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Use NWEA MAP Test scores to generate personalized study recommendations.

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Use NWEA MAP Test scores to generate personalized study recommendations

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K-2 MAP Growth RIT Correlated to Lessons in Khan Academy

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K-2 MAP Growth RIT Correlated to Lessons in Khan Academy

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Gr. 2-5 MAP Growth RIT Correlated to Lessons in Khan Academy 

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Gr. 2-5 MAP Growth RIT Correlated to Lessons in Khan Academy 

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Grades 6+ MAP Growth RIT Correlated to Lessons in Khan Academy 

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Grades 6+ MAP Growth RIT Correlated to Lessons in Khan Academy 

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Use this tool to find appropriate math resources

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We've detected that Javascript is not enabled. It is required for an optimal survey taking experience. Please check your browser's settings and make sure Javascript is turned on. Learn how to enable Javascript.

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These words and concepts correspond directly to the MAP Learning Continuum Reading, Math, and Language

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Educators rely on student achievement test performance to provide important information for a variety of inferences they wish to make about education. Educators use test scores to gather information about what individual students know and can do, which helps identify students who need special educational assistance. Additionally, in the aggregate, student test performance has been a key part of school accountability during the No Child Left Behind era, and it has become an increasingly important component of the evaluation of teacher and principal effectiveness.

Most educators tend to think about and interpret test scores without considering the full breadth of what makes scores valid. It seems simple: give a student a well-made test, the student tries to do his best, and then interpret the resulting score as an indicator of what that student knows and can do. Obtaining a valid test score from a student, however, requires more than just a good test. It also requires an engaged student who devotes enough effort to the test to demonstrate his true level of proficiency. Without sufficient effort, regardless how good the test is, a student's test score is likely to markedly underestimate what he really knows and can do. This means that such a score alone should not be considered a trustworthy indicator of the student's proficiency level, and should be interpreted cautiously.

No assessment-no matter how carefully designed-is immune to this problem. Despite best efforts to ensure the highest quality of assessments, educators can't control the behavior of the students who are tested. While it is true that most students are engaged when they are being tested, some are not. Why not? To understand this better, it is helpful to first turn the question around and consider why any student gives good effort to a test.

Students are highly likely to remain engaged and give good effort whenever there are meaningful personal consequences associated with their test performance. That is, they try because they want to attain something they value, such as a good grade, high school graduation, a scholarship, etc. Moreover, even in the absence of personal consequences, most students will still give good effort to a test. In these cases, internal psychological factors are operating, such as a desire to please their teachers, a fear of punishment for not giving good effort, competitiveness, or an intrinsic motivation to solve problems that are put before them.

Test-taking engagement is most likely to be a problem when students perceive an absence of personal consequences for test performance. This is called low-stakes testing (as seen from the student's perspective). In these situations, students' internal motivational factors may not be strong enough to maintain test-taking engagement. But even in high-stakes testing situations, students can become disengaged during testing due to such factors as fatigue, illness, personal problems, or a general disenfranchisement with school. Thus, while disengagement is most likely during low-stakes testing, it can occur during high-stakes testing as well.

For the past dozen years or so, I have researched student test-taking engagement, and we have learned a lot about its dynamics. Along with my colleagues, we have pioneered methods for detecting low test-taking effort on computer-based tests. We have developed criteria for identifying test events for which effort was so low that the resulting test scores are invalid. Using these criteria, we have discovered a number of important relationships about student engagement with our Measures of Academic Progress ® (MAP ®) assessment. These include findings that:

Boys exhibit scores reflecting low effort on MAP about twice as often as do girls. For some reason, this finding surprises no one.

Low test-taking effort is about twice as likely to occur on a reading test event as on a math test event. This is because reading test items tend to contain more words, which students view as requiring more effort to answer.

The prevalence of low-effort scores increases with grade. In one study, we found that about 1% of the MAP scores reflect low effort at grade 2, with a gradual increase to about 15% in grade 9.

The time of day that MAP is given is important. The percentage of low-effort scores gradually increase during the day, with students tested late in the day exhibiting low effort about twice as often as those tested at the beginning of the day.

Although these findings are based on MAP scores, there is no reason to believe that similar findings wouldn't be found with other educational assessments as well.

So, given this problem, what should test givers do? First, they should be mindful of the student's perspective regarding the test. That is, even though the test may be extremely important to test givers (i.e., when used for school accountability or teacher evaluation), the test may be of limited importance to students. Moreover, they should be aware that how, when, and where a student is administered a test matters. Students should always be given encouragement from their teachers to give their best effort, and the importance of getting valid test scores should be clearly explained. The test should be administered in quiet settings that are free of distractions, and there should be no incentives to students to rush through the test (such as going to lunch or recess immediately afterward). Ideally, students should be tested earlier in the day (to the extent possible).

The general goal is to administer tests in such a way that maximizes student engagement throughout their test events. Although we can't eliminate disengaged test taking from occurring, we can try to minimize its impact.

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Student Engagement Affects Test Performance

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Educators rely on student achievement test performance to provide important information for a variety of inferences they wish to make about education. Educators use test scores to gather information about what individual students know and can do, which helps identify students who need special educational assistance.

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Quantile Framework for Standard Aligned Math Activities use with RIT to Quantile Chart 

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Quantile Framework for Standard Aligned Math Activities use with RIT to Quantile Chart 

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Find Resources by State Standard - Quantile

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The Quantile® Framework for Mathematics can help you quickly find instructional materials that align to state standards. The Math Skills...

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Using technology to increase classroom engagement for all students

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Using technology to increase classroom engagement for all students

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75 digital tools and apps teachers can use to support formative assessment in the classroom

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We’ve compiled an extensive list of 75 digital tools that can help teachers use formative assessment to elicit evidence of student learning.

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Lesson Plans and Graphic Organizers for ELA CCSS 

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Lesson Plans and Graphic Organizers for ELA CCSS 

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On this page you will find various graphic organizers and printables you can use along with your reading selection. These are available for you to use in order to organize your thoughts and help you with reading comprehension. You have a choice in downloading these documents in either PDF or Microsoft Word files, just click on the appropriate icon in order to download the format of your choice. I hope you will find these documents useful. Happy reading!

*~* Back Home *~*

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Reading Graphic Organizers and Printables

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On this page you will find various graphic organizers and printables you can use along with your reading selection. These are available for you to use in order to organize your thoughts and help you with reading comprehension.

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MAP Growth Math Course Specific Assessments 

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MAP Growth Math Course Specific Assessments 

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The Teacher Cafe - free teaching resources for all grades and subject areas

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The Teacher Cafe - free teaching resources for all grades and subject areas

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Lesson Plans Page - Free Kindergarten to high school lesson plans. Choose the grade level. Simple, detailed plans with full descriptions. Comprehension lesson using the story Yo Yes & many more real books. Compare & Contrast, Parts of Speech, Foreign Language, Drama & Speech, Alphabet, Sounds & Poetry.

Literature Circles - Teach reading by letting students choose their own reading materials. Discussion topics come from the students. Powerful small-group structures for reading & discussing fiction & nonfiction texts at all grade level across the curriculum. Circles combine two very important educational ideas: collaborative learning & independent reading.

Reading Rockets - Techniques for teaching reading effectively. Print awareness, the sounds of speech, phonemic awareness, phonics, informal assessment, fluency, vocabulary, spelling, writing, and text comprehension

Education World - Reading center of teacher submitted lesson plans for reading. Elementary, intermediate & high school. Also features: The Reading Coach, Reader's Theater Scripts, Reading Tips, Reading & Writing Lessons & Reading-Related Articles.

A to Z Teacher Stuff - Free Language Arts lesson plans and activities from preschool to high school. Categorized with: Foreign Language, Reading, Spelling & Writing. Preschool, Grades K-2 Grades 3-5, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12 ESL & Making Books sections.

Can Teach - Free elementary reading & writing lessons. Center ideas. Line Drawing Obstacle Course (K-1) Word Race (1-2) Word By Word: A Story Writing Game (1-3). Alphabet Words (K-2). Short Vowel Word Game (K-2). Alphabet Battle (K-1). Bang!: A Sight Word Game (1-3). Creating an Alphabet Booklet (2). Spelling Bee Resources Alphabet Art (K-1).

Read Write Think - Hundreds of free lesson plans for K-12. Easy-to-use guide to search by grade-level

Eduref - Beginning readers to advanced: Alphabet Debate, Grammar, Handwriting, Journalism, Listening Comprehension, Literature, Phonics, Process Skills, Reading, Speech, Spelling, Story Telling, Vocabulary, Whole Language & Writing.

Literacy Matters - Designed for middle & high school teachers for English teachers & content area teachers: Adolescent Literature, Content Literacy & Literacy & Technology. Tons more help.

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Free Reading Lesson Plans & Teaching Strategies. Teach Reading. Reading comprehension, phonics, fluency. Elementary, Middle & High School.

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Lesson Plans Page - Free Kindergarten to high school lesson plans. Choose the grade level. Simple, detailed plans with full descriptions. Comprehension lesson using the story Yo Yes & many more real books. Compare & Contrast, Parts of Speech, Foreign Language, Drama & Speech, Alphabet, Sounds & Poetry.

