K-5 Journeys.............did you know these facts?

• each grade level has over 1000 online guided reading books
• the Focus Wall can be the teacher presentation tool as it can be personalized and have other links connected on it - with a weekly parent letter already written for you in the Grab 'n Go
• over 400 interaction whiteboard (Smartboard lessons) are available at each grade level
• four text for students every week at minimum
• District common assessments can be easily created and scored online for reading and writing 
• Decodable readers for K-2 assist with students who need repetition
• 4 tubs with 5 different books -  guided reading books that fit the theme and vocabulary of the week
• center flip charts with activities for each week's lessons that fit with the week's focus learning targets

www-k6.thinkcentral.com  

Age of Distraction: Why It’s Crucial for Students to Learn to Focus

Katrina Schwartz | December 5, 2013 |

Digital classroom tools like computers, tablets and smartphones offer exciting opportunities to deepen learning through creativity, collaboration and connection, but those very devices can also be distracting to students. Similarly, parents complain that when students are required to complete homework assignments online, it’s a challenge for students to remain on task. The ubiquity of digital technology in all realms of life isn’t going away, but if students don’t learn how to concentrate and shut out distractions, research shows they’ll have a much harder time succeeding in almost every area.

“The real message is because attention is under siege more than it has ever been in human history, we have more distractions than ever before, we have to be more focused on cultivating the skills of attention,” said Daniel Goleman, a psychologist and author of Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence and other books about social and emotional learning onKQED’s Forum program.

“Children I’m particularly worried about because the brain is the last organ of the body to become anatomically mature. It keeps growing until the mid-20s,” Goleman said. If young students don’t build up the neural circuitry that focused attention requires, they could have problems controlling their emotions and being empathetic.

“It’s about using the devices smartly but having the capacity to concentrate as you need to, when you want to.”

“The circuitry for paying attention is identical for the circuits for managing distressing emotion,” Goleman said. The area of the brain that governs focus and executive functioning is known as the pre-frontal cortex. This is also the part of the brain that allows people to control themselves, to keep emotions in check and to feel empathy for other people.

“The attentional circuitry needs to have the experience of sustained episodes of concentration — reading the text, understanding and listening to what the teacher is saying — in order to build the mental models that create someone who is well educated,” Goleman said. “The pulls away from that mean that we have to become more intentional about teaching kids.” He advocates for a “digital sabbath” everyday, some time when kids aren’t being distracted by devices at all. He’d also like to see schools building exercises that strengthen attention, like mindfulness practices, into the curriculum.

The ability to focus is a secret element to success that often gets ignored. “The more you can concentrate the better you’ll do on anything, because whatever talent you have, you can’t apply it if you are distracted,” Goleman said. He pointed to research on athletes showing that when given a concentration test, the results accurately predicted how well each would perform in a game the next day.

Interesting article to reflect on stamina for learning!  Click here to read.

About Edcite

In a collaborative meeting today at Fox River, Sara Schoepke shared this wonderful site.  It has potential activities that can fit into every day teaching -- teacher-created assignments with immediate feedback on their performance. 

Edcite is focused on providing teachers an easy way to create Common Core assignments that fit their class. We support Smarter Balanced and PARCC question-types, including ELA passage highlighting, dynamic Math graphs and image labeling. Teachers can easily share assignments in the Edcite Library; where other teachers can discover & tailor these to fit their own classes. Teachers save time not only in assignment creation but also in reviewing student responses using our automated grading and feedback features.

Edcite also addresses a critical issue for students who are unfamiliar with online standardized assessments that are required as most states and school districts begin to move towards the Common Core standards soon. This lack of familiarity limits students' ability to adequately demonstrate their learning and can affect their progress through the K12 system. At Edcite, students can use our Library of teacher-created assignments to get unlimited practice on relevant assignments; and they can get immediate feedback on their performance with suggestions for improvement when needed.

Contact us by email: hello@edcite.com

Visit the blog to learn more about our goals for Edcite.

Learn more about the Edcite Team.

Badger Exam 2015   

Information for Educators

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Badger Exam 3-8 Information for Educators
Student Tutorial ModuleClassroom Activity Administration Guidelines
Performance Task Overview
Accessibility and Accommodations Training Module
Usability, Accessibility, and Accommodations Guidelines
Badger Exam DPI website

Things for Educators to Know

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• All students will be required to have headphones for the ELA portion of the test.

