found interesting and that my colleagues could use too.
In his contribution to The Stone last week, Alex Rosenberg posed a defense of naturalism — “the philosophical theory that treats science as our most reliable source of knowledge and scientific method as the most effective route to knowledge” — at the expense of other theoretical endeavors such as, notably, literary theory. To the question of “whether disciplines like literary theory provide real understanding,” Professor Rosenberg’s answer is as unequivocal as it is withering: just like fiction, literary theory can be “fun,” but neither one qualifies as “knowledge.”
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"'The object of art is not to make salable pictures. It is to save yourself.'" "The quest to find one’s purpose and live the creative life boldly is neither simple nor easy, especially for a young person trying to make sense of the world and his place in it. In the spring of 1926, Sherwood Anderson sent his seventeen-year-old son John a beautiful addition to history’smost moving and timeless letters of fatherly advice. Found in Posterity: Letters of Great Americans to Their Children (UK; public library), the missive offers insight on everything from knowing whose advice not to take to thefalse allure of money to the joy of making things with your hands: 'The best thing, I dare say, is first to learn something well so you can always make a living. Bob seems to be catching on at the newspaper business and has had another raise. He is getting a good training by working in a smaller city. As for the scientific fields, any of them require a long schooling and intense application. If you are made for it nothing could be better. In the long run you will have to come to your own conclusion.' 'The arts, which probably offer a man more satisfaction, are uncertain. It is difficult to make a living.' 'If I had my own life to lead over I presume I would still be a writer but I am sure I would give my first attention to learning how to do things directly with my hands. Nothing gives quite the satisfaction that doing things brings.'"
Fiction Reading Level Assessments
The TCRWP offers a set of informal reading inventories for narrative texts which correlates to the Fountas and Pinnell system for leveling books. These assessments help teachers identify which level of texts students can read independently and will therefore be able to practice all the reading strategies they are learning during the Reading Workshop. The assessments provide an analysis of comprehension, miscues, and, fluency (fluency is only assessed for Levels J-Z).
Via Kathleen Cercone
By Joseph M. Williams and Lawrence McEnerney Summary by The Scout Report "The Little Red Schoolhouse writing course for graduate students and advanced undergraduates has been a staple offering at the University of Chicago for decades. Over the years, Lawrence McEnerney (Director of the University of Chicago Writing Program) and the late Professor Joseph M. Williams worked together to craft this fine guide to college writing. The guide was created with first and second year students at the University of Chicago in mind, but it can be used effectively with a wide range of students who wish to write clearly and concisely. The guide is divided into five sections, including "Some crucial differences between high school and college writing," "Preparing to write and drafting the paper," and "Revising the introduction and conclusion." An important section here is: "But what if you get stuck? A good solution and terrible solution," which discusses, among other things, how to avoid plagiarism. Throughout this work, the advice is sage, lucid, and well-intentioned. It is an indispensable resource for any and all persons who wish to succeed in becoming better writers in college."
Via Jim Lerman, Dennis T OConnor, scmorgan
How to write narrative nonfiction in blocks of scenes.
By Troy Hicks The author's deatailed notes and reflections on his co-leaderhip of a 3-day workshop on Historical Thinking and Argumentative Writing, in which his focus was the argumentative writing. Zotero was used as the multimedia tool.-JL "Beckie and Tim asked me to bring a focus on argument writing, with the clear goal of integrating credible, web-based sources and, to the extent possible, digital writing with multimedia tools beyond slideware. When we first met, we immediately began constructing a working agenda via a wiki, and I knew that Zotero would be a key component of our teaching and learning. While somewhat fearful that the topic would be one that teachers would find mundane, Tim helped guide us through thinking about Truman’s decision to drop the bomb as a time-period appropriate dilemma that we could use to teach historical empathy and argumentative writing. "Thus, we decided on two main tasks for the teachers to complete over the three days by engaging in a digital writing workshop that would involve lots of research, collaboration, and development of both a written individual essay and a group multimedia presentation from one of three perspectives: Truman’s advisors who supported the bomb, those in his cabinet who were against it, and the scientific community. As Tim led the group through many exercises on historical thinking, DBQ (document-based questioning), and historical empathy, I took the lead on teaching the argument writing."
Via Jim Lerman, Dennis T OConnor
24 EDUCATIONAL IPAD APPS FOR KIDS IN READING AND WRITING
Via kathy pryor
Why does this written doe bound through these written woods?
For a drink of written water from a spring
whose surface will xerox her soft muzzle?
Why does she lift her head; does she hear something?
Perched on four slim legs borrowed from the truth,
she pricks up her ears beneath my fingertips.
Silence - this word also rustles across the page
and parts the boughs
that have sprouted from the word "woods."
From Luke Neff http://lukeneff.weebly.com/These are some of the daily writing prompts that I use in class. The prompts and pictures are scraped together from so many sources - forgotten websites, old journals, overheard conversations, the crusty recesses of my hard drive - that attribution is difficult. I've tried where I can, but if you know how any of them should be attributed or have a problem with one of them, please let me know, so I can fix it. Other stuff I'm working on is over here.
Jim Butcher honed his writing skills playing Ambermush, an online role-playing game that also helped authors like C. E. Murphy and Angela Beegle.
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You are familiar with pedagogy - "the method and practice of teaching, esp. as an academic subject or theoretical concept" - but are you familiar with "andragogy" and "heutagogy"? If you are an educator or someone interested in education, I recommend you seek an understanding of this vocabulary for insights into the proposed, actual, or potential practice of education today and in the future.