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As school gets back underway and students get into their groove, teachers begin to think about winter testing. Many schools administer the Measures of Academic Progress® (MAP®) K - 12 interim assessment around this time of year to gather information on student learning that gives them the data needed to make informed instructional decisions. Getting students ready for the MAP test is not difficult, but there are some steps teachers can take to prepare them for the assessment. Here are some valuable discussion points:

1. Talk about the purpose of MAP testing. The test results will show teachers how well students are performing so teachers can best help their students in class. It will also help teachers know about what each student should be working on to improve the most. It's even better if you can specifically talk to students about the purpose of the winter test and how the results will be used.

2. The MAP test builds a unique test for each student. The computer displays one question at a time on the screen. Students select an answer using the mouse or the keyboard. The difficulty of the test will adjust based on how the student performs on the questions. MAP will build a test that is specific to each student.

3. Students are not expected to know the answer to every question.

4. Students cannot skip items, and they cannot go back.

5. Students may change an answer as many times as they like, but once they have clicked the Go On button, or pressed the Enter key on the keyboard, the answer cannot be changed.

6. The tests are not timed, but students need to work productively.

7. Students should use their best test-taking skills. Review test-taking skills with students:

sounding out familiar words

looking for root words

using prefixes and suffixes

looking at surrounding text for clues

reading directions and an item completely, and

eliminating wrong answers

The MAP test is a computer adaptive test, so be sure to include the following discussion points:

1. Find out if students are comfortable using the mouse, keyboard, scroll bars, and a pop-up calculator. If they are not, you might need to schedule a time to familiarize students with the lab and computers.

2. Tell students about the assigned seating arrangement in the computer lab.

3. Remind students that they cannot use textbooks, other materials, or hand-held calculators during the test.

4. Discuss the importance of listening to the proctor's directions before beginning the test.

Teachers are an integral part of the MAP testing experience and students generally do better when the teacher is positive and encouraging. Some additional MAP test resources that teachers may find helpful:

MAP and MAP for Primary Grades (MPG) Warm-Ups - These videos explain how students will interact with MAP and the MPG test for K - 2 grades. The warm-ups also feature sample test questions.

A Parent's Guide to MAP - While primarily aimed at helping teachers have conversations with parents about MAP, the guide is also a great resource for commonly asked questions about the test.

Finally, MAP results from winter testing provide a great opportunity to talk about student goals and goal setting at the mid-year point. Check out some posts from our contributors on student goal setting:

The MAP test can accurately measure growth, project proficiency on state accountability tests, and inform how educators can differentiate instruction, evaluate programs, and structure curriculum. These tips and resources can help teachers ensure that students are prepared and ready to put their best foot forward.

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11 talking points for teachers preparing students for the MAP test

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As school gets back underway and students get into their groove, teachers begin to think about winter testing. Many schools administer the Measures of Academic Progress® (MAP®) K - 12 interim assessment around this time of year to gather information on student learning that gives them the data needed to make informed instructional decisions.

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Introductory Video, tools, and Practice test

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The concepts of growth mindset (developed by psychologist Carol Dweck) and grit (popularized by Angela Lee Duckworth) are powerful tools for our students. Starting as early as kindergarten, there's immense value in teaching students about " the power of YET," and helping them internalize the notion that resilience, hard work, and getting up after failures are the keys to success. The more we can expose students to these ideas, the more we can help them succeed in school and in life - even in the face of obstacles.

So how can we reinforce the concepts of growth mindset and grit in the classroom? It starts with the language we use. For instance, it's better to use feedback like, "That was a challenging assignment. You worked hard and got it done. I really liked how you used all the strategies you learned." That is preferable to saying, "That was a challenging assignment. You're so smart; I knew you'd do well."

In addition to what we say, there's a lot we can do to create a visual environment that reminds students of these concepts daily. While the following ideas are great for individual classrooms, some can be used throughout the school: in hallway displays, the library, counseling offices, outdoor murals, quotes hanging in the gym, etc. The more we can reinforce these concepts school-wide, the better.

Follow our Growth Mindset and Student Goal Setting Board to see all of the images below in one place (as well as regular additions).
1. Posters
The classroom growth mindset 'staple' is a poster that compares a growth mindset to a fixed mindset. You can use a simple T-chart, or get more visual, like these examples. See them on Pinterest here: 1, 2, and 3.
2. Anchor Charts
Instead of (or in addition to) hanging a poster, consider co-creating an anchor chart with your students. See these examples on Pinterest here: 1, 2, and 3.
3. Motivational Quotes 4. Bulletin Boards
Whether you choose to keep it simple and print quotes on 8.5 x 11 paper, OR go wild with a Cricut® and cute fonts, what matters most is the content. We love the quote below from Kid President, and there are even more great options in this list of 10 growth mindset quotes from famous people. Consider who are the celebrities your students admire. Can you find growth-focused quotes by them? We recommend displaying thoughts from a diverse group of current and historical icons (scientists, athletes, musicians, artists, and more). We've collected our favorites in a highlight on our Instagram account. Our most popular one to date is this truth bomb from Oprah.

Looking to go big? Create a growth mindset bulletin board inside or outside your room. You can focus on the characteristics of a growth mindset, similar to what we shared with the posters and anchor charts, OR on how your students specifically are developing that mindset, OR get inspirational with a 'Famous Failures' board.
5. Keep the Quote
We first saw the "Famous Failures" idea from Laura Randazzo. What you see displayed are stories of failure; when you open up each 'card,' you find out who it's about and learn about the success that followed (in spite of setbacks and obstacles). How motivating! You can make your own by reading her blog post, but this teacher also has this bulletin board pack on her Teachers Pay Teachers page.

And here are two other creative bulletin board concepts we noticed in a blog post from Lisa King. See them on Pinterest: 1 and 2.

Nikkie Zanevsky is an independent consultant at NWEA and specializes in collecting and sharing practical instructional tips and teacher stories. She's most passionate about student goal setting, engagement, growth mindset, and motivational data displays. As a physical education coach, she loves using formative assessment daily in her teaching practice. Follow us on Instagram to check out her favorite teacher inspiration and classroom ideas.

Keep the Quote is a fun weekly goal-setting system developed by Brittney Briggs. On Mondays, students who want to participate bring in quotes for the class to use as a motto for the week. The group votes on their favorite. She says, "The student who brought in the winning quote explains what that quote means to them, and we discuss how students could earn that particular quote... I write the quote on paper during my prep or after school on Monday. On Friday, we review our success following the quote and select one student to actually KEEP THE QUOTE... I have the student who brought in the quote select the recipient (I help them with this at first). The student has to go up on our stage and explain the quote's meaning once again and the reason that they are awarding the quote to the recipient."

While this idea doesn't necessarily have to be paired with growth mindset, it can work really well (as you can see with the sample quote below).

We hope you now have some inspiration for your own room or school! And remember:

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Got Growth Mindset? 5 Pinterest-worthy Ways to Make It Visible in Your Classroom

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Planning your back-to-school classroom décor? Check out these five great ways (big and small) to incorporate growth mindset reminders throughout your room. Let us know which idea you like best, or if you prefer to highlight growth mindset in a different way.

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Newly Released Guidance on Administering MAP Growth

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Newly Released Guidance on Administering MAP Growth

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Articles for Parents to Support their Use of MAP Growth with their Chidren  

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Articles for Parents to Support their Use of MAP Growth with their Chidren  

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Supporting Families Archives - Teach. Learn. Grow.

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If your child takes MAP® Growth™ at school and you're not sure what it's for or how it works, we've got you covered. Here's everything you need to know, from what it is to how teachers use...

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Shows example of MAP Growth items in various RIT Ranges in the different goal areas

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FInd ELA Grade K-12 Lessons organized by Topic, Lexile, Genre, etc. 

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FInd ELA Grade K-12 Lessons organized by Topic, Lexile, Genre, etc. 

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Improve your students' reading comprehension with ReadWorks. Access thousands of high-quality, free K-12 articles, and create online assignments with them for your students.

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Articles at different Lexile levels

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NEWSELA great way to differentiate with Estimated Lexile

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It's time to improve literacy skills during social studies instruction and ensure that readers of all abilities have what they need to access grade-level social studies concepts.

Join us on Thursday, December 7 for a look at scaffolded materials that provide extra literacy support while building key social studies concepts and skills.

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Newsela | Content and assessment platform

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Content Aligned To National & State Standard, Flexible To Support Relevant Curriculum. Find the Perfect Piece Of Content For Lessons. Go beyond the book.

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MAP Growth High School Math End of Course Assessments 

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MAP Growth High School Math End of Course Assessments 

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Blog - Communicating about MAP Growth to Students and Parents

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Blog - Communicating about MAP Growth to Students and Parents

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Communication and collaboration; these two skills are critical for all teachers. Whether communicating with students or fellow faculty or collaborating with peers, teachers must hone these skills for success. These skills also come into play when it comes to speaking with students and parents about testing, and we've put together some great assets to help in this endeavor.

Head on over to NWEA Connection, our partner community, and you'll find a helpful discussion thread - Communicating About Testing with Students and Parents. As the fall testing period for MAP Growth is upon us, these tips can come in handy. Here's a quick recap:

There are also some great blog posts here at Teach. Learn. Grow. that we've compiled over the years that have tips on communicating about MAP Growth. Here are some of our favorites:

One of the great benefits of MAP Growth and its data is that it can help teachers make assessment personal with test results that can help identify each student's unique learning strengths and challenges. Communicating these results with students and parents is a big part of the MAP Growth equation and one that can help the data work even harder.

