A bad grade can keep a student up at night but offers little in the way of constructive feedback. 

“When you think about a traditional grading system, there's one data point, 'I got a 75 on this quiz,' or 'I got a B on this essay,'” said John Camp, head of teaching and learning at the New England Innovation Academy. That’s part of why at his school the focus is on competencies rather than letter or numerical grades. “There are several data points for each assessment so that a student can understand what skills they're working on, and when they get that back with feedback, they understand how to improve,” Camp added. 

Camp and other education experts recently spoke about effective grading models at a Tech & Learning webinar hosted by Dr. Kecia Ray and sponsored by Otus. 

The webinar can be viewed on-demand here.  

Key Takeaways

Traditional Grading is Losing Points 

Matt Townsley, professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Northern Iowa, said COVID helped speed up trends in grading toward standards or competency-based grading that were already present. “We want to create a system, a gradebook, that honors that students learn at different rates and different paces. We knew that before COVID, but COVID just kind of highlighted that fact for us,” he said. 

Camp added, “Not only do students learn at different rates in different ways, teachers teach at different rates and in different ways. A lot of times, that's super challenging when we're talking about the arbitrary nature of 'This is five points, this is 100 points.'” 

Updating a Grading System Takes Time 

Despite what advocates see as advantages for competency-based grading, education leaders should not try to move their district to a new grading system overnight. 

“If you're considering a change, I would say take it slow. Don't try to do too much all at once,” said Kendell Hunter, user community coordinator at Otus and a former teacher. “Make sure that teachers have the right tools to work smarter, not harder. I was in a school that went through a three-year transition to standards-based grading. At one point I was calculating my conversions, we were all sitting down and our heads were just spinning trying to crunch numbers. We don't need teachers to crunch numbers, we need them to analyze responses, guide instruction.” 

Getting Parents on Board

The first step for school leaders looking to update grading systems is to start with the why. “Clearly articulate what the purpose of grades is going to be in your school,” Townsley said. “Do not start by saying, 'We want to buy an awesome gradebook,' or 'We want to do this little change.' Start by creating consensus within the school around what the purpose of grades is.”  

The next step is communicating that to students and their parents. One of Camp’s students last year told him that while he understood the competency-based system he wasn’t sure what to tell his parents when they asked how he was doing in the class. “I said, ‘Tell them what you learned. Tell them what you're learning. Tell them what you're working on,’” Camp said. 

Keeping Students Motivated 

A common question about competency-based learning is in regard to whether students will be motivated to do daily homework if they’re not being graded on that work. The panelists agreed that the role grades play in motivation is overrated. “I can confidently say that the grading scale did not impact motivation in my experience,” Hunter said. “The students who struggled with motivation struggled when we were on points, when we were transitioning to standards, and when we were full on standards-based.” 

She added, “In terms of motivation, I always had the most success when I focused on things that I could control, like the learning activities, the level of excitement, the safety that my students felt in their classrooms, that collaboration.” 

Standards Aligned Grading is Not Grade Inflation

Sometimes competency or standards teaching is accused of being grade inflation by another name. The panelists disagreed with that assessment. 

“I would argue that it's not great inflation because you can really target how a student is performing on a standard,” Camp said. “Getting points for homework – that's the grade inflation, just getting points for compliance. In a standards-based system where you're focusing on specific skills, it's very clear you can't just get a high mark if you can't do the skill well, so it's much more targeted than a traditional system.” 

Standards Aligned Grading Is How the World Works

Another argument against standards-aligned grading is that it is “not how the real world works.” Townsley disagreed with that. “Never in the real world is anyone ever expected to be perfect the first time and every time thereafter,” he said. “Our aim in the K-12 system is to help as many kids as possible, get it. That's our goal. That's why we exist. So we should be figuring out ways to provide students multiple opportunities to learn the stuff that we're teaching them.” 

Effective standards-aligned classrooms allow students multiple opportunities but students have to earn the opportunity to retry an assignment or test. “It's not some free-for-all where we hand back the test or the project, then 30 seconds later they're doing it all over again. It's much different than maybe it seems from afar,” Townsley said. “There's a ton of things in life that you don’t get a second chance on. But there are plenty of things you do. You can take the GRE exam multiple times, the MCAT exam multiple times, the ACT multiple times, the driver's license test multiple times. Some of the highest-trained professionals I know, surgeons, they practice and make mistakes on cadavers time and time and time and time again before they're ever allowed to practice their surgical skills on real people.” 

• Tech & Learning Webinars

Asked about federally required standardized testing during his senate confirmation, Miguel Cardona said it’s important. 

“If we don’t assess where our students are and their level of performance, it’s going to be difficult for us to provide targeted support and resource allocation in the manner that can best support the closing of the gaps that have been exacerbated due to this pandemic,” he said.

As Secretary of Education, he has stood by those words, and testing has begun in many districts, although the department has also been considering requests for waivers from parents as well as states. The move has drawn criticism from educators and researchers who say there is no evidence the tests help, even in non-pandemic years. 

Standardized Tests Get a Failing Grade  

“Test-driven education reform is a faith-based policy, it is not an evidence-based policy,” says Robert Schaeffer, executive director of FairTest: the National Center for Fair and Open Testing. 

Jack Schneider, professor at UMass Lowell, spearheaded a letter to Cardona signed by 548 scholars and academic researchers urging the Education Department to reconsider its mandate to administer federally mandated standardized tests this spring. The testing “will exacerbate inequality and will produce flawed data,” the letter said. 

“What the research tells us about standardized testing is that there's a strong relationship between demographic variables like student race, family income, parental educational attainment, and students' standardized test scores,” says Schneider, who is also co-founder of the Massachusetts Consortium for Innovative Education Assessment. “School is not the primary influence on student academic achievement as measured by standardized test scores. Out-of-school factors play a greater role. And therefore the use of standardized tests to hold schools accountable doesn't make a tremendous amount of sense.” 

Andrew Ho, a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, says evidence that federal standardized testing helps student achievement is “limited and theoretical.” However, he adds that it makes sense that we would want to monitor student proficiency in math and reading, and perhaps even things such as their mental health at the national level. “All of these things, we believe, may not improve as much if we aren't measuring them, but we don't have much evidence that says that measuring has helped,” says Ho. 

Critics say that in addition to these failings, the tests help reinforce inequity and cycles of poverty by penalizing schools that serve low-income students and negatively influencing property values in certain communities. 

A New Standard for Standardized Tests 

“I see a place for testing if we had no stakes tests that told us where we need to deliver additional resources,” Schneider says. “Not only would we get more out of the tests, but we can also do less testing. Part of why we have to test every kid every year is because they're using these for high-stakes purposes. It's a part of the theory of change that posits that schools and educators are not working hard enough and what they need is to have their feet held to the fire. We've got 20 years of evidence that that isn't the case. Educators aren't hiding their best lesson plans and waiting for somebody to threaten them.” 

He adds, “Research suggests that if you got rid of the stakes, you would see less gaming. So you wouldn't see schools teaching to the test, you wouldn't see teachers doing endless test prep, you wouldn't see schools cheating.” 

The letter Schneider and others wrote to Cardona suggests using new assessment models provided by the Massachusetts Consortium for Innovative Education Assessment or the National Education Policy Center’s Schools of Opportunity. 

Similarly, FairTest advocates for significantly reducing the number of federally mandated tests, increased funding for alternative testing methods and having states rely on sampling to assess aggregate student progress. “If and when the federal education law comes up for reauthorization, which may be in the next Congress, that's what we'll be pushing for,” Schaeffer says. 

This Year’s Standardized Testing 

The decision to conduct this year’s standardized tests yet allow for waivers is particularly puzzling to many. 

“The Department of Education's reaction to state waiver requests, to say it's inconsistent is a significant understatement,” Schaeffer says. “It's hard to understand why the District of Columbia did get a full, comprehensive waiver, but they would not give a similar waiver to say, Michigan, where these schools are shut down in Detroit.” 

Significant questions about the accuracy of the tests abound, given the waivers and the uncertainty of the pandemic school year. “Will it be that we see more historically disadvantaged kids taking tests? We don't know,” Schneider says. “Will it be that we'll see kids who are more likely to be high achieving taking the test? We don't know.” 

Tests could also be demoralizing to students who have been through a lot since the pandemic began. “Kids did an amazing job of keeping the faith with regard to school,” he says. “It's an insult to them to say, ‘Welcome back to school. Here’s an extended period of standardized testing. Here is the most disengaging side of school.’” 

However, there are also those who argue standardized tests could be important this year. 

Ho is a critic of the way federally mandated standardized tests are generally given, but says this year’s low-stakes approach is similar to the type of testing for which he and others have long advocated. He also believes the assessments have the potential to do more good than in the past given that the American Rescue Act will provide the largest infusion of federal education funding in history.

“We have this opportunity to sort of say, ‘Hey look, you don't have to test,’ and yet for everyone who wants to test, they can contribute some understanding of where our needs are greatest so that we can allocate some of the hundreds of billions of dollars that we have,” he says. 

To make the data gathered this year valuable, Ho believes schools should use test scores from 2019 as a comparison point, though he admits this system won’t control for all the variables of this unusual testing year, especially if test turnout is low. “Our vision gets blurrier and blurrier the less testing we have, but in all cases, it is better than having the blur of nothing at all,” he says. 

But Ho is not advocating business as usual with federal standardized tests this year. “If we report test scores, as we usually do, we will be like the Titanic heading for an iceberg,” he says. 

