Featured 7-14-2014: The Collaborative for Student Success

 

The Collaborative for Student Success is a grant-making initiative that pools the resources of a diverse group of education foundations.

 

Committed to improving public education, the members of the Collaborative for Student Success share the concept that successfully putting the Common Core State Standards into effect is important to ensuring that all students are prepared for school and life.

 

Their mission is to "support the state-led efforts of State Education Agencies and local education organizations responsible for educating and informing all stakeholders—parents, students, teachers and community leaders—about the new state standards and assessments."

 

The Collaborative is providing grants to:

• aid state and local efforts to effectively inform about the standards and assessments.
• ensure that teachers’ voices are heard both locally and nationally as implementation moves forward.
• involve higher education leaders and business representatives in dialogue about the standards.

 

 

Thus far, Collaborative for Student Success grantees have included groups representing state departments of education, state advocacy organizations, educator-led organizations, faith-based organizations, and local chambers of commerce.

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Featured 7-7-2014: Brown v. Board of Education

 

Brown v. Board of Education was a landmark case in which the US Supreme Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional, overturning the Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896, which allowed state-sponsored segregation, insofar as it applied to public education. The unanimous decision handed down on May 17, 1954, held that separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. This ruling opened the door to integration and was a major victory of the civil rights movement.

 

 

The National Park Service, in support of the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site in Kansas offers a collection of lesson plans and curriculum units for K-12 on their website. Related Common Core standards for all the materials are specified.

 

 

The National Archives provides a compilation of documents related to Brown v. Board of Education  as well as lesson resources, standards correlations, teaching activities, a document analysis worksheet, a timeline, and biographies of key figures.

 

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Featured 6-24-2014: Kids Discover

 

In order to help you integrate core nonfiction topics into your curriculum, Kids Discover has developed hundreds of free downloads, articles, lesson plans, and other resources. 

 

The mission of Kids Discover is "to expose kids to all the wonders in the world—science, space, nature, history and culture—in one easy-to-understand, beautiful publication” with the goal of encouraging kids' natural curiosity while fostering an enthusiasm for reading and learning.

 

A Teacher’s Guide and a Power Vocabulary packet accompany every Kids Discover title. These free downloads come with with activities, exercises, and assessments to help you integrate their nonfiction titles into your curriculum.

 

 

More Kids Discover resources:

• Reproducible, one-page infographics and lesson sheets bring complex concepts to life with diagrams and short captions.
• Long-form Spotlights articles each cover one topic in-depth, and include a photo gallery and short assessment to help improve reading comprehension and vocabulary.
• Short (about 300 words) Quick Reads nonfiction pieces are intended to get kids interested in exploring new ways to read and digest information.

A subject-matter expert from a prestigious university or museum authenticates each issue of Kids Discover. All issues are ad-free.

 

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Featured 6-17-2014: Radix Endeavor

 

The Radix Endeavor is a multiplayer online game for STEM learning in high school.

 

When a player enters the Radix Endeavor  she finds herself on an island with many unknown species of plants and animals, many mysterious places waiting to be discovered, and many problems to be solved. She must try to determine what is causing the problems, how the natural systems work, and which factors need to be changed to improve the lives of the people and save the island from destruction.

 

 

The game offers students the opportunity to participate in a collaborative, social experience in a systems-based game world while they explore how that world works and discover important scientific concepts.

 

The initial phase of the Radix Endeavor will cover topics in biology, algebra, geometry, probability, and statistics. Designed to align with the Common Core standards in mathematics and Next Generation Science Standards for high school students, there is also particular emphasis on developing key mathematics practices and 21st century skills.

 

 

Innovative task-based assessments will be embedded into the game, and that data will be used to track players’ strategies, progress, and potential misconceptions. The data will be analyzed in real time to offer feedback and support to the player to promote learning when concepts and skills are being first introduced. It will also be available on a 'Teacher Portal' to help teachers monitor student progress and differentiate their lessons to meet students’ needs.