Joi brings passion, creativity, and a desire to communicate effectively to her role as community engagement manager at NWEA. In what seems like another lifetime, she "herded cats" on various college campuses while also proactively growing her technological skills in SQL, HTML, and web content management systems. Joi received a BA in psychology from Whitworth University and a master's in higher education leadership from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. When not at work, she enjoys exploring the beauty of the Northwest with her family, though she still hasn't found mountains that compare to those of her home state, Alaska.

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Communicating about MAP Growth to students and parents | #MAPtest #edchat #teachers #assessment

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Communication and collaboration; these two skills are critical for all teachers. Whether communicating with students or fellow faculty or collaborating with peers, teachers must hone these skills for success. These skills also come into play when it comes to speaking with students and parents about testing, and we've put together some great assets to help in this endeavor.

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Enter student's RIT score and age

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Use  Reading and Math Ladders with Learning Continuum Statements to Lesson Plan

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Through alternative formative assessment, teachers can check for student understanding without falling back on the tedious or intimidating pop quiz.

What strategy can double student learning gains? According to 250 empirical studies, the answer is formative assessment, defined by Bill Younglove as "the frequent, interactive checking of student progress and understanding in order to identify learning needs and adjust teaching appropriately."

Unlike summative assessment, which evaluates student learning according to a benchmark, formative assessment monitors student understanding so that kids are always aware of their academic strengths and learning gaps. It also helps teachers improve the effectiveness of their instruction. "When the cook tastes the soup," writes Robert E. Stake, "that's formative; when the guests taste the soup, that's summative." Formative assessment can be administered as an exam. But if the assessment is not a traditional quiz, it falls within the category of alternative assessment.

Alternative formative assessment (AFA) strategies can be as simple (and important) as checking the oil in your car-hence the name "dipsticks." They're especially effective when students are given tactical feedback, immediately followed by time to practice the skill. My favorite techniques are those with simple directions, like The 60 Second Paper, which asks students to describe the most important thing they learned and identify any areas of confusion in one minute.

You can find another 53 ways to check for understanding toward the end of this post and as a downloadable document.

Observation: A Key Practice in Alternative Formative Assessment

A fundamental element of most AFAs is observation. Rebecca Alber writes there is much to learn by taking observational notes as students work in groups. "However," she clarifies, "if it is quiet during this talk time, and they are watching you watch them, they are most likely lost." Elena Aguilar has witnessed " a fantastic first grade Sheltered English teacher " who directed his students to respond to a story by making hand gestures and holding up picture cards: "In this way, the teacher was able to immediately see who was struggling with the concepts and provide corrective feedback."

By methodically watching and recording student performance with a focused observation form, you can learn a lot about students' levels of understanding in just a few moments. For example, math teacher Taryn Pritchard uses an observation sheet to assess students' mastery levels in only 10 seconds. Pre-planning methodical observations allow instructors to efficiently and effectively intervene when it counts most-in the instant students start down the wrong path.

New to Alternative Formative Assessment? Start Slow

The National Capital Language Resource Center recommends the following when introducing alternative assessment for the first time:

Integrate alternative assessments gradually, while still using the traditional assessments.

Walk students through the rubrics and discuss expectations when you introduce assignments.

Learn to score alternative assessments yourself, and then gradually introduce students to self-evaluation.

Teach students how to thoughtfully give each other feedback as you introduce them to peer-response.

A Simple Way to Gain Information From Your Students: Ask Them

When preservice teachers are confused as to why their students perform poorly on an assignment, I gently say, "Did you ask them why?" Having learners articulate why they're stuck can be profoundly useful for identifying where to target support.

According to the American Institute of Nondestructive Testing, the simplest tool to encourage student self-assessment is evaluative prompts:

How much time and effort did you put into this?

What do you think your strengths and weaknesses were in this assignment?

How could you improve your assignment?

What are the most valuable things you learned from this assignment?

Learners can respond to those prompts using Padlet, a virtual corkboard where many computer users can simultaneously post their responses; follow up with a focused whole-class discussion of those answers. The instructor doesn't always have to develop prompts-students can invent and submit one or more potential exam questions and answers on relevant content. Tell them that you'll include the best contributions on a forthcoming quiz.

Portfolios are a more complex form of ongoing self-assessment, one that can feature in student-led conferences. James Mule, principal of St. Amelia Elementary School in New York, describes how children benefit from the student-led conferences that occur at his institution: "With the student in charge and the teacher acting as a facilitator, the authentic assessment gives students practice in self-evaluation and boosts accountability, self-confidence, and self-esteem."

The biggest benefit of integrating AFAs into your practice is that students will internalize the habit of monitoring their understanding and adjusting accordingly.

53 Ways to Check for Understanding

1. Summary Poem Activity

List 10 key words from an assigned text.

Do a free verse poem with the words you highlighted.

Write a summary of the reading based on these words.

2. Invent the Quiz
Write ten higher-order text questions related to the content. Pick two and answer one of them in half a page.

3. The 411
Describe the author's objective.

4. Opinion Chart
List opinions about the content in the left column of a T-chart, and support your opinions in the right column.

5. So What? Journal
Identify the main idea of the lesson. Why is it important?

6. Rate Understanding

7. Clickers (Response System)

8. Teacher Observation Checklist

9. Explaining
Explain the main idea using an analogy.

10. Evaluate
What is the author's main point? What are the arguments for and against this idea?

11. Describe
What are the important characteristics or features of the main concept or idea of the reading?

12. Define
Pick out an important word or phrase that the author of a text introduces. What does it mean?

13. Compare and Contrast
Identify the theory or idea the author is advancing. Then identify an opposite theory. What are the similarities and differences between these ideas?

14. Question Stems

I believe that ________ because _______.

I was most confused by X.

15. Mind Map
Create a mind map that represents a concept using a diagram-making tool (like Gliffy). Provide your teacher/classmates with the link to your mind map.

16. Intrigue Journal
List the five most interesting, controversial, or resonant ideas you found in the readings. Include page numbers and a short rationale (100 words) for your selection.

17. Advertisement
Create an ad, with visuals and text, for the newly learned concept.

18. 5 Words
What five words would you use to describe ______? Explain and justify your choices.

19. Muddy Moment
What frustrates and confuses you about the text? Why?

20. Collage
Create a collage around the lesson's themes. Explain your choices in one paragraph.

21. Letter
Explain _______ in a letter to your best friend.

22. Talk Show Panel
Have a cast of experts debate the finer points of X.

23. Study Guide
What are the main topics, supporting details, important person's contributions, terms, and definitions?

24. Illustration
Draw a picture that illustrates a relationship between terms in the text. Explain in one paragraph your visual representation.

25. KWL Chart
What do you know, what do you want to know, and what have you learned?

26. Sticky Notes Annotation
Use sticky notes to describe key passages that are notable or that you have questions about.

27. 3-2-1

Three things you found out.

Two interesting things.

One question you still have.

28. Outline
Represent the organization of X by outlining it.

29. Anticipation Guide
Establish a purpose for reading and create post-reading reflections and discussion.

30. Simile
What we learned today is like X.

31. The Minute Paper
In one minute, describe the most meaningful thing you've learned.

32. Interview You
You're the guest expert on 60 Minutes. Answer:

1. What are component parts of _______?

2. Why does this topic matter?

33. Double Entry Notebook
Create a two-column table. Use the left column to write down 5-8 important quotations. Use the right column to record reactions to the quotations.

34. Comic Book
Use a comic book creation tool like Bitstrips to represent understanding.

35. Tagxedo
What are key words that express the main ideas? Be ready to discuss and explain.

36. Classroom TED Talk

37. Podcast
Play the part of a content expert and discuss content-related issues on a podcast, using the free Easypodcast.

38. Create a Multimedia Poster with Glogster

39. Twitter Post
Define _______ in under 140 characters.

40. Explain Your Solution
Describe how you solved an academic problem, step by step.

41. Dramatic Interpretation
Dramatize a critical scene from a complex narrative.

42. Ballad
Summarize a narrative that employs a poem or song structure using short stanzas.

43. Pamphlet
Describe the key features of _______ in a visually and textually compelling pamphlet.

44. You've Got Mail
Each student writes a question about a topic on the front of an envelope; the answer is included inside. Questions are then "mailed" around the room. Each learner writes her answer on a slip of scratch paper and confirms its correctness by reading the "official answer" before she places her own response in the envelope. After several series of mailings and a class discussion about the subject, the envelopes are deposited in the teacher's letterbox.

45. Bio Poem
To describe a character or person, write a poem that includes:

(Line 1) First name

(Line 2) 3-4 adjectives that describe the person

(Line 3) Important relationship

(Line 4) 2-3 things, people, or ideas the person loved

(Line 5) Three feelings the person experienced

(Line 6) Three fears the person experienced

(Line 7) Accomplishments

(Line 8) 2-3 things the person wanted to see happen or wanted to experience

(Line 9) His or her residence

(Line 10) Last name

46. Sketch
Visually represent new knowledge.

47. Top Ten List
What are the most important takeaways, written with humor?

48. Color Cards

Red = "Stop, I need help."

Green = "Keep going, I understand."

Yellow = "I'm a little confused."

49. Quickwrite
Without stopping, write what most confuses you.

50. Conference
A short, focused discussion between the teacher and student.

51. Debrief
Reflect immediately after an activity.

52. Exit Slip
Have students reflect on lessons learned during class.

53. Misconception Check
Given a common misconception about a topic, students explain why they agree or disagree with it.

Other Assessment Resources

In Edutopia's " The Power of Comprehensive Assessment," Bob Lenz describes how to create a balanced assessment system.

