Community Bulletin Board
Visit the eight new Differentiated Instruction lessons on the AdLIT website! These are select lessons from the ORC collection that emphasize reading and writing skills and have been adapted by classroom teachers using Lenz & Deshler's (2004) SMARTER Planning model's approach to differentiating instruction.
To access these lessons, go to http://www.ohiorc.org/adlit/differentiated_instruction/default.aspx#how
and click on "How can lessons from the ORC colllection be differentiated?"
Announcing a new '08-'09 webcast series entitled, Fostering Student Success on the OAT-Reading, Grades 5-7: Reading and Writing Informational Text. If you are an ELA educator at the upper elementary or middle school grade levels, you won't want to miss this important and timely spotlight on supporting student achievement with informational text in the classroom and on the Ohio Achievement Test.
Dates and descriptions of the three ELA webcasts follow. To register for the first webcast coming up on October 21 at 3:30pm, visit: http://www.ohiorc.org/for/ela/webcast/oat.aspx.
October 21, 2008:
Webcast #1: Addressing the Challenges of Reading Informational Text Informational texts are often difficult for students to negotiate. In this webcast, characteristics of specific genres of informational texts will be highlighted, including how these texts connect to Ohio’s English Language Arts academic standards. Students’ challenges with reading and interpreting informational text will be discussed as will specific strategies and instructional techniques to address those challenges. Key practices with specific action steps for educators will be identified to help improve instruction. Please join us for the first installment in this timely webcast series on enhancing adolescent literacy and student achievement. Register now!
January 15, 2009:
Webcast #2: Using Constructed Response Questions to Foster Student Thinking, Writing, and Test-Taking Skills
Students encounter numerous constructed response questions on the Ohio Achievement Test in Reading. These questions tend to demand a high degree of analytical thinking, versatility in style, and transferable skill that can prove challenging, even to the strongest of writers. In this webcast, different types of constructed response question items, and the role of writing in preparing students for these types of items, will be explored. Specific instructional strategies for working with students to write better answers will be central to the discussion. Please join us for this second installment in the informative discussion on adolescent literacy and instructional practices that support achievement.
April 9, 2009:
Webcast #3: Title TBD
Understanding OAT-Reading questions, including how students have historically responded to various items, provides a springboard for thoughtful discussion on how to support students’ learning needs. In this webcast, performance data from previous OAT-Reading assessments will be examined as a means for making instructional decisions. Key test taking practices and techniques to help students boost their achievement will be explored. Please join us for the final installment in this important webcast series on supporting student achievement in the classroom and on Ohio’s standardized tests.
The recent issue of Adolescent Literacy In Perspective focuses on effective strategies for professional learning. This new issue includes a feature article by Julie Meltzer and Melvina Phillips on planning for content-literacy professional development. It also includes educator experiences and reflections on summer learning opportunities and implications for classroom practice and program planning. Visit http://www.ohiorc.org/adlit/InPerspective/Issue/2008-09.aspx to read or download the issue.
Just in time for the new school year: The Adolescent Literacy In Perspective samplers are now available to order online! These FREE samplers are hard-copy compilations of select articles from the online journal's rich five-year history. In short, they are the best of the best. At present, there are six volumes of samplers available on the following topics:
- Volume One: Choosing What Matters for Adolescent Learners
- Volume Two: A Little Latin and a Lot of English
- Volume Three: Supporting Struggling Readers
- Volume Four: A Focus on the OGT
- Volume Five: Literacy in the Content Areas
- Volume Six: Instructional Strategies for Reading
Order your free copies of the samplers today!
And, as a friendly reminder, if you wish to access the most current issue of Adolescent Literacy In Perspective, visit http://www.ohiorc.org/adlit/InPerspective/Issue/.
On September 15, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, in partnership with Verizon’s Thinkfinity.org, launched “Smithsonian’s History Explorer.” The museum’s new education website offers free, standards-based, innovative resources for teaching and learning American history.
