A redox reaction involves both oxidation (loss of electrons) and reduction (gain of electrons). Learn how to identify whether a reaction is redox or not.
Advice about the correct order in which to use adjectives becomes a surprise online success.
Vocabulary is one of the most important areas that children need to master in order to excel in the 11+. Vocabulary skills are tested in the Verbal Reasoning exam, in reading comprehensions and during interviews. It's therefore vital that you constantly remind your child of how important vocabular
If you are writing a historical fiction, or epic fantasy, chances are one of your settings will be in a medieval village. Not all villages are set up in the same way, but for the most part they wi…
Last week, I blogged about Bloom's Taxonomy and Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS). (See April 2, 2012.) My friend, Andrea, over at One Teacher's Take...is Another's Treasure commented that she also uses Webb's Depth of Knowledge (DOK) Levels and Marzano's Dimensions of Thinking, both of which are new to me. So, I immediately googled them. Here's what I found. . . Webb's DOK Levels look like this: What I like about Webb's model is the 4 levels versus Bloom's 6. It's always nice to condense things, isn't it? At least in my realm of preparing dozens of lesson plans each day, less is more! The 4 level descriptors (the inner circle) boast newer and somewhat clearer concepts. Then my eye wanders over the outer circle. Ouch! Another sea of verbs to swim through. The 4th level, presumably the quarter in which we strive to spend most of our time, is curiously short on verbs compared to the other 75%. Are those 8 verbs/phrases just more succinct? Or, do they reflect the limitations foisted upon teachers by the Common Core of Teaching Standards, standardized testing, and uniform time lines? Surely that triad has bearing on it. Perhaps there is more to be considered, however. Is the 4th level truly where teachers strive to be? I hope, in my heart of hearts, that the answer is YES. However, it is possible that some, if not many, teachers find little motivation to work on level 4. Their efforts are not evaluated by standardized tests, depriving them of extrinsic approval. Paychecks remain static whether teachers push their students toward extended learning or not. Indeed, rewards are esoteric. Certainly the dedicated, professional teacher experiences intrinsic satisfaction. S/he may even be fortunate enough to receive accolades from students, parents, colleagues, and/or administrators. Is that enough? In a future blog, I'll discuss Marzano's Depth of Knowledge Levels. Until then, I'd love to hear your thoughts about teaching HOTS.
To use for story elements, problems with writing, and for drawing help
Organisations are under increasing pressure to equip staff with higher-order thinking strategies to thrive. Here's why they are essential.
Check out this free speech therapy verbs conjugation chart! It's the perfect visual for teaching and practicing tenses of basic verbs!
With the passing of dyslexia laws in the state of New Jersey in 2014, there has been an increased focus on reading disabilities and dyslexia particularly in the area of effective assessment and remediation. More and more parents and health related professionals are looking to understand the components of effective dyslexia testing and who is
I had my heart in my mouth last Sunday night watching the CNN program “Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown”. He was in Colombia! That’s a place where I would dearly like to go …
Aloha! I want to thank everyone for stopping by and taking a virtual vacation with me. It really is fun to share my little part of the world with you. Today I am taking a break from the sun and happily joining in on Chapter 1 of the Daily 5 book study, hosted by Mel D. at Suesstastic Classroom Inspirations and Nicole at Teaching With Style. I found out about the Daily 5 from everything I was seeing on Pinterest. I was curious and it led me to so many great blogs and ideas, that I ordered it immediately. It has been an amazing resource for me and I am so happy to be able to share out some ideas and find out what everyone else is doing in their classrooms. I actually started my Daily 5 journey back in January when I discovered the book. I read it quickly and then reread it. Such simple ideas to make my teaching easier and more productive. I couldn't wait to get started. Chapter 1 takes us through the evolution of our teaching style. The authors discuss how they went from full teacher control of the classroom to giving more choices to their students and releasing some of that power. I know this sounds scary. How many of you want to give your kids all those choices? I envision mass chaos in the classroom doing this! I fully admit to being a Control Freak! But as you read on and begin to implement these ideas you really do see children taking ownership and becoming more responsible for themselves and their peers! These are some excellent questions to help you get started on your journey: 1. On pages 4-6 the author's present 2 different pictures for their classrooms. In thinking about and reflecting on you own practice, how would you characterize your literacy block? Does it look more like the 1st or 2nd scenario, or is it somewhere in between? How will you change it? In my classroom I use centers during my main literacy block. Each child rotates through a set schedule while I meet with a particular group. I was in full control of this. I had a scheduling map, certain centers, and who was in each group. Again, control freak. The kids loved most of the centers, but I was always getting up and talking to someone or answering questions, or helping with the computer or..... I was maybe getting in a quality 10 minutes with my guided reading group. Sounds like the first scenario in the book. Okay so I want to give my students more control, but how? A phrase you will learn in this book is-"Building Stamina". Building stamina is giving your students time to practice and add a little more each time. The sisters take you step by step on how to give your students that control and let you work more efficiently. "Work smarter, not harder!" I am so excited to begin my year slowly building stamina with my students and teaching them explicitly how they should be working in the classroom during our literacy time. This takes time, and you need to go through the process for this to work, but it pays off in the end! 2. The typical teacher is very busy having students do lots of different activities. How is what you are having students do now in your classroom creating quality readers and writers? This is such a powerful question to make you reflect on what is happening in your classroom. I know I have all these cute centers set up and it looks wonderful, but what are they really gaining from these activities? Is filling out that worksheet helping them to become indpendent learners or did they just copy from their partner? If Johnny is really engaged in reading why did he just get up to go to the bathroom for the 3rd time? I had to really look hard at my class and be honest with myself. Some of my students were fully engaged and many of them were off task...alot! How do I get them to stay on task and engaged when I am not hovering? The next few chapters will get more into this:) 3. What sets the Daily 5 structure apart from what you are doing in your classroom? I think the main thing again for me is the independence of your students. The more control you have in your classroom, the less independence children develop. If you want your students to take control of their learning, you have to give them some choices. What's great about the Daily 5 is that it gives choices within limits. Daily 5 Structure: Read To Yourself Read To Someone Work on Writing Listen to Reading Spelling/ Word Work In my literacy block I usually had 6-8 centers going at once. Students were all over the place. They couldn't remember what each center was and they spent so much time transitioning, that their time for reading and writing was greatly diminished. By setting up, teaching the structure and giving your students time to practice these skills, the on task time will greatly increase. There is so much to explore and I look forward to delving into the next chapters for more in depth ideas and ways to get started. If you would like to link up and share out your ideas or your reservations sign up below:)
I LOVE POETRY! I love to read it, write it, and teach it, and above all, I want my students to love it too! In order for them to love it, however, they have to understand it. I've always had a difficult time getting students to think deeply when it comes to poetry analysis, so I decided to develop a new process this year to help them practice. I ended up with a seven step process. To practice, I put together a packet of six of my personal favorite poems. We went through the packet together, in groups, individually, etc. until I felt confident that my students were getting it. Then, I gave them a pop quiz using the same process! I have put this packet on my Teachers Pay Teachers account for free, so go download it and use it! One thing that isn't on TPT, though, is the Google Presentation I used with the packet. You can check that out here! Here are the seven steps: Number the lines in each poem, and label the rhyme scheme if there is one. Read the poem several times. Circle any unknown words. Summarize each stanza. Annotate the poem by noticing and labeling any literary devices, figurative language, symbolism, imagery, etc. Identify the major theme of the poem, and provide evidence to support your choice. Identify your favorite line or phrase from the poem, and explain why you chose it as your favorite. Choose one of the unknown words you circled and develop a definition (in your own words!) based on context clues from the poem. And here are some examples of the poems once they have been analyzed!
Learn to use the MoSCoW prioritisation technique with this helpful article. MoSCoW analysis, or the MoSCoW method is ideal for anyone working on agile projects. Click here to read.
This is a fun worksheet to practice the Past Simple or the Past Continuous. Students look at the pictures and fill in the gaps with one of the linking words in the box in order to complete the story.
I am ready for our summer trip to PEI. I’ve got my packing list, my annotated maps and guides, my camera gear and sunscreen. What else do you really need for an awesome, epic beach vacation? Reading material, of course!
This worksheet is a grammar drill for students to practice the use of There + To Be in the Past. It starts with some examples in order to review the use in the affirmative, negative, interrogative forms and short answersI use pictures of the movie "The Secret Life of Pets". It's motivating!There is no solution - ESL worksheets
Sycophantic - attempting to win favour from influential people by flattery. Image - http://wordinfo.info/words/images/sycophant-1.jpg
In my Orton Gillingham journey I’ve heard some who use the word CLOVER to teach syllable types. In the class I took, the word to remember syllable types is REVLOC. The reason for using REVLOC is that this is the order of the syllable for labeling. CLOVER may be an actual word, but REVLOC will […]
Animoto, an amazing web tool I first discovered and shared back in September 2007, has released a portal site specific for education, educators and students: education.animoto.com. The overview pag…
Part 1 of 3 Before the opening of the first Steiner Waldorf school in Stuttgart in 1919, Rudolf Steiner had less than three weeks to prepare the first twelve Waldorf teachers, who were dedicated to…
