Archive for Professional Resources

Progress measures have become a central component of the Response to Intervention (RTI) approach. Contemporary assessment has shifted focus from describing differences between students to measuring their progress toward important educational outcomes.

Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM) procedures are used to monitor basic skills growth, to identify students at risk of learning difficulty, to evaluate efforts to prevent and remediate low achievement, and to aid in making instructional decisions to accelerate learning.

Stanley Deno, Ph.D., best known for his research leading to the development of CBM progress monitoring procedures and their use in the RTI model, will answer your questions on CBM at the first RTI Action Network Talk on April 23 at 1-2 p.m. EDT. Join this RTI Talk online.

IBRinfo.org is a new web site that provides independent, reliable information about Income-Based Repayment and Public Service Loan Forgiveness, two new federal programs to help make student loan repayment fair and manageable. The site explains the programs and will be updated as new information becomes available. Users can register to get updates on important developments as the U.S. Department of Education finalizes regulations and creates the systems for managing the new programs.

Income-Based Repayment (IBR) is a new payment option for federal student loans that will help borrowers keep their payments affordable with payment caps (less than 10% of income for most eligible borrowers) based on income and family size. IBR also will forgive remaining debt, if any, after up to 25 years of qualifying payments. Public Service Loan Forgiveness will forgive remaining debt after 10 years of eligible employment and qualifying loan payments for people working in key public service professions such as teaching, government, social work, law enforcement, and non-profit 501(c)(3) organizations. Visit the IBR website for more information.

From April 21–27, teachers’ unions around the world will join together at Global Action Week to campaign for education rights under this year’s theme: “Quality Education to End Exclusion.”

Wondering what would work best in your school or community? Education International’s Activity Report on Global Action Week contains summaries of the activities carried out during Global Action Week 2007 by coalitions of teachers’ unions, student groups, parent associations, NGOs, local and national government representatives, and education activists. Download the report on the Education International website.

If you are looking for information and resources on Response to Intervention (RTI), be sure to check out the new RTI Action Network website, which launches today. The site features content on implementing RTI from the preschool to secondary levels, with information for administrators, teachers, specialists, and families. The RTI Action Network is a program of the National Center for Learning Disabilities, and the International Reading Association is a founding partner for the program.

The RTI Action Network website also will offer opportunities to interact with top researchers, experienced RTI implementers, and colleagues. Today, visitors to the site will have a chance to read and respond to commentary by Judy Elliott, chair of the RTI Action Network advisory council. On April 23, visitors can join in a live chat with renowned expert Stanley Deno.

For further information, visit the RTI Action Network.

The Monterey Institute for Technology and Education (MITE) has received a $2 million grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to support the development and publication of a new quarterly journal, the International Journal of Learning and Media (IJLM) to be published by MIT Press. The IJLM will provide a forum for research and debate about the social and cultural implications of the intersection between learning and new and emerging media.

Coedited by David Buckingham of the University of London Institute of Education, Tara McPherson of the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, and Katie Salen of Parsons The New School For Design and the Institute of Play, the IJLM will retain the peer review process of a traditional academic journal while also providing a forum for topical online dialogues.

To see the IJLM call for papers, visit the journal's webpage.

This item is not about reading, but in the interest of promoting musical culture we thought we'd pass along this tidbit from National Public Radio (NPR) that a reader alerted us to. Britain's top concert violinist, Tasmin Little, has released her latest album, The Naked Violin, free on the Internet in an effort to draw more people to classical music. In an attempt to promote such composers as Bach and Mozart, Little also will launch a concert tour later this year, performing at venues such as factories, airports, and shopping malls.

To learn more or to download Tasmin Little's album, visit this page on the NPR website.

The Institute of International Education has announced that applications are now available for the 2008 Toyota International Teacher Program to the Galapagos Islands, a unique professional development program open to full-time secondary school teachers and library media specialists throughout the United States. This is a special chance for educators to visit these remote islands, which house unique ecosystems found nowhere else on Earth.

The deadline for application is May 9, 2008. For further information, access the application form.

