“How can we set up an environment that makes it more likely that students will succeed?” ?” “How can we choose the correct research-based strategies to use in the classroom?” With so many resources and so little time available, it may be helpful to have a reference to consider data-based decision making and planning. … Read More Preparing for the New School Year: Pulling it Together with Instructional Planning
Invitation to Read: A Classroom that Supports Reading for Every Student
Create an inviting, literacy rich, and motivating classroom that supports reading, while students actively engage with text, peers, and others. Engineer your classroom as an environment where students are enticed to learn to read, discuss their reading, and consequently, become motivated by their own reading successes. Research To improve reading skills, students must read. Students… Read More Invitation to Read: A Classroom that Supports Reading for Every Student
The Power of Eight!! Pulling it Together with Instructional Planning Effective Behavior Practices and Academic Strategies to Meet the Needs of Diverse Learners
In their meta-analysis of “what works” in classroom instruction, Mastropieri and Scruggs (2009) examined some commonly used content area interventions for students with disabilities and found “moderate to large effect sizes” for selected interventions. Implementing these practices establishes the “conditions for learning” and represents one of the most effective ways to reduce problem behavior in school (McIntosh, Sadler, & Brown, 2012). Read More The Power of Eight!! Pulling it Together with Instructional Planning Effective Behavior Practices and Academic Strategies to Meet the Needs of Diverse Learners
Closing the Virginia Mathematics SOL Achievement Gap
With the implementation of Standards-based IEPs, there is a heightened awareness of the math content, as well as raised performance expectations for students with disabilities as general and special educators collaborate on the behalf of students. Mathematics graphs, represent a trend toward closing the achievement gap that exists between subgroups and across grade levels beginning in… Read More Closing the Virginia Mathematics SOL Achievement Gap
Tools For Collaboration: Making Meaning of Data Through Structures For Collaborative Conversations
When staff members share dialogue around data, the numbers take on meaning. Data with meaning leads to intentional decisions to support student academic and behavioral needs. A variety of teams can apply these structures to school-wide, classroom specific, small group, and/or individual academic and behavioral data. RESEARCH Data is considered the main ingredient used… Read More Tools For Collaboration: Making Meaning of Data Through Structures For Collaborative Conversations
Designing Instruction That Moves Students Toward Grade Level Math Standards What Does It Look Like in the Classroom?
To design instruction that allows a diverse class of students to move toward grade level standards, Marian Small (2009) suggests two core strategies. First, use open questions. Secondly, use parallel tasks, that are designed to meet the needs of students at different developmental levels. Research Confident, engaged math students are contributors to classroom discourse because… Read More Designing Instruction That Moves Students Toward Grade Level Math Standards What Does It Look Like in the Classroom?
Teaching Students to Be Strategic Readers
Good readers are able to effectively coordinate their interaction with text by selecting and integrating reading strategies to use before, during and after reading. Torgeson (2006) emphasizes that struggling readers will need explicit strategy instruction that teaches them to use a repertoire of active comprehension strategies, including prediction, analyzing stories with respect to story grammar… Read More Teaching Students to Be Strategic Readers