Resources available to teachers, parents, students and others include lessons, activities, multimedia, and interactive games that can be searched by grade level, keyword, and historical era. Learning activities feature objects selected from the more than 3 million artifacts in the museum’s collections and draw on the expertise of the museum’s renowned curatorial staff making “Smithsonian’s History Explorer” a unique educational experience. The site can be accessed through both http://historyexplorer.americanhistory.si.edu and http://thinkfinity.org websites.
Thinkfinity.org is the Verizon Foundation’s comprehensive program and online portal to more than 55,000 standards-based, grade-specific, K-12 lesson plans and other educational resources provided in partnership with many of the nation’s leading educational and literacy organizations, including the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.
A new series of projects called Let's Learn: Inquiry Projects for Ohio's Young Learners has been launched on the ORC Resources for Early Childhood website. This rich collection of child-initiated, teacher-enriched curricula for preschool educators exemplifies the project approach to early learning.
Funded by the Ohio Department of Education's Office of Early Learning and School Readiness and the Office of Literacy, Let's Learn developed from a year-long professional development program facilitated by the Ohio Resource Center. Twenty teams made up of early childhood teachers, supervisory educators, and higher education faculty led and documented inquiry projects with children in preschool, toddler, and Head Start classrooms across Ohio.
In Perspective Web Journal Returns for New School Year
Just in time for the new '08-'09 school year, the September issue of Adolescent Literacy In Perspective focuses on opportunities for professional learning. This issue is filled with a wealth of ideas that range from designing content-literacy professional development to participating in professional development workshops, including using In Perspective as a means of driving change, engaging students in book clubs, and taking courses at eRead Ohio--plus more!
High School Classroom Video Clips Added
The popular middle school video clips that demonstrate teachers' approaches to teaching content-area content-area literacy in the classroom now have two high-school counterparts: "Electrician for a Week" and "Exploring Character Complexity with Catcher in the Rye." Be sure to check out all the AdLIT videos. Note that videos include clip descriptions and viewing guides.
More Differentiated Instruction SMARTER Planning Lessons Added
Two new SMARTER planning lessons have been added, and more are forthcoming in the upcoming weeks. For our purposes, SMARTER planning lessons are lessons found in the ORC collection that have been differentiated using the SMARTER planning model developed by B. Keith Lenz & Donald D. Deshler. They include teaching-learning practices and techniques to address the possible learning challenges students may face, especially students who are struggling with reading, writing, and/or research.
More Professional Development Modules On the Way
At present, there are seven professional development modules including: Preparing Students for the OGT, Vocabulary, Effective Research and Reporting, Using Literacy to Enhance Content-Area Learning, Reaching and Teaching Our Struggling Readers, Knowing the Resources, and Straying from the Conventional Wisdom. Several more are on the way and will be posted accordingly in the upcoming weeks. Stay tuned for further details via FYI announcements.
Questions from the Classroom is a series of helpful columns on adolescent literacy written by educators in the field. Currently, the featured question is “How do we help students respond fully to extended-response questions in a testing situation?" Please be sure to visit our current and past postings. If you have an adolescent literacy question you would like to submit, please send it to editor@orc.org. We may not be able to post all questions, but we will certainly do our best to answer all the questions we receive.
You've been asking for it. Resources for Early Childhood (REC) has its own My REC Collection where you can save all the resources from REC in one place. Access is easy. If you're not a member of ORC, join on the REC page. If you are an ORC member, just start a collection on REC.
The REC collection is separate from the ORC collection, but registration is shared. If you join either REC or ORC, you're registered on both sites.
It's easy to add a resource to your collection. Just select Add to My REC Collection and follow the prompts on the screen to put the resource into a folder.
Want to share your folder with another teacher or parent? Just copy the URL from a folder and paste it into an email.
Try out this feature now and be sure to let Nancy know how you like it. You can comment on the ORC Blog.