From posts about the value of using manga in the classroom to discussions of the flaws in No Child Left Behind, the Open Education.net website is dedicated to tracking the changes occurring in education today. Site editor Thomas J. Hanson, who has more than 30 years of experience in education, says that the site will expose readers to both an objective and subjective look at the many issues facing the profession today. For further information, visit Open Education.net.

E-Scholastic, the online division of Scholastic, has launched Teacher Book Wizard (TM). The new, free website enables teachers, librarians, and parents to search a database of more than 50,000 books from a variety of publishers to find just the right match for every child, according to reading level, interest, subject, and genre. Teachers and librarians can also download free lesson plans related to specific books and purchase many titles at teacher-discounted prices through Scholastic.com's Teacher Store.

To learn more, visit the Teacher Book Wizard (TM) website.

Once again this year, the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation is offering $500 minigrants to public schools and public libraries in the Unites States for innovative programs that promote the love of reading among children. Examples of funded programs include the following: ongoing pen-pal projects; multicultural portrait projects; art projects culminating in art shows, murals, or quilts; bookmaking; creation and performance of puppet shows; and intergenerational journals.

For further information, visit the Programs section of the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation website. The deadline for submitting minigrant proposals is September 15.

RaceBridges, a nonprofit initiative that offers free lesson plans to promote interracial understanding, has created a new lesson just in time for Black History Month. Based on a story by La'Ron Williams, the lesson, which is titled "From Flint, MI to Your Front Door: Tracing the Roots of Racism in America," includes audio excerpts of the author telling his story.

There are now six free lesson plans available from the Race Bridges website, including another unit that is particularly relevant for Black History Month: "Black History: We All Have Race." Designed for students in middle school and high school, the lessons are self-contained; all the materials that teachers and counselors need to conduct the lessons are included on the RaceBridges website.

For further information, visit the RaceBridges website.

The U.S. Department of Education has launched a new version of the Federal Resources for Educational Excellence (FREE) website, which offers a wide range of teaching and learning resources. The site features lesson plans, primary documents, and other classroom resources across the content areas, including many that pertain specifically to reading and language arts.

For further information, visit the FREE website.

WGBH Boston Video will debut the first season of public television's highly acclaimed children's literacy series Between the Lions on DVD on January 8, 2008. This set contains all 30 episodes from the show's first season.

Special features include downloadable materials including a guide for kindergarten teachers, reading tips, practice sheets, and more. There are also downloadable family activity guides in English and Spanish. For further information or to order, visit the shopping area of the WGBH website.

On October 15, Reading Today Daily invited readers to participate in a Great Books survey being conducted by Teachers TV. The London-based free-to-air channel, which is available on digital satellite and digital cable television, wanted to find the top 10 education books that have inspired teachers and others involved in education. More than 1,000 votes were cast for over 150 different books, with To Kill a Mockingbird earning the top spot. A video from Teachers TV lists and describes the top books.

For more information, visit the Teachers TV website. To view a full list of the nominated books and the votes they received, visit Great Books list page.

As a result of No Child Left Behind, teachers have been placed under increasing scrutiny, and now principals are facing that same situation. In an effort to ensure that the effectiveness of all school leaders is assessed in a fair and consistent manner, the board of directors of the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) has approved a set of guidelines for policymakers to consider. These guidelines are based on multiple, objective measures that consider the context in which a principal operates his or her school.

You can access the "Highly Effective Principals--Position Statement" on the NASSP website.

The new website MeetMeAtTheCorner.org provides virtual field trips for home-schooled children ages 8-12. Directed at more than 1.9 million American children, MeetMeAtTheCorner.org provides virtual educational and informational "tours" of various landmarks from a child's point of view via video podcast technology. Each episode offers suggested readings and follow-up activities, including the opportunity for kids to submit their own complementary videos, as well as lesson plans for the home-school parent.

MeetMeAtTheCorner.org currently offers 26 three- to four- minute episodes, including New York City historic and cultural landmarks such as visits to Broadway and the Forbes Museum, and a bird watching expedition in Central Park. The site also features interviews with the likes of children's illustrator Jeff Hopkins and author Dan Gutman. While directed toward home-schooled children, the site could be a resources for others as well. For further information, visit the MeetMeAtTheCorner.org website.