 

 Watch The Radix Endeavor Trailer

 

The Radix Endeavor is being developed at the MIT Education Arcade in collaboration with Filament Games, and is funded by the Gates Foundation.

 

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Featured 5-27-2014: BrainPOP Educators

 

BrainPOP Educators presents tips, tools, and resources to excite and support anyone who educates young people.

 

BrainPOP offers animated educational movies, quizzes, games, activities, and other resources for students in grades 3-12, covering more than 750 topics in the areas of Science, Math, English, Social Studies, Health, Technology, and Arts & Music. The movies are supplemented with resources including a quiz, activities, related games, a timeline, and a selection of high-interest reading.

 

 

On BrainPOP Educators you’ll find resources including lesson plans, calendars of events, and creative suggestions for using BrainPOP in the classroom. It also includes a blog that announces new BrainPOP features, hosts guest bloggers, and follows current events from the world of educational technology. 

 

 

A database, searchable by standard, subject and grade level, correlates BrainPOP topics and games to Common Core math and English standards is available. The database also allows you to correlate BrainPOP movies with curriculum standards from individual states and Canadian provinces.

 

 See an overview of BrainPOP Educators

 

BrainPOP Educators offers a variety of training resources including outlines for giving workshops, handouts, and webinars.

 

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Featured 5-22-2014: The Math Open Reference Project

 

The Math Open Reference Project is free, interactive math textbook on the web covering high-school geometry.

 

 

The Math Open Reference Project has the goal of providing high-quality digital content free of charge to the end user, while providing numerous benefits over paper textbooks:

• Accessible anywhere, any time.
• Interactive, interesting experience.
• Hyperlinks promote exploration and easy lookup.
• Use the search to look up a word or term.
• Interactive quizzes with instant feedback.
• Lower cost.
• Less weight.

Using interactive tools and compelling animations, The Math Open Reference Project provides an engaging way to learn and explore the subject. A vast library of virtual manipulatives can be used to demonstrate concepts using a computer, projector, and whiteboard. Students can use the same manipulatives themselves outside the classroom.

 

 

The Math Open Reference Project meets the NCTM standards for content and is aligned with the Common Core standards, but also has the potential to adapt to and comply with the standards for every state.

 

The Math Open Reference Project will work with most popular browsers, including Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari. The interactive illustrations use Java and/or Flash, so these plug-ins must be installed on the user's computer.

 

The copyright and license agreement permit any printing for non-commercial use, useful for class handouts.

 

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Featured 5-15-2014: My Science Box

 

Offering science teachers free access to the best hands-on, classroom-tested, lessons is the pursuit of MyScienceBox.

 

The My Science Box teaching boxes provide everything you need to teach a 4-6 week middle school science unit: lesson plans, assessments, field trip planning materials, resources, and tips.

 

Over three months of lessons include classroom activities, labs and projects, field trips and outdoor activities, computer activities, and more. The 'printer friendly version' button at the bottom of any page generates a printable version of any lesson plan or even a complete teaching box. 

 

 

Registered users can post comments for other teachers to view or leave feedback.

 

Irene Salter developed and tested the MyScienceBox curriculum units in her own middle school classroom. Included are teaching boxes and individual lessons created by other teachers.

 

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Featured 5-13-2014: ReadWorks

 

ReadWorks is a national non-profit organization that provides free, research-based, Common Core-aligned reading comprehension curriculum.

ReadWorks supplies units, lessons, and authentic, leveled non-fiction and literary passages directly to educators online to be shared broadly.The curriculum is based on the most highly regarded, proven research on reading instruction, and includes:

• Informational and literary passages and question sets for grades K-8
• Skill and Strategy lesson units for grades K-4
• Comprehension (close reading) units for grades K-5
• Novel study units for grades 5-6

ReadWorks is committed to "solving the nation's reading comprehension crisis by giving teachers the research-proven tools and support they need to improve the academic achievement of their students."

 

 

 View Intro to ReadWorks

 

The ReadWorks curriculum is aligned to the Common Core State Standards, the standards of all 50 states, and to top core reading programs. Each lesson page lists the standards that a specific lesson aligns to on the Standards Alignment tab. You can also edit your profile to automatically show the standards alignment for your state and grade.