• Best Free Formative Assessment Tools and Apps
• Latest Federal Guidance on Assessments: What You Need to Know
• 4 Tips for Offering Online Exams
• Screen Test: The Challenges of Special Needs Assessments During Remote and Hybrid Learning

While a single math textbook on algebra, geometry or elementary functions may provide a comprehensive look at its subject, it won't provide an individualized approach to the material. Nor will it respond in real time to students' difficulty with the material by providing an personalized step-wise method for solving problems. 

One way of keeping all students on track, regardless of math ability, is a math software solution that adjusts instruction according to student responses. Achieve3000  has released details about its individualized, research-based digital math learning solution. Achieve3000 Math covers standards-aligned math content, from basic elementary fluency and numeracy to core high school topics and provides differentiated practice and intervention that helps close students’ knowledge gaps and builds confidence.

Achieve3000 Math is aligned to the Quantile Framework from MetaMetrics. A third-party analysis of more the 800 middle school students in three states demonstrated a 7- to 9-point increase on spring test performance over that of students who were not using Achieve3000 Math. In the same study, educators noted that Achieve3000 Math is aligned to both State Standards and their own instructional math goals. 

Achieve3000 Math clearly helps identify students in need of intervention. Using a personalized instructional model, students advance step-by-step through dynamic math problems to find solutions. If they struggle, students receive scaffolded levels of support that break problems into manageable parts. Each student’s progress is tracked and updated for reporting, instruction planning, and assessment. Achieve3000 Math students also receive literacy supports, such as seeing word definitions and translating problems into the language of their choice. 

“While using Achieve3000 Math, students engage in productive struggle as they encounter increasingly difficult problems that are broken down into meaningful segments with appropriate hints provided on an as-need basis,” said Judy Brown, Vice President of Mathematics at Achieve3000. “Students are gently led through the productive struggle process to the correct answer and a more complete understanding of the skills and concepts.”

Achieve3000 Math integrates with Google Classroom and Canvas to support in school and at home learning and will be ready at the beginning of the 2020-21 school year.

Educators know that basic math is a critical building block that students need—not only to understand how things work in the world, but also to master all other STEM subjects. Yet many kids don't make a connection between math and their daily lives, or may believe incorrectly that "I'm not good at math."

Accelerate Learning's new core mathematics program, STEMscopes™ Math, aims to make math relevant to young learners by revealing the wonder of math in the everyday world. The math curriculum will be available nationwide in June for grades 3-5.  

Aligned to the Common Core State Standards, STEMscopes Math combines digital and print components with hands-on kits to help teachers to create math learning experiences for students. The digital curriculum materials for students are also available in Spanish. 

Using the 5E plus Intervention and Acceleration lesson model, STEMscopes Math  provides interactive learning with the Concrete Representational Abstract (CRA) approach. The curriculum features inquiry-based math investigations, virtual manipulatives and interactive games, and encourages exploration with open-ended tasks. 

STEMscopes Math includes benchmark assessments for grades 3-5 to provide standards-based data and Quantile measures that track student progress and inform instruction. It features embedded strategies for diverse learners, including English language learners and students who need additional support.

Vibrant videos and lessons get students thinking about science.

Pros: Each video is paired with high-quality lesson materials.

Cons: Some lessons miss opportunities to let students drive the investigation.

Bottom Line: NGSS-aligned science lessons include videos, experiments, and quizzes.

Read more.

Site of the Week picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed byCommon Sense Education, which helps educators find the best edtech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly. 

By Common Sense Education

Curated Content Decreases Teacher Planning Time

Who: Kevin Scanlon, Associate Superintendent of Educational Services

Where: Three Village Central School District, New York

What: Using Discovery Experience to introduce new state K-6 science standards

The district had been using Discovery Education’s streaming platform for seven years for 5th and 6th grade science. Teachers enjoyed the platform so much that when it came time to choose resources to introduce new state science standards this year, they chose to expand its use to K-6. The two highest users of Discovery in New York state are both in our district. They have been the ones spearheading its use with our teachers for the introduction of the new science standards. 

The state developed their own version of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). They adapted the national standards by changing some of the content sequencing to align with earlier versions of state standards. We are currently in a multiple year K-12 roll out of the new standards, beginning with 6th and 7th grade this year. 

In the past, our teachers had primarily used the videos. However, In August 2019 they received training on the new, revised platform and are now using assessments, lesson plans, and teaching strategies in addition to the videos. Teachers love the new curated content channels. It makes the content more accessible and allows them to better differentiate their instruction, while reducing the amount of time they spend planning lessons. 

In addition to using the platform for science and social studies, teachers appreciate the opportunity to connect these topics with reading and math resources available within the platform. They have the flexibility they need to adapt the content to fit our standards-based curriculum needs. There is so much included in the platform that it has eased the burden on lesson planning. The videos, teaching strategies and other resources are completely relevant to our teaching needs. Discovery has broad application across student populations and can be used for remediation, enrichment, or acceleration.

User Tip

The new Studio space allows teachers to create their lessons and also provides a safe collaboration space for students. Students can create their own original content in the same place they are accessing Discovery’s curated content—they don’t have to leave the platform.

Tech Featured in the Classroom

Discovery Education Experience

MIND Research Institute today announced the launch of an all-new version of its flagship solution, ST Math®. 

Based on 20 years of neuroscientific research, ST Math uses spatial-temporal games to present math concepts visually for students in grades preK–8. 

The mastery-based and standards-aligned ST Math offers challenging puzzles, non-routine problem solving, and informative feedback. Independent education research firm WestEd recently published a study evaluating a math edtech program on multiple state assessments. The 239 schools that used ST Math consistently outgrew similar schools in statewide rank by an average of 14 percentile points.

The newest version is built on the latest website technology, featuring responsive design to work on any device. The update gives ST Math’s mascot, JiJi, and all the puzzles and environments a fresh look and allows students to track their logins, minutes played, and puzzles solved each week.

For administrators, ST Math now has more streamlined implementation focused on single sign-on and account provisioning, as well as new reporting tools that offer comprehensive student data to uncover insights and track student learning results.

Improvements for teachers will help them implement the program with greater fidelity, integrate it with core curriculum more easily, and better support student learning. Key features for teachers in the new version include:

• A simplified user experience
• A new assignments feature, allowing teachers to assign any ST Math objective to individual students, groups, or the whole class outside of their journey
• Redesigned progress reports and student detail information to more clearly present actionable data for informed instruction
• The ability to see the progress of minutes played and puzzles completed during the current week, or as a median of all weeks to track engagement
• The ability to view a student’s entire history of usage and progress toward standards and objectives, as well as clear alerts for struggling students.

To learn more about the new version of ST Math, which is available for the 2020-2021 academic year, go to http://www.stmath.com/whats-new. 

It comes but once a year. The National Social Studies Supervisors Association and National Council for the Social Studies combined conference. For a history nerd, it’s the winter holiday break, the Final Four, and fresh out of the oven chocolate chip cookies all rolled into one event.

For three days, it’s about conversations that focus on social studies, tools, resources, evidence, and best practices. So what did I learn?

——

In the last session of Saturday morning, Brent Tozer is sharing how to use the C3 Teachers Inquiry Design Model structure to integrate more social studies into elementary level instruction.

Get more information about the IDM structure by heading over to the C3 Teachers site. Tap the Inquiries tab at the top to access a database of teacher created units using the IDM structure and template. The idea behind an IDM is to create something a little more than a lesson and little less than a unit which encourages student inquiry through the use of evidence. The end in mind? Have kids make a claim using that evidence.

Designed to support NCSS’s Inquiry Arc in their C3 Framework, an IDM has basically three parts: questions, resources, and tasks. A compelling question that drives the inquiry, supporting questions that help students organize their thinking, formative tasks that address those supporting questions and measure their ability to think historically, and resources that students use to complete the formative tasks.

The C3 Teachers site has an amazing amount of actual IDM lessons, resources, tips, and tools. But you really need to jump into the deep end of this and get the three book series:

• The Inquiry Design Model: Building Inquiries in Social Studies
• Inquiry Design Model: The Workbook
• The latest book just came out November 2019 – Blueprinting an Inquiry-Based Curriculum: Planning with the Inquiry Design Model

The books cycle through the theory and examples, actual tools to use in the workbook, and the final book focuses on tweaks to the idea based on how teachers are using IDMs. This includes four new IDM structures to help you adapt the process specifically for your situation.

Brent’s IDM focuses on ways to support learning in the third grade around the topic of immigration:

I like that more elementary people are incorporating IDMs into their instruction – especially as part of their ELA lessons. I often hear teachers and admins say that young kids can’t do inquiry or think historically. But they can and IDMs are a tool we can to support that sort of thinking with grade school students.

cross posted at glennwiebe.org

Glenn Wiebe is an education and technology consultant with 15 years' experience teaching history and social studies. He is a curriculum consultant for ESSDACK, an educational service center in Hutchinson, Kansas, blogs frequently at History Tech and maintains Social Studies Central, a repository of resources targeted at K-12 educators. Visit glennwiebe.org to learn more about his speaking and presentation on education technology, innovative instruction and social studies.

Today, PBS announced the launch of Ken Burns Classroom on PBS LearningMedia – an online destination for free teaching and learning resources inspired by Ken Burns’s renowned documentaries. Created for 6-12th grade educators, the new hub houses a full library of classroom-ready content – aligned to state and national standards – to help students further explore the complex historical events and issues illustrated in Ken Burns’s films. 

Ken Burns Classroom features hundreds of video clips, lesson plans, activity suggestions, discussion questions, handouts, and interactives to help educators integrate the films into their classroom instruction. This will include important historical events, people and moments-in-time such as international wars, the Roosevelt family and the Industrial Age. The hub will kick off with documentaries including “Country Music,” “The Vietnam War,” “The Central Park Five,” “The Dust Bowl,” “The West,” “The Civil War,” “Jackie Robinson,” “Lewis & Clark,” “Prohibition,” “The Roosevelts,” and “The War,” and more will continue to be added in the coming months. 

PBS LearningMedia, a partnership between PBS and WGBH, is an online destination that offers free access to thousands of resources from partners and PBS stations who work to make them available to teachers in local communities across the country. 

All Ken Burns Classroom resources and content are publicly available and can be accessed by visiting PBS LearningMedia at https://pbslearningmedia.org/kenburns. 

Content in Ken Burns Classroom was funded in part by members of The Better Angels Society.

Planboard

Handy one-stop digital lesson planner saves time in the long run

Pros: Track classroom schedules, lessons, and standards while easily embedding PDFs, links, and videos.

Cons: Lacks pre-made templates, so initial setup takes time.

Bottom Line: Simplifies lesson planning with an intuitive, easy-to-use interface.

Read more here.

App of the Day picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed by Common Sense Education, which helps educators find the best ed-tech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly.

By Common Sense Education

Gale, a Cengage company, today announced the launch of Gale In Context: For Educators, a new product that aims to give educators a more effective approach to curriculum development and classroom instruction. Fueled by content from the Gale In Context suite of student databases, For Educators provides standards-aligned lesson plans and instructional materials. A toolkit helps educators collect, personalize and share resources with colleagues and students across their district.

Gale In Context: For Educators provides:

• Instructional Support: helps teachers discover digital learning materials to supplement their classroom curriculum with national and state standards-aligned instructional content and related lesson plans.
• Customization: helps provide personalized and differentiated instruction with tools and features that can identify and customize resources for diverse classroom needs.
• Workflow Tools: enables educators to access curriculum-aligned resources across their subscribed products in a single interface, integrated with other workflow tools and platforms.
• Smarter Collaboration: connects library resources to classroom curriculum and gives educators—within schools and across districts—the means to share and collaborate around resources for students.

Gale will showcase Gale In Context: For Educators at the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) Conference, November 14-16 in Louisville, KY at Gale booth #101.

For more information or to request a trial on Gale In Context: For Educators, visit: http://www.gale.com/foreducators.

 IXL

Immediate feedback and breadth a major plus, despite emphasis on drills

Pros: Tool helps students develop confidence and clearly track progress.
Cons: Drilling limits opportunities for kids to apply skills in real-world ways
Bottom Line: Students can improve targeted skills with tons of practice modules and visually appealing tasks.

Read more here.

By Common Sense Education

Site of the Week picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed by Common Sense Education, which helps educators find the best edtech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly.

Highline Public Schools (HPS) opened its middle schools this fall using Discovery Education’s digital Social Studies Techbook to support standards based instruction. Through this new collaboration, Discovery Education is providing educators and students in seven Highline schools access to a digital social studies resource supportive of existing Common Core State Standards, the C3 Framework, and the new Washington State K-12 Social Studies Learning Standards. 

Highline serves approximately 18,000 K-12 students in the communities of Burien, Des Moines, Normandy Park, SeaTac and White Center in northwest Washington State. Highline sought a new social studies curriculum to support both existing and future social studies standards and fit into the school system’s existing inquiry-focused framework.   

Following a review, Highline selected Discovery Education’s Social Studies Techbook for integration into classroom instruction in the following schools:

•  Sylvester Middle School
• Pacific Middle School
• Highline Choice Academy
• Glacier Middle School
• Chinook Middle School
• Cascade Middle School
• Big Picture Middle School

The Social Studies Techbook pairs core content with essential questions, primary source analysis, and project-based tasks.  Developed for diverse student audiences, Social Studies Techbook’s multimodal content aims to support the improvement of academic vocabulary, break down barriers to learning, and engages students in higher-level thinking. A variety of differentiation tools integrated at point of use help educators meet the needs of each student. Other features include access to two Lexile levels of core content, Spanish translation, as well as strategies for teaching students with special needs and English learners.

To help HPS’s middle school educators integrate their digital textbooks into classroom instruction, Discovery Education is providing district teachers a number of professional learning opportunities. 

HPS educators are also receiving support from the Discovery Education Community. A global community of education professionals, the Discovery Education Community connects members across school systems and around the world through social media, virtual conferences, and in-person events, fostering valuable networking, idea sharing, and inspiration.  

SAM Labs today announced the launch of new coding and problem-solving curriculum and resources for kindergarten and first-grade students (K-1). 

The new K-1 product line will begin in kindergarten with a series of ten hands-on learning lessons focused on skills such as creativity, problem-solving, sequencing and basic technologies. Nine first grade program lessons will be introduced shortly afterward and both programs will be available in January 2020. The new K-1 courses will be standards-aligned in science, math, and language. 

The K-1 courses will introduce Baby Blocky and a comic strip focused on solving a problem. Instructional guidance will highlight skills such as coding, creativity, exploration, sorting and classifying, solution thinking, collaboration, and finding multiple solutions to a single challenge. 

Each SAM product is designed to enable non-technical teachers to deliver STEAM, coding, and problem-solving experiences to their classrooms through standards-compliant, ready-to-use teaching kits.

This week, SAM Labs also released a comprehensive guide on all things STEAM K-12 and its Ultimate Edtech Grant Writing Guide and list of grants. 

Back in the day, Madeline Hunter ruled.

I never actually met Madeline but for a time, it was like we were joined at the hip. College of Ed professors loved her. Principals loved her. Teacher observation and evaluation tools loved her even more. And so all of my early teaching years were focused on her theories and lesson plan designs.

For the non-Boomers in the room, a quick review of Madeline’s design:

• Anticipatory set
  Do something that introduces the lesson, hooks kids into wanting to learn the lesson, and establish your objectives for the lesson.
• Direct instruction
  Foundational knowledge – the facts, ideas, and skills – is delivered to the students. Usually some sort of lecture, video, or reading.
• Guided practice and application
  The teacher helps students apply what they have just been taught.
• Independent practice and application
  Students apply the learning on their own.
• Assessment
  The teacher measures how well students have met the objectives.

It’s not like this is terrible instruction. Making it clear to kids what our expectations are is good. Finding ways for them to collect and organize foundation knowledge? Good. Independent application? Absolutely. Done right? Pretty darn good.

But like a lot of things, Madeline’s best intentions rarely made it into actual practice. Back in the day, I was usually okay with step one. I could hook kids into content. But after that? Not so much.

I ended up teaching like I had been taught. How the teachers down the hallway were teaching. Direct instruction to me meant lecture, the occasional video, and a lot of assigned readings. If there was any guided practice and independent practice, it usually involved lots of homework and worksheets.

I got better. I started doing more hands on projects and cooperative learning. But there was still a lot of direct instruction. And while the projects were engaging and kids enjoyed them, I didn’t work super hard at making them relevant or tying them to big ideas. So I had a fun class but I’m not really sure students walked any out any smarter than when they walked in.

As my own kids entered and left social studies classrooms throughout their 13 school years, it became clear that they were having similar experiences. There were some hands on projects and occasional awesomeness (thanks Mr. Robb.)  But they still experienced a lot of direct instruction and “independent” practice in the form of study guides and worksheet packets.

So.

Is it possible to take the best parts of Madeline’s model and adapt it to a world that needs our students to be engaged, informed, and knowledgable citizens? I think so.

For the last year or so, a group of us have been getting together to revise our current state standards. The focus is all about encouraging teachers to incorporate application pieces into their instructional design. And finding ways to tie that application to big ideas that are relevant to their students.

This means clear overarching ideas, better compelling questions, historical thinking skills, and summative assessments that give students flexibility in developing products that address the compelling questions. It’s this last piece – the doing, applying, authentic piece – that we want teachers and kids to focus on.

Here’s a draft version of an infographic we’re messing around with:

I get that some of this won’t make sense without access to the actual draft document. But the idea is simple. Give kids a great compelling and relevant question aligned to a big idea like Choices have Consequences. Help them access evidence that addresses the questions. Design an authentic task that lets them answer the question. And along the way, incorporate effective and proven instructional practices.

Done.

But like Madeline’s model, having a simple infographic doesn’t mean easy. What can it actually look like in practice?

Explore some of these resources:

• Stanford History Education Group
  The gold standard in history inquiry best practices.
• Honing Our Questions to Deepen Historical Learning
  Love this article about creating great question and integrating them into lesson design.
• Doing Social Studies
  The KCSS blog – lots of ideas and strategies.
• Read Inquire Write
  The people behind RIW started at SHEG and are taking things in a slightly different direction that I like. One of my new faves.
• C3 Teachers
  I love love love this site. Inquiry Design Models are the next big thing and support what the Kansas standards document is doing. Question. Evidence. Critical thinking. Make a claim that addresses the question. All in one neat package.
• PBL Works
  Problem-based learning is what good instructional is all about.
• DocsTeach
  The National Archives interactive take on historical thinking.

And then go and follow these teachers. You’ve got national and state level teachers of the year. You’ve got amazing users of tech. You’ve got proven conference presenters. They’re all rock stars. And they all love talking best practice so don’t be afraid to chat them up.

• TJ Warsnak & Derek Schutte
  High school teachers who are literally redesigning how to do school. Find some of their #buzzworthy examples here.
• Jill Weber
  Was a great middle school teacher. Now a great high school teacher. She blogs at A View of the Web.
• Nathan McAlister
  2010 National Gilder Lehrman Teacher of the Year. He cuts up cow legs to teach the Civil War.
• Emily Snyder
  Killing it at the high school level.
• Lori Rice
  Elementary social studies genius. Find her newer stuff at The Educator’s Room and the older stuff at Doing Education Differently.

Make Madeline proud.

cross posted at glennwiebe.org

Glenn Wiebe is an education and technology consultant with 15 years' experience teaching history and social studies. He is a curriculum consultant for ESSDACK, an educational service center in Hutchinson, Kansas, blogs frequently at History Tech and maintains Social Studies Central, a repository of resources targeted at K-12 educators. Visit glennwiebe.org to learn more about his speaking and presentation on education technology, innovative instruction and social studies.

CellEnergy Photosynthesis Labs

Interactive carbon cycle labs deepen student understanding

Pros: Carefully scaffolded digital manipulatives help kids unpack complicated and crucial science ideas.

Cons: Students may skip over some text; only accessible to those with an iPad.

Bottom Line: Virtual labs help biology students investigate and model the movement of carbon and energy.

Read more 

App of the Day picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed by Common Sense Education, which helps educators find the best ed-tech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly. 

By Common Sense Education

Khan Academy

Missions boost learning with balance of focus and freedom to explore

Pros: Mastery-focused missions set the pace for each student individually while continuous assessment gives teachers valuable real-time data.

Cons: Video instruction may be too fast-paced for some learners; a fair amount of instruction is only delivered via text with few illustrations.

Bottom Line: A solid resource for math and science instruction as well as foundational knowledge in a number of other high school subjects.

Read more 

App of the Day picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed by Common Sense Education, which helps educators find the best ed-tech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly. 

By Common Sense Education

OK Go Sandbox

Creative music video-inspired STEAM design challenges

Pros: Fun music videos are a great hook; kids are motivated to create their own innovations using STEAM skills.

Cons: Lessons are organized on the site by music video, making it hard for teachers to match activities to their specific needs.

Bottom Line: After watching OK Go music videos, kids will be excited to make new creations by integrating art, science, and math.

Read more 

App of the Day picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed by Common Sense Education, which helps educators find the best ed-tech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly. 

By Common Sense Education

Vernier Software & Technology is offering 20 free hands-on workshops this fall to help science educators incorporate data-collection technology into their curriculum. Held at locations nationwide, each four-hour workshop will provide educators of all levels with the opportunity to explore classroom-ready experiments and connect with fellow educators, while testing out Vernier Software & Technology’s line of data-collection technology. All attendees will receive a Go Direct Temperature Probe, along with experiment ideas, that they can use in their own classrooms.  

During the workshops, educators will work with a Vernier training specialist to learn skills and best practices for data-collection in physics, chemistry, biology, environmental science, Earth science, and coding, as well as middle school science to help meet the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). After a brief overview of the technology, educators will explore specialized activities based on their grade level and area of interest. 

In addition to a Go Direct Temperature, each attendee will receive a light meal and a downloadable Workshop Training Manual, which includes ready-to-use experiment handouts for all science disciplines. Interested educators can select dates from the schedule below.  

September 2019 Workshop Dates and Locations

September 9: Houston, TX

September 11: San Antonio, TX

September 12: Austin, TX

September 14: Dallas, TX

September 16: Raleigh, NC

September 17: Oklahoma City, OK

September 17: Richmond, VA

September 18: Washington, DC

September 19: Kansas City, MO

September 21: St. Louis, MO

September 23: Buffalo (Cheektowaga), NY

September 23: Indianapolis, IN

September 24: Rochester, NY

September 24: Cincinnati, OH

September 25: Louisville, KY

September 26: Albany, NY
 

October 2019 Workshop Dates and Locations

October 1: Los Angeles (Burbank), CA

October 3: Palo Alto (Redwood City), CA

October 7: Madison (Middleton), WI

October 9: Minneapolis (St. Paul), MN 

For complete details and to register for a Vernier workshop, visit www.vernier.com/workshops.

Goalbook Toolkit

Set tailored targets with pricey but worth-it kit of tools, strategies

Pros: The extensive database of specific learning goals (and well-explained interventions) will wow any teacher hoping to differentiate.
Cons: It doesn't connect to student information/management systems, so goals created for students aren’t automatically, easily accessible to all involved.
Bottom Line: You pay for quality with Goalbook Toolkit, including access to clear, well-crafted learning goals and strategies that allow for far easier differentiation.

Read more here.

App of the Day picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed by Common Sense Education, which helps educators find the best ed-tech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly.

By Common Sense Education

Tech&Learning's Content Director Kevin Hogan gets a close look at one of this year's Best of ISTE winner: Gale in Context for Educators. Lemma Shomali, of Gale, a Cengage Company, previewed the newest edition from this suite of products to highlight how easy it is to integrate quality digital content into K12 curriculum that meet state benchmarks, and enhance collaboration between libraries, classrooms and administration while fostering student success. Watch this video to find out more ahead of its launch this Fall. 

This fall, Gale will launch Gale In Context: For Educators, an addition to its Gale In Context product suite that aims to make it easy for educators to curate classroom curriculum aligned to state and national standards using instructional materials and essential content from their Gale In Context databases.

Gale In Context: For Educators is designed for classroom teachers, with additional content and tools to find curriculum aligned content, curate it for the classroom and educate students. Educators can work independently, share their planning with others or work collaboratively to build classroom resources. It also includes lesson plans, activities and tools. 

 Read the blog about In Context: For Educators, here. 

The Ohio Department of Education (ODE) recently approved Curriculum Associates’ i-Ready® Diagnostic for five separate assessment uses for the 2019–2020 school year. i-Ready Diagnostic is part of the i-Ready online diagnostic and instructional program.

The ODE approved i-Ready Diagnostic in the following five categories:

• Comparable Assessment to Ohio’s Diagnostic Assessments for the Third Grade Reading Guarantee
• Alternative Standardized Assessment for Third Grade Reading
• Teacher and Principal Evaluation for Grades K–3
• Identification of Gifted Students for Grades 2–8
• Prescreening of Gifted Students for Grades 2–8

Thousands of educators across Ohio already use i-Ready Diagnostic for more than 120,000 students. “Since the time we have incorporated i-Ready, our students have shown an increase in their performance and our teachers are thrilled,” said Superintendent Tom Yazvac of Springfield Local Schools in New Middleton, Ohio. “Student scores have clearly demonstrated that i-Ready works.”

Boclips today launched its new solution, Boclips for Teachers, a video platform that offers an extensive library of safe and engaging content for students and time-saving solutions for educators. 

Boclips for Teachers allows teachers to simply cut and paste links, supplementing lessons in any school subject with short video clips that capture and keep students’ attention. 

The platform gathers video clips from more than 120 partners, including Visual Learning Systems, Intelecom Learning, and Crash Course. It offers archived content going back 100 years, providing real-world examples of classroom topics. To find relevant material, educators type a topic into the search bar and then create collections of videos, each of which comes with a list of specific learning outcomes.

The platform enables users to share their collections with other educators, as well as find inspiration in collections created by Boclips. The videos support Common Core State Standards, and new material is added daily.

Educators who sign up before June 30 will receive a free year of Boclips for Teachers. Learn more and sign up today at boclips.com/teachers.

The Expo Hall showcased even more edtech tools that are changing and enhancing today’s learning. When you walk on to a vendor floor at a large national convention two things happen:

1. You get overwhelmed with the magnitude and don’t know where to start.
2. You could get swallowed up by the big name vendors with larger booth and tons of conference swag. 

[Report from ASCD, Part 1: Sessions Covered, Classroom Coding, Leadership Strategies and More]  

Sometimes the small booth with a small or no table can be the exact resource your classroom needs. Below are just some of the standout products from smaller or lesser-known companies, but get to know them because they will help your instruction, student learning, and growth.

Freckle is a tool that allows for differentiation in Math, ELA, Social Studies, and Science. Freckle’s power is that the tool takes the manual work out of differentiation so teachers can focus on the important work of helping students grow. The tool helps reaching every student at their own level. You can even get a free teacher account at www.freckle.com. 

Flocabulary is an online learning tool for all grades that uses educational hip-hop music to engage students and increase achievement across the curriculum. Flocabulary uses standards-based videos, instructional activities and student creativity tools to supplement instruction and develop core literacy skills. Check it out at https://www.flocabulary.com.

Gab-on: Communication between family and children is decreasing and I saw a tool that is trying to support an increase in home communication.  GAB-on! is the first platform I have seen that links a child's school day to a conversation starter at home. It's not a report from the teacher or school; it's a conversation between student and family. Students enter GABs  about their day, in live time while they have meaning and relevance. GABs are hints/cues about what a student is doing that remind him/her what they did, later in the day. GABs also prompt families to ask more specific questions about their student’s day to increase conversational productivity, student voice and improve achievement. Check it out at https://gab-on.com.

Milestone C: I stopped at the booth and was impressed how this program brings internship-style experiences into the classroom by simulating technology career tracks. They have half-year courses, multi-year learning tracks, and supplemental modules to support schools and districts nationwide. Additionally impressive was the staff. They had engineers, scientists, aviators, and seasoned educators on the team to develop learning products designed for and aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards. Visit them at https://www.milestonec.com.

Empatico: I saw this great display about global communication and had to check it out. Empatico is a free tool for educators to connect their classrooms with others around the world through live video and activities designed to foster meaningful connections among students. I was impressed at how simple the virtual connections were to make to classrooms by combining everything needed in one platform. They connect classes with  a partner classroom, live video, file sharing, and standards- and research-based activities. Empatico empowers educators and students to explore the world through experiences that spark curiosity, kindness, and empathy.  Check them out at https://empatico.org.

