RDG555

=Ruth Caraballo, Fotini Escobar, Lisa Grigorieff, Velika McGill, Mandy Tippett= RDG/555 Lynette M. Kitchen September 17th, 2012

= = =**__ Best Practices - Reading Materials __**= ==It is important to provide varied reading materials for primary education students. Students need to be exposed to texts that are on their level, text that reinforce the skills that they are learning, and different forms of texts so that they are exposed to real world reading. By exposing the students to these different reading materials, teachers are helping them build confidence, grow as readers, and also showing them the importance of learning to read. These different materials also allow the students to learn at their individual level and pace. The different materials keep the students interested and helps to build a lifelong love for reading.==

===**__Leveled Text__ -** Using leveled texts in the classroom allows for all students to be reading books at their level. This allows the students to be challenged and to grow as readers. By using the leveled texts, the educator is meeting the needs of all the students and providing instruction that is appropriate for each individual student. Leveled text can be used in small groups, guided reading, responsive reading, and for independent reading. Leveled texts allows student to learn without becoming frustrated and also helps students to build confidence as readers.=== [] www.myon.com

===**__Book clubs__ -**Book clubs allow students to learn about, discuss, and become excited about books. Book clubs allow the teacher to differentiate the instruction by grouping students based on reading level. Students also have a choice in what book they choose to read. The students work as a group and select their top three choices so that they are more excited about reading because it is a book that they choose. Having book clubs also promotes discussion about books, which helps students build a better understanding of what they are reading and also helps them to build socialization skills. Book clubs also lend themselves to enrichment activities that require the students to use higher order thinking skills. For information on how Book clubs benefit students in all language aspects visit :=== []. For ideas in creating Student led book clubs (3rd grade and up) visit: [] or [] For other ideas on setting up a book club after-school or within your school (cross grade levels) []

===**__Basal series__** **-** Basal reading programs are produced by major publishers like Pearson Scott Foresman, McGraw-Hill and Harcourt. They include student books (which are usually anthologies of short stories, poems and articles), student workbooks and teachers' editions that provide lesson-planning information and answers to the questions in the workbooks. Theses series usually come with read-a-long accommodations so students of all levels can utilize the series. The programs provide assessments that show student progress and the standards of the program that are typically aligned with state standards.=== [] (Houghton Mifflin) [] (Scott Foresman) [] (McGraw-Hill) [] (Harcourt)

**__Web Programs__ -** Web based programs such as Spellingcity, Flocabulary and Starfall are great programs that provide extended practice of vocabulary lessons.
[] [] [] Other website provide stories at no charge or registration. [] or []

There are videos available for vocabulary instruction with Discovery education that can be added to flip-charts or classroom videos.
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===**__Newspapers and Magazines__ -** Scholastic ESL/ELL pages online is brand new and offers students an opportunity to see the same scholastic magazines as their peers but in Spanish. It has audio link and can move to the same magazine in English.=== []

=__ Best Practices - Writing Programs __= ===Through our discussions we found an effective writing program allows for children to become energetic, curious, and motivated about writing. This requires teachers to present Writing in a way that allows children to make personal connections and be skilled using various writing strategies. A Writing Program should include a positive atmosphere, meaningful and rigorous activities that are engaging, and creative cross curricular writing activities that will allow children to develop writing skills beyond the writing process. Allowing children to collaborate as writers, thinkers, readers, and learners is also important in a writing program. Encouraging students to see themselves as thinkers and writers helps them develop skills to become effective authors.===




 * When teaching students to write, they need to have writing modeled by the teacher, be involved in the writing as a class, and also have time to write independently. By modeling, students are exposed to the basics in writing. For example, when a teacher is modeling a sentence they think aloud " I need to begin my sentence with a capital letter" or "I am done with that word so I need to leave a finger space before I begin a new word." The "I do, We do, You do" model is a great way to scaffold writing to make sure all students in the class are learning the skills needed to be a proficient writer.**
 * This video shows modeled writing, interactive writing, and independent writing.**