 

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Featured 5-8-2014: Booktrack Classroom

 

 

Used in the teaching of English and Language Arts, Booktrack Classroom is a new, free technology that enables students to read stories and texts accompanied by a movie-style soundtrack.

 

Integrated with Common Core standards, the easy-to-use Booktrack Classroom technology can improve student reading and writing abilities. New York University and The University of Auckland have conducted studies which show that Booktrack increases reading comprehension scores and student engagement.

 

Booktrack can be used on both an individual basis as well as in group learning exercises. Here are some examples of ways it can be used:

• Narrative Writing – Students can add music and audio to their original stories.
• Informative and Explanatory Writing – Students write essays and articles selecting suitable audio to clarify their text.
• Literature Study – Students can gain insight and increased understanding of the text by creating their own soundtracks for novels, stories, and plays.
• Read-Alouds – Teacher and student led read-alouds are enhanced through the addition of sound and music to the chapter or act being presented.

Booktrack Classroom can foster digital literacy and creative thinking among students while developing multiple learning objectives. 

 

 

 View a short intro to Booktrack Classroom

 

Booktrack Classroom also hosts a library of free lesson plans for K-12 students, covering a variety of subjects and learning outcomes. All lesson plans have been created by professional teachers.

 

 There are free Booktrack mobile apps for both Android and iOS devices.

  

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Featured 5-7-2014: Shooloo Learning

 

 

Upper-elementary and middle school students can help one another practice word problems and apply math to real life using the collaborative learning platform, Shooloo, which means “Number Joy” in Chinese.

 

At Shooloo  students can write their own math word problems, publish them onto the web, get feedback from other students, demonstrate their solutions, and continuously clarify their math reasoning.

 

Tagged with the associated Common Core State Standard, word problems are accompanied by I Can statements. Students can easily compile their own I Can journals, enabling teachers to assess which students are struggling with which Common Core standard. Analytics provide automated progress tracking, real-time reporting, and standards-based grading.

 

 

Founded just last year, Shooloo already claims the world’s largest collection of student-authored math word problems that can be used for on-line learning, worksheets, discussions, and assessment.

 

 Watch Shooloo -- Collaborative Learning for Common Core Math

The Shooloo concept aligns with the Common Core State Standards for Mathematical Practices. Students publish their own math word problems, construct viable arguments, critique the reasoning of others, and model real life with mathematics.

 

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Featured 4-30-2014: Math & Movement

 

A kinesthetic, multi-sensory approach to teaching math, Math & Movement incorporates physical exercise, stretching, cross-body movements, yoga, and visually-pleasing floor mats designed to encourage students to practice math.

 

Students physically hop, walk, crawl, dance, or touch the mats and banners as they learn, thereby using visual, auditory, motor, and kinesthetic learning processes.

 

 

Math & Movement takes advantage of children's natural inclination for movement and creative imagination to master basic math. The floor mats and banners cover the concepts of addition, subtraction, telling time, skip-counting, multiplication, division, fractions, factoring, positive/negative numbers, Cartesian coordinates, money, unit circle, place value, decimals, percents, rounding, and probability.

 

The movements are divided into six categories:

• Active Math: Whisper/Loud Movements - Designed to give your students physical exercise while simultaneously enhancing math and reading ability.
• Active Math: Skip Counting Movements - Designed to provide additional physical exercise while learning the multiples.
• Sit-Down Math Activities - Designed for quiet time and involve stretching.
• Tapping at the Table Activities - Designed to be used in between other activities, while students sit at their desks.
• Hallway Math Activities - Designed to be used walking in the hallway to and from lunch, PE, art, music, computer or library.
• Math 'n Yoga Activities - Incorporate math practice into popular yoga moves.

The Math & Movement program is based on research that suggests that moving during learning facilitates muscle memory, an important factor with younger children whose abstract thinking skills are not fully developed. It also draws on research suggesting that cross-body movements integrate the left and right hemisphere of the brain, waking up a sleepy brain and helping to establish newly learned material in memory.