Doing What Works (DWW) is a new website sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education. DWW is dedicated to helping educators identify and make use of effective teaching practices. Much of the DWW content is based on the Institute of Education Sciences' What Works Clearinghouse (WWC). The WWC evaluates research on practices and interventions to let the education community know what is likely to work. For each practice, it issues a guide and/or an intervention report that describes what the practice involves and what the research says. In addition, some DWW content is based on other information and materials from IES.

DWW also provides examples of possible ways educators might apply those research findings, but these are not necessarily the only ways to carry out these teaching practices. Please note that the examples provided on DWW, including any products named in school materials or found on websites referenced on DWW, should not be construed as an endorsement by the U.S. Department of Education of any products, programs, or curricula.

For further information, visit the Doing What Works website.

Dan Heath, publisher of Made to Stick, invites teachers to submit stories about classroom lessons that stuck. It can be a story about your own lesson or something you learned from a colleague or one of your past teachers. Simply provide the details of what the teacher did, how the students responded, and why you think it worked so well. Send stories to heaths@fastcompany.com. Authors of the first 100 stories received will get a free signed book. For details visit the Made to Stick webpage.

Teachers and the general public alike have been inspired by the story of teacher Erin Gruwell and her Freedom Writers, the subject of a bestselling book and then a major motion picture. Now Erin Gruwell and the Freedom Writers Foundation have issued The Freedom Writers Diary Teacher's Guide, which is designed to encourage teachers and students to expand the walls of their classrooms and think outside the box. For further information, visit the Freedom Writers Foundation website.

Scholastic News Edition 4, the award-winning classroom news magazine for fourth-graders, is commemorating its 50th anniversary in the October 8 issue with a special cover story looking back at what fourth graders' lives were like in 1957. Students who love to play video games and surf the Web might be surprised to learn that in 1957 the most popular hobby for kids was stamp collecting. Over the years, Scholastic News Edition 4 (originally called Explorer), has covered many historic events, such as the first moon walk (1969), the fall of the Berlin Wall (1990), and the September 11 terrorist attacks (2001).

Three other Scholastic classroom magazines also are marking anniversaries: DynaMath is 25, Scholastic Action is 30, and Junior Scholastic is 70. For more about information, visit the Scholastic website.

Teacher education programs have for years drawn criticism from policymakers and even some prominent voices in the field. Now, Congress is poised to slash spending on the main federal program aiding colleges of teacher education, despite efforts by some lawmakers to refocus the program to bolster partnerships between such colleges and school districts. Under a fiscal 2008 spending bill the House of Representatives approved in July, support for the Teacher Quality Enhancement Grants program would fall by one-third, from $60 million in just-ended fiscal 2007 to $40 million. The Senate Appropriations Committee, which in June passed its spending bill that includes the U.S. Department of Education, would cut funding for the program to just $28.5 million—a drop of more than 50 percent. Read more of this article from Education Week.

A series of free online "webinars" called "Moving Forward With Technology" are designed to provide practitioners with tools and resources to differentiate instruction, enhance classroom work, and improve academic outcomes for students with disabilities and learning difficulties. The webinars are being presented by Don Johnston Incorporated and the Center for Implementing Technology in Education (CITEd).

The webinars run monthly September through May. The first, "Using Multimedia Materials to Engage and Challenge Learners," will be presented on September 19 at 11:00 a.m. Eastern time and on September 27 at 3:00 p.m. Eastern time. For further information, visit the CITED website.

As teachers head into the classroom for the new school year, there is one more item they can add to their back–to–school list: Thinkfinity.org. It’s free, and it makes life easier for teachers. Thinkfinity.org is for teachers looking for a quick and innovative way to find compelling lesson plans and interactive learning tools to engage students. Thinkfinity.org is the Verizon Foundation’s, comprehensive program and online portal to 55,000 educational resources, including standards–based, grade–specific, K–12 lesson plans and other student interactives provided in partnership with the International Reading Association and many other leading educational and literacy organizations. And, Thinkfinity.org requires no downloadable software.

