- Question protocols to drive learning
- Common Core Standards Ten Years Later
- Teachable Moments
- Planning Ahead
- Current and Coming Events
- Books, Articles, and Resources We Are Reading
Questions serve many functions in learning and teaching. Whether it is a set of simple questions in a rapid review to clarify the plot and springboard to deeper discussion, a complex question to guide research, or an overarching question to focus a unit of study, questions are drivers of learning. The better we craft them the stronger the results for students. Underlying these questions is an inquiry stance to learning which will serve our students throughout their lives.
Through inquiry, accomplished English language arts teachers foster dispositions in students to examine multiple perspectives; promote a process that prompts students to ask critical questions; encourage students to act on what they have learned; and equip students with the tools needed to examine, organize, manage, and analyze information.
NBPTS ELA Standard 9
Questioning protocols are one method of developing our students’ inquiry skills. This includes our crafting effective questions to ask our students as well as teaching them to ask their own questions. We’ve started a Padlet with links to protocols and other questioning resources. Check it out and add your own resources as well. Questioning Protocols
On our ELA Resource Page on the OSPI site we have the transition plan originally posted to guide schools in moving to the Common Core State Standards. Although the CCSS were not required yet, the recommendations for 2011-2012 were to
- Identify and understand the design of skills and concepts in ELA
- Develop an understanding of the vertical articulation [progression]of skills and concepts from Kindergarten through Career and College Readiness
- Develop an understanding of overarching cross-content concepts (i.e. technology and media)
- Understand the increasing text complexity, its role in preparing students to be career and college ready, and implications for instruction and materials.
As we work with our Washington Standards we tend to focus on the grade level indicators. However, as we review our implementation and plan for strengthening our student success, reflecting on the standards as a whole will serve us well in regaining perspective. Click here for reflection suggestions.
In the last two newsletters, we have provided links to the vertical progressions in the Language and the Speaking and Listening standards. These are helpful in understanding the bigger picture of the standards but also that ELA learning is a cycle not a stairstep progression. Click here for links to all the vertical progressions.
Black History Month
Amanda Gorman, American Youth Poet Laureate
Teaching Source Credibility: Tracking Down Viral Videos- This is an excellent lesson plan but does deal with a controversial topic, so you will want to plan according with your district policy. In addition, the process for critical reading and source evaluation can be adapted to other topics. These classroom-ready slides from the News Literacy Project will engage your students’ critical observation and “lateral reading” skills and teach them how to search the Internet Archive’s free collection of television news broadcasts as they fact-check this claim.
Digital Storytelling The Buffett Early Childhood Institute at the University of Nebraska hosted a webinar on Digital Storytelling. During the webinar, the panelists discuss the impact that storytelling can have on children. The Institute's Professional Development for All site provides a learning guide as a companion piece to the video, as well as numerous other topics for grades PK-3.
Define That! New OER module that focuses on clarity through expanded definitions of terms.
Current and Coming Events
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Bridge to College Registration for 2021-22 is now open. Details are listed in Bulletin 003-21. If you are interested in offering Bridge to College English, the bulletin will give you an overview. Additionally, check out the course webpage or contact Molly Berger.
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Washington Reading Corps is a program that places AmeriCorps volunteers in schools as literacy tutors. Applications for 2021-22 will be open soon. Check our webpage for details.
- UW one week professional offering focused on media literacy. Two classes, one for elementary teachers and one for secondary people are being offered Feb 16-19, with a class just for parents and their children on February 18th. Another class just for secondary teachers will be offered April 21 -May 5th.
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Representing All Our Students: Evaluating Your ELA Curriculum for Racial Equity and Diverse Perspectives: March 8th and 22nd, 3:00-4:30. An opportunity for school and district teams to examine the OSPI tool, Screening for Biased Content in Instructional Materials, and discuss its use in ELA curriculum.
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Webinars we are planning: We are planning these webinars for April and May. Watch for dates in our next newsletter
- School to Career: Writing in the Workplace
- Building Reading Independence in the Middle and High School
Minds Made for Story: How We Really Write Informational and Persuasive Texts by Thomas Newkirk. Heineman, 2014.
Free Literacy-Based, SEL Lessons Chicken Soup for the Soul and American Humane (the country's first national humane organization), have created Humane Heroes, a free series of e-books and companion curricula. The stories center around animal rescue, rehabilitation, and humane conservation being performed at the world’s leading zoological institutions and each volume comes with an implementation guide with lesson plans tied to ELA and SEL competencies. Lessons from Volume 1
100 remote learning activities, templates and tutorials
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