Searching the Library

Using concrete objects, students build a conceptual base for what a fraction is. My students with learning disabilities would benefit from using manipulatives to tap into their visual and kinesthetic learning modalities. They can build whole shapes using smaller shapes (or fractions of the whole). 

After looking through the lessons on high school ELA I chose Making Evidence Based Claims Literary Technique Unit: Carver. This lesson hit on a key element of writing that many students struggle with, making claims that can be and are backed up with evidence. I thought this would help my PLC group because it was something that we all already work on, but gave more accountability to students. They powered the discussion and checked their answers. 

I downloaded 3 assessment resources to share with my 3rd grade PLC and to ultimately use with our 3rd grade students.  First, Wild Turkeys serves as a performance task to assess several target standards.  Use of performance tasks is a PLC assessment goal.  This performance task addresses four standards for mathematical practice as well as multi step problem solving, which is a difficult yet important target for our focus group. Next, RISE Strategy serves as a formative assessment strategy to build strong math practices. The RISE Strategy can be integrated in all mathematical problem solving and is a supportive tool for our ELL population. Lastly, 3.0A Mini-Assessment - Foundations of Multiplication & Division serves as a mini-assessment of a key 3rd grade standard for use in the classroom or professional development.  Teachers can evaluate students' understanding of 3.0A addressed early in the learning in order to prepare to teach, check for understanding, or monitor progress.  This Mini-Assessment also assists teachers in gaining knowledge about assessing some of the conceptual understanding, procedural skills, fluencies, and applications of multiplication and division.  All three of these assessments will surely provide much needed support and resource to my team. 

In the digital library, I found a resource for English 9 to accompany the student's reading of To Kill A Mockingbird, Chapter 20: Analyzing Atticus' Closing Argument as a Persuasive Text.  This lesson helps guide students through Atticus' closing speech, analyzing it for rhetorical devices and elements of argumentation.  Then, from the viewpoint of a courtroom spectator, students will write a letter to a friend explaining Atticus's most powerful persuasive technique.  This is a wonderful lesson idea for our Freshman to put themselves in someone else's shoes and think critically about one of the most powerful moments in all of literature.  

This lesson focuses on student understanding of placement of digits and the associated value for numbers up to 3 digit numbers.  This lesson includes four decks of cards which express 3 digit numbers using standard form, expanded form, base ten blocks, and words to describe the hundreds, tens and ones.  Students first participate in a whole group discussion to understand how the placement of a digit in a number affects its value.  Students also learn how to compare and order numbers using place value information. The greater than, less than and equal signs are used to compare numbers during the lesson.  Students use base ten blocks to learn that a digit's placement determines its value.  ie.  3 tens is equal to 30, but 3 ones is equal to 3.  

As a summative assessment, students are given 3 digit number cards and asked to walk around the room to music.  When the music stops, students are asked to find a partner and compare their 3 digit numbers. There are 4 different decks of cards which express 3 digit numbers using various forms.  Students can practice ordering numbers in all forms to gain a deeper understanding of place value.  Finally, students are asked to gather at a predetermined place in the room and order all the numbers from least to greatest.  They are asked to explain and justify their decision.

I think this lesson would be engaging for my second grade students as a way to understand place value and how to express numbers in different forms.  Since the students will be moving and explaining their thinking, I will be able to hear any misconceptions students have about place value concepts.  By using the number cards, I will also be able to quickly determine which students has a thorough understanding of place value, and which students need additional support to master the concept.

In this lesson, the students will look at medical brochures and then develop their own brochure on human life stages from conception to death.  This is a partner lesson which will allow the students to design a brochure that will provide information about a human life stage and the aging process, as well as how to live a healthy lifestyle during that stage of development.  

There is an included rubric that the students will use to plan their task pacing.  They will have to determine how to meet professionalism, workplace productivity, and ethical practice skills in this brochure.  While working on their own brochure, they can research professional medical brochures as examples to follow.

This was a very neat layout with the ELA and math CCSS weaved into science. It can be used as a cumulative assessment for the first quarter after the completion of the periodic table and is a good segue into radioactivity. I will make this as a group activity where students will research radioactivity and its use and misuse in the society by quoting evidences from history. They will then chose a radioactive element and present on a poster a diagram, electron configuration, periodic properties, and the type of radioactive decay this element undergoes. Students will use this info to argue and present to the class why their element should be a part of the radioactive process.
This will give the teachers a good understanding of whether the students have understood the concept and it's relevance in their lives or should they go back and review with them.

I downloaded the resource "Chocolate Bar Fractions."  This is a 4th grade math resource with a focus on fraction equivalence, ordering fractions, and adding fractions as well as multiplication of a fraction by a whole number. The goal of the lesson is for students to understand that fractions are used to represent the part/whole relationship, division, as well as the connection to measurement.  In addition, they will understand that fractions can be represented in multiple ways (equivalence).They will understand that fractions can be compared using benchmarks and visual models. The resource has a rubric as well as student work samples to help teachers better analyze their own student's work.  Students complete performance tasks in which the teachers at my grade level can use assessment data to analyze and utilize when planning interventions for the NF standards.  

I downloaded an article called :  The Octopus is Amazing.  I look forward to using this with my second graders when I teach the animal units in my new Nat Geo curriculum.

The Article is called:  The Octopus is Amazing . I look forward to trying this out with my second graders next year when we study animals in our new Nat Geo curriculum

The resource that I downloaded was a performance task that asked students to compare fractions using pizza. The resource had a lot of information including a worksheet for the students and even a rubric. I find this very helpful and think its something I can share with my colleagues. As teachers, we are always looking for new ways to make math relatable to the students. This performance task is structured very similar to how it would be structured on the state test. Therefore, it can be used in many ways. We can have our students do it independently or with partners. If I were to do this in my class, I would go over, in detail, how they would be graded with the provided rubric and inform the students of the similarity between this and the state test. Hopefully, with more performance tasks found in the digital library, my students will become more used to looking at math this way and therefore more prepared for the state test. 

I did a search on Cornell Notes and found two selections: one on Lord of the Flies and the second on Cornell Notes with a novel. 

These two selections demonstrate ideas on how to incorporate Cornell Notes with reading of a novel. Considering 25 percent of our students are AVID students, this helps support that population. However, we all know that active listening and note taking skills are an essential part of college readiness. I will point out these two selections with my grade level team to help increase the awareness of AVID strategies.