Sixty bicycles have been given to teachers in deprived areas of the Asante Akim North District in Ghana. District Director of Education N. T. Donkor stressed the importance of giving bicycles to teachers in such districts. He said some teachers in the Afram Plains are suffering a great deal; therefore, it is necessary to give them bicycles in order to motivate them to work harder to ensure progress toward national development. Read the article at allAfrica.com.

Teachers in the United States spend an average of $475 of their own money on classroom supplies and materials each year, according to a study prepared by Quality Education Data Inc. for the last school year. The biggest portion of that spending comes to prepare for the first day of class—which is today at Academy of Dover, Thomas Edison and Marion T. Academy charter schools, and later this week for about half of Delaware’s public–school students. When school districts go through tough financial times, teachers sometimes have to spend a little more. But veteran educators look for summer sales to spruce up their classrooms and motivate children, and hoarding supplies during good years to make things last during bad ones. Read about the practice at delawareonline.com.

To ensure that children reach their full potential, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has created the “Learn the Signs. Act Early.” campaign. The campaign aims to educate parents about child development, including the milestones that mark a child’s healthy development and early warning signs of autism and other common developmental disorders.

Health care providers, child care providers, educators, and parents can receive free materials, available in English and Spanish, as well as other resources and referral information by visiting the CDC website.

The 2008-2009 Fulbright Teacher Exchange Program is now accepting online applications. The deadline for completing applications is October 15, 2007. For further information, visit the Fulbright Teacher Exchange Program webpage.

The U.S. Department of Education is running free summer workshops for teachers through its Teacher-to-Teacher initiative. Workshops focus on a variety of subjects, including reading. For further information, visit the Teacher-to-Teacher webpage.

Looking for ways to join in the celebration of National Poetry Month in the United States in April? The Academy of American Poets offers 30 tips--one for each day in the monthlong observance. For further details, visit the Academy's website.

Interviews with children's book authors and illustrators...ideas for parents and teachers...lists of recommended children's books--the ReadingRockets.org website offers all this and more. Beginning in January, the nonprofit ReadingRockets.org website, which is part of an initiative of public television station WETA to disseminate research-based information about teaching young children how to read, will feature two new blogs relating to children's literature and reading research. To learn more, visit the ReadingRockets.org website.

Online search engine Google Inc. is offering free software in California as a public service for teachers who may not have the money or expertise to introduce more technology into their classrooms. For the past few months, Google has been giving away an online word processor, spreadsheet, and other programs that can perform tasks usually handled by desktop software, such as Microfsoft’s Office suite. The online programs store everything in Google's data centers so the information can be retrieved on any Internet-connected computer. That aspect of the program worries some privacy experts, who think the data could be targeted by hackers or identity thieves. Google says it plans to recruit teachers in other parts of the country who want to sample the benefits of the free software, which also allows people in different locations to collaborate simultaneously. Read more about it at CNN.com.

Author James Patterson and Little, Brown Books for Young Readers announce the Maximum Ride "How far will YOU go?" Reading Incentive Program. The program gives teachers and administrators exclusive access to a free e-book edition of Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment, a free curriculum guide for the book, and various teacher-approved examples of how Maximum Ride can be used in the classroom. For further information, visit the following webpage.

October 15-21 marks Teen Read Week, an annual celebration of reading sponsored by the Young Adult Library Services Association, a division of the American Library Association. This year's celebration revolves around the theme "Get active @ your library."

For materials and suggestions to support your celebration of reading during Teen Read Week (and all year round), visit the ReadWriteThink.org website, which is administered jointly by the International Reading Association and the National Council of Teachers of English, in partnership with the Verizon Foundation. The site, which is part of the MarcoPolo program, offers hundreds of peer-reviewed language arts lesson plans for K-12 educators.