**The teacher uses the I Do, We do, You do model.**
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 * As students grow with writing techniques they need to be reminded about the words they use in sentence construction. Instructional sites like www.brainpopjr.com are good for supplementing writing instruction with writing vocabulary words and definitions for these words. This site offers videos with Annie and Moby (robot) modeling writing ideas and asking questions along the way. For older grades there is www.brainpop.com that offers Tim and Moby for answering questions from the audience and examples of all curriculum topics.**

__Lesson Plans for Writing__
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 * In finding instructional resources for teachers to use in all grade levels there is a variety of websites for instructional support:**

There were over 80 video lessons for all grade levels just on writing technique examples.
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There are also interactive lessons for Smartboards or Promethean boards.
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Student story book creator where they can write the story online and then print it out to share or save online. []

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= = =__ Best Practices- Writing activities for English Language Learners __= ==== English learners need consistent reading and writing practice. Explicit instruction in writing mechanics and composition skills is important to begin early in the student's classroom experience. Writing for ELL students can be challenging and frustrating so monitoring and support are needed throughout the grade levels. Writing instruction should be centered on understanding context and communication of the meaning of the words. A teacher's role is to support instruction with context of a rich and challenging curriculum while also finding culturally responsive ideas and materials. Engaging the students in writing activities as well as reading practice will allow those students to develop in both areas at a consistent rate. ELL students can benefit from certain websites such as these: ====


 * Educator resource site specifically designed for ELL instruction. **

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 * Writing web resources for ELL instruction:**

** A site that has celebirties reading stories. students can follow along and enjoy stories told by famous actors and athletes. **
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**This site allows students to listen to the story and write a review on the book some stories come in different languages**.
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=__ Best Practices - Technology __= === Using technology based intervention methods to help students master standards will help maintain a good flow of intervention groups. Researching and finding quality evidence-based interventions should be part of every school districts plan for overall student performance documentation. Immediate response systems that can be used in conjunction with SMARTboard or Promethean technology can be helpful for showing student progress immediately and in charting student interventions for implementation with differentiated instruction. ===

=== It is important to implement evidence-based interventions for many reasons. When administering interventions in the classroom it is important to be able to collect data to see if those interventions are helping the students to become proficient readers. Having evidence-based interventions allows the teacher to see what is and is not working for his or her students. What maybe working for some students may not be working for others; therefore, a new intervention method is needed. All students are at different ability levels and all students learn differently. It is important to monitor a students progress frequently to make sure that the student is learning the skills needed to become a fluent reader. Having an evidence-based interventions also allows the teacher to see where a student is struggling and provides the teacher with data to create lessons and interventions that will meet the needs of each student. Evidence-based interventions provides teachers with much data needed to meet the needs of the students and to also evaluate and see if the interventions he or she is implementing are effective. ===


 * Instructional Interventions: **

__Promethean Planet__ [] Promethean Planet allows the teacher to search for flipcharts based on the skills and concepts being taught in their classroom. Teachers can also find resource packs that allow them to create their own flipcharts to meet their student's needs. It is easy to search this site to find resources created by other teachers and resources to help educators create their own flipcharts.

Realism versus Fiction Writing http://www.prometheanplanet.com/en-us/Resources/Item/29699/two-bad-ants-realism-vs-fiction-writing#.UGYPZa5mPs0

Main Idea Re-teach with student input: http://www.prometheanplanet.com/en-us/Resources/Item/39483/main-idea-and-supporting-details#.UGYQXK5mPs0

Nonsense Word Fluency http://www.prometheanplanet.com/en-us/Resources/Item/71894/nonsense-word-fluency-cvc-vc#.UGYRLq5mPs0

Intervention Strategies and Ideas from the U.K. http://www.prometheanplanet.com/en-us/Resources/Item/100355/early-intervention-in-primary-schools#.UGYRlq5mPs0

__Galileo (__www.ati-online.com) http://www.ati-online.com/ - for Staff we would show blue online videos in the beginning of the year entitled "instructional dialogues" and "instructional effectiveness"

__PLATO__ http://www.plato.com/ Online resource for students to use as an additional source in Standards based instruction. These instructional interventions can be customized to meet weekly, monthly or quarterly goals based on Common Core Standards or State standards. All grade levels and curriculum topics are presented and available upon subscription.

