In Touch, In Tune

December 2016 / January 2017

As you transition into 2017 and are pondering ways to reinvigorate teaching and learning, why not consider starting a TED-Ed Club? The Clubs program is a part of TED's effort to celebrate youth ideas and bring presentation literacy and public speaking skills to every student in the world.

What is a TED-Ed Club?

• A platform to spark curiosity and celebrate student ideas from around the world.
  
• A flexible series of meetings, either during or after school, for students to discover their passions and discuss ideas.
  
• A 13-session presentation literacy curriculum that supports students in sharing their big ideas in the form of short, TED-style talks.

Does this sound like an opportunity in which your ELT, SET, or after-school students would be interested? If so, check out the TED-Ed Club website or Information Packet for details.

JohnHenry Hain (MoMS) is researching how a gamified incentive program can improve students' ability to support their written analyses with textual evidence. Throughout the school year, students receive one of three randomized rewards (PBIS dollars, minutes of cell phone use, or permission to listen to music for a designated time period) as "loot" when they demonstrate one of three desired behaviors (citing several pieces of text evidence, citing text evidence/drawing inferences, citing text evidence with appropriate citation format). The preliminary data indicate that students are making steady progress. Hain presented information about gamification at the NCTE Conference last month.

For more information about gamification, read Explore Like a PIRATE: Gamification and Game-Inspired Course Design to Engage, Enrich and Elevate Your Learners.

Poetry Out Loud is a contest that encourages the nation's youth to learn about great poetry through memorization and recitation. This program helps students master public speaking skills, build self-confidence, and learn about their literary heritage.

Poetry Out Loud uses a pyramid structure that starts at the classroom level. Winners advance through school, state, and, ultimately, national competitions.

A few schools in Frederick County, including Walkersville, Tuscarora, Oakdale, and Urbana High Schools, participated in the official 2016 Poetry Out Loud contest, and they each have schoolwide winners who will advance in the competition.

If you are interested in participating in the official program, please contact the Maryland State Arts Council.

The Flipped Classroom Model of Instruction allows the teacher to shift the transfer of information online and pull practice and application into the classroom. The Flipped Classroom Model encourages collaboration, inquiry, and problem solving. It allows students to control the pace of their learning, which is particularly helpful for students who struggle, need accommodations, or are non-native English speakers. It also creates more time for student-centered learning, and it affords teachers more opportunities for formative assessment. To learn more, read pages 145-164 of Blended Learning in Action by Catlin Tucker.

Below is a flipped vocabulary lesson Catlin Tucker uses with her high school English students.

Step 1: Inquiry and Exploration

Before students watch a vocabulary video, Tucker puts them into groups of 3-4 and gives each group a sheet of paper that has all vocabulary words underlined and used in context. Students work in small groups to make predictions about the meaning of each underlined word. This anticipating activity serves to set the stage for the flipped content.

Step 2: Transfer Information and Engage
Students watch Tucker's vocabulary video and take Cornell Notes on each new word and definition. Then students write poems, narratives, or song lyrics using 10 of the 15 new words and post them to an online learning environment similar to Google Classroom where classmates provide feedback to each other.

Step 3: Extend and Apply
When students return to the class after watching the vocabulary video and writing their narratives, they complete a series of activities to engage with the words. They might use dictionaries and thesauri to find a synonym and antonym of each word. They might play Socrative Space Race, a game composed of multiple choice questions that ask students to select the word that correctly completes the sentence. Sometimes students play Word Sneak, a game Tucker adopted from Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show to make vocabulary review more fun. For more information, check out Catlin Tucker's blog on Word Sneak.

The Secondary ELA Department is excited to launch a PARCC Test Design & Scoring Mini Webinar Series. Over the next couple of months, we will release short 5-10 minute webinars designed to give you a better understanding of the design of the PARCC ELA/Literacy assessment and how it is scored. We hope that this information will be useful as you plan lessons and personalize instruction to better meet the specific needs of each of your students. The first two webinars in this series are available and focus on the High Level Assessment Blueprints and the Task Generation Models. View the first webinar below!

Click here to access and subscribe to the PARCC Test Design & Scoring YouTube Channel. Additional videos will be added in the coming months.

For the second year in a row, PARCC has released authentic test items from the 2015-16 assessments for grades 3 through 8. The test items are designed to serve as a resource to prepare for the upcoming assessments.

The released items represent approximately one full test per grade level. Also posted on the PRC are scoring rubrics and sample student responses demonstrating what kinds of answers will earn various scores. To view more information about the released items, click here.

Participate in the #EdTechTeam Secret Santa Online Resource Gift Exchange!