The Assessment and Rubrics page of Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything website hosts many excellent assessment rubrics.

More Rubrics for Assessment are provided by the University of Wisconsin-Stout.

Jon Mueller's Authentic Tasks and Rubrics is a must see-resource in his Authentic Assessment Toolbox website.

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Dipsticks: Efficient Ways to Check for Understanding

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Through alternative formative assessment, teachers can check for student understanding without falling back on the tedious or intimidating pop quiz. What strategy can double student learning gains? According to 250 empirical studies, the answer is formative assessment, defined by Bill Younglove as "the frequent, interactive checking of student progress and understanding in order to identify learning needs and adjust teaching appropriately."

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Blog - 12 Questions Parents Ask about MAP Growth

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Blog - 12 Questions Parents Ask about MAP Growth

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At NWEA, we work with thousands of schools and districts across the US and in more than 145 countries around the world. Since we reach millions of students each year, there's a pretty good chance that a child will take a MAP® Growth™ assessment some time in their school career. It's natural for families to have questions about MAP Growth: what it is, how it works, and why their child is taking it.

To help you in your conversations about MAP Growth, we've gathered the top 12 questions families ask us regarding the test.

1. What is MAP Growth and what does it measure?

Unlike paper-and-pencil tests, where all students are asked the same questions and spend a fixed amount of time taking the test, MAP Growth is a computer-adaptive test. That means every student gets a unique set of test questions based on responses to previous questions. As the student answers correctly, questions get harder. If the student answers incorrectly, the questions get easier. By the end of the test, most students will have answered about half the questions correctly, as is common on adaptive tests. The purpose of MAP Growth is to determine what the student knows and is ready to learn next.

MAP Growth is designed to measure student achievement in the moment and growth over time.

MAP Growth can also track students' individual growth over time, wherever they are starting from and regardless of the grade they are in. For instance, if a third-grader is actually reading like a fifth-grader, MAP Growth will be able to identify that. Or, if a fifth-grader is doing math like a third-grader, MAP Growth will identify that, too. Both things are incredibly important for a teacher to know so that they can plan instruction efficiently.

2. What is a RIT score?

When students finish their MAP Growth test, they receive a number called a RIT score for each area they are tested in: reading, language usage, math, or science. This score represents a student's achievement level at any given moment and helps measure their academic growth over time. The RIT scale is a stable scale, like feet and inches, that accurately measures student performance, regardless of age, grades, or grade level. Like marking height on a growth chart and being able to see how tall a child is at various points in time, you can also see how much they have grown between tests.

3. How often will my child take MAP Growth?

Most schools give MAP Growth tests to students at the beginning, middle, and end of the school year. Some schools may include a summer testing session as well.

4. How long is MAP Growth?

Most students take less than an hour to complete a MAP Growth test. However, MAP Growth is not timed, and students may take as much time as they need to complete it.

5. Is MAP Growth a standardized test? How is it different from "high-stakes" tests?

Unlike standardized tests, MAP Growth is administered periodically during the school year, and it adjusts to each student's performance, rather than asking all students the same questions. When we talk about high-stakes tests, we are usually talking about a test designed to measure what students already know, based on what is expected at their grade level. High-stakes tests are also often used as a way to measure grade-level proficiency. MAP Growth is designed to measure student achievement in the moment and growth over time, regardless of grade level, so it is quite different.

By the end of the test, most students will have answered about half the questions correctly, as is common on adaptive tests. The purpose of MAP Growth is to determine what the student knows and is ready to learn next.

Another difference is the timeliness of the results. While states often return information in the fall after the test is taken, MAP Growth gives quick feedback to teachers, administrators, students, and families. Teachers receive immediate results with MAP Growth that show what students know and what they are ready to learn, which can be used to help personalize lessons at the appropriate level for students. One similarity is that MAP Growth aligns to the same standards in a given state as the state test, so both measure similar content.

6. What information will I receive from my child's school?
7. How do schools and teachers use MAP Growth scores?
Most schools will provide a child's Student Progress Report. This report contains information and scores from a student's most recent and past MAP Growth assessments. It's a good idea to discuss results with teachers for a full understanding of what the information means and how they can use their child's reading and math scores to identify resources that can support home learning.

NWEA provides many different reports to help schools and teachers use MAP Growth information. Teachers can see the progress of individual students and of their classes as a whole. Students with similar MAP Growth scores are generally ready for instruction in similar skills and topics. MAP Growth also provides data around the typical growth for students who are in the same grade, are testing in the same subject, and have the same starting achievement level. This data is often used to help students set goals and understand what they need to learn to achieve their goals. Principals and administrators can use the scores to see the performance and progress of a grade level, school, or entire district.

8. Can MAP Growth tell me if my child is working at grade level?

Just as a doctor has a chart indicating the most common heights and weights of people at certain ages, NWEA has put together charts showing the median RIT scores for students at various grade levels. NWEA researchers examined the scores of millions of students to find the average scores for students in various grades.

9. What subjects are available with MAP Growth?

There are MAP Growth tests for grades 2-12 in reading, language usage, mathematics, and science. Students can test in some subjects in Spanish. There is also a MAP Growth K-2 for early learners in reading and mathematics. With these child-friendly tests for young learners, students wear headphones since many questions include audio to assist those who are still learning to read.

10. What types of questions are on the MAP Growth tests? Are there sample tests?

The MAP Growth tests include multiple choice, drag and drop, and other types of questions. You can access some short sample tests to get an idea of what MAP Growth questions look like.

11. How can I help my child prepare for MAP Growth?

Your child's teacher will help with any pre-test instructions to explain the test to the students. Just like on any school day, make sure your child is well-rested and fed. Encourage them to do their best.

12. What does NWEA do with my child's information? Is it secure?

NWEA uses technological and operational measures to ensure security and privacy. A few of these include regular security audits and monitoring, technological controls, physical access controls, and privacy training for employees.

MAP Growth can also track students' individual growth over time, wherever they are starting from and regardless of the grade they are in.

NWEA does not use any child's personally identifiable information (PII) for any purpose other than to provide services to the child's school. Combined information that has been stripped of PII-and, therefore, is not traceable to any individual student-is used for research and development so we can continuously improve our products and accelerate learning for all students.

We do not sell PII. Data sharing (if any) is completely at the control of the educational institutions that purchase our products.

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12 common questions parents ask about MAP Growth

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At NWEA, we work with thousands of schools and districts across the US and in more than 145 countries around the world. Since we reach millions of students each year, there's a pretty good chance that a child will take a MAP® Growth™ assessment some time in their school career.

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College Explorer from NWEA® helps students, parents, and teachers develop pathways to higher education.

This powerful tool links MAP® Growth™ scores with national benchmarks for colleges, universities, and even specific majors. Together with goal setting and parent conferences, College Explorer can help students develop a plan, consider new possibilities, and put post-secondary dreams within reach.

The College Explorer map displays colleges whose median ACT® scores correspond to the range of MAP scores entered, based on the NWEA College Readiness Benchmarks report. The tool also links to the U.S. Department of Education's College Scorecard database, providing information about college costs and more.

I'm tremendously grateful to NWEA for developing tools that bring hope and promise to students and communities who have been marginalized for so long. It is so inspiring to hear students dream bigger for themselves for the first time after using the College Explorer tool.

Victorene King, Principal, Neal Math and Science Academy

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Mapping the Road to College College Explorer from NWEA® helps students, parents, and teachers develop pathways to higher education. This powerful tool links MAP® Growth™ scores with national benchmarks for

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Find Resources by State Standard - Quantile

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The Quantile® Framework for Mathematics can help you quickly find instructional materials that align to state standards. The Math Skills...

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Building a sense of play around math problems encourages students to engage and collaborate.

Let's play a game. Ready? I'll show you an object and you try to guess its mass. We'll play three rounds. To start, play the video below, pausing when instructed.

What you just experienced is part of something I call an Emerge lesson, which slowly reveals information to learners (the full version may be found here). Lessons like these can make a game of math, infusing the learning process with fun.

Lessons like this focus on the relationship between two real, concrete quantities. In this case, the quantities were the number of cubes and the total mass of the cup and cubes. Because this lesson reveals small amounts of information at a time and allows learners to process each bit before moving on, the hidden mathematical relationship between the quantities emerges for learners in a natural way.

Emerge lessons use actual physical materials that are directly measured to reveal the information. They are not word problems or hypotheticals. They are real and tangible. The materials can be anything so long as their properties are related and can be measured or counted.

Using Game Mechanics

Game mechanics are useful in teaching math because they heighten emotion, engagement, and attention at each phase. Because they include music, student teaming, and point systems, Emerge lessons are succinct, fun activities. Students smile and cheer when I tell them we'll be doing one, and many students have asked if they could eat their lunch in math class to finish a lesson.

In addition to increasing engagement, gamifying math lessons allows students with different levels of comprehension to participate and learn. Students with lower levels of skill can make guesses based on intuition and common sense. Students with higher levels of skill can use more sophisticated strategies like writing functions to model the relationships. This also means that the same lesson can be used to teach students at different grade levels by adapting which formal mathematical tools are introduced.

A Model for Gamifying Math

1. Introduction: In this phase, students are grouped into competitive teams and introduced to the materials that will be used in the game. This can be done with a video like the one above, or by physically demonstrating with the actual materials in the classroom.

