Articles Tagged with “Research and Reflections”
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Children Should be Seen AND Heard
Dismantling racism in the ELA curriculum so all children feel valued
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High-Quality Curriculum Raised the Bar, But Not High Enough
What we miss when we narrowly define what “high-quality” means in instructional materials
Research-based AND Responsive
Putting the science of reading to work for the kids in front of you
Part 2
Constantly Shifting Practice
How the Shifts of the Common Core changed instruction and still missed the mark
Developing Language and Literacy With Children’s Literature and Through the Lens of a Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy
Why children’s literature fosters a culturally sustaining pedagogy
We’ve Come a Long Way, Fast
How Technology is Shaping the Modern Classroom in Unseen Ways
Learning From Mistakes: Easier Said Than Done
How can you turn mistake-making into mistake-learning in your classroom?
Helping Our Students See Themselves and the World Through the Books They Read in Our Classrooms
The impact of text selection on students
“SCCANning” Your Library for Culturally Relevant Books
A method for ensuring ALL students see themselves in books
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The Power of Representation in Culturally Relevant Texts
Celebrating children of color in the classroom
You Can’t Tackle Culturally Responsive Teaching Without Addressing Teacher Language Ideologies
Social justice work in the classroom begins by examining our beliefs about language.
Why A Skills-Based Approach Is Failing Students in Reading
A reflection on Natalie Wexler’s The Knowledge Gap
Let’s Not Make Power ELA/Literacy Standards and Talk About Why We Didn’t
Concerns about the effect of "power standards" on student learning
What the Data Can’t Tell Us
Concerns about summative assessment in a pandemic year
Transforming Literacy Instruction
An opportunity to equitably accelerate students’ literacy development
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Knowledge-Building Model Lessons for Middle and High School
Rethinking how we define “text” to engage older students and accelerate learning
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What Principles Must Underlie Successful Personalized Learning?
What educators should consider when selecting or using personalized learning approaches to accelerate literacy outcomes
Part 1
Is it Possible to Use Personalized Learning to Accelerate Students’ Literacy Outcomes in the Time of COVID?
Examining the research base
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Why Teaching Justice Through Reading & Writing Cannot Wait
How teachers can enact change and combat racism through purposeful discussions and literary curricula
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You Have a List of Culturally Diverse Texts. Now What?
Guidance on facilitating classroom lessons and discussions that push student thinking
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Digital Coaching Menus Bring the Professional Learning Principles To Life
Designing effective coaching sessions that reflect teacher needs
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What to Consider if You’re Adopting a New ELA/Literacy Curriculum
Recommendations for how to search for a new ELA/literacy program
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How Does Education Research Relate to My Practice?
Is your reading program working? What can you do to improve it?
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My Experience with Teachers College Units of Study
A veteran teacher explains the strengths and weakness of the program based on her experience
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For the Love of Learning
How a focus on building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction can enrich ELA instruction and engage learners
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A New Way to Consider Cognitive Demand in ELA Assessments
A Framework for Text Complexity in ELA and Reading
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Professional Learning Design 101
How to Craft a Meaningful Professional Learning Experience for a Room Full of Strangers
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Quality Instructional Materials or Quality Professional Learning Opportunities for Teachers?
Support for educators serving English Learners
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Strong Materials in the Hands of Great Teachers
A year of school visits highlights what makes curriculum work
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On Curriculum: How Pinterest and TpT Exacerbate Inequity
The danger of fragmented materials and the power of a cohesive, knowledge-building ELA curriculum
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Effective Reading Instruction
Why a text-centered approach, instead of a strategies-based approach, is more effective
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Observing Reading Foundational Skills Instruction
Introducing a new tool to observe the components of foundational skills instruction
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Addressing Common Challenges with Student Writing
Why aren’t students successful writers and what can teachers do to help?
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Doing Better: Aligned Instructional Practice
An overview of the Instructional Practice Guide suite of tools
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Making the Connection Between Materials and Instruction
Why instructional practice should be at the heart of all instructional materials decisions
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Seeing College- and Career-Ready Standards through Instruction
Exploring the updates to the Instructional Practice Guide
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Creating and Sequencing Text-Dependent Questions to Support English Language Learners
Strategic selection and organization of questions can be a scaffold that helps English learners grapple with highly complex questions.
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Considering Reading Instruction with the End in Mind
Meet students not only where they are, but also where they're going.
Part 1
To Write or Not to Write. There is No Question!
The benefits of integrating reading and writing practice
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The Role of Educators in Summative Assessment: The Life Cycle of a Question
An inside look at the development of summative assessments
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Compelling Digital Lessons for English Learners
How to use the free WriteReader app to support English Language Learners
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How much time do you need to create a foundation for literacy?
One coach’s reflection on increasing the foundational skills block
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A Visit to Monticello-Brown Summit Elementary School
Though this literacy program uses leveled readers, it focuses on building knowledge through topic-based units and ensures students are not limited to a single reading level
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Welding Literacy into Scientific Instruction
An experienced educator provides a literacy protocol for interpreting scientific complex texts.
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Using Curriculum to Send Essential Messages to Students
How Wit & Wisdom Supports English Language Learners
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Supporting Our Youngest Readers: Teaching the Skills of Reading
Why using decodable readers can be powerful
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Three APPS to Support Students with Special Needs
Helping All Kids Grapple with Grade-Level Content
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3 Steps to Engage Students in Research Writing
A high school teacher shares concrete suggestions for sparking curiosity and stimulating quality research questions
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Designing Effective Homework
Best practices for creating homework that raises student achievement
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High-impact strategies for teaching writing with evidence at the high school level
An interdisciplinary PLC develops common strategies and rubrics to support student writing.
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The Instructional Practice Toolkit: An Introduction
Learn how the Instructional Practice Toolkit can help teachers make connections between planning, instruction, and student outcomes.
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Supporting Excellence: Real Support for Teachers Starts With the District’s Curriculum
A new framework for developing and implementing clear district-wide support for teaching and learning
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Setting S.M.A.R.T. Goals as an Educator
See how using this goal-setting structure can help you achieve content-focused goals during the school year
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Building Teacher Confidence through Content-Infused PD
Working with teachers to improve their understanding and use of curricular materials
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I have an assessment dream: Leading to conquer the big, bad ELA test
A curriculum director explains how to help educators see the potential of aligned assessment
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“We’re the best. Just trust us!”
Finding unbiased information about instructional materials.
Limiting “Teacher Talk,” Increasing Student Work!
A team of teachers share strategies to increase student ownership in literacy
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At the Foundation of Foundational Skills: Structured Phonics
Learn how structured phonics instruction is critical to literacy development and a necessary part of an ELA curriculum
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The Wild West of Open Literacy Materials
Identifying and using high-quality, ELA Open Educational Resources successfully
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Designing Classroom Libraries that Build Knowledge, Vocabulary, and Engagement
The benefits of topic-based independent reading on student motivation
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Determining Reading Fluency
Learn how to determine a student’s current reading fluency level and pinpoint problems impeding students from becoming fluent readers
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What is Reading Fluency?
Literacy experts David Liben and David Paige explain the characteristics of reading fluency
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Introduction to Argument Writing
A long-time middle school teacher and writing expert explains how to design strong writing instruction
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Training Materials for the ELA/Literacy IMET
New training modules on the IMET’s Non-Negotiables and Alignment Criteria
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Adapting Journeys Common Core
A veteran Journeys user shares recommendations to improve basal lessons and better support teachers and students.
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Piloting New Curriculum Options with Educators
Learn about OUSD’s piloting process and find out what teachers thought of three popular ELA/literacy programs
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Lessons from the Fordham Assessment Review
One of the reviewers explains how the assessment review was conducted and what the findings mean for educators and students.
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Supporting All Learners with Complex Texts
Strategies to scaffold instruction of Standards-aligned, complex texts
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Sitting Beside the Learner: The ‘Me’ in Assessments
Common Core-aligned assessments must capitalize on teacher-student relationships
