Abstract
On the Web
Mad Libs Junior
This is a great way for students to practice with nouns and verbs by selecting words from a list. Students can make hilarious stories as they use these words to create a story. You never know what kind of story they will tell!
PBS Kids Video
This website contains clips from children’s favorite television shows, such as Curious George, Arthur, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, The Cat in the Hat, and Sesame Street. They can search by show, or search by topic. If they are interested in music, math, growing up, transportation, or telling the truth, they can click on the topic that they want to learn more about and a list of all the clips from all of the PBS shows would show up on their playlist. There are also play-long interactive videos that test spatial skills and promote reading and spelling. If they find a clip they like, it’s easy to share it in an email to their friends.
FBI Kids’ Page
http://www.fbi.gov/fun-games/kids/kids
The FBI Kids’ Page is split up into two sections designed for children and their parents to learn more about the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) through stories, games, and interactives. For students in kindergarten through fifth grade, there are sections that feature what the FBI is about, safety tips, and the different types of FBI dogs and what they are trained to do. For students in middle school and high school, they can learn about the history of the FBI, read about a day in the life of an FBI agent, learn how the FBI investigates, go on an FBI adventure, and take an agent challenge.
Do Early Achievers Lose Their Academic Advantage?
In the era of No Child Left Behind Act, the inclusion of a wider range of diversity within Advanced Placement programs, and limited grouping of students by ability, public schools have focused more on the kids at the bottom than at the top. A recent study reports that these “high flyers lose altitude” (Xiang, Dahlin, Cronin, Theaker, & Durant, 2011). Tracking the individual scores of nearly 82,000 students on the Measures of Academic Progress, analysts at the Northwest Evaluation Association found that only 57.3% of the students who scored in the top 10% scored as well by the time they were 8th graders and only 52.4% as well by the time they were 10th graders. Those students whose performance did drop below the 90th percentile did stay at the 70th percentile or higher. However, these early achievers grew at about the same rates as low and middle achievers in math and at slower rates than low and middle achievers in reading. What do the researchers view as the implications from this longitudinal study? First, because more than half of the academically advanced students did not maintain their performance levels, educators need to ensure that a child with potential is supported and that their upward performance trajectory is maintained. If not, their long-term education outcomes may be compromised (e.g., entry into gifted programs, selective colleges, higher merit aid). Those students who begin to achieve in the top 10%, “late bloomers,” indicate that educators should also be focusing on other students performing in the 70th and 90th percentiles. Second, because academically advanced students grew about half as fast as low-achieving elementary/middle school students, educators need to be concerned about the “leveling” of work. Third, high poverty schools have little relationship to academic growth of high-achieving students. Finally, students who enter school in the top 10% tend to stay within the top third. The authors conclude that if educators are serious about excellence then they should consider changing accountability systems to place emphasis on the growth of low-, middle-, and high-achieving students.
Powerful Ways of Expanding Learning Time
More time in school does not always guarantee improved learning outcomes. How can schools maximize the great potential of expanded time and make the most effective possible use of this important resource? The National Center on Time and Learning (NCTL) chose to address this question by identifying 30 schools nationwide with high concentrations of poverty that have used extended days, weeks, or years to improve student achievement. Using observations and discussions with schools over a 5-year period, the NCTL (Kaplan & Chan, 2011) identified these eight powerful practices that improved achievement:
Make every minute count. Lesson plans, pacing of instruction, meetings, schedules, and procedures eliminate wasted time.
Prioritize time according to focused learning goals. Teachers use data to plan lessons that are based on clear goals for each student. They set goals for student development that goes beyond academics—excellence in the arts, career readiness, and character education.
Individualize learning time and instruction based on student needs. The amount of time, content of the instruction, group size, and expertise of the instructor are tailored to the student.
Use time to build a school culture of high expectations and mutual accountability. The school builds a positive culture that emphasizes achievement, hard work, and self-discipline.
Use time to provide a well-rounded education. Schools provide a broad array of learning opportunities in the arts, foreign languages, hands-on science, business, community service, and leadership.
Use time to prepare students for college and career. This preparation starts as early as elementary school and assists secondary students in the college application and admission process.
Use time to continuously strengthen instruction. Teachers spend substantial amounts of time working with colleagues and instructional coaches who serve as mentors.
Use time to relentlessly assess, analyze, and respond to student data. Assessment reshapes programs and schedules and continues until each and every child achieves mastery.