Students are told two quantities to be measured and which one they will be responsible for guessing.

A few possibilities include:

The number of knots in a string and the length of the string

The audible volume of a guitar note and the time since it was plucked

The angle of a pie piece and the length of its crust

The distance a light sensor is from a light source and the amount of light it is receiving

The number of times a nail is struck and the amount it is sticking out of the board

The number of rotations a wheel has turned and the distance it has rolled

The angle that a ramp is held at and the distance a ball rolls after being rolled down the ramp

2. Physical exploration: In this phase, students play multiple rounds of the game, trying to guess the value of one of the quantities when they know the value of the other.

Each round, before making their guess, teams are asked to discuss strategies and come to a consensus within the team. The collaborative nature of the work builds rapport between students. It also allows students to listen to and learn from each others' mathematical perspectives.

Students record their thinking on a whiteboard so that it can be shared with the group.

3. Student presentation: After guesses are made for the last round, the teacher facilitates a student-led class discussion about the various insights and strategies the teams used. Each group's whiteboard summary serves as a visual representation of their thinking. The best discussions are the ones that make connections between the intuitive methods and the formal methods.

4. Formal learning: In this phase, the teacher provides the students with some direct instruction on how to model the relationship using a predetermined method that is applicable to the course they are teaching.

A fifth-grade teacher doing the "Cubes in a Dixie Cup" lesson might treat it like a multistep operations problem where students use decimal operations to find the mass of the cup.

In an Algebra 1 class, students might graph the data. They could find and interpret the slope and y-intercept of the linear function that models the data, then use that function to make the predictions.

Assessment

During a gamified lesson, assessment happens at multiple stages. As students record their thinking before each guess, the teacher can circulate and have conversations with students about their process. During the formal learning phase, guided and independent practice provides opportunities for assessment. After the formal learning phase, I often play a few more rounds with the concrete materials. This allows students to try out their new learning in the same context in which they began.

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Building a sense of play around math problems encourages students to engage and collaborate. Let's play a game. Ready? I'll show you an object and you try to guess its mass. We'll play three rounds. To start, play the video below, pausing when instructed.

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Look up Lexile on any Published book

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The Lexile Framework for Reading - Lexile

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The Lexile frameworks for reading and listening help educators and parents match students to materials at the right level of difficulty.

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Goal Setting Documents for Primary Students using MAP Growth

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When to tranisition High Performing Gr. 5 students to 6+ test

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I had the best time with teachers the last few days, curriculum-mapping away. It's what curriculum directors live for: discussions of vertical and horizontal alignment. However, about halfway through the second day, I could tell that I had "lost" two teachers, more specifically, two intervention specialists. Attempting to bring them into the conversation, we had a bit of a heart-to-heart, and this phrase came out: "My kids can't do these standards."

My heart broke with this sentence. Of course, part of it is that students with special education needs are still not always seen as part of the all in "all" of our kids, but at the same time, it was clear that these teachers needed some strategies to help work with their students. Although I knew that in the short time I had to work with these educators, I would not be able to solve all, I did know that they were capable and that they could use APPS to help students acquire our college- and career-ready standards.

As we worked together, I shared with one of the teachers my version of the acronym APPS for technology integration within the classroom: how will an application help students Acquire meaningful content standards; how will an application help students Progress through meaningful feedback; how will an application measure Proficiency of student learning, and how will an application Support the student in learning content. You can find more examples of this in my other blog posts on Aligned. Here's an example.

The following are three APPS that I shared with the teacher I was working with, and that I believe you too can use to help redefine your classroom and facilitate higher-order learning activities that encourage self-directed learning and ongoing assessment for our students with special needs as well as their classmates.

One of the concerns with some special needs students is that they can't read the complex text that is required of them at grade level. Research has consistently proven that we need to make sure kids get exposure and regular practice with grade-level text. Simply giving students texts that are not at their Lexile level is problematic, so what can teachers do to ensure access to complex texts for all readers?? Try one of these free Google tools! Take an on-grade-level text, maybe from Newsela. Download the free TextTeaser Google Chrome extension (it's available for other browsers as well-just do a quick web search). TextTeaser summarizes the content from a webpage as a list of sentences or in paragraph form. What's really great is that you adjust the output using a slider to give different detail levels of the passage or article. An intervention specialist can work in a small group or one-on-one, helping the students make sense of the larger passage. The summary can be used to preview the text or as a refresher to allow students to access the content, main ideas, and vocabulary so that they can participate in those rich, on-grade-level conversations An alternative to TextTeaser is SMMRY, a tool that performs basically the same task.

Desmos is the second of the APPS I'd recommend. Often, students with special needs who are struggling in math need some type of visual to represent mathematical relationships. When this isn't provided, these students will shut down and become frustrated. To be frank, many of us need those visuals. In addition to providing just such a visual, Desmos harnesses the social nature of online interactions into meaningful math inquiry. For example, by using the Function Carnival tool, students are given the freedom to experiment with functions and are given direct feedback that allows them to revise their thinking and improve their mathematical practices AND practice perseverance as they iterate and work their way to the correct solution. Lastly, and most powerfully, this tool gives teachers the ability to randomly pair students with electronic devices, allowing students to create questions and challenges for each other based on aligned content. This can help students with special needs as it provides a model for mathematical thinking. Check it out at https://teacher.desmos.com/. In Ohio, at least, this is a crucial tool to which students need to be exposed, since this is the same calculator interface we will be using on our State Achievement Tests.

The last of my recommended APPS is really one that can be used in all disciplines, and isn't limited to math or ELA. As students progress into higher and higher grade levels or as content gets more and more challenging, it is essential to help students see the relationships between ideas. Often, students with special needs, who have difficulty with organizing information, need support in keeping ideas and these relationships straight. Ideament is a great application that allows you to draw a diagram-a mini map, concept map, flow chart, etc.-and convert it to a text outline, and vice versa. This is a great way to help students with special needs organize information for something that they need to write. It can also be used to in relationship to the text itself. For example, copying and pasting a portion of text into a Word document will allow the software to create a diagram of the text to help students organize this text and make sense of the relationships amongst ideas, perhaps say, in a science text. Students also have the option of manipulating these diagrams to reorganize them in ways that are uniquely suited for how they learn to process the information. Although it is appropriate for all students, adults can benefit from it as well. I used it when I started writing this blog!

While these APPS don't solve everything, they do transform classrooms into areas of grade-level learning for all students. Through the use of APPS, I know that you will discover additional ways to help support all students. I encourage you to respond to this blog or e-mail us to tell us how you're using them. I'd love to learn more, too!

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Three APPS to Support Students with Special Needs - Achieve the Core Aligned Materials

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I had the best time with teachers the last few days, curriculum-mapping away. It's what curriculum directors live for: discussions of vertical and horizontal alignment. However, about halfway through the second day, I could tell that I had "lost" two teachers, more specifically, two intervention specialists.

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Great ideas for teaching vocabulary in any content area

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Great ideas for teaching vocabulary in any content area

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Literacy researchers and teachers have shown an increased interest in vocabulary instruction over the past decade. In 2000, the National Reading Panel identified vocabulary instruction as one of the five essential components of reading instruction, and a large body of research indicates the critical role vocabulary knowledge plays in reading comprehension (August, Carlo, Dressler & Snow, 2005; Baumann, 2009; Chall, Jacobs, & Baldwin, 1990; Cunningham & Stanovich, 1997, Mancilla-Martinez & Lesaux, 2010). Furthermore, vocabulary knowledge is emphasized throughout the highly influential Common Core State Standards, with the word vocabulary occurring more than 150 times in the document. Specifically, the standards make the requirement to "Acquire and use accurately a range of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases" (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010, pp. 25, 51) an anchor standard at both the elementary and secondary levels.

Given this growing awareness of the importance of students' vocabulary development, it is unsurprising that scholars have recently published a number of useful volumes that seek to enrich teachers' knowledge and practice in the area of vocabulary instruction. Books such as Beck and McKeown's (2013) Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction (2nd ed.), Kame'enui and Baumann's (2012) Vocabulary Instruction: Theory to Practice (2nd ed.), Blachowicz and Fisher's (2010) Teaching Vocabulary in All Classrooms (4th ed.), Stahl and Nagy's (2006) Teaching Word Meanings, and Graves's (2009) Teaching Individual Words: One Size Does Not Fit Al l are brimming with instructional activities for teaching word meanings and other facets of word knowledge.

We turned to these sources in our own vocabulary research, a federally funded project aimed at developing, implementing, and researching a comprehensive, multifaceted vocabulary instruction program (MCVIP) in fourth- and fifth-grade classrooms (Manyak, 2010). However, during three years of observation in MCVIP classrooms, we identified an additional set of practical principles - principles that MCVIP teachers translated into everyday activities and actions - that enhanced the effectiveness of their word-meaning instruction. In this article, we draw on data from the MCVIP Project to describe and illustrate these principles in order to help other teachers maximize the benefits of their vocabulary instruction.

In the following sections, we briefly discuss basic premises related to vocabulary knowledge and general guidelines for effective vocabulary instruction and provide an overview of the MCVIP Project. We then offer a more thorough presentation of the four principles that are the focus of the article.