From short stories to novels to poetry to literary criticism, the lesson plans below will get your students excited and exploring books at the library:

“A High-Interest Novel Helps Struggling Readers Confront Bullying in Schools”

“Analyzing Character Development in Three Short Stories About Women”

“Critical Reading: Two Stories, Two Authors, Same Plot?”

“In Literature, Interpretation is the Thing”

“Pairing Fiction With Poetry and Performance”

“Review Redux: Introducing Literary Criticism Using Reception Moments”

For further information about Teen Read Week in general, visit the following page on the American Library Association's website.

The search-engine ubersite Google has just launched a new site devoted to literacy that brings together resources for reading teachers.

A Public Education Primer, a new publication from the Center on Education Policy (CEP), pulls together data, mostly from government sources, to answer key questions about the public education system in the United States. For more details, access the full report.

A new report from the National Center for Educational Accountability at the University of Texas in Austin identifies what it considers the practices that account for superior school performance. The six-year study examined 250 elementary and secondary schools in 20 states.

Target Corporation's website provides a number of resources for teachers. The latest is the Teachers Rule Sweepstakes, which offers teachers a chance to win a $500 Target GiftCard and $500 for their school, or one of 500 $50 Target GiftCards. The sweepstakes runs through May 13. For further information and an online application form, visit the educators' section of the Target website.

The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) recently published two brief online special reports on issues of professional development for teachers. One examines the link between preservice teacher training and success, and the second examines how education policies at various levels affect professional learning for teachers. For further information, visit the Smartbriefs section of the ASCD website.

April marks National Poetry Month in the United States, and the MarcoPolo program is offering resources to help educators join in the celebration. The April edition of MarcoGram, the monthly online newsletter of the MarcoPolo program, spotlights a number of lesson plans for teachers revolving around the theme of "Poetry: The Art of the Word." Various lesson plans include activities appropriate for students from kindergarten through 12th grade.

The International Reading Association and the National Council of Teachers of English administer the ReadWriteThink.org reading and language arts website, which is one of several content area websites comprising the MarcoPolo program.

The state of Florida has created a website that provides short video clips of effective and research-proven reading instruction in Florida classrooms.

The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) has put together a two-part pastiche of articles on reading. The first looks at instruction, assessment and professional development. The second examines policy and research.

A Washington Post writer who enjoys his work in a program that encourages student journalists says, in an opinion column, that more schools should do something similar and offers advice on getting started.

Educators, librarians, parents, and other caregivers who want to keep kids reading through the holidays will appreciate these summer reading tips from Reading Is Fundamental (RIF).

As we near the end of the school year, the Children's Book Council has produced some new resources that educators will appreciate, including the following: CBC Summer Reading Extravanganza, an annotated list of 50 great books to read this summer; Meet the Author/Illustrator, featuring Mo Willems; and CBC Showcase Fiction on the Edge, spotlighting light and serious fiction on the many and varied issues facing teenagers. Find further details about these and other resources at the CBC website.

The June 2005 issue of SEDL Letter, the magazine of the nonprofit Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, focuses on "Meeting Our Reading Goals." The 32-page magazine is devoted to reading instruction and ways to help struggling readers, with articles relating to NCLB, literacy coaches, motivating students to read, adolescent literacy, and improving comprehension support for struggling readers. View the full issue online at the SEDL website.

There's a new summer reading promotion campaign under way called Reading Is Fun Week, sponsored by Reading Is Fundamental, and this Arizona Republic story lists a few reasons it's important and a number of ways to help kids stay interested in reading over their summer holidays.

Curriculum Connections, a biannual supplement to School Library Journal, targets reading specialists, teachers, and curriculum coordinators by recommending books and related multimedia for the curriculum. Launched in the fall of 2003, the supplement delivers book recommendations that are organized in a way that’s easy for educators to use—by subject and grade level. Here’s a brief overview of two features from the spring 2005 issue of Curriculum Connections:

“Louder, Please” by Barbara Wysocki points out that “for some kids, the best way to read is to turn up the volume.” The article describes how educators can use recorded books with students from preschool through high school, offering recommended titles for each age level. The article also includes sidebars on topics such as “finding the best audiobooks” and “distributors.” Full article.

