Do you feel like first semester just flew by?  Can you believe how much learning you and your students have completed so far?  I imagine you are ready for a time to step back to focus on family and home and relaxation.  You’ve earned it, and I hope your time exceeds your  expectations.

Thank you so much for the efforts, expertise, patience and personality you bring to your classroom.  I’m so lucky to have the opportunity to work with you.  Your students are so lucky to have you!  (They may not express it every time, but they do appreciate you!)  Best wishes for the upcoming new year!

Al A Carte (12/20/2013)

Undersecretary of Education – Diane Ravitch discusses the new Undersecretary of Education.  It’s always important to keep tabs on who is heading up education at the federal level.

Great Public Schools Criteria – NEA’s commitment to quality education is highlighted here.  This post shares the proposal of a series of priorities being offered to Congress as a framework for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).

Hearts in Our Hands – Great reminders on how much responsibility we have as teachers in the lives of students.  This post provides nice thoughts that may encourage you as you refocus your energies for second semester.

Package Your Past – An interesting (possibly first day back?) idea for helping students refocus their energies on the second half of the school year.

15-Second Vocabulary – Check out entries in the New York Times Vocabulary Video contest.  Students made 15-second videos demonstrating an understanding of the word and its use in a specific context.

Birthday Word Generator – Do you know which words entered the English language around the same time you entered the world? Use the Oxford Dictionary’s online OED birthday word generator to find out!

The History of Education – Enjoy the infographic on where our profession has come from.

Mighty Times – If you’re an Ideas teacher and preparing to use Watsons Go To Birmingham, 1963, here’s a great website to check out.  The video materials recommended for use with this novel unit, “Mighty Times”, comes from this website.

Good Reads – Wonderful, updated list of Young Adult titles.  A good site to bookmark and refer to periodically.  This site will keep you aware of what’s new and what’s hot in YA lit.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

When I’m visiting with teachers, it’s clear that their principals are encouraging them to consider student engagement. It is an important component of a strong learning environment.  It’s the time of the year when student engagement is waffling–the holidays and breaks from school brings out a variety of responses from both teachers and students.  I’m going to include more links on my posts in regards to student engagement, and I hope you’ll find it helpful as you consider your own students and classroom instruction.

AL A CARTE (12/13/2013)

 The Wingman – Check out this nice strategy for engaging those students who don’t want to engage readily.  Here’s a link to Docushare for the materials described in the video.

Age of Distraction – Speaking of engagement, here’s some thoughts on students and their inability to focus for long periods.

Thought Provider, or Thought Provoker? – I like how this author thought through his learning intentions, and follow-through, in the classroom.

Refocusing for a New Semester – We all want to improve our skills, our work with students. Here’s some suggestions for how teachers and students can prepare for second semester.

Like Your Students, Love Your Job – Rita Pearson is motivating and engaging.  Sadly, she passed away in June 2013.  This is her reflection on why relationships are important (and engaging for students).

We use rubrics regularly in education as it is a descriptive form of feedback.  We’ve had the Reader Traits Rubric now for six years (has it been that long??).   It’s a tool that has helped inform our instruction, our conferences with students and other stakeholders, and our thinking about the process of reading.  The genius behind any rubric (Reader Traits or otherwise) is that it is descriptive, not evaluative.  I mean, while we may use rubrics to evaluate performance, we know that the operating principle of a rubric is to match a student’s performance to the categorized description.  Then we can determine what further action needs to be taken towards that student’s learning, be it to adapt instruction of the current skill being assessed or move on to instruction involving a new skill.

I’ve been reading Susan M. Brookhart’s newer book (©2013) How to Create and Use Rubrics for Formative Assessment and Grading.   It’s a shorter read (at only 126 pages) encompassing two thoughts:  “All Kinds of Rubrics” and “How to Use Rubrics.”  You may be thinking, well, I know plenty about rubrics already.  Think twice, my learned colleague.  This book is well worth the read as it clarifies the purpose of rubrics and how to construct effective rubrics.  I catch myself creating a rubric sometimes that is more of a checklist of information:  “Yep, Student A got this category done, Nope, not this category”.  Brookhart clearly explains that rubrics really should have two aspects:  first, the rubric must have clear and appropriate criteria about the learning students will be demonstrating (not about the “task” they will be completing). Second, the rubric must have clear descriptions of performance over a continuum of quality.  A portion of the book explains how rubrics should assist with learning as well as assess it.   And, Brookhart outlines the difference between various kinds of rubrics (for example, general versus task-specific, and analytic versus holistic).  She clarifies when it is most appropriate to use each type, which I found helpful.  The two appendices provide plenty of examples from all grade levels and assorted content areas.  I particularly appreciated the discussions about:

• Common misconceptions about rubrics;
• Important differences between rubrics and other assessment tools such as checklists and rating scales, and when such alternatives can be useful; and
• How to use rubrics for formative assessment and grading, including standards-based grading and report card grades.

This book is a complete resource for writing effective rubrics and for choosing wisely from among the many rubrics that are available on the Internet and from other sources. And it makes the case that rubrics, when used appropriately, can improve outcomes by helping teachers teach and helping students learn.  This book validates the good work we do when using rubrics.  They are research-based best practice.  Please consider adding this title to your professional reading wish list, especially if you’re intrigued about the idea of how a rubric can be included in a percentage-based grade book.

AL A CARTE (12/6/2013)

 Remember Readworks? – Readworks, the website of free non-fiction passages, has added 100 new passages in the last week.  Check it out, especially if you’re looking for instructional materials to finish out the semester.

 The End of the Public University? – This blog made me think of our local university and the issues it deals with when it comes to funding a quality education.  As a graduate of a public university, it saddens me to think that many students may struggle to afford earning (what I think is ) a quality education.

Forget the Selfie — Loved this blog and thought what a good lesson it might make.  One could guide a thoughtful class conversation about social media or the idea of being other-centered..  December 3 is past, but it might be interesting to poll students about causes they find important, and help them think of ways they could help that cause (beyond sending money, like donating time or promoting their cause through social media).  ‘Tis the season for giving (back).

Close Reading, The New Buzzword – I’m hearing “close reading” cited so often in so many areas of education that I fear this important strategy will become overplayed.  Are you clear on the definition of close reading? Here’s Douglas Fisher, reading researcher and author about improving student achievement, sharing a solid definition.  When content area teachers ask you about close reading, this is a simple way of explaining it.

The Biggest Lie Students Will Tell – Thoughtful blog with good suggestions for those students who give up easily.

Do Your Students Know How to Converse?  – This blog gave me food for thought about classroom discussions. I often assume students know, by middle school, how to have a conversation.  Then I talk to my own children (5th and 8th grades).  I’m reminded that pre-teens and teens need guidance in the give-and-take of conversation (especially since we live in a world where conversation is most often virtual).