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Scooped by
Mel Riddile
May 16, 2012 6:12 PM
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What can we learn about close reads from studying the Vancouver Canucks devastating 4-0 loss of the Stanley Cup to the Boston Bruins in the 2010-2012 playing season?
"While there is certainly a place for interactions with print-based texts across the disciplines (which is convenient since the Common Core requires it), the standards are also about connecting across “readings,” assimilating, and discovering. Text, in all forms, as a vehicle for critical thinking can support students as they learn to think across disciplines and respond in ways that are not “textbook,” a cornerstone of college and career readiness."
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Scooped by
Mel Riddile
May 16, 2012 6:09 PM
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Assessing understanding might be the most complex task an educator or academic institution is tasked with.
6 Facets of Understanding," a sort of alternative (or supplement) to Bloom's Taxonomy. In this system, learners prove they "understand" if they can: - Explain
- Interpret
- Apply
- Have perspective
- Empathize
- Have self-knowledge
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Scooped by
Mel Riddile
May 15, 2012 9:52 PM
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by Diane Ravitch
"The point here is that NAEP scores show steady and very impressive improvement over the past twenty years."
Every once in a while, a new set of test scores is released by the National Assessment Governing Board, the federal agency that supervises the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).
- When the scores are broken out by race, you can really see dramatic progress, especially in math. In 1992, 80% of black students in fourth grade were below basic. By 2011, that proportion had dropped to 49%. Among white students in fourth grade math, the proportion below basic fell in that time period from 40% to only 16%.
- The changes in reading scores are not as dramatic as in math, but they are nonetheless impressive. In fourth grade, the proportion of black students who were below basic in 1992 was 68%; by 2011, it was down to 51%. In eighth grade, the proportion of black students who were reading below basic was 55%; that had fallen to 41% by 2011.
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Scooped by
Mel Riddile
May 15, 2012 2:26 PM
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With a keen interest in ICT and maths, I have been exploring the ways in which iPad apps (other than the “I can do maths….2+2 etc” type) can enhance pupil progress and motivation. I believe that, when done the right way, gaming can play a huge role in learning.
If you are going to try any of these ideas in class its best to be quite familiar with the apps and how they work. Here are 10 things I have tried:
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Scooped by
Mel Riddile
May 14, 2012 4:14 PM
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Michael D. Usdan and Arthur D. Sheekey write that state education agencies are ill-equipped to handle reform, but the process of reauthorizing the ESEA could change that.
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Scooped by
Mel Riddile
May 14, 2012 9:39 AM
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Some children are better prepared for the future than others.
"Marc Morial gave a poignant example: Imagine if some kids were playing on a 9-foot goal, while others were playing on a 10-foot goal. Some sort of gradual standards must be implemented to help prepare the 9-foot kids to play on that 10-foot goal. This is the crisis that we are facing in our country, where some children are better prepared for the future than others. We must have everyone playing on the 10-foot goal in this global economy."
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Scooped by
Mel Riddile
May 13, 2012 2:29 PM
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Sarah Brown Wessling shares five ways she gives feedback to her students, trying different approaches that combine personal touches and technology.
One is to video students delivering presentations and then using screen capture software to provide feedback.
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Scooped by
Mel Riddile
May 13, 2012 10:56 AM
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I have been a slow adopter on the importance of the Common Core Standards. I've claimed that I'm too busy with other innovation to truly dig into Common Core, but I finally read something that gave me some hope, some perspective, and some impetus to change.
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Scooped by
Mel Riddile
May 12, 2012 4:51 PM
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Scooped by
Mel Riddile
May 11, 2012 9:15 AM
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Scooped by
Mel Riddile
May 10, 2012 3:54 PM
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In this post, Burkins and Yaris take a close look at the language in the Common Core that states teachers are in charge of instructional decision making but wonder if that is indeed the case.
“the Standards leave room for teachers, curriculum developers, and states to determine how those goals should be reached and what additional topics should be addressed.”
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Scooped by
Mel Riddile
May 10, 2012 2:53 PM
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"States indicated that they wanted teachers involved early on."
SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium is finalizing the master work plan for the online bank of formative resources it will create for teachers.
Teacher involvement - "state networks of educators" - A projected 90 teachers from each member state—will be in on the ground level, along with state leadership teams and a national advisory panel of experts on formative assessment, according to the current draft of the master work plan.
- A team of teachers that will craft quality criteria policies that will shape what does—and doesn't—get into this bank of resources. In their feedback on the draft plan, states indicated that they wanted teachers involved early on in helping develop and curate the things that will be included in the bank of resources.
- While such teacher involvement has always been envisioned, the consortium made a point of moving it earlier in the process in response to that feedback.
Sample Instructional Modules - Sample instructional modules are being developed. 52 modules, which include "lesson plans, templates, curriculum resources, evidence collection tools, teacher analysis, descriptive feedback strategies and follow-up planning." Each module will include guidance for teachers on how to scaffold material for students, as well as links to informational texts that might prove useful, and protocols on how to analyze student work.
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Scooped by
Mel Riddile
May 9, 2012 12:01 PM
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One of the most talked about shifts affecting implementation of the Common Core at the elementary level is the one calling for a balance between informational and literary text.
Why does the Common Core places renewed emphasis on the acquisition of knowledge? The answer lies with the way in which readers use the information they are reading.
In calling for a balance between literary and informational text, the Common Core places renewed emphasis on the acquisition of knowledge.
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Scooped by
Mel Riddile
May 20, 2012 2:07 PM
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To me, the iPad is the best writing tool I’ve ever used. And I think Ernest Hemingway would agree.