Compass Odyssey: [] This site provides online activities and assessments for students to use to practice skills and concepts already taught by the classroom teacher. These activities are selected to meet the needs of each individual student. Teachers can set up activities based on the skills the student needs additional practice with. The students are assessed at the end of the activity and if they answer 8/10 questions correctly they go on to the next activity, if not they continue to work on activities to learn that specific skill. This site allows students to work on reading, math, and science skills.

McGraw-Hill: http://connected.mcgraw-hill.com/connected/ Online resources and games are used after lessons have been taught with phonics skills. These skills can be played on the SMARTboard and have a self assessment piece that allows children to be interactive with the board while they are also practicing skills being taught. The set-up is the downfall, as it needs a teacher to have it up and running and it takes a few minutes. Children can have access to do it themselves, but having the SMARTboard connected to the teacher computer is where the downfall lies. Children can also screenshot and print the results to add to their journal to show the completion of work. The site allows for reading and phonics skills to be practiced.

=Using Electronic Portfolios as an Assessment Tool= Technology has come a long way. Using technology to help keep student data in one place for the use of assessment and planning purposes is something many districts have been doing. In Maryland, specifically the district of Anne Arundel County, teachers have been using a data system that allows for children's test scores to be online so all staff and support specialists have access to monitor the growth of children throughout the year. This year, in specific, teachers have been asked to take data and analyze student subgroups based on what the school will be evaluated with. It has been something that teachers have had some experience with seeing data and analyzing groups during planning time and as a result efficient teaching strategies and curriculum being planned is differentiated and student groups are formed. Keeping portfolios on students also helps students see what they are missing or can do better and self evaluate their strengths and weaknesses with teacher support. This helps teachers and children know the goals that need to be reached and also gives children a visual of what can be done better. Tracking data for each assessment gives children the opportunity to help show their effort towards their studies and applying skills they know and what they have learned. Students can tell their own story, their story of successes. Electronic portfolios can also require more planning in time management to get all resources saved and stored on the school's portfolio system. Special reminders might need to be set-up to remind teachers to add new students as they enroll and to update the system throughout the year so everything is not left for the end of the year.

**Progress Monitoring Resources**
The following web sites are resources for teachers to use in conjunction with reading interventions. Progress monitoring is a great way to track student progress and develop useful data which can be used to create intervention methods and shared with parents for planning toward reaching goals in steps.

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 * Curriculum Based Management systems**

https://**pmrn**.**fcrr**.org/
 * FAIR**- Progress Monitoring and Assessment Network- This online test, given to all Florida students, is administered by the teacher in grades K-2 and in grades 3-5 preformed by the students. The test provides the teachers with a progress monitoring report on the students reading progress and for teachers to create reading plans based on the students scores. It is administered three times a year.

https://dibels.org/next/index.php
 * DIBELS Next -** For use with the DIBELS Next testing probes in all reading interventions. School districts set up the timeline and how often progress monitoring information is entered by quarter.

http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/independent_reading/scholastic_reading_counts/management_system_reports.htm
 * Scholastic Reading Counts!** (Data Management system and reports)

http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/sri_reading_assessment/index.htm
 * Scholastic Reading Inventory product**

=**Best Practices for Leveraging Technology-**= Using Internet tools to engage students in the classroom and improve learning outcomes is a great way to split the time teachers spend lecturing students.Technology can provide different ways to provide instruction in and out of the classroom. Students can be engaged outside of the classroom by being given online assignments and communicating with students through email. Using technology allows the teacher expand students background knowledge by going on virtual field trips or showing them actual photographs of different places and things. There are so many websites that students can interact with to help build reading and writing skills. Smart boards and Promethean boards are a great way to model writing for all the students to see. Students can also use smart boards, Promethean boards, and computers to create and write stories on their own. Technology makes learning fun for the students!

Myon reader is a website that allows students to read books at their leisure. Students can select from numerous amounts of books and take accelerated reading tests on the books or complete book reports. [|h][|ttp://www.myon.com/]

This web site provides videos and lessons that will enhance the instructional day for teacher by teachers.
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Presentation is everything out with PowerPoints in with mini movies that are sure to capture the students attention. []