Literacy, Education and Common Core Standards in School and at Home

RUST: TEACHING POETRY, PHOTOGRAPHY AND GRAPHIC NOVELS TO MEET COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS

This post has a review of Rust by Royden Lepp - a graphic novel that have been rated appropriate reading for all ages - although I would say they will be enjoyed by readers Grade 4 through adult. While younger readers will easily focus on Roman and Oswald his younger brother along with their responsibilities to their farm and family, and their relationship with Jet Jones,  older readers will comprehend the larger issues of artificial intelligence, and drone warfare.

San Jose State University's Department of Philosophy wrote an open letter to Professor Michael Sandel (Harvard University) on their response to MOOCs.

How to help kids develop perceptual motor skills: Different activities engage different types of muscle groups and as a result different muscles and brain centers are responsible for coordinating eye-brain-hand/foot/mouth/body responses.  

ALL percpetual motor skills develop at slightly different paces although experts have set 'normal' developmental milestone limits, and ALL development involves practice in use and recognizing and understanding motor feedback (how effective different movements are at achieving a target goal).

This post explains fine, gross and graphomotor skills, provides outstanding links to learn more, and provides suggestions on how to help kids develop strong perceptual motor skills.

Primary Source suggests three tech tools matched to three current events topics that, together, can help you teach both Common Core skills and digital literacy.

Advice for parents on how to talk with children about the Boston Marathon bombings.

A system developed by a joint venture between Harvard and M.I.T. uses artificial intelligence to assess student papers and short written answers, freeing instructors for other tasks.

 Col. Chris Hadfield commanded the International Space Station (ISS) for six months and along with his colleagues oversaw hundreds of biological and physical experiments that will pave the way for future space exploration. Hadfield has done extensive tweeting, and posted hundreds of original photographs and numerous videos.  This post presents ideas for teaching, learning, and inspiring students of all ages about the oddities and sensational aspects of space.

Aside from lesson suggestion, this post inlcudes inspiritng photos and AWESOME space links!

A Pasadena elementary school uses art to teach third graders addition, subtraction and long division. An advocacy group wants to expand the program across the state.

The practical wisdom of good teaching is more than being creative or spontaneous. It is knowing when and how to use best practices. It includes how to prepare and use great questions, and knowing when to veer to places students take us. It includes when and how to use the science of teaching as well as the art. Practical wisdom is not following a script prepared by others who do not know your students and how they work.  Teaching is both an art and a science...a great teacher inspires.

Poetry isn’t always easy for students. But with hands-on engagement, they gain new understanding. Take Robert Frost’s “Pasture.” Instead of just reading and discussing the work in a typical classroom setting, students made 21st-century dioramas with robotic tool kits containing sensors, motors, LEDs, and a controller. One student made a blue plastic wrap lake in an old cardboard photocopy-paper box that vibrated, thanks to the motor, and, lit up, thanks to the LED. When the student said the word “water”—students record themselves reading the poems aloud in the audio-editing program Audacity—the LED turned the plastic wrap a deeper shade of blue. When he got to the bit about the “tottering” calf, the motor made the toy calf vibrate.

 

Poseidon, brother of Zeus, son of Kronos and Rhea, ruler of the seas and creator of storms, tempests, and tsunamis that shake the earth, is back in live action and color thanks to George O'Connor and First Second Books. This book has breath-taking art, great story-telling, a detailed Greek god family tree to help us mere mortals follow their royal lineage, Greek Geek notes, discussion points, and links for extra reading. Aside from O'Connor's continuing to bring the Greek Gods to life rivaling  D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myth's mantle, this book belongs in home and school libraries.  Let's take a closer look why:

Aside from being fun, optical illusions actually play a role in education and in visual literacy.  They help illustrate that we see by learning to see.  While our brains relay information taken in through our eyes, we learn to interpret what we see by recognizing and storing patterns we learn as we continuously interact with the world around us.  These patterns enable us to identify faces, dangers, friends, directions, routes, and opportunities around us.

Sarah Brown Wessling looks at the Common Core data from MetLife's new survey of educators. How does it compare with her colleagues and her own experiences?

"Research shows that the greatest anxiety is experienced anticipating math and not actually doing it. Experts also find that "reframing" the anxiety (much more below) will help."

This article explains neurological aspects of math anxiety along with ways to relieve it including:

1. Minimizing rote memorization by making math more meaningful

2.Teaching kids how to reframe their math anxiety

3. Provide multi-modal teaching suggestions

What does it take to translate a literary work into a play or musical?

The following blog post is part of a blog series called "Comments on the Common Core," written by Eye On Education's Senior Editor, Lauren ...