 

 

 Watch a Math & Movement demo video

 

While developing their math skills, Math & Movement lets students simultaneously experience an overall sense of well-being. Using these activities during the day, before testing, or during transitions, allows teachers and students to feel energized, focused, calm, and prepared to learn.

 

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Featured 4-29-2014: Literacy Design Collaborative

 

Literacy Design Collaborative is a community of educators providing a teacher-designed and research-proven framework, online tools, and resources for creating literacy-rich assignments and courses.

 

The mission of Literacy Design Collaborative is "to ensure that every student in America graduates from high school with the Common Core literacy skills necessary for success in college and career.” In the furtherance of this goal, LDC strives to provide continuous, reflective professional development; to integrate literacy and content in K-12 instruction; and to help educators succeed in implementing the high expectations of the Common Core Standards.

 

Core Principles of Literacy Design Collaborative:

• Align with the Common Core State Standards.
• Promote the distribution of reading and writing instruction among all teachers.
• Make tasks central with clear goals.
• Connects reading and writing instruction.
• Use back mapping to identify the specific literacy skills students need if they are to succeed on a task.
• Foster a responsive system that encourages teachers to adjust their instruction in response to the formative information they gather on student performance.
• Encourage local choice with a balanced focus on results as well as means.
• Be teacher-friendly.

 

LDC offers educators an instructional system for developing students’ literacy skills in preparation for the demands of college and careers. LDC does not provide off-the-shelf curriculum units or lesson plans. Rather, LDC encourages teachers to build students’ literacy skills and understanding of science, history, and other content through meaningful, CCSS-aligned reading and writing assignments.

 

 

 Visit the Literacy Design Collaborative YouTube channel

 

Literacy Design Collaborative, as a dynamic community of teachers, is rapidly expanding its library of exemplary instructional modules, effective mini-tasks, and tools and resources for supporting teachers’ efforts to engage students in rigorous, CCSS-aligned learning.

 

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Featured 3-26-2014: The Inquiry Project

The Inquiry Project aims to build an understanding of science in students ages 8-10 that lays a foundation for later understanding of matter in terms of molecules and atoms.

 

The Inquiry Project is centered on material, weight, volume, density, and related ideas that are important and challenging for students. Elements of this work are the integration of mathematics and the focus on investigative inquiry.

 

Research, curriculum, assessment, and professional development are blended in one coherent system, each component being essential to developing an understanding of how to best prepare learners.

 

 

The basis of The Inquiry Project lies in three content-specific dimensions of inquiry: measurement of matter, change and conservation, and scale. It has been designed to feature the following fundamentals of scientific inquiry:

• Questions
• Evidence
• Explanations
• Knowledge
• Communication

 Watch an intro to Talk Science Pathways

 

The Inquiry Project is a partnership between teachers, TERC, and Tufts University funded by the National Science Foundation.

 

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Featured 3-25-2014: SimCityEDU: Pollution Challenge!

SimCityEDU: Pollution Challenge! is a game-based learning and assessment tool designed to engage middle school students with a high-quality game experience in which they can develop real-world problem-solving skills.

 

 

Playing the role of mayor, students are challenged to address environmental impact while balancing the employment needs and the happiness of the city’s citizens.

 

SimCityEDU: Pollution Challenge! was designed in partnership with assessment experts from Educational Testing Service and Pearson. As well as helping students learn about the factors affecting the environment in a modern city, the game also provides formative assessment information about students’ ability to problem solve, explain the relationships in complex systems, and read informational texts and diagrams.

 

SimCityEDU: Pollution Challenge! consists of six different missions centered on the theme of environmental impact. In each mission, students are required to solve increasingly complex problems.

 

 

 Watch SimCityEDU: Engaging 21st Century Learners

SimCityEDU: Pollution Challenge! addresses such 21st century skills as critical thinking and problem solving. It also aligns with several Common Core standards such as citing specific textual evidence to support conclusions, integrating information from texts and diagrams, reading and understanding text and making logical inferences from it.

 

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