Basic premises about vocabulary knowledge and schooling

A large body of research underscores four key facts about children's vocabulary knowledge. First, many children, particularly among those from low-income and non-English-speaking families, face a large deficit in English vocabulary knowledge upon entrance to and throughout the elementary school years (Chall, Jacobs, & Baldwin, 1990; Hart & Risley, 1995; White, Graves, & Slater, 1990). Second, schooling has largely been unable to eliminate this deficit (Biemiller, 2005; White, Graves, & Slater, 1990). Third, the continuing deficit in vocabulary knowledge experienced by many students represents a major obstacle to academic achievement in vital areas such as reading comprehension (August, Carlo, Dressler, & Snow, 2005; Chall, Jacobs, & Baldwin, 1990; Mancilla-Martinez & Lesaux, 2010). Finally, the vocabulary deficit experienced by many students is so large that it will take a multiyear approach to vocabulary instruction to substantially impact it (Biemiller, 1999; Nagy, 2005). Taken together, these facts underscore that a limitation in vocabulary knowledge represents a key obstacle to long-term academic success for many students and point to the urgent need for teachers and schools to improve the quality of vocabulary instruction across grade levels.

General guidelines for vocabulary instruction

Research has produced several important general guidelines to aid teachers in developing effective approaches to voca-bulary instruction. We find three of these guidelines to be particularly cogent.

First, the fact that the average high school student knows about 40,000 words (Nagy & Herman, 1987) indicates clearly that students must learn many more word meanings than teachers can explicitly teach. Consequently, vocabulary instruction should be multifaceted, incorporating the teaching of individual words, the development of word learning strategies and the fostering of word consciousness (Baumann, Ware, & Edwards, 2007; Graves, 2006).

Second, teachers should vary their approach to teaching word meanings based on the nature of the target words (Graves, 2009; Stahl & Nagy, 2006). Graves (2009) has stressed the idea that "one size does not fit all" with regard to teaching word meanings, given that words differ in nature, ranging from concrete nouns like peninsula that are easily represented by visual images to densely conceptual terms likedemocracy that require a great deal of knowledge-building to understand, and that goals for student learning for a given word may range from beginning awareness to mastery.

Third, reviews of research on vocabulary instruction stress the limited effectiveness of instruction that focuses narrowly on dictionary definitions and support instruction that presents words in a variety of contexts, provides multiple exposures, and promotes students' active processing of new meanings (Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2013; Stahl & Fairbanks, 1986).

These three guidelines provide general recommendations for planning vocabulary instruction. The books that we mentioned in the introduction go a step further, describing many instructional activities that teachers can use to operationalize these guidelines in classrooms. However, during the MCVIP Project, we found that optimal word-meaning instruction involved not just following general guidelines and implementing research-based activities but also applying a set of pragmatic principles that enhanced the feasibility, clarity, participatory nature, and accountability of word-meaning instruction.

The MCVIP Project: approach, setting, and research

The MCVIP Project, funded by the Institute of Education Sciences and led by James Baumann, Patrick Manyak, and Camille Blachowicz, was a three-year research study that focused on the design, implementation, and refinement of a multifaceted, comprehensive vocabulary instructional program in fourth- and fifth-grade classrooms of mixed English learners and native English speakers. The research team believed that Graves's (2006) four-part framework for vocabulary instruction represented a starting point for developing a powerful vocabulary instructional program for these grades. Graves's framework consists of the following components: (a) providing rich and varied language experiences, (b) teaching individual words, (c) teaching word-learning strategies, and (d) developing word consciousness. Through close collaboration with participating teachers, ongoing observations of vocabulary instruction, and analyses of student assessment data, the team refined a set of teaching activities that collectively addressed these four components (Manyak,2010).

The pragmatic principles that we share in this article result from analysis of qualitative data collected at Highline School, a Northern Colorado school serving a population that consisted of 90% children who received free and reduced lunch and 50-60% Spanish-speaking ELs. Three of Highline's fourth- and fifth-grade teachers, David Autenrieth, Carolyn Gillis, and Julie Mastre-O'Farrell, participated in the project for three years; a fourth teacher, Elizabeth Irvine-McDermott, joined for the final year.

Over the course of the project, the researchers and teachers met roughly twice a month during the school year to discuss the project, and researchers observed in MCVIP classrooms weekly. In addition, students took pretests and posttests on general vocabulary knowledge and specifically taught words and on other aspects of word learning. Overall, quantitative findings were very positive, as students in all three years of the project showed more than expected growth on a standardized test in general vocabulary knowledge and very large positive effect sizes on specifically taught words (Graves et al., 2014).

We identified the instructional principles we describe in this article through reading and coding field notes of classroom observations and team meetings. They are highly influenced by the teachers' own commentary on their experience of MCVIP instruction. In Table 1, we succinctly outline the four principles that we found to enhance the quality of word recognition instruction in the Highline School classrooms. In the remainder of the paper, we describe and illustrate each of these principles in greater detail.

Establishing efficient yet rich routines for introducing target words

Within the first weeks of the MCVIP Project, the team realized that multifaceted vocabulary instruction could take up a significant amount of class time. By design, MCVIP included a diverse set of instructional activities aimed at a variety of vocabulary objectives, and it quickly became apparent that spending too much class time on any single activity made it difficult for the teachers to balance comprehensive vocabulary instruction with many other instructional necessities. In particular, we found that the teachers' introduction of target word meanings took much longer than we had anticipated.

In addition to calling students' attention to a wide assortment of words in many instructional settings, MCVIP teachers taught 12 high-priority target word meanings through focused instruction each week. Their basic approach to target word instruction involved a combination of rich introduction and ongoing review. In planning for MCVIP, we developed a model for introducing typical target words, based on Beck, McKeown, and Kucan's (2013) text talk approach, that would be fast-paced yet still provide students with varied exposures to and active engagement with the words. Table 2 provides an example of the six steps included in this model.

Our early observations of this routine revealed that the teachers had a difficult time moving efficiently through this sequence of steps, frequently making additions such as engaging students in a discussion of what they thought a word might mean before presenting the definition, discussing connections between the words and other texts or content that the class had studied, or elaborating on student example sentences and allowing students to engage in tangential discussion based on such examples. Although we recognized that many of these instructional moves could support the students' developing understanding of the word meanings, the overall effect of these additions was to substantially increase the time required for introducing word meanings. For instance, Patrick (first author) observed Carolyn (fourth author) spend 30 minutes introducing seven target words, a lesson that was targeted for 15 minutes (field notes, 2/16/10).

As the teachers gained more experience with the target word introduction lessons and the researchers prompted them to continue to focus on pacing, the routine became more efficient in each of the classrooms. Reflecting on this development, the teachers stressed that it was important for them to realize that the students would continue to interact with the target words through ongoing review and thus that mastery of the meanings did not need to occur in the initial introduction. This recognition freed the teachers to move briskly through the word introductions with the confidence that review sessions would allow for additional examples, further connections, and deeper learning.

Although the teachers utilized the six-step MCVIP model as a routine for introducing many target words, they found it necessary to diversify their instructional approaches in order to maintain student engagement and to address other aspects of vocabulary learning. However, the team continued to place an emphasis on efficiency as the teachers developed alternative approaches for introducing word meanings.

In one example, David (third author) developed a routine that prompted his students to practice using context clues to infer target word meanings. As illustrated in Figure 1, this routine involved three PowerPoint slides per word. The first slide presented the word as it appeared in the context of the reading selection (in this case, Number the Stars [Lowry, 1989]) and also a second example of use featuring more familiar context that David created. David asked the students to think about possible context clues in these examples and called on one or two students to come up and underline phrases that they felt offered insight into the meaning of the target word. David then asked several students to articulate possible meanings for the target word.

Figure 1. Target Word Meaning Introduction Emphasizing Context Clues

Next, he briefly discussed a second slide that provided the part of speech and a kid-friendly definition of the word. Finally, he showed the students a third slide with a visual image related to the target word and asked students to explain how it represented the word's meaning. Patrick observed this lesson, noting that David introduced seven words in 19 minutes (field notes, 1/10/11). Although this pacing was slightly slower than typical word introductions featuring the six-step model, Patrick and David noted that the instruction also provided students with valuable practice in inferring word meanings.

In this section, we emphasized the importance of efficiency in word-meaning instruction and shared two efficient routines that MCVIP teachers used to introduce target word meanings. Importantly, the teachers utilized these routines and a few others consistently throughout the school year. This consistency provided them the opportunity to streamline their implementation of the routines, reducing the amount of class time spent on the activity of introducing target word meanings. And, although the teachers established a brisk pace for these routines, the instruction still provided students with a relatively rich experience of the words that incorporated kid-friendly definitions, multiple examples of use, and active processing of meanings.

We believe that all teachers who commit to teaching a relatively large number of target word meanings will, like the MCVIP teachers, find it necessary to develop and refine a few efficient routines for introducing these words. Although we found that the two MCVIP routines that we have shared here were particularly effective in balancing efficiency and richness and would recommend them to any teacher, we recognize that there are many effective ways of introducing word meanings (Graves, 2009). But, regardless of the specific approaches that teachers may adopt, we stress that teachers should invest time in planning in order to streamline the word introduction routine, stick with a small number of routines and continually seek to refine them, keep instruction focused on providing students with a fast-paced yet varied set of experiences with the words, and plan for review experiences that allow students multiple opportunities to develop deeper understanding of the word meanings.

