Teacher suggests alternatives to the five-paragraph essay--Thoughtful and provocative - a great read on an old format.

Chicago teacher Ray Salazar writes in this blog that he believes the traditional five-paragraph essay format is useless outside the classroom. Salazar suggests alternatives, including Aristotle's original five-part format for persuasive essays, along with the College Board-promoted SOAP format and a three-step thesis statement structure, to help students produce more thoughtful persuasive essays while conforming to Common Core State Standards. ChicagoNow.com/The White Rhino blog

Great Info!

We posted an article that we thought you and your readers might be interested in having a look at, “The 10 Poorest High Schools in the U.S.” (http://www.onlineuniversities.com/blog/2012/05/the-10-poorest-high-schools-in-the-u-s/). Just thought I'd let you know that you would be interested in featuring or mentioning it in your blog

Great Learning Opportunities on the Common Core!! - Where Literacy is foundational!!

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The Common Core: The Foundation of the RtI Framework

MAY 30 | 10:30am-12:00pm (PT)
WestEd's Silvia DeRuvo and Joe Sassone invite you to hear about how an effective multi-tiered academic RtI framework can help schools close the knowledge gap to meet the demands of the Common Core State Standards.

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Personalize Learning to Meet the Common Core

JUN 5 | 10:30am-12:00pm (PT)
Kathleen McClaskey of EdTech Associates and Barbara Bray of Rethinking Learning will share how Personalized Learning can support all students to meet the higher expectations and higher cognitive demands of the Common Core State Standards.

Great Article on Literacy Projects from Around the World!

We recently published an article that you may be interested in entitled, “25 Inspiring Literacy Projects Around the World” (http://www.onlineuniversities.com/blog/2012/04/25-inspiring-literacy-projects-around-the-world/).

After having followed your blog for a while, I feel that this article would align well with your blog's subject matter. I thought perhaps you'd be interested in sharing this article with your readers? Thanks, and keep up the great blogging!

Inservice: How to teach students to make evidence-based inferences

Great new book!!

Students use different processes to draw conclusions via inference. How can teachers explicitly model these processes? In the book "Inference: Teaching Students to Develop Hypotheses, Evaluate Evidence, and Draw Logical Conclusions," Harvey Silver, Thomas Dewing and Matthew Perini examine four inference strategies. This new blog post from ASCD's Inservice blog previews these four strategies. Read on.

As common core moves us towards teaching reading in all classrooms, here Drl Robbin Nichol of RSU 73 gives us some ideas.

I have just completed the radio-chemistry unit with my Tech Chem students. Bearing in mind that most students knowledge of radiation is from misinformed popular journalism, Hollywood (I wouldn't even give them the description of misinformed for the baloney they serve up), and video games, this unit is usually the first time they have been introduced to the facts concerning nuclear power, radiation and risk. Risk is a particularly tricky one for teenagers, in a world where it is either right or wrong most teenagers find it very difficult to assess and understand risk. This unit introduces all aspects of radioactivity to the students; its natural existence; the use of nuclear power, how it works and the risks and challenges it presents; elemental transmutation and how the elements are constructed; the different kinds of radioactivity their discovery and their detection; nuclear fission and fusion and its uses for good and not so good. This latter part involves the examination of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings (I use the movie "White Light Black Rain" for this); examination of the Chernobyl disaster and the Three Mile Island incident along with the movie "China Syndrome and the effects these had on the American perception of nuclear power and its risks. Students work on Radioactive Decay charts and chains and using problem solving strategies to predict products, precursors and radioactive emissions and to round off the unit we watch a portrayal of the investigation of the Chernobyl disaster, following all of this as a tying up the loose ends exercise we use this piece as a little bit of a brain stretcher to get the less reading/writing orientated students to use and develop their expository skills. It usually starts with howls of protest but they calm down relatively quickly when they realize that the information is all there for them and all they really have to do is to extract it and define it.

Reading Critically - courtesy of ASCD Smart Brief

• How to teach students to read critically
  Veteran school administrator Ben Johnson in this blog writes about the importance of teaching students to read with a critical eye. Students must first be encouraged to love reading, and then be taught to do so actively through techniques, such as reading with a pen in hand to take notes and identify key concepts, processes that could be made easier through the use of digital textbooks. Educators also should model reading critically with students to help them develop the habit with every assignment, he writes. Edutopia.org/Ben Johnson's blog (2/22)     

Ideas for teaching students to craft logical arguments - courtesy of ASCD smart brief

• With the increased focus on argument, here are some effective instructional strategies for teachers to use.
  The writer of this blog post suggests ways in which educators can teach students to construct logical arguments, a key element of the new Common Core State Standards on writing. Among other ideas, Katherine Schulten suggests students analyze a series of opinion blog posts on a topic that interests them, or create a collection of classroom opinions on a new topic of their choosing. The New York Times (tiered subscription model)/The Learning Network blog (2/13)     

As we move into the digital age, we need to think about how to provide a framework for the use of the new technology. Here is a good article, coutesy of ASCD - Smartbrief.

• Will students learn more using digital textbooks?
  Apple's launch on Jan. 19 of new digital-textbook software has educators and experts considering whether students will learn more and better using these and other tablet-based resources. Measuring the effect of these tools may prove complicated, and experts, including Ron Owston of Canada's York University, say teacher effectiveness and the environment in which the technology is used are important factors. "Kids need some structure. They need guidance. They need feedback. They're not going to get that from electronic books alone," Owston said. Wired.com/Wired Science blog (1/26)     

3 steps for creating a digital textbook

• Here is an excellent how to for creating a textbook.  Creating your own text book, allows for teachers to build in differentiation as well. 
  Educator Dolores Gende in this blog post outlines three steps for teachers who want to create their own digital textbooks and involve their students in the process, and includes several resources to use along the way. She suggests teachers first aggregate online content using social-bookmarking tools such as Delicious and Diigo, before taking on a deeper analysis -- or curation -- of the content. Lastly, Gende recommends using tools such as Google Sites or the new iBooks Author to create a finished product. KQED.org/Mind/Shift blog (1/25)     

Common Core is Wedding Literacy to ALL Content Areas. Here is an example.

Find out strategies for improving science instruction for diverse learners!

Making Sense of SCIENCE: Going Deep to Go Far by Linking Science and Literacy Instruction
Wednesday, February 8
10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Pacific Time (1:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time)
Come hear a WestEd curriculum developer and a district science coordinator share facilitation strategies that all teachers and teacher educators can use to support science learning with all students, including those who are English learners or initially low achievers.

We encourage you to attend the live webinar to interact with the presenters and other participants about this important topic. Please send any advance questions to eventquestion@wested.org .

To sign up for this webinar, please visit http://www.schoolsmovingup.net/webinars/mss