“What’s a Nice Poem Like You Doing in a Place Like This?” by Alexa Sandmann offers ideas on using poetry in the content areas. Specifically, the article describes recommended books for use in the areas of science (with subsections on physical science and animals) and social studies (with subsections on cultural awareness and human rights). Full article.

For more information on how your school can receive Curriculum Connections, please send an e-mail to curriculumconnections@reedbusiness.com. Subscription information for School Library Journal can be obtained by calling 800-595-1066 or on the SLJ website.

High school students and teachers in one Iowa town are getting together at a coffeeshop once a month to talk about books, and they're learning about each other's attitudes as well.

Full article

The "Teaching Ideas" section of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) website has a collection of articles on helping students express themselves with the self-published periodicals called zines. Some of it is oriented to older students, but ideas for elementary students are also included. Check it out here.

The Brooklyn Public Library has set up story times, bought board books, and taken other steps to get babies, toddlers, and other young children involved in literacy activities, and it's working, according to this New York Daily News article.

The top 1,000 titles owned by member libraries of the Online Computer Library Center have been compiled into a list that documents not only popular tastes (Garfield is listed just ahead of Macbeth) but also provides a consensus view of what more than 50,540 libraries in 84 countries and territories around the world consider the most important works to have.

Often, literacy coaches are former classroom teachers who have little or no coaching training. Although confident in their knowledge of reading, literacy coaches may feel daunted when faced with the practical aspects of coaching. The Literacy Coach’s Survival Guide: Essential Questions and Practical Answers by Cathy A. Toll provides tools and tips to guide literacy coaches as they work in schools to promote more effective literacy instruction.

A new IRA book, Discovering What Works for Struggling Readers: Journeys of Exploration With Primary-Grade Students, is now available at the IRA website Marketplace. The book follows the yearlong journeys of three reading teachers who discovered the challenges and rewards that come with addressing the needs of struggling readers.

A variety of tips to help parents help their children develop as readers is offered in this article from the St. Petersburg Times.

Full article

U.S. students who want to share their thoughts on the state of educational technology in the nation's schools have until Nov. 12 to participate in Speak Up Day 2004, an online survey that aims to give K-12 students a say in how schools use technology and the internet, according to an eSchool News article.

Do current education policies and standards go against your beliefs about how students learn and how they should be assessed? Do you believe that decisions regarding what is taught in public schools should be made by teachers and school-based personnel rather than politicians? If so, it’s time for you to take action and be an advocate for the education issues important to you.

Educators on the Frontline provides a starting point for classroom teachers and other school- and university-based personnel seeking to become education advocates. The chapters offer an in-depth look at the role of education advocates as well as a wide range of advocacy strategies to get you started. The many practical strategies will help you

* Learn how to work individually and form advocacy coalitions.
* Anticipate and analyze education issues.
* Plan for successful education advocacy initiatives.
* Use print and multimedia resources to get your advocacy message heard.

To learn more about Educators on the Frontline, click here.

The newly opened National American Indian, Alaskan & Hawaiian Educational Development Center provides a network that trains and recruits teachers who can help young Native American students excel in reading and writing. With Federal and supplemental private funding, the center is preparing to launch a curriculum and teacher-training program for American Indians all over the United States from its headquarters in Sheridan, Montana.

Full article

The U.S. Department of Education has unveiled a new No Child Left Behind e-Learning tool that offers teachers on-demand professional development training to meet a variety of educational needs and improve student achievement. The training materials are offered free of charge and may be taken for credit, and department officials believe they will be especially helpful to rural and other high-need areas as they seek to place highly qualified teachers in every classroom over the next two years, as required by the No Child Left Behind law. The e-Learning program is part of the federal government's Teacher-to-Teacher Initiative, which is intended help educators share best practices for putting research to work in the classroom to help students learn to high standards. The initiative includes regional workshops, a national summit, roundtable discussions with teachers about the support they need to meet the academic needs of their students, a teacher toolkit, and electronic "e-byte" updates to provide useful information to teachers.