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Scooped by
Mel Riddile
May 16, 2012 6:06 PM
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But we see the shift to the Common Core as: - An opportunity to push teaching and learning in the direction it needs to move in order for America to compete globally.
- A shift to creating and thinking critically rather than simply consuming and regurgitating information.
- A shift to collaboration and connection instead of independence and isolation.
- A move (finally) into the 21st Century.
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Scooped by
Mel Riddile
May 15, 2012 2:37 PM
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by Marc Tucker, President of the National Center on Education and the Economy.
"Bottom line: high standards are necessary, but hardly sufficient. It is time to start setting realistic expectations. That means starting to share this larger agenda and helping the press and the public to understand that new standards can be the prelude to major improvements in student performance, but it is going to take years, many years, to match the performance of our best competitors."
"It is hardly clear that American teachers are in a position to teach their students to write well, any more than they are in a position to teach their students the mathematical reasoning behind arithmetic."
None of the countries that outperform the United States think that they got there simply by implementing challenging academic standards.
Teachers Lack Deep Understanding - The main reason that students are not ready for college level mathematics is that they have not really mastered elementary and middle school mathematics.
- When we looked into why that is true, we discovered that it is because many of their teachers, from elementary school to high school, do not really understand elementary school and middle school mathematics very well.
- It will not matter what the mathematics standards for students are if many of their teachers cannot meet them.
- It will not matter what our writing standards are if many of our teachers cannot themselves write well.
Non Readers "Among all the professions, school teachers did less reading as adults than the members of any other profession."
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Scooped by
Mel Riddile
May 15, 2012 2:23 PM
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Called the "Common Core," a new set of state guidelines spell out what young students are expected to learn and what books they're expected to read. Forty five states and the District of Colombia have already adopted the standards.
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Scooped by
Mel Riddile
May 14, 2012 9:44 AM
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The focus on rhetoric in the Common Core Standards aligns quite well with the objectives of AP English Language and Composition.
Indeed, the Common Core Standards asks for classrooms to distinguish between the role of imaginative literature and nonfiction, and one clear distinction is this understanding of context.
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Scooped by
Mel Riddile
May 13, 2012 2:39 PM
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Everything in moderation. We must keep our wits about us as we work to implement the Common Core.
5. “All of our elementary instruction is changing to whole group lessons.”
As children work to read complex text, many will require scaffolding. Some of that can happen in small groups. In addition, just students will read more grade-level complex text, does not mean that they will no longer read instructional level text. There will always be a need for balance.
4. “We took two weeks to closely read that paragraph.”
There’s a difference between close reading and killing reading. If it takes that long to closely read a paragraph, we will never accomplish the Common Core goal of reading widely and deeply. Not to mention that we will make our students hate reading!
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Scooped by
Mel Riddile
May 13, 2012 12:20 PM
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Is pushing poorly prepared students to take college-level classes effective? Or does it just demoralize them and divert time and money better spent elsewhere?
"If you have kids that are not necessarily being successful in high-school level courses, it seems like a logical fallacy to think what they need is college-level courses," she said. "AP without sufficient supports is worse than no AP at all." - Kristin Klopfenstein
AP has become the de facto gold standard for high school rigor.
Last year, 18 percent of U.S. high school graduates passed at least one AP exam (by scoring 3 or higher on a scale of 1 to 5), up from 11 percent a decade ago.
Indiana - 21 school districts last year where graduates took AP exams but none passed.
"Schools that are using AP in a very deliberate way to change the culture, there's something very powerful there," said Senior Vice President Trevor Packer. But as a shortcut to avoid the hard foundational work students need, AP may be a waste—or worse, a diversion
56 percent of AP exams taken by the high school class of 2011 earned a 3 or higher, but there are wide disparities. The mean score is 3.01 for white students and 1.94 for blacks. In New Hampshire, almost three-quarters of exams earn a 3 or higher; in Mississippi, it's under a third. In the District of Columbia, more than half of exams score a 1.
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Scooped by
Mel Riddile
May 12, 2012 4:56 PM
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An ambitious effort to refocus K-12 science education across the nation enters a new phase today with the release of the first public draft of voluntary, "next generation" standards in the subject.
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Scooped by
Mel Riddile
May 11, 2012 9:38 AM
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by Robert Rothman
Soon, nearly every state in the union will have the same demanding standards for what students should know. If history is any guide, a burst of innovation won’t be far behind.
By setting common expectations, states have made it possible for students everywhere to graduate from high school similarly prepared for post-secondary education and work.
Innovation Encouraged - Educators in one state who have come up with a dynamic new way of teaching can now share their knowledge with educators throughout the country, without having to fear that their insights will be utterly lost in translation.
- Colleges of education can work together across state lines to redesign and improve teacher education, because the teachers they ed-ucate will be teaching to the same standards.
- And textbook companies can develop new and better products, taking advantage of digital technology, because they can sell to a near-national market. These materials will replace the widely loathed and ineffective products that were produced by cobbling together expectations from each of the states publishers hoped to sell to.
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Scooped by
Mel Riddile
May 10, 2012 7:49 PM
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The National High School Center is a central source of expertise on high school improvement issues for the Regional Comprehensive Centers.
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Scooped by
Mel Riddile
May 10, 2012 3:02 PM
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In an effort to expand the introduction of a new set of learning standards into the city's public schools, officials are asking science and social studies teachers to introduce more reading and writing into students' classwork.
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Scooped by
Mel Riddile
May 10, 2012 2:44 PM
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In 2002, Indiana rolled out computer scoring of its 11th grade state writing exam. At the time, ETS, the company that developed Indiana’s software, said automatic writing assessment could help cut the state’s testing budget in half.
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