Alive Studios: I walked by the Alive studio booth and was quickly drawn in by the interactive visuals and graphics. Once I was at the booth it wasn’t just “cool” graphics; they create supplemental resource kits that use Augmented Reality to enhance the learning experience for all types of learners. Each resource kit supports multiple learning styles by appealing to students through sight, sound, and interactivity. Alive Studios programs are aligned to the Common Core State Standards to root lessons and activities in standards lesson planning to match learning with a purpose. Visit them at  https://alivestudiosco.com.

Writable: Writing is an essential element in learning and finding a digital tool to support that need is important. I learned by stopping at the Writable booth that this tool is a guided writing practice program that connects any style of instruction to a cycle of authentic feedback and revision. I learned that the tools can build more independent, reflective writers, and helps schools assess & monitor writing growth. Visit Writable at  http://www.getwritable.com.

Sibme was not a learning tool but caught my attention. It is an online video coaching and collaboration platform designed to improve professional practice. Sibme enhances classroom observation, allowing teachers and instructional leaders to record classroom instruction for the purpose of reflection, conversation, and feedback. Check it out at https://sibme.com.

Podcasts from Experts: Ryan McHale, the host of Pondering Education, (@PonderEducation) recorded, posted, and tweeted interviews with many featured speakers. Check out all ASCD podcasts at http://ponderingeducation.com.

There is never a dearth of great ideas at national events like these and ASCD Empower19 did not disappoint. Read more of my ASCD takeaways @MatthewXJoseph and click here read how to turn ideas into actions from events like ASCD.

Standard:
NGSS: HS-LS2-3: ​Construct and revise an explanation based on evidence for the cycling of matter and flow of energy in aerobic and anaerobic conditions. 

1. Engage

Display the below image and ask the question: What are you curious about?

Desired student questions include, but are not limited to, the below: 

• How does blood relate to cycling?
• Does this apply to other sports?
• Does this have to do with "Blood Doping"? 
• Does this have to do with Lance Armstrong? 
• Are there more red blood cells than normal? 
• Does this have to do with energy and exercise? 

*Purpose: To surface content related  questions without explicitly asking students. 

2.  Explore

Teach how to leverage Arduino Uno to create their own Pulse Oximeter. Click here for instructions and materials. Once complete challenge students to design and conduct an experiment to determine the impact that various types of exercises and activities (breathing through a straw, etc.) have on pulse and oxygen saturation. Students will then hypothesize the relationship between pulse, oxygen saturation and energy use. Experiment must be conducted using appropriate research design methodology. (Control, independent, dependent variables outlined clearly) 

*Purpose: To challenge students to think deeper about energy during exercise and strain, as well as revisit research methodology and promote crosscutting NGSS integration such as engineering, etc. into the lesson. By not addressing "Blood Doping" directly, students are left wondering the relationship between the "Engage" and "Explore" phase further intensifying their curiosity and desire for more content.  

3.  Explain

Conduct a lesson on Cellular Respiration, clearly outlining and diagraming the process of Glycolysis, Krebs cycle, and defining organelles such as the cytosol and the mitochondria. Once complete, ask the driving question: How does the processes outlined relate to "Blood Doping". After students share their responses, play the video below: 

4. Extend

 Pose the below medical case study to students and challenge them to: 

• Diagnose the patient.
• Explain diagnosis in the context of new information above (Cellular Respiration, etc.). 
• Pose a treatment plan

Case
A, 23-year-old, 5’ 9”, 105 lb, caucasian female presented in her physician’s office with a sudden onset of weight loss along, pain when urinating, and chronic extreme hunger. The patient also reported a strange mold-like substance forming in her toilet over the past week.  

*Purpose: To facilitate connection between information obtained during the "Explain" phase and applications of content in the "real world" (note: I hate the term "real world" but application can extend beyond medical diagnostics, etc.).  

5. Evaluate 

Quiz, test, etc. 

cross posted at www.cyclesoflearning.com

Ramsey Musallam teaches science and robotics at Sonoma Academy in Santa Rosa, California, with the aim of fostering inquiry-based learning environments fueled by student curiosity. He presents widely on sparking student curiosity and teaching with technology. Musallam is a Google Certified Teacher, a YouTube Star Teacher, and a Leading Edge Certified Teacher. Watch his TED talk here and read his blog at www.cyclesoflearning.com.

Stanford History Education Group

High-quality, document-based lessons spark stellar historical inquiry

Pros: Students investigate historical questions and make claims as they analyze highly researched, accurate, and comprehensive primary documents.

Cons: Struggling readers and ELL students may need support to access text-heavy documents.

Bottom Line: A gold mine of CCSS-aligned lessons for U.S. and world history teachers; encourages reading, analysis, and collaboration. 

Read more here.

App of the Day picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed by Common Sense Education, which helps educators find the best ed-tech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly.  

By Common Sense Education  

 Freckle 

Target standards-based skills with dynamic practice and assessments 

Pros: Interactive student assessments are tightly aligned with CCSS, and the teacher dashboard is very easy to use.

Cons: Filters may restrict student access to some content, and the basic version contains some limits on the ability to assign content and practice skills.

Bottom Line: Rich with content-aligned assessments, activities, printable worksheets, and progress analytics, this valuable resource promotes skills mastery through practice. 

Read more here.

Site of the Week picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed by Common Sense Education, which helps educators find the best edtech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly.

 By Common Sense Education 

Last week, I got the chance to work with about 25 teachers and educators from around the state as we started the process of revising our state social studies standards. Long time readers will recall a similar process from seven years ago.

At the time, the Kansas state standards were very much the same as other state level standards documents. The focus was on the details of history – people and places and dates. Assessments tried to incorporate critical thinking but since the entire test was multiple choice, it was difficult to measure high levels of thinking and problem solving.

To be successful on this type of high stakes state assessment, teachers shifted to a drill and kill,  memorize specific pieces of content out of context instructional strategies. These strategies increased test scores but lowered student engagement, failed to create critical thinkers, and didn’t prepare kids to become informed citizens.

So we started from scratch.

The 2011 process resulted in a brand new set of standards that shifted instructional focus from memorizing details to one that encouraged analyzing evidence, solving problems, and sharing solutions. We created five big ideas that acted as our standards. We adapted reading, writing, and communication expectations and instruction best practices to guide local curriculum development. And we left the specific content up to each district.

Teachers appreciated the freedom to focus on the doing of social studies rather than asking kids to memorize minutiae. But this “new” style of teaching can be time consuming and difficult. The old standards had trained both our kids and our teachers that drill and kill was acceptable – now we were asking that instruction and assessment look different.

And teachers had questions. What does this sort of teaching look like? How do you assess the learning? How long should it take? If we don’t have to “cover”so much content, what content is important enough to focus on? What resources are available?

Back in 2013, as the revised document rolled out, there weren’t a ton of examples and resources out there that supported this kind of inquiry based teaching model. But around the country, others were having similar conversations:

Things got better.

And now, if you’re looking for examples, resources, lessons, student samples, and rubrics, things are looking even rosier. Tina Ellsworth, social science coordinator at Olathe schools and a co-chair of the standards writing committee, recently shared one of her latest finds with me.

Developed over the last four years by a University of Michigan group headed by Chauncey Monte-Sano and Mary Schleppegrell, Read.Inquire.Write builds on the momentum of earlier research and adds their own unique strategies. RIW is designed to give you resources and tools that support reading and analyzing complex texts from multiple perspectives and prepares students to write arguments that are supported by evidence and disciplinary reasoning.

Using the tools in RIW, students learn to read and analyze sources, recognize multiple perspectives, assess the reliability of sources, discuss and deliberate sources and ideas, and develop disciplinary language. While completing writing prompts, students also improve their reading, analysis, and speaking skills along with their knowledge of the particular topics under investigation.

RIW breaks argument writing down into three types – interpretation, critique, and counterargument – to create a progression of increasingly complex writing that builds students’ disciplinary literacy skills over time.

Interpretation:
Make an argument for an interpretation. Students read sources and interpret them to make claims and reason about the evidence they offer.
Designed for 6th graders.

Critique:
Make an argument against an interpretation. Students read sources and interpret them to critique an argument that someone else has made about an issue.
Designed for 7th graders.

Counterargument:
Make an argument for an interpretation while recognizing and rebutting or responding to other possible interpretations. Students read sources and interpret them to argue for a position and rebut other views to counter the argument someone else might make.
Designed for 8th graders.

Of the 12 investigations created so far, four investigations are centered on each of the three types that support student skills in interpreting sources to critiquing arguments to developing counterarguments. Each type is supported with discipline specific literacy tools to help students develop claims, evidence, and reasoning.

I like how the RIW folks model for us how to model for our students. Kids to examples just like we do. So we need to model for them how to source a document, how to analyze evidence. And if you’ve not done that much modeling, it’s nice to get a sense of what that can look like: 

It really is pretty slick.

You get the investigations. You get the literacy tools. You get example videos. You get student samples. You get rubrics. (You will need to create a free account to download the PDFs and MS Word docs.) All designed to provide you with examples and support.

If all of this reminds you a bit of Sam Wineburg’s SHEG stuff, it probably should. Chauncey Monte-Sano co-authored Reading Like a Historian: Teaching Literacy in Middle and High School History Classroomswith Wineburg. She also co-authored Reading, Thinking, and Writing About History: Teaching Argument Writing to Diverse Learners. So she and her team have got the chops.

The site seems fairly new (all of their 35 videos have fewer than 5 views) and I’m guessing there will be changes made over the next few months as RIW rolls out across the country. But it’s still a super sweet tool to assist you as you design your own inquiry-based social studies lessons.

So head over. Create an account. And start making your students smarter.

(Curious what the current Kansas standards revision might look like? Me too. The first two days involved lots of discussion and feedback about what is and isn’t working. We’re definitely keeping the big ideas as standards. There will be some type of scope and sequence with suggested content. But other than that – we’re still working on the details. I’ll keep you posted as we start to actually figure some things out.) 

cross posted at glennwiebe.org

Glenn Wiebe is an education and technology consultant with 15 years' experience teaching history and social studies. He is a curriculum consultant for ESSDACK, an educational service center in Hutchinson, Kansas, blogs frequently at History Tech and maintains Social Studies Central, a repository of resources targeted at K-12 educators. Visit
glennwiebe.org to learn more about his speaking and presentation on education technology, innovative instruction and social studies.

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of working with the science educators at D211 in Chicago's Northwest Suburbs. As part of the workshop, all teachers were challenged to work in discipline specific teams to create an outline for an NGSS aligned, 5E Learning cycle. They were too good not to share! Click on the image below to access all lesson outlines. Enjoy!

[New, SIMPLIFIED, Student Portfolio System (or "feeling the fear of not being 'innovative' enough this year")]

cross posted at www.cyclesoflearning.com

Ramsey Musallam teaches science and robotics at Sonoma Academy in Santa Rosa, California, with the aim of fostering inquiry-based learning environments fueled by student curiosity. He presents widely on sparking student curiosity and teaching with technology. Musallam is a Google Certified Teacher, a YouTube Star Teacher, and a Leading Edge Certified Teacher. Watch his TED talk here and read his blog at www.cyclesoflearning.com.

The new standards from ISTE will reflect a “new era” in the way K–12 educators should think about teaching STEM and computer science, experts and coding advocates say. The standards have just been updated for the first time in six years, with help from Code.org and the Computer Science Teachers Association, among other groups. The standards are not just for computer science teaching but apply to many teachers who are incorporating computer science into their teaching. Computer science education involves other aspects of academic discipling such as the social impact of computing, data science, and the general application of algorithms beyond traditional computer things—a concept called computational thinking. According to the guidelines, a learner must understand the hardware and software comprising a computer and its network, as well as the influence computing can have on the cultural and social well-being of individuals and society. The guidelines stipulate that a facilitator should choose relevant project- or problem solving-based lessons, encourage the use of computational thinking in those lessons, and ensure that the lessons are culturally diverse.

https://tinyurl.com/y9ojmnvj

The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) today released new standards for education leaders that highlight key areas of impact.

The standards are focused on some of the most timely, yet enduring, topics in education today — equity, digital citizenship, team and systems building, continuous improvement and professional growth.

[What’s New: New Tools for Schools]

The characteristics of effective leaders outlined in the ISTE Standards for Education Leaders are:

1. Equity and Citizenship Advocate: Leaders use technology to increase equity, inclusion and digital citizenship practices.
2. Visionary Planner: Leaders engage others in establishing a vision, strategic plan and ongoing evaluation cycle for transforming learning with technology.
3. Empowering Leader: Leaders create a culture where teachers and learners are empowered to use technology in innovative ways to enrich teaching and learning.
4. System Designer: Leaders build teams and systems to implement, sustain and continually improve the use of technology to support learning.
5. Connected Learner: Leaders model and promote continuous professional learning for themselves and others.

To view the new ISTE Standards for Education Leaders visit: www.iste.org/standards/for-education-leaders.

How do you keep track of all your units, lessons, and track what standards you have addressed?

Bullet Journal

When I asked #NYCSchoolsTech educator Eileen Lennon how she does this, she shared her analog method. She has a section in her bullet journal track lessons across the year. This provides a great, at-a-glance tool for parents, administrators, and also the students themselves.

Here is what she shared.

OneNote Notebook

The actual lessons themselves are all stored in her digital notebook using OneNote. There is a link to every lesson in the lesson agenda accessible from her laptop, phone, or any device. Because the lesson agenda is digital and hyperlinked, she has access to all materials anytime, anywhere and can make changes and updates to adjust to student needs on the fly.

[Apple, Google, & Microsoft... Oh My! Which is Best for Your School?]

She spends her Friday prep period each week planning for the next week's lessons.

Here's the table of contents.

The Notebook

If you're like me, you want to see the actual notebook. You can dig in and look around the actual notebook here.

Your Turn

What do you think? Are there some ideas here you can see using in your practice? What digital and analog organizational system do you use?

Lisa Nielsen writes for and speaks to audiences across the globe about learning innovatively and is frequently covered by local and national media for her views on “Passion (not data) Driven Learning,” "Thinking Outside the Ban" to harness the power of technology for learning, and using the power of social media to provide a voice to educators and students. Ms. Nielsen has worked for more than a decade in various capacities to support learning in real and innovative ways that will prepare students for success. In addition to her award-winning blog, The Innovative Educator, Ms. Nielsen’s writing is featured in places such as Huffington Post, Tech & Learning, ISTE Connects, ASCD Wholechild, MindShift, Leading & Learning, The Unplugged Mom, and is the author the book Teaching Generation Text.

15 Ideas To Ensure That Project Based Learning Is Grounded In Content And Standards

It is important that Project Based Learning provides students with wonderful opportunities that allow them to take part in a culture focused on rich activities and experiences. It promotes those important 21st-century skills while balancing this acquisition with important content knowledge and standards. The lessons and activities are intentional, aligned, and mapped to curricular standards. The standards and skills are constantly assessed in a variety of ways involving numerous stakeholders. Most of all, there is an alignment between standards, skills, and assessment. By incorporating these indicators teachers are ensured that they have provided a project process that is built on standards and proper skill acquisition. The four areas that serve as indicators for grounding PBL in standards are below.

1. Curricular Content
2. 21st Century Skills
3. Formative and Summative Learning Opportunities
4. Intentional, Aligned, Varied, and Constant Assessment

In this post, I would like to focus on the curricular content and standards that are one of the foundations of PBL. As I travel the country I will often hear teachers state that there is not the time for PBL because of the demands of the curricular content and standards. I understand this concern and the sincere desire that amazing teachers have in trying to prepare students for a successful future. I do wonder about the difference between knowing standards and understanding standards, but I will save that for a future post.

First, I do agree that students do have the need to learn and understand base curriculum that focuses on important content standards. These are also those same skills that are many times tested on the standardized test, end of course assessment, and other high stake tests such as ACT, SAT, and AP. PBL, when done right, allows teachers to focus on and facilitate important content and standards. So what is PBL done right? Let’s take a moment to investigate and reflect.

I have heard many interpretations of Project Based Learning. Often I hear a description that suggests that the teacher delivers the content and students follow up with an inspiring and engaging cumulative project. While this involves student doing a project, it really is not PBL. I call this teaching and then having students do a project. Resources from BIE (BUCK Institute) describe this as a “dessert project”. This comes from the idea that first there is the teaching… and then a sweet project for dessert. While this can be useful and can reinforce some learning it is not truly Project Based Learning. In fact, I would like to give this practice its own acronym, LBP (Learning Before Projects). I can understand how we as educators might not have time for this encore or dessert style or approach. PBL, however, is not an afterthought!

[Manage & Organize All Steps of Project-Based Learning]

In true Project Based Learning the project uncovers and facilitates the learning of significant content. In PBL, there is a balance of learning that occurs throughout the project’s duration. It is this combination that allows for quality and rigor while helping students see the connection of content to the real world. It is important to understand that the ongoing project itself, through careful teacher planning, must facilitate the learning. Furthermore, it is essential that a PBL unit is designed with proper scaffolding or mapping that includes both learning activities and effective ongoing assessment. In fact, some of these activities might actually be existing lessons that a teacher has always used. It is even possible and probable that part of the scaffold will include readings, lectures, and even a worksheet, although it is important to keep a balance using all of Bloom’s levels. While assessment is varied, there is nothing wrong with including a summative test. After all, our students will be facing these for awhile as they continue their educational careers. It is important to note that because the project is used as a base and point of reference throughout the learning, the element of time becomes much more productive than what might occur in LBP (Learning Before Projects). Through this process, the learning, understanding, and application of significant content standards will become an important outcome. PBL provides the rigor of learning new content along with the engagement apparent in a student-centered program based on deeper learning. The content becomes the “what” while PBL is the “how”. Below you will find twelve ideas to keep in mind in order to ensure that a PBL unit contains those important content standards.

1. The entry event or launch should show a relationship to the Driving/Investigative Question promoting a “need to know” of the standards and content.
2. The entry event serves as a link bewtween student prior knowledge and what students are about to learn.
3. The Driving/Investigative Question should allow students to uncover the curriculum standards in a student friendly and understandable manner.
4. Student inquiry in the project allows for motivation, engagement and ownership of the learning and the standards. The inquiry alloiws for the cycle of learning in the project.
5. PBL shoud get students beyond the nouns in the standards allowing real life practice of those verbs that are also in the standards.
6. Any PBL planning sheets and activities for students should line up with the standards and content in the curricular area being studied and assessed.
7. The project should be ongoing and made up of activities and lessons that facilitate the learning of significant content.
8. Formative learning activities and assessments that teach and reinforce the significant content should be mapped and occur throughout the timeline of the project.
9. While innovative and student-centered learning is encouraged, the scaffolding of the project can still include traditional lecture, tests, and textbook readings that promote significant content. Yes… rich engaging lectures can be used!
10. The PBL map should include a wide range of Bloom’s levels and deeper learning opportunities. While digital technology can amplify the experience, it is not always neccessary.
11. There should be rubrics developed that evaluate student learning outcomes and rubrics should be aligned with the significant content and student performance. Students and their peers should also be part of the evaluation process.
12. The final project should not only emphasize the content standard verbs (21st century skills) but should show the learning and understanding of significant content at he highest levels.
13. The final project should demonstrate student understanding and learning of the standards and content. At the same time it should provide an answer to the Driving /InvestigativeQuestion providing students the “why”.
14. Since learning is embedded throughout the project, consider the number of standards when determining the length of the project. There should be a balance and productivity in the learning experience.
15. Remind students the importance of learning about and understanding the content standards throughout the project. This can be facilitated by providing important formative and summative assessment that ensures accountability while connecting the learning to real life.

The acquisition of content knowledge that has been deemed important by society is one of the key functions of education. Project Based Learning honors this by immersing students in the important content standards while providing that needed foundation. In a world that is seeing content multiply at an exponential rate, it is also important to help students become seekers of knowledge and lifetime self-learners. Along with those additional 21st century skills, PBL provides the avenue to both build the content foundation while activating the natural ability to learn.

cross-posted at 21centuryedtech.wordpress.com

Michael Gorman oversees one-to-one laptop programs and digital professional development for Southwest Allen County Schools near Fort Wayne, Indiana. He is a consultant for Discovery Education, ISTE, My Big Campus, and November Learning and is on the National Faculty for The Buck Institute for Education. His awards include district Teacher of the Year, Indiana STEM Educator of the Year and Microsoft’s 365 Global Education Hero. Read more at 21centuryedtech.wordpress.com.

Quality Matters (QM) and the Virtual Learning Leadership Alliance (VLLA) announce a new partnership between QM and the VLLA to revise the National Standards for Quality Online Courses, Online Teaching and Online Programs, building upon the work started by The International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL).

The purpose of the National Standards for Quality revision initiative is to provide the K-12 online and blended learning community with an updated set of openly licensed standards to help evaluate and improve online courses, online teaching and online programs.

Work will begin in February of 2018, with a goal of completing the National Standards for Quality Online Teaching and Online Programs revision in fall of 2018, and the National Standards for Quality Online Courses in the fall of 2019.

Special Note and Discount For FETC – Think about joining me at FETC this January in sunny Orlando, Florida. I am excited to be a featured speaker at this very special conference. Perhaps you might even attend my session or workshops. Follow this link for more information and a discount code. Hope to see you there!

Ten Ideas To Take Students Beyond That STEM Activity… And Towards The Standards

“You can have facts without thinking, but you cannot have thinking without facts” – John Dewey

I am a big advocate of student engagement, exploration, and inquiry. I enjoy seeing a great STEM activity where the students are motivated and enjoying the task. In fact, this is one reason to bring STEM experiences into the school. It allows for the students to do, which is so important in education.

John Dewey often said, “You can have facts without thinking, but you cannot have thinking without facts”. I would like to believe that this thinking also involved doing. In other words, the nouns in our standards are better understood when students participate in the verbs. It seems the last ten years of education has seen an emphasis on the test which promoted the memorization of nouns, or facts. This took the opportunity for doing, which emphasizes verbs, away from many of our students. I see doing as an opportunity to actively think and work with those facts. Without this balance the results become… facts without thinking. When this happens, where is the learning?

As the STEM movement has gained momentum it seems we have a lot more students’ doing. I see many classrooms where students are involved, excited, and motivated as they engage in a STEM activity. At the same time, I often wonder if the doing is always connected with thinking and metacognition emphasized by the standards. Afterall, it is the standards that students will be tested on. To be “doing” with the verbs in the standards is very important. As educators practice “doing” there is a possibility of straying from the facts (nouns). I have seen this happen and often refer to it as a STEM activity or Activity Based learning. For this reason, I believe educators must deliberately find a balance between content and doing. We must make sure that STEM goes beyond an activity. STEM must become a “learning event” that supports and amplifies the concepts as students acquire the necessary standards.

It is the teachers responsibility to provide this important balance. Educators must reflect on the concepts and knowledge students walk away with after being engaged in a STEM learning experience. Note that I called it a STEM learning experience and not an activity. We must be careful, and be certain, to go beyond the activity, Teachers must provide STEM learning experiences that are rich, authentic, and connected to the standards and real world. We must be certain that standards are in place and that metacognition is supported in relationship to the STEM event and standards. Most of all, there must be some type of assessment to see if the learning opportunity provided the needed “facts and thinking”. Please take a moment to read and reflect on the ten thoughts and ideas that follow. It is my intention to help ensure that your lessons go beyond an activity and support the learning necessary for student success in the 21st century.

1. Take some time to ensure that your standards are integrated into the learning experience.
2. Balance time spent with standards addressed. Our educational time is so valuable. Make sure there is proper balance.
3. Provide students with understandable learning targets they can own. Find ways to develop that ownership.
4. Promote and emphasize inquiry allowing for student centered learning. At the same time, provide constraints to keep within the meaning of the learning objectives.
5. Provide time for student metacognition in both peer discussions, classroom processing, and independent reflection.
6. Find ways to connect to other disciplines allowing for increased productivity and understanding.
7. Consider promoting, facilitating, and assessing the 21st century skills (critical thinking, communication, creativity, and collaboration). These are a natual part of both STEM and the verbs found inside teh standards.
8. Determine and employ assessments to measure student success in accomplishing standards. Establish group and individual accountablity.
9. Be actively involved with students through the process by providing guidance toward understanding. At the same time integrate formative assessment that will support the summative tool used to measure individual learning.
10. Connect and integrate the STEM learning opportunity with other modalities. These should be both traditional and nontraditional. Possiblities include readings, web interaction, multimedia, disccussion, simulations, journaling, and explanation.

As you can see, it is possible to go beyond the STEM activity by employing intentional thought and planning. As we do this we provide our students with exciting and engaging ways to learn by doing and thinking. At the same time the standards are supported. The best pay off may be that our students walk away with a real and authentic understanding of what they are expected to learn. As they do, they will find success and so much more on that final evaluation or test. Students will open new windows of opportunity! They will discover and create new content as they “do and think” through important facts!

“You can have facts without thinking, but you cannot have thinking without facts” – John Dewey

Thank you for joining me for another year of educational thoughts and ideas! Please take a moment to share this post with other educators across the world. Please accept my invitation to you, which is the opportunity to be a part of another year of postings, by subscribing by email or RSS and follow me on Twitter (mjgormans). You will also find a treasure of resources covering 21st-century learning, STEM, PBL, and technology integration for the classroom. Best wishes to you in this wonderful New Year!

cross-posted at 21centuryedtech.wordpress.com

Michael Gorman oversees one-to-one laptop programs and digital professional development for Southwest Allen County Schools near Fort Wayne, Indiana. He is a consultant for Discovery Education, ISTE, My Big Campus, and November Learning and is on the National Faculty for The Buck Institute for Education. His awards include district Teacher of the Year, Indiana STEM Educator of the Year and Microsoft’s 365 Global Education Hero. Read more at 21centuryedtech.wordpress.com.

The ISTE Standards for Students names practices in which many innovative educators are already engaged. It gives a standard language for educators to speak to each other about their work. It also provides language and justification for doing this work when speaking with administrators. When implementing standards with students, it is also important to introduce them and their parents to the standards which you are working towards.To help with that, ISTE teamed up with Flocabulary to create this video.

7 Ways: The ISTE Standards for Students Music Video

The poster below illustrates the seven standards highlighted in the video.

Bringing the Standards to Life in The Classroom

When implementing lessons that bring these standards to life, think about how this might be reflected for students. Here are some ideas:

• Have student digital portfolios set up by the standards.
• Have classroom bulletin boards that represent each standard. On the bulletin board, provide sample student projects that come to life with QR codes.
• Let students know what standards they are addressing in their work.
• Showcase student work organized by standard on your teacher website.

The 2016 ISTE Standards for Students are broken down into seven components; Empowered Learner, Digital Citizen, Knowledge Constructor, Innovative Designer, Computational Thinker (new), Creative Communicator, and Global Collaborator. We chat with Jim Flanagan, ISTE Chief Learning Services Officer and 25-year veteran in the public and private K-12 sector, about how the new standards can transform learning in your classroom.

The 2016 ISTE Standards for Students are designed to encourage exploration, creativity and discovery. What sort of timeline should schools strive for to reach these edtech goals?

Our hope is that educators will review the standards as soon as possible and start the discussion of how they might begin first steps. (I expect that many will want to include students in the discussion, as well.)

How can the standards benefit teachers? How does enhanced digital empowerment add to learning in the classroom?

I hope teachers see the student standards as a tool in their innovation discussions. (I also hope it will spur them to contribute their ideas to this year’s refresh of the ISTE Standards for Teachers!) Beyond that, I believe the first positive results will be increased student empowerment followed by deeper student learning and more in-depth, meaningful project work.

How will the new “Computational Thinker” category affect teachers? By setting the standard for students to use Tech within the classroom to achieve their goals, does this do away with “old school” memorizing content/committing concepts (equations, formulas, etc.) to memory?

There is still a place for student practice that builds automaticity, and brain research backs that up. The question is, what is the best way for each student to develop skills that result in deeper understanding and longer-term retention?

We believe that CT is not just for the future software engineers of the world, but a core literacy. Every person should know how to read to fully participate in society. In the same way, to be engaged citizens every student should be learning how computers solve problems and analyze data. There’s tremendous cross-subject potential in logic and problem-solving.

Do standardized tests and state protocols/policies fall in line with these new standards?

The standards are designed to be measurable, but not for high-stakes assessment. That said, my hope is that the standards can inform next generation assessment systems to include recognition of real project work, non-cognitive competencies and higher order thinking skills.

Does ISTE offer any sort of support or research materials to help educators as they transition to a more developed digital program within their school?

We offer a digital unpacking of the standards on our Website (each with four indicators of success), a free report on the refresh process and the research behind the standards, webinars, and a toolkit. ISTE is also developing a series of digital learning pathways courses starting with the Empowered Learner standard this fall.

Teachers in one-iPad classrooms can turn their device into a document camera with lots of do-it-yourself tricks. The perfect app for turning your iPad into a presentation tool is Stage: Interactive Whiteboard and Document Camera. It lets users switch from a white board, image background, and camera all while writing on the screen. Extra in app purchases let you unlock other features but Stage has lots of options for teachers who want to make use of free tools.

Whether you have just a teacher iPad or are in a one-to-one classroom, this app provides plenty of choices for teachers looking to display and annotate student work.

Check out my Common Core aligned lesson plans for teaching with iPads!

cross posted at classtechtips.com

Monica Burns is a fifth grade teacher in a 1:1 iPad classroom. Visit her website at classtechtips.com for creative education technology tips and technology lesson plans aligned to the Common Core Standards.

Technology is an integral part of the Common Core Standards. For teachers without access to a tablet, who want to use technology with an interactive whiteboard, the following are sites to achieve the standards for a particular grade.

Grades K-3

Fuel The Brain- This free site has some teacher resources for the Common Core Standards for writing, numbers and operations and measurement and data. Teachers can also print worksheets and have students interact with “games” that align to the Common Core. The highlight to this site is the ability for students to create their own mini books. Students can write fiction or non-fiction books that can add the title and author and content.

Grades K-6

Mr. Nussbaum Great site that meets the Common Core Standards! The site includes interactive games as well as printable worksheets and lesson plans that align to the Common Core Standards, including math, language arts, history, geography, USA and science.

Grades K-12

Vocabulary Spelling City Website and free app. Free activities to help students with spelling and vocabulary.

Math-Play includes both math games and printable worksheets for elementary and middle school. Interactive games include fractions, algebra, geometry, money, elementary and middle school.

Common Core Conversation This is a free site that offers resources, lessons and teaching strategies. Resources include math, English, science, social studies and other subjects.

Ginger Software use with Google Chrome. This website is a must-have for students who need proofreading when writing documents. Within the site many other options are offered for free.

Vicki Windman is a special education teacher at Clarkstown High School South. Read more at appoplexy.wordpress.com

The high school standards are listed in conceptual categories:

• Number and Quantity

• Algebra

• Functions

• Modeling

• Geometry

• Statistics and Probability

Algebraic Overview: Write expressions in equivalent forms to solve problems, Arithmetic with Polynomials and Rational Expressions, Creating Equations, Reasoning with Equations and Inequalities.

Wolfram Algebra Course Assistant $1.99 - This app covers factoring numeric expressions, polynomials, and symbolic expressions to Find the partial fraction decomposition of rational expressions.

Algebra Pro $.99 - A collection of solvers, tutorials, and examples for Inequalities, Polynomials, Rational functions, Geometric Sequences, Exponential Functions, Direct and Inverse Variation, Quadratic Formula and Functions and more.

mestudying-algebra $4.99 - Covers entire scope of high school Algebra 1 with over 400 questions and detailed explanations for every question.

Functions: Interpreting Functions, Building Functions, Linear, Quadratic and Exponential Models and Trigonmetric Functions.

Scientific Calculator $1.99 - Gives access to four different types of calculators: Handwriting calculator, Scientific calculator, Quadratic & Cubic equation solver, System of linear equations solver.

Quick Graph Free - Graphic calculator that takes full advantage of the multitouch display and the powerful graphic capabilities. It's capable of displaying explicit and implicit (opt) equations as well as inequalities.

Geometry: Congruence, Similarity, Right Triangles, and Trigonometry, Circles, Expressing Geometric Properties with Equations, Geometric Measurement and Dimension.

HMH-Fuse-Geometry- Free- This is a sample of the full app - relationships of angles, lines and planes (including rotations, translations and reflections) and to use geometric proofs, inductive and deductive reasoning. In addition to basic geometry theorems; solve problems relating to perimeters, circumference, area, volume and surface as well as study probability.

Right Angles Free - Know any two of the four values and it can give you a precise answer. Solve for Degree/Radian, Rise/Opposite, Base/Adjacent, Slope/Hypotenuse.

Euclid Geometric Constructions $.99 - Draw lines and intersect circles, create pentagons and compute square roots using a puzzle game format.

Geometry Stash $1.99 - Access the most commonly used theorems, postulates, and corollaries.

Trigonir $1.99 - Determine the following properties of trigonometric functions: domain and co domain of functions, zeros of functions, points where a function is not defined, increasing and decreasing of the function, positive/negative values, periodicity,evenness and oddness of a function, accurate value of basic angles, and properties of inverse functions (arcsin α, arccos α, arctan α, arccot α).

Statistics and Probability- Interpreting Categorical and Quantitative Data, Making Inferences and Justifying Conclusions, Conditional Probability and the Rules of Probability, Using Probability to Make Decisions.

Wolfram Statistics Course $1.99 - Create a bar chart, histogram, or scatter plot of any set of data. Find the mean, median, mode, standard deviation, quartiles, and interquartile range of a dataset. Calculate normal probabilities, binomial probabilities, compute probabilities based on dice rolls and coin flips and more.

Probability Pro $.99 - Features a rich set of tutorials and solvers for the following topics: Venn Diagrams- Survey Results- Odds- Permutations- Combinations- Taking Balls from Urns- Replacement vs. Non-Replacement- Independent Events- Expected Value- Birthday Problem- Normal Distributions.

Vicki Windman is a special education teacher at Clarkstown High School South.

Fourth Grade
The standard includes five components:

• Operations and Algebraic Thinking- expanding the topic to include gaining familiarity with factors and multiples, generate and analyze patterns.
• Number and Operations in Base Ten- increase the ability to use place value to perform multi-digit arithmetic.
• Number and Operations- Fractions- understanding fraction equivalence and ordering, understand decimal notation for fractions and compare decimal fractions.
• Measurement and Data- solve problems of measurements from a larger unit to a smaller unit, geometric measurement.
• Geometry- draw and identify lines and angles.

ilivemath-oceans $4.99 - I have mentioned apps in this series in other blogs. This app generates one- and two-step word problems; it has three levels of difficulty including addition, subtraction, fractions and circle geometry. The series includes three additional apps that cover the same areas of math.

Algebra Touch $2.99 - Introduces the following: Simplification, Like Terms, Commutativity, Order of Operations, Factorization, Prime Numbers, Elimination, Isolation, Variables, Basic Equations, Distribution, Factoring Out, Substitution, and 'More Advanced' mode.

4th grade math testing prep $2.99 - An inclusive app that addresses identification of patterns, decimals, fractions, measurement, variables, word problems, angles, algebra and more.

Geometry 4 Kids $.99 - Appropriate for all elementary grades. It covers line segments, rays and angles, congruence and transformations, critical thinking and more.

Fifth Grade
The standard has the same five components as fourth grade's standard:

• The Operations and Algebraic thinking expands to write and interpret numerical expressions.
  
• Numbers and Operations in Base Ten include performing operations with decimals to hundredths.
  
• Number and Operations extend to equivalent fractions and extending previous understanding of multiplying and dividing fractions.
  
• Measurement and Data expands geometric measurement: understand concepts of volume and relate volume to multiplication and to addition.
• Geometry expands to graphing points on the coordinate plane to solve real-world and mathematical problems.

iTooch-math grade 5 lite Free; paid app $5.99 - Free version offers trial of 15 chapters before purchase. The paid version offers 60 chapters. Themes covered include Numbers and Operations, Fractions, Measuring and Estimating, Graphs and Stats and Geometry. Chapters include lessons, examples and figures. There are two modes for answering questions: practice and graded. In addition, the app includes Apple Game Center integration.

Vicki Windman is a special education teacher at Clarkstown High School South.

Kindergarten
The five areas of concentration are:

• Counting and cardinality
• Operations and algebraic thinking
• Number and operations in base ten
• Measurement and data
• Geometry

The Counting Game $.99 Can be used for different grade levels based on the standards for the grade. Choose a number from 1-10. A sequence of numbers will be presented; student taps the next number in the sequence.

First Grade
The four areas of concentration are:

• Operations and algebraic thinking
• Numbers and operations in base 10
• Measurement and Data
• Geometry

Many the apps for kindergarten will meet the standards for first grade.

Addition and Subtraction Free (each additional level is $.99) This is a visual and auditory app using fish to assist students with learning addition and subtraction.

Teach Me first grade $.99 In addition to addition and subtraction problems, the app includes TeachTech, a writing recognition engine.

Place Value $.99 Practice place value of two-, three- and four-digit numbers using multi-touch.

Telling time- photo touch game $.99 Easily break lessons into teaching full hours, half past the hour, etc. separately or all combined for advanced students. You can add your own voice. Multi-sensory learning tool, combining audio, voice and written words.

Easy Chart HD $.99 Create bar/line/pie/sidebar charts.

Vicki Windman is a special education teacher at Clarkstown High School South.