They discovered four components that must work together for expanded-time schools to be successful: time for teachers to assess student understanding and to analyze and respond to data, time to teach and reinforce high expectations for behavior and achievement, time for a rigorous and well-rounded education that prepares students for success in college and careers, and time to coach and develop teachers and continuously strengthen instruction. You may retrieve the full reports at http://www.timeandlearning.org/TimeWellSpent_LO_RES_FINAL.pdf
College Graduation Crisis
In July 2010, the National Governors Association (NGA) adopted the Complete College American Common Completion Metrics to document the progress and success of postsecondary students across all states. In their report, “Time is the Enemy,” researchers at Complete College America (CCA) found that 75% of college students are part-time students and juggle some combination of families, jobs, and school while commuting to class. Only one quarter attend full-time, residential colleges and have most of their bills paid. Whereas more than 60% of full-time students graduate, no more than one quarter of part-time students do. CCA recommends that full- and part-time students need shorter and faster pathways to degrees and certificates, which might include some of these components:
Using block schedules of courses so that students can continue to work
Increasing the pace toward a degree or certificate by using shorter academic terms, less time off between terms, year-round scheduling
Registering for a single, coherent program rather than each term
Reducing class time by using online technology
Forming peer support and learning networks among students in the same program
Embedding remediation into the general college curriculum
Providing better information about tuition, gradation rates, and job placement outcomes
The CCA report includes data from 33 participating states regarding the percentage of students who graduate from 2-year and 4-year public colleges by ethnicity and degree. Readers may access the full report by visiting http://www.completecollege.org/docs/Time_Is_the_Enemy.pdf
Free Online CourseWare
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) OpenCourseWare (OCW) is an online version of virtually all MIT course content. OCW is open and available to anyone. Materials available for introductory MIT courses such as biology, chemistry, computers and electronics, engineering, foreign languages, math, media, music and the arts, physical education, physics, social sciences, and writing and literature include video lectures, lecture notes, exams, and assignments with solutions. There are translations into other languages including Portuguese, Chinese, and Spanish. You can join even an online study group for each class. The Highlights for High School section is designed for high school students to guide them through MIT courses selected specifically to help prepare them for Advanced Placement (AP) exams, reinforce the skills and concepts they have learned, and get a glimpse of what college coursework. There is exam preparation material for the calculus, physics, and biology exams. Materials are also available for high school teachers of AP courses.
Educational Quiz Games (iPad compatible)
http://quizhub.com/quiz/quizhub.cfm
Students can have fun matching quizzes based on their school grade level in areas such as earth science, geography, algebra, French, the solar system, world history, and more! This site also features links to helpful websites such as grammar exercises, a scientific calculator, world maps, and a college comparison site.
Notable
The National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) Pre-K-Grade 12 Gifted Education Programming Standards: A Guide to Planning and Implementing High-Quality Services was published by Prufrock Press and disseminated at NAGC’s annual convention in New Orleans. The book provides practical ways that teachers, schools, and school districts can use and assess the standards.
The Center on Education Policy’s analysis of state test scores finds that gains in English/language arts between 2002 and 2009 were less common at the high school level than they were in the fourth and eighth grades. One third of the states saw
The Association for the Gifted, Council for Exceptional Children, in collaboration with Prufrock Press published two more books in their series on serving underrepresented gifted students,
The Center for Public Education released the report, “Back to School:
In the August 24, 2011 issue of Education Week, these
A cadre of 20 states has been named to lead the development of
Thinkfinity (learning resources, lesson plans, professional development, 21st-century skills, standards alignment): http://www.thinkfinity.org
Teaching and Learning (1,500 K-12 resources, including animations, photos, videos): http://free.ed.gov
Think Quest (project-based learning ideas within the library link in all subject areas): http://www.thinkquest.org/en
National Institutes of Health (Office of Science Education K-12 lesson plans, posters, print materials, professional development): http://science-education.nih.gov
Discovery Education (free classroom resources, interactive games, puzzles, lesson plans): http://www.discoveryeducation.com/teachers
Professional Broadcasting System Kids (primary grades): http://pbskids.org/games
National Geographic (games about geography, videos about animals and pets in Spanish/English, photos, fun stuff, news): http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids
The Math Forum @ Drexel (resource for math students in Grades 3-12; “Dr. Math” answers student questions; lesson plans for teachers): http://mathforum.org
Historic American Sheet Music Collection (free sheet music by composer, date, subject, instrumentation, lyricist): http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/hasm
The Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music, 1820-1885 (free sheet music by authors, subjects, titles, keywords): http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/smhtml
Library of Congress (performing arts resources guide by subject, name, and title): http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/guide/guide-home.html
The Kennedy Center (teaching and learning in the arts with “how to” videos that are aligned to standards): http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org
National Endowment for the Arts Jazz in Schools (lessons that relate to the history of jazz with correlated audios, student activities, assessments, and other materials): http://www.neajazzintheschools.org
Read.Write.Think (free materials in language arts instruction, including lessons plans, student interactives): http://www.readwritethink.org
Smithsonian’s History Explorer (lessons and activities, interactives/media, museum artifacts, professional development): http://historyexplorer.americanhistory.si.edu/
The History Channel Classroom (classroom articles, television shows, videos, and study guides): http://www.history.com/shows/classroom/articles/study-guides
American Folklife Center (oral history projects): http://www.loc.gov/vets/youth-resources.html
Is Single-Sex Schooling Effective?
Educators have argued for single-sex schooling as a way of improving girls’ and boys’ performance. In a recent study, however, researchers have reported that these studies have serious flaws (Halpern et al., 2011). For example, previous studies do not account for academic differences in the students who enter them. When outcomes are corrected for preexisting differences, apparent advantages dissolve. Moreover, more transfers occur in single-sex schools than in their public school counterparts, which tend to inflate graduation rates. The authors add to their argument by citing research that shows few sex differences in children’s brains that relate to learning. The authors conclude that similar to new curricula, single-sex schools may yield a short-term gain because of their novelty but without experimental designs and consideration of selection factors, their effectiveness is still unknown. They also point out that the strongest argument against single-sex education is that it reduces boys’ and girls’ opportunities to work together in a supervised, purposeful environment and limits children’s development of a broader range of behaviors and attitudes.
Effective Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Afterschool Programs
With women and minorities underrepresented in the fields of STEM, improving access to STEM learning opportunities has become a critical issue. To close this opportunity gap, a recent newsbrief from the Afterschool Alliance describes promising programs that have reported improved attitudes toward STEM fields and careers, increased STEM knowledge and skills, and higher likelihood of graduation and pursuing a STEM career (Afterschool Alliance, 2011). To improve attitudes, programs provided youth with engaging curriculum that sparked their curiosity, promoted teamwork that incorporated problem solving, and developed mentoring relationships with STEM professionals, which increased the youth’s interest and confidence. To increase STEM knowledge and skills, the afterschool programs taught and strengthened 21st-century skills, had students explore careers, and identified role models who might provide guidance. To improve graduation rates, the programs incorporated team problem solving, mentors, and competitions. While more studies are needed, the authors conclude that afterschool programs are making a difference and increase opportunities for groups underrepresented in STEM fields.
Improving Writing
Does formative writing assessment enhance students’ writing? How can teachers improve formative writing assessment in the class? In a recent report from the Carnegie Corporation and the Alliance for Excellent Education, Graham, Harris, and Hebert (2011, September) used a meta-analysis to address these two important questions. They identified these best practices in writing assessment (pp. 6-7):
Provide feedback about the effectiveness of students’ writing
Teach students how to assess their own writing
Monitor students’ writing progress on an ongoing basis
Allow students to use their most proficient mode of writing (e.g., paper and pencil or word processing)
Minimize other factors such as handwriting or computer printing to bias judgments of writing quality
Mask the writer’s identity when scoring papers
Randomly order students’ papers before scoring them
Collect multiple samples of students’ writing
Ensure that the classroom writing assessments are reliably scored
Formative writing assessment makes a difference in how well students convey thoughts and ideas through text when teachers receive feedback about their writing, students evaluate their writing, and teachers monitor students’ progress.
Digital Tools to Enhance Learning
A special report on K-12 educational technology in Education Week focused on how digital tools are connecting teacher and learning (Education Week, 2011). They described ways that technology might be used in science, math, language arts, history, art, and music. In science, students are able to participate in virtual labs, develop three-dimensional computer models, and adjust variables to get different results using a computer simulation model. In math, students can access tutorial videos on a variety of math concepts, use web-based tools to construct and examine the relationships in geometric shapes and other math concepts, draw and manipulate shapes and graphs, and use virtual manipulative diagrams. In language arts, students use wikis to develop digital anthologies; develop digital essays that incorporate images, audio, and video; create websites about different authors; develop digital stories; connect to writers in other classrooms; and distribute and publish student work through the Internet. In history, students are able to connect with people outside the classroom via Skype, collect personal histories, simulate historical events, and predict future changes. In art and music, students use digital tablets in design and computer programs to compose music. In these core subjects, multimedia tools are transforming teaching and learning.