“Give me a second. I know this. Hold on. Uuugghh! It’s on the tip of my tongue. I know it but I can’t explain it.”
Have you ever heard something like this from your students? It is frustrating for students and for teachers.
The school year is well under way. Teachers are teaching. Students are learning. Inevitably, the grading is beginning to pile up. It happens to the best of teachers. Unfortunately for students, the learning opportunity tied to a specific assignment has already passed if they didn’t receive timely feedback.
Quick and simple to use, T-Charts have become a staple in teachers’ toolboxes. Using a T-Chart, however, may be wasting valuable instructional time. If you simply want to capture information, a T-chart is a great tool and so is a piece of notebook paper. If you haven’t already figured it out, students can complete a T-Chart and have no idea what the information means.
Capturing and organizing information is not an end in itself, but rather a means to an end. The “end” is that students understand the information and are able to draw conclusions. When teachers use T-Charts solely to capture information, and do not push their students to make sense of the information, teachers forfeit an incredible learning opportunity for students.
Don’t despair. You can transform your T-Chart into a powerful instructional strategy. (more…)
ReadWorks® is not just for reading teachers. If you are an educator, this website is for you. You may be surprised by what you find.
Have you ever searched the internet late at night looking for the perfect downloadable resource that you can use with students tomorrow? Do you find something you like but then realize you have to modify it because it’s not quite what you wanted?
I can easily become frustrated sifting through websites looking for great content that results in student achievement and is free to use. It’s easy to find a zillion lessons and activities to download, but are those “activities” anything more than a time-filler?
I need resources that academically pack a punch, are visually appealing, engaging to students, and easy for me to use. Often it can be like finding a needle in a haystack.
With so many websites out there, educators don’t always have the time to scour the internet and find the best websites. I’m adding a new feature to the blog—60-Second Reviews—to give you the highlights of a great resource.
This week’s 60-Second Review highlights the 10 top features of the new ReadWorks.org.
The creators of this website are committed to filling in the reading gap for students across content areas and grade levels. They’ve done a fantastic job! If you haven’t looked at this website recently, then it’s time to take another look.
1. Find a wide variety of literary and non-fiction passages, including primary source documents, for almost all subject areas and all grade levels (K-12), including the areas of physical, emotional, and mental health.
2. Incorporate articles related to social emotional learning, such as dealing with feelings, anxiety, learning disabilities, shyness, friendship difficulties, etc. into your lessons.
3. Search the database of articles by skill, strategy, grade level, Lexile, informational text, literature, paired texts, Article a Day and more. Build a customized list to easily keep track of articles and passages by adding them to “My List”.
4. Download these high quality resources without any need for modification.
5. Use the question sets (with answers), and vocabulary resources that accompany each article.
6. Support students with audio versions that are included with all articles.
7. Differentiate instruction by selecting articles that contain one or two additional passages, which are less complex versions of the original article.
8. Create classes and assign articles to students. Students do not need emails for the teacher to create classes.
9. Save time. Have students log in to ReadWorks.org to complete and submit assignments online. Students do not need emails to submit assignments. The multiple choice portion is graded by the computer and the short answer/essay portion is graded by the teacher within ReadWorks.org.
10. Check it out. Readworks.org is still FREE!
This is one of those best-kept secret websites out there. Check it out!
If this 60-Second Review was helpful and you would like more of these, let me know in the comments below.
What if you could steal back time from one of the biggest time thieves? How would your life be different? What would you be able to accomplish?
Everyone gets the same 24 hours each day. There will never be enough minutes in a day to get everything done. As much as we say we want more hours in the day, do we really want more time added to an already long day?! Some days I can’t wait for it to be over. I drop into bed with the hope tomorrow will be better.
My guess is we don’t want more hours in a day. Really, what we want is to accomplish what we need to and still have time left for a personal life. We want more margin in our lives.
. . . Those glorious, empty spaces that allow us to breathe. – Jed Jurchenko
So how do we steal back time?
Have you ever tried to follow your own directions? Picture this scene:
A class of 28 energetic and excited 8-year-olds arrives at the music room. A teacher, standing at the doorway ready to greet them, gives these directions to her primary grade students as they enter the classroom.
Teacher:
Good morning, class! Shhhh! I want you to come in quietly and find your place on the floor. Make sure you get your carpet square. Shhhh! If you look at the board, you will see the activities we are doing today. Remember, come in quietly. I told you, Johnny, to find your seat on the floor. Don’t fight over the carpet squares! There are plenty. Quiet, class! No we aren’t playing the instruments today. We will be dancing. Look at the board. Come sit on the floor, everyone.