Providing review experiences that promote deep processing

Several reviews of vocabulary instruction research have pointed to the vital role of students' deep processing of new word meanings (Stahl & Fairbanks,1986; Beck & McKeown,1991). The MCVIP team identified deep processing experiences as those involving comparing and contrasting word meanings, teasing out nuances of meanings, using words in writing, or applying target words while analyzing texts, characters, and concepts. Given our concern for efficiency during the introduction of target words and the fact that such introductions typically involved a relatively large set of new words, we chose to facilitate deep processing of word meanings during review activities. Such activities typically focused on a small number of words and provided a task that caused students to actively use those words in thinking, discussion, or writing.

The research team asked MCVIP teachers to conduct at least two 15-minute target word review sessions a week. However, the teachers typically found time for brief vocabulary review almost daily. The MCVIP classrooms featured a vocabulary word wall (VWW) that included cards presenting a target word and a corresponding visual image. The VWW pictured in Figure 2 has the target words in categories (from left to right: words from class literature texts, high-frequency words, character trait words, and content words) with different colored backings. In interviews, the teachers underscored the critical nature of these VWWs and of the inclusion of visual images on the word cards, stressing that the students referred to the VWW for a variety of purposes throughout the day and frequently commented on the accompanying images.

Figure 2. Vocabulary Word Wall Used in Ongoing Review

Although the teachers utilized a wide variety of review strategies, the team found that four such strategies were particularly robust in promoting deep processing; thus, the teachers used these activities regularly. Here, we succinctly describe these deep-processing word review activities.

Connect Two (Blachowicz, 1986): Students find two words on the VWW (or one from each of two short columns of 6-10 words from the wall that the teacher has prepared) that are connected and prepare to explain the connection. The teacher calls on students to explain the connection between their two words. Variations: Connect Three; Write the Connection ("Muffled and hoarse are connected because..."); Content Connect Two ("Look at our social studies word wall. Find a word in the Concepts column and a word in the Actions column that are connected and be ready to explain the connection.")

Two-in-One (Blachowicz, 1986): Students write one or more sentences that use two or more VWW words. Several students read their sentences and the teacher asks others to evaluate the usage of the words in the sentence. Variation: Content Two-in-One ("Look at our science word wall. Find a word in the Concepts column and a word in the Parts and Things column and write a sentence that uses both words.")

Character Trait Writing: Students select a target character trait word and write two to three sentences about how it fits a character in a current or past narrative text. Several students read their texts, and the teacher asks other students to evaluate their usage of the character trait words.

Concept Word Précis Writing: Students select a word from the Concepts column of the VWW and explain it in writing, staying under a word limit set by the teacher (e.g., "Pick a word from the Concepts column and explain what it means in no more than 15 words"). Several students read their texts, and the teacher asks other students to evaluate their explanations.

To give a clearer sense of the deep processing of word meanings that occurred during these review activities, we offer two examples from MCVIP classrooms. The first interaction occurred during Character Trait Writing in Carolyn's class. The students chose one of two character trait words that the class had used to analyze a picture book about Martin Luther King Jr. and wrote briefly about how that word applied to the characters in the story.

Field Notes, 1/20/10, Carolyn's Fifth-Grade Class

Carolyn

"Tell me why this character trait is important for the story or the character."

Carolyn moves over to a student and asks what word he circled. She says, "So we decided that Martin's dad was frank... Write about why that was important to the story."

Carolyn calls on a student to share. He reads, "I chose the word frank. Someone who was frank was Martin Luther King. I thought he was frank because he told the truth that he didn't like segregation."

Another student reads "I chose dignified. This character trait was important to MLK because he stood up and told the truth... Mr. Martinez [school principal] is also dignified because he does what is right."

In this brief activity, students focused on the target words frank and dignified, actively using them to analyze characters in the biography they had heard. Although students had previously engaged in this kind of analysis orally as a class, this was the first time the students were challenged with this writing task. The challenge was apparent, but the students who shared their writing all used the target words effectively.

Here is another example of deep processing that occurred in Carolyn's class, this time during the review activity Two-in-One.

Field Notes, 1/27/10, Carolyn's Fifth-Grade Class

At one table, three students are working individually. Student 1 shares with her neighbor:

"'Some say the eagle is not a suitable image to represent our country.' Does that make sense?"

Carolyn says that she is going to call on students to read their sentences. She states, "Help me evaluate the sentences. Do they keep the definition in the sentence?"

Student 2

"Mr. Martinez was not showing generosity and repealed the law of wearing sandals every day to school."

Student 1

"Why was that not showing generosity?"

Student 2

"It was not showing kindness."

Student 3 (suggesting an alternative)

"Mr. Martinez was not showing generosity when he repealed the law about not bringing snacks."

Student 4 reading

"Martin Luther King boycotted for freedom."

Carolyn

"He boycotted what? You have to boycott something."

Student 5

"I have a suggestion. I think that he should have told us what he was boycotting. Like, 'Martin Luther King boycotted segregated schools for liberty.'"

This was a brief VWW review activity that included writing. The students were all highly engaged in the task, and most were able to produce a successful sentence. Importantly, Carolyn, aware that the task was challenging for students and that they might not use the target words accurately, prompted the students to evaluate the sentences that their peers shared. The students responded by identifying sentences that included incomplete meanings of the target words and suggesting revisions that attempted to improve such usages, thus attending carefully to the nuance of the word meanings.

These examples highlight the deep processing experiences with target word meanings that students in MCVIP classrooms experienced through brief review activities that complemented the efficient initial exposure to target word meanings provided by the introduction routines described in the previous section. We encourage teachers to envision word-meaning instruction as this combination of efficient introductory routines and review activities promoting deep processing.

With regard to the review side of this formula, we believe that the creation of an appealing VWW is an essential first step and suggest that teachers consider following the MCVIP teachers' lead in utilizing images and categorizing words to help students continue to process the word meanings. Next, we recommend that teachers schedule regular, brief review times, thus ensuring that the VWW maintains a "living" presence in the classroom and that students view it as a useful resource. Finally, although we encourage teachers to keep the word review time fresh by drawing on a wide variety of engaging activities, we believe that key activities that promote deep processing, like the four that we describe in this section, should constitute the backbone of ongoing vocabulary review.

Responding directly to student confusion with anchor experiences

Our observations of MCVIP activities underscored the difficulty that students often have learning new target word meanings and, significantly, the ways that confusion over or limited comprehension of such meanings can spread from student to student. A close examination of the struggles that students had grasping word meanings revealed that students frequently latched onto narrow, concrete, or tangential elements of a new meaning, failing to incorporate other aspects of the definition.

For example, during a character trait discussion in David's fourth-grade class, a student rejected the idea that the main character in story the class had read was perceptive, arguing that the other characters in the story could visually see what the character saw. The class had previously discussed perceptive as meaning "you see, feel, and understand things that other people don't," but the student equated the term solely with the visual act of seeing. David did not explicitly refine this limited meaning; instead, he pointed the students to a potentially more relevant event in the text. Significantly, later in the same discussion, another student used perceptive in the same limited way, referring to the physical act of seeing, in discussing another character.

Based on several observations like this that demonstrated how student contributions to discussions of new word meanings occasionally caused wider confusion, the MCVIP researchers encouraged the teachers to explicitly address inadequate word usages by taking students back to what we came to call "anchor experiences": particularly clear, kid-friendly definitions or examples of use. In the following example, David's class again struggled to apply the term perceptive in a character trait discussion. In this instance, David provided students with an anchor experience, a kid-friendly definition that the students had previously been given for the word.

Field Notes, 11/3/11, David's Fourth-Grade Class, Character Trait Discussion

The discussion focuses on the character Rosita, whose grandmother had recently died.

Student 1

"She's perceptive."

David

Student 1

"'Cause. I don't know. Pass."

David

"We are talking about the word perceptive. Why do we think that Rosita is perceptive?"

Student 2

"Because she felt it."

David

"You feel or sense things that other people don't."

Student 2

"She was the only one who felt her grandma."

Here, two students struggled to apply the term perceptive to a character. After an ambiguous response, David stepped in with an anchor definition. This prompted the second student to amplify her comment, more clearly illustrating why Rosita was perceptive.

The interactions in this section represent a common experience in MCVIP classrooms: students expressing incorrect or partial meanings for target words. Given that learning of word meanings is often incremental rather than "all or nothing" (Stahl & Nagy, 2006), this finding is not surprising. However, the examples underscore the importance of teachers directly addressing such misunderstandings. Without correction or amplification, these misunderstandings can spread. By providing students with anchor definitions or examples directly at the moment of need, teachers can support students' developing comprehension and use of novel word meanings.

Fostering universal participation and accountability

Fostering equitable student participation is always an important task for teachers. However, we found this issue to be especially vital during vocabulary instruction in the MCVIP classrooms. As researchers and teachers, we noted early on that we often concentrated on the excellent examples or applications of target words made by "vocabulary virtuosos," students who had more extensive vocabulary knowledge, and failed to recognize that many other students remained passive during vocabulary-oriented discussion. Over time, we began to sense that the non-virtuosos were less engaged in and felt less accountable for learning new word meanings. Consequently, MCVIP researchers stressed the importance of random turn-nomination during voca-bulary activities. This structuring of participation made clear that all students were capable of and responsible for learning and using the target words.

David was strongly committed to universal participation, using two strategies on a daily basis to ensure that all students engaged in vocabulary activities. First, he frequently prompted students to briefly discuss vocabulary in pairs prior to whole-class discussion. Next, he used random turn-nomination during activities, calling on students by picking playing cards and asking the student who had the matching card taped on his or her desk to respond. In the interaction below, David used these strategies while introducing a new set of target words.

Field Notes, 2/9/11, David's Fourth-Grade Class, Target Word Introduction

David

"Who can tell me what people in our society like to do? In a good complete sentence. Tell a partner..." Students share with partners for about 30 seconds.

David asks for examples; drawing a card, he calls on Student 1, an EL student.

Student 1

"In our society, all people like to go to a pool."

David picks another card and another EL student shares.

Student 2

"People like to society in video..."

David

"Close. In our society, people like to play video games."Student 2 "In our society, people (repeating like to play video games."David)

In this case, both students who shared were limited English speakers. When the second student clearly struggled with her sentence, David stepped in and revised her utterance, and she repeated him, resulting in a proper example. This student's willingness to share despite her very limited English illustrates the culture of participation that David established by consistently expecting all students to actively contribute to vocabulary discussions.

The MCVIP team also used formative assessment as another way to establish universal accountability for vocabulary learning. Each week, students filled in cloze sentences for a subset of the target vocabulary. Figure 3 provides an example of a weekly cloze assessment.

Figure 3. Weekly Target Word Cloze Assessment

We found that this simple task added a needed dimension of accountability to target word instruction and provided the teachers with useful feedback on student learning. In conclusion, the combined use of techniques that promoted universal participation and of this kind of formative assessment made clear to students that MCVIP instruction was not just for a few vocabulary virtuosos, but rather that they were all responsible for learning new word meanings.

Based on these experiences in our research classrooms, we recommend that teachers plan to use simple strategies such as brief student-student discussion and random turn-nomination to ensure that all students have the opportunity and responsibility to participate in vocabulary discussions. However, as David's example illustrates, including all students in such discussions will likely require teachers to scaffold contributions from students who may have difficulty responding with appropriate examples or usages. So, teachers need to be "on their toes," ready to engage in brief, careful exchanges that enable students to make correct contributions to vocabulary discussions.

We also encourage teachers to consider simple forms of informal vocabulary assessment, such as the MCVIP cloze sentences, that they can use in the classroom on a regular basis. Such assessments not only provide formative feedback on the effectiveness of instruction but also create an atmosphere of accountability with regard to target word learning.

Concluding thoughts

The need for effective vocabulary instruction throughout the elementary grades is absolutely clear (Biemiller, 1999; Graves, 2006; Nagy,2005; National Reading Panel, 2000), and we could recommend several professional books that describe research-informed activities for teaching word meanings (Beck & McKeown, 2013; Blachowicz & Fisher; 2010; Graves, 2009; Stahl & Nagy, 2006). However, as we found out during the MCVIP Project, the use of such activities does not in and of itself guarantee efficient and effective voca-bulary instruction. Rather, such activities require high-quality implementation that maximizes student learning.

In this article, we have described four pragmatic principles that enhanced the quality of word-meaning instruction in the MCVIP classrooms at Highline School and provided examples and suggestions to help teachers incorporate the principles in their own classrooms. These principles were documented and developed during three years of ongoing collaboration among MCVIP researchers and teachers, and we are confident that they will enable teachers using a variety of instructional activities to enhance the effectiveness of their vocabulary instruction.

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Four Practical Principles for Enhancing Vocabulary Instruction

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Drawing on instructional materials, classroom images, and observational data from research, the authors illustrate these principles: establishing efficient, rich routines for introducing target word meanings; providing review activities that promote deep processing of word meanings; responding directly to student confusion; and fostering universal participation in and accountability for vocabulary instruction.

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Achieve the Core Coherence MAP shows the connection between grade level standards with those before and after

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Achieve the Core Coherence MAP shows the connection between grade level standards with those before and after

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The Coherence Map shows the connections between Common Core State Standards for Mathematics.

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When to transition High Performing Gr. 1 or 2 students to Gr. 2-5 MAP Growth

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When to transition High Performing Gr. 1 or 2 students to Gr. 2-5 MAP Growth

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Links to research-based classroom strategies to help build and strengthen literacy skills in print and phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and writing. 

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Links to research-based classroom strategies to help build and strengthen literacy skills in print and phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and writing. 

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Our library provides teachers with effective, research-based classroom strategies to help build and strengthen literacy skills in phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and writing.

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Check out the Common Core Bookmarks  for ELA and Math

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Check out the Common Core Bookmarks  for ELA and Math

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We can all agree that students are a key stakeholder in their own education. When they are involved in the assessment process and in their own learning, the result is an improvement in achievement. So while reviewing test results with them after the fact is important, communicating with students - as a class or individually - before they test is equally important. Here are seven things to consider discussing with your students before testing:

Getting students on the same page before an assessment or test can really help settle nerves and reduce stress. If you have time, consider one-on-one meetings with your students to allay individual concerns or answer specific questions. If your students are taking the MAP® Growth™ assessment, you should consult this post in particular - 11 Talking Points for Teachers Preparing Students for the MAP Test. And stay tuned here on the blog, where every Tuesday we will feature some of our best tips and resources as you head back to school.

Kara brings 15+ years of marketing communications experience to her role as the Senior Manager of Digital Content at NWEA. She is passionate about learning and creating opportunities to share NWEA partner stories on a variety of platforms. For the past year, Kara has been creating content for Assessment Literacy.org, working on the NWEA-Gallup assessment perceptions study, and collaborating with the Task Force on Assessment Education for Teachers. Prior to that, Kara held communications and consulting roles in a variety of industries. She completed her undergraduate work at the University of Notre Dame and earned a master's degree from Northwestern University.

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7 things to consider when communicating with students before testing

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We can all agree that students are a key stakeholder in their own education. When they are involved in the assessment process and in their own learning, the result is an improvement in achievement. So while reviewing test results with them after the fact is important, communicating with students - as a class or individually - before they test is equally important.

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The focus in math classrooms today is meant to be on more than simply leading students to find the right answer. The CCSS Mathematical Practice standards, as well as other process standards, are designed to encourage exploration of mathematical concepts, discovery of mathematical understandings, sharing of mathematical thinking, and lively classroom discussion as a key part of students' experiences.

In my previous post, Practice Makes Perfect: Using Practice Standards to Increase Classroom Engagement, I describe how putting mathematical processes and practices at the forefront of lesson planning can increase students' understanding and engagement. This may require a significant shift for some teachers, and it can be hard to know where to start. The resources below are a great place to both better understand the practice standards and to find inspiration and real-world tasks.
1. The CCSS Practice Standards Demystified
Still not sure what reasoning abstractly and quantitatively means? Unclear about how to make use of structure? Each link below clarifies the intent of each of the Common Core Mathematical Practice Standards.
2. Dan Meyer and Three-Act Math Tasks
Dan Meyers is a former high school mathematics teacher. His TEDTalk ( TEDTalks: Dan Meyer: Math Class Needs a Makeover) is only 12 minutes long, and it's a great model for developing math reasoning and patient problem solving in your classroom. If you are short on time, fast forward to 4 minutes 25 seconds to see an example of how to alter a textbook word problem to create what Dan calls "a problem worth solving."

Dan's blog is another source of both information and resources. Be sure to check out the Three-Act Math overview and the Three-Act tasks themselves. These are real world, non-routine problems for elementary, middle, and high school. The links provide everything you need to use these in your classroom, including video clips and animations, questions, and even follow-up problems. The great thing about these tasks is that they truly demonstrate to students that math is the language of the universe.

Hooked? You can find more Three-Act Math activities at these links:

3 Act Math: This site contains materials for grades 3 - 8, as well as high school courses.
3. Classroom Videos
Seeing how others put the practices into action can help you meaningfully incorporate them into your own classroom. Luckily there are lots of great video resources out there.

The Teaching Channel - Table for 22: A Real-World Geometry Project
This is a 14-minute video of an activity which challenges students to discover the relationship between area and perimeter and to develop a deeper understanding of both concepts beyond simply applying the standard formulas. The video highlights the multiple math practices at play during the activity.

Inside Mathematics
Each mathematical practice is linked to a set of videos, organized by grade level, which feature the application of the highlighted practice in the context of a lesson. You have the option of watching a portion of the lesson or watching the entire lesson. Clicking the link to see the entire lesson will also allow you to download handouts, lesson plans, and other materials.

Illustrative Mathematics
This site provides videos illustrating each practice in action as well as pdfs of activities which include examples of student conversations and possible student approaches to the given task.
Mary is offering math tips as part of

Mary Resanovich has been with NWEA since 2011. As a senior math content specialist, she's been involved in writing, editing, and aligning assessment items, developing and maintaining the math MAP Growth learning continuum, and constructing tests for various state and international partners. Additionally, she has 10 years of experience in educational publishing, was a classroom teacher for grades 3 and 6, worked as a gifted and talented teacher for grades K-8, and served as a museum educator.

Mathematical and Statistics Awareness Month; you can find her previous post here. Stay tuned for more math features on our blog in the month of April!

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Resources for Bringing Mathematical Practices Into Your Classroom - Teach. Learn. Grow.

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The focus in math classrooms today is meant to be on more than simply leading students to find the right answer. The CCSS Mathematical Practice standards, as well as other process standards, are designed to encourage exploration of mathematical concepts, discovery of mathematical understandings, sharing of mathematical thinking, and lively classroom discussion as a key part of students' experiences.

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Progressions for K-12 math

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The Illustrative Mathematics Project Progressions for the Common Core Common Core Atlas (draft, pdf version) Hyperlinked version of the mathematics standards Parent Resources: PTA