1. Sign up on this form by December 25th and share one online "gift." It could be a free Google Doc lesson template, a YouTube or video resource, a blog entry, or anything else you think might be helpful for an educator interested in technology. NOTE: The resource can be written by someone else, i.e. a TED Talk inspiring educational video for instance given by someone other than yourself.
   
2. You will be matched with someone on or before Dec. 25th and your Secret Santa "gift" resource will arrive in his/her email inbox, and you'll receive one as well!
   
3. Post your "gift" (a screenshot of your resource!) on Twitter along with the hashtag #edtechteam for a chance to win a Secret Santa gift box on December 31st!
   

“As students move to the final phases of writing and revision, it’s tempting to brush over publication lessons. After all, students have succeeded in getting words down and saying something meaningful. But it’s these very lessons that elevate not just the writing, but also our writers. It’s these lessons that show our students that their work matters - not just to us, not just to their peers or their parents, but to readers.” (from Writing with Mentors by Allison Marchetti & Rebekah O’Dell)

At our November Literacy/Media Specialists meeting, we discussed Student Opportunities for Publication. Together we generated a list of publishing opportunites ranging from online blogging to writing competitions. Let's work smarter, not harder! If you are familiar with other publishing opportunities for students, please add them to the list so that together we can elevate our students' voices!

Print All ELA/Reading Assessment Windows/Deadlines

• Before 12/16 - High School Fall Semester Research Simulation Task
  
• 1/17-1/31 - Reading Inventory (Read 180, Corrective Reading, Read Naturally, LLI, System 44, Blended English 9, Blended English 10, English 12); Phonics Inventory (System 44)
• Before 2/24 - Middle School Literary Analysis Task; High School Spring Semester Narrative Writing Task

Middle School Department Chairs & Literacy Specialists

• September 14, 2016
• October 14, 2016
• November 3, 2016
  
• December 16, 2016
• January 17, 2017
• February 16, 2017 (Literacy Specialists- Read 180)
• March 2, 2017
• April 7, 2017

High School Department Chairs & Literacy Specialists

• September 21, 2016
• October 14, 2016
• November 17, 2016
  
• December 16, 2016
• January 11, 2017
• February 16, 2017 (Literacy Specialists- Read 180)
• March 6, 2017
• April 7, 2017

Middle School Reading Intervention Representatives

• September 29, 2016
• December 6, 2016
• March 20, 2017
• May 23, 2017

High School Reading Intervention Representatives

• September 29, 2016
• December 6, 2016
• March 20, 2017
• May 4, 2017

Directions to Join the Community and Participate in Discussions

Reading Intervention Representatives from each middle and high school recently met to continue our series of professional learning sessions for the 2016-17 school year. Areas of focus for the year include Curriculum Connections, Student Self-Regulation, and Data Literacy. Participants at this professional learning session:

• Unpacked the reading and writing standards represented in the ELA Literary Analysis Benchmark Task (Curriculum Connections)
• Analyzed the Read 180 rBook in terms of alignment to grade level standards and tasks (Curriculum Connections)
• Developed suggestions to adjust Read 180 to better prepare students for on-grade-level success (Curriculum Connections)
• Analyzed the Growth Goals report from The Reading Inventory to determine appropriate response (Student Self-Regulation & Data Literacy)
• Analyzed the Reading Progress Report for the difficulty of tasks assigned to students within the blended component of Read 180 and identified areas of focus for student conferences (Student Self-Regulation & Data Literacy)
• Previewed the 6 Signposts from Notice and Note: Strategies for Close Reading (Curriculum Connections and Student Self-Regulation)
• Discussed the need for explicit instruction in comprehension and examined strategies for making inferences based on When Kids Can't Read- What Teachers Can Do (Curriculum Connections)

See the Professional Learning page on the Curriculum Now Intervention site for session materials and consult your lead intervention teacher or literacy specialist for more information.

Join us for a 1-credit MSDE book study, using Kylene Beers' "When Kids Can't Read- What Teachers Can Do." This course is structured using a Learn, Apply, Reflect format in which participants will attend 3 face-to-face "Learn" sessions (1/17, 2/7, and 2/21 at the SDC- 3:45-6:45), "Apply" new ideas in your school, and "Reflect" through 3 online assignments. This opportunity is limited to the first 30 registrants due to capacity of the rooms. The registration form is set to close on December 22.

https://goo.gl/forms/QGFlAcWBS97fuHHa2

Complete this form to let us know your immediate and long-term ELA and Reading Intervention needs. (The link to this form is also located on the ELA website.)

Is there something you'd like to share in next month's In Touch, In Tune publication? Email Kristi.Schmidt@fcps.org (English/Language Arts) or Susan.Verdi@fcps.org (Reading Intervention) with the details!