• Universal supports are supports that are available to all students based on student preference.
• Designated supports are supports determined by an educator or a team that would be in the student's best interest.
• Embedded supports ~ are built into the computer test system.
• Non-Embedded supports ~ are not built in to the computer test system.
• Accommodations are determined by a student's IEP or 504 documentation.

Badger Practice Exam

The Badger Exam practice test is best for learning the interface of the 2015 test.  It is organized in grade bands and is great for practicing navigation of the test.  This practice test will also include the universal tools, the designated supports, and accommodations.

This practice test will not work in Internet Explorer.

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Link to Badger Exam Practice Test

Badger Exam Sample Classroom Activities 

• Out of This World - Grade Band 3-5 ELA 
• Technology of the Future  - Grade Band 6-8 ELA 
• Lemonade - Grade Band 3-5 Mathematics
• Cereal - Grade Band 6-8 Mathematics 

Badger Exam Practice Test Performance Task (PT) Scoring Guides - These practice test scoring guides are only for the Badger Exam Practice Test for the PT items.

• ELA PT Scoring Guide - Grade Band 3-5 
• Mathematics PT Scoring Guide - Grade Band 3-5 
• ELA PT Scoring Guide - Grade Band 6-8 
• Mathematics Scoring Guide - Grade Band 6-8 

Smarter Balanced Practice Test

The Smarter Balanced Practice test materials give students and staff an idea of the content and rigor of this type of standardized test.  It is organized with questions at each grade level, BUT is a different testing interface than students will see in Spring 2015.

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Link to Smarter Balanced Practice Tests

Smarter Balanced Resources and Documentation ~ includes Manuals, User Guides, Classroom Activities, Scoring Guides, & Performance Task Writing Rubrics

THANKS GOES TO SARA SCHOEPKE -- TECHPD.WEEBLY.COM  FOR THIS INFORMATION.

What 60 Schools Can Tell Us About Teaching 21st Century Skills: Grant Lichtman at TEDxDenverTeachers - YouTube

WHY is change so hard?  Do we need to understand the difference between change that is hard versus change that is uncomfortable?  This is inspiring.



What 60 Schools Can Tell Us About Teaching 21st Century Skills: Grant Lichtman at TEDxDenverTeachers - YouTube:



'via Blog this'

Welcome to Guys Read

Welcome to Guys Read, a web-based literacy program for boys founded by author and First National Ambassador of Young People’s Literature Jon Scieszka.  Our mission is to help boys become self-motivated, lifelong readers.

Research shows that boys are having trouble reading, and that boys are getting worse at reading. No one is quite sure why. Some of the reasons are biological.  Some of the reasons are sociological. The good news is that research also shows that boys will read — if they are given reading that interests them.

So the biggest part of this site is the collection of titles below. These

 are books that guys have told us they like.

The Data Speaks: Usage = Gains! Are Your Students on Track?

Students make amazing gains when they use Reading Plus with fidelity! During the 2013-14 school year, students who engaged in extensive scaffolded silent reading practice in SeeReader (100 or more lessons) achieved an average of two grade-level gains on the InSightassessment. Are your students on track to completing 100 or more SeeReader lessons by the end of this school year?

Just what makes you get up early and stay up late?

Just what makes me so passionate about the teaching of reading ?

Reading Plus   Why am I so passionate about the Reading Plus program when all 3 components are used for 5-12 graders?   I have seen it with my own eyes that students in high school and middle school who were in special ed for READING for years make the kind of growth that gives them independent success in the universal instructional curriculum.  I have seen over 9 students move 4-7 grade levels with consistency over the course of a year with Reading Plus as a regular 40 minute intervention.  They can decode, comprehend and read at a higher rate than ever before.  The students themselves are astonished.  

The scientific research behind Reading Plus - why all 3 portions are important and how it can change a life. Click here.

+++++visual attention therapy had any influence on improvement in reading comprehension of sixth graders with moderate reading disabilities

t+++++he relationship between students’ reading abilities, measures of temporal vision processing, and silent word reading fluency

More on Insight.

Kathy

If you haven't heard of my favorite site for really understanding the teaching segments of the standards, check out LearnZillion.

I think it is so important to teach the concept of theme in the context of literature -- the small steps need to be taught within the instructional context of getting to the concept.  Click here 5th grade theme.

I love talking, planning and teaching about Literacy!  Kathy

Six Reading Habits to Develop in Your First Year at Harvard

Just what I love about surfing the cloud..........it affirms what you know and puts it into a new readable reminder that can be used for students.  I am sure you have someone who wants to go to Harvard - don't you?  Click here to get your Harvard Mindset on!