Quizlet Live!

Have you tried Quizlet's new classroom game?!?! The new feature takes everything you love about Quizlet and adds a collaborative component. The best part is, it's super easy to get started. Begin by creating a Quizlet set or choosing one that you have already created. A join code will be created for the Quizlet Live set. 

Students go to https://quizlet.com/live to enter the classroom code. 
Students are then grouped into teams. 

They have a few seconds to move around the room, find one another and sit together. Once the game begins, the prompt will be displayed on each student's screen. Answer choices will be displayed on the screens of all students, but only one student in each group will have the correct answer. Students must work together to find the correct answer. In the demo picture below, I am on a team with Alec and Karoun. You can see that the correct answer, Egypt, is in my list. Alec and Karoun have different answer choices on the lists on their screens. 

Click here to see a demo. 

Visit the website for more information! 

Changing User Settings in Canvas

Here's a screencast explaining how to change user settings in Canvas. The video includes instruction on linking your Google account to Canvas. Students will need to link their accounts in order to submit Google Docs as assignments. 

Summative Assessments

While searching for resources to utilize in creating the midyear benchmark, the possibility of utilizing published summative assessments from other states was considered. Not all states have adopted the Common Core State Standards, and different plans for assessment exist in the states that have implemented the standards. 

The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium is a public agency consisting of 15 states, 1 territory, and the Burearu of Indian Affairs. These governing members use Smarter Balanced Assessments created by representative members of the Consortium. North Carolina is an affiliate member of the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium. We do not use summative and interim assessments created by the Consortium, but continue to use summative (EOG/EOC) assessments through NCDPI. 

The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) is a similar organization committed to the development of modern assessment, or group of assessments, to replace standardized tests. Currently, 11 states and the District of Columbia participate in the PARCC consortium. 

Other states, such as Wyoming, North Carolina, and New York utilize independent assessments, not built through participation in a consortium. It's interesting to note how the implemenation of Common Core has changed assessment methods in some states. This Blendspace was created to provide examples of what other states are using. The format varies, but perhaps you can find some items or samples that will be helpful. 

Using Groups in the Classroom

Using Groups in the Classroom

Often times when we think of "group work," our minds travel to those times when you would pray you got in a group with a "smart kid" so you wouldn't have to do so much work.  Well, maybe that was what I thought when I was assigned group work.  Educators have conducted in-depth research concerning grouping students effectively and efficiently.  Many different strategies for grouping students allow for all students to feel confident and successful.  Research has shown that "when students are able to verbalize their ideas, listen to one another, share authentic discussion, and create common products, they are much more actively engaged in the learning process."*    

* 30 Ways to Arrange Students for Group Work by Jordan Catapno
         - TeachHUB.com

Here is a link to the professional development session delivered to East Alexander Middle School on January 19, 2016.

Collaborative Groups

Utlizing PowerMyLearning Connect as an Intervention

Have you heard of PowerMyLearning Connect? It is a free online tool to personalize instruction for students at all levels. Teachers login with a free account and build class playlists for students. Playlists include online activities and are specifically designed around classroom learning targets and objectives. PowerMyLearning Connect is a clearinghouse for digital tools and activities available on the internet. Students log-in with their email address and join the class by entering a class code. Students then complete the online learning activites that are assigned through the teacher's created playlist. Formative assessments can also be built in to the playlist.
Watch this short video to find out how playlists are built and assigned:

Using EasyCBM for Progress Monitoring

Student progress monitoring is a way to assess student academic performance and can be used to determine student growth of lack thereof. Elementary schools in our county typically use Reading 3D as a progress monitoring tool. At the middle schools, EasyCBM can be used as a progress monitoring tool for reading and math. The following video shows how to assign progress monitoring assessments using EasyCBM. 

EasyCBM is a norm-referenced test. This means that students are compared to one another. While the percent correct is typically important for classroom assessments, a norm-referenced test uses the percent correct to rank order students. Students scoring at or below the 10th percentile (essentially the bottom 10% of test takers) are identified as high risk with a red label. Students ranking at 11th-25th percentile are identified as moderate risk with a yellow label. 

Student Engagement

With today's youth, it has become increasingly more difficult to get, and keep, students' attention!  We are competing with television, video games, technology, just to name a few!  So, you ask, How do you engage students?  

In order to engage students you need to understand the various levels of engagement.  

http://exclusive.multibriefs.com/content/compliance-or-engagement-when-are-student-truly-engaged-in-the-classroom

Here are some tips that will encourage student engagement:

1.  Warm up:  Start class with a mind warm-up.  Find mistakes on the board, or do a problem of the day.

2.  Movement:  Have students repeat a snapping or clapping rhythm.  Institute a "seventh inning stretch" of sorts.  Have a 30 second random dance.  Be creative!

3.  Collaboration:  Allow students to do group work.  Set expectations and norms early so that everyone is on task.  Give each student a task to be responsible for so that everyone is accountable.

4.  Quickwrite:  This could be journaling, student reflection.  This could be used as a warm-up.  Students can write to defend a stance. Using question stems, have student come up with possible test questions.

5.  Fairness Cup: The old fashioned "popsicle stick, pull a name out of the cup" trick.  Label popsicle sticks with each students' name.  Pull a name of someone to answer a question.  Place the popsicle stick back in the cup so that the student doesn't get comfortable.

6.  Competition:  Appeal to the competitive side of your students by making learning a competition of sorts.  Whether it is with a group or individually, students respond to competition.  Enlist the help of your trashcan and a few wads of paper to make a review game even more exciting.  (Grudge Ball Directions)

7.  Avoid Dead Time:  Try to minimize downtime by allowing students to study vocabulary, summarize a topic, or something else while you pass out papers, move to another activity, etc.

8.  Keep 'em Guessing:  Change teaching and learning styles.  We all know which teaching style is more natural to us and we tend to rely on that particular style more.  Mix it up a bit.  Move to different parts of the room, teach from a different area, know your students learning styles.

9.  Technology:  Integrate technology into your lessons.  This is an automatic attention increaser!  Students know technology and its limitless possibilities.  Meet them where they are and let them use their phones, occasionally, with permission, to access Kahoot, or other online reviewing games.  Use QR codes for scavenger hunts.  Get creative and even ask you students for ideas!

Here is the link to our Google Presentation  
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1U3GzxCLDZi0pN4d9i7vVTONI6LTZstZ4Dng2qxcZIu0/edit?usp=sharing

Here is what your staff said that they would mostly likely implement in their lessons to increase student engagement.