Program aims to boost student literacy with comic books

Motivating non readers is always a challenge.  Here is an article with some great ideas on how to get students involved.  Look closely and you will find opportunities to tie 21st century thinking skills to reading graphic novels.

Here is a link to a list of graphic novels for high school students.  

A traveling program in Denver is working to improve literacy among students at struggling metro-area schools by bringing comic books and graphic novels into the classroom. Schools participating in the Comic Book Classroom literacy program receive weekly visits from the group, which begin by teaching students how to read comics. The eight-week program ends with students creating their own comics. The Denver Post (7/28)

Marazano's 21st Century Skills.

 Here is a great book and webinar on the 21st century skills.  Many of the common core assessments will require students to use 21st century skills as outlined in Marzano's book.  Take a look and see.  You can subscribe to these free updates on your own.  Directions are below.

The following tips are from the NEW BOOK Teaching & Assessing 21st Century Skills By Robert J. Marzano and Tammy Heflebower If, at the beginning stages of the 21st century, we are able to identify a small but important set of skills and teach them well, students will be prepared to adapt to the changing conditions of the 21st century. Read more We believe there are five categories of well-researched skills developed in the 20th century that will have great application throughout the 21st century. Read more The intrapersonal and interpersonal skills of understanding and controlling oneself and understanding and interacting with others in the 21st century will require students to combine their factual knowledge about topics. Read more View all tips FREE RELATEDREPRODUCIBLES Download documents from this book including: Comprehension questions and answers Guidelines Processes Surveys Scales Exercises View reproducibles FIND ASPEAKER Robert J. Marzano and three of his associates—Jane Doty Fischer, Phil Warrick, and Tammy Heflebower—are all qualified to provide professional development to you and your staff surrounding Teaching & Assessing 21st Century Skills. Call 888.849.0851 FREE RELATEDWEBINAR Teaching and Assessing 21st Century Skills Presented by Tammy Heflebower This webinar presents a model of instruction and assessment based on a combination of cognitive skills (skills students will need to succeed academically) and conative skills (skills students will need to succeed interpersonally) necessary for the 21st century. View recording RELATEDWORKSHOP Teaching and Assessing 21st Century Skills Workshop Presented by Robert J. Marzano and Tammy Heflebower January 31–February 1, 2012 Little Rock, AR View workshop

Webinar on August 10, 2011 - Courtesy of eSchool News

Here is a great opportunity for teachers to look at how technology has "tweaked" literacy - writing, reading, speaking, listening.  Zwang will explore how new technology requires new literacy strategies while increasing engagement.  This information can be applied to content areas.

	When? August 10, 2011 at 1 p.m. ET Join Assistant Editor Jenna Zwang for a Twitter Hour as she shares her insights on the latest trends in ed-tech, including: Social media in the classroom Education applications for mobile devices 1-to-1 programs Free educational resources Environmentally-friendly schools/curriculum and more! Send in your questions to @eschoolnews and use the hashtag #esnedchat Follow along #esnedchat and join in on the live discussion and Q&A! Don't miss this interactive session!

PBS LearningMedia offers 14,000-plus free teaching resources

Fantastic resource for all teachers...courtesy of e-school.

PBS LearningMedia is a new digital teaching and learning platform that offers the best of public media content and is produced specifically for teachers from pre-kindergarten through college. It aggregates content from member public television... [Read More]

Productive Group Work based on Collaboration.

Small group teaching can be a challenge.  Putting children together and expecting them to know how to organize, talk, and interact in a productive manner is not realistic.  Teachers choosing to use any type of small group instruction in their classrooms, must provide protocols for students - modeling the strategies and supporting the students through the process several times.  A great resource for establishing protocols is:

Productive Group Work: How to Engage Students, Build Teamwork, and Promote Understanding by Nancy Frey, Douglas Fisher, and Sandi Everlove (Nov 30, 2009) 

It is available on amazon.com.

Foldables!

Foldables  are another way to help students organize their thinking as well as engage them.

While many teachers think of this instructional strategy as geared for the elementary teacher, in truth, it can be used up through high school - see U.S. History.

Foldables work something like graphic organizers - they arrange the information to demonstrate (maximize) the relationship between concepts - something many students find challenging.

Foldables can be made in a variety of ways in order to show a variety of concepts.


If you are interested in learning how to the link I have provided will walk you through the process.






 A number of teachers use flip books to help students organize and prioritize information in content areas - a crucial strategy students need to master in order to comprehend.

This is another format to engage students and provide them with an opportunity to interact (comprehend) key concepts in social studies.

Flip Books can also be used as study guides. 

This format also lends itself to jigsawing or collaborative learning.


Enjoy!

Data reveals gaps in educational opportunities for U.S. students

• Although many studies focus on inner city schools, I often think many of the same conditions exist in our small, Maine schools.  What do you think?
• 
  Students' access to early education, rigorous academics and experienced teachers and counselors varies widely across the country, according to federal data released Thursday on 72,000 schools in 7,000 districts. For example, the study by the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights found that nearly 3,000 high schools in the U.S. do not offer Algebra II courses and fewer than 25% of districts offer free preschool for low-income children. Officials said understanding the findings would be an important step in remedying opportunity gaps for U.S. students. Education Week (premium article access compliments of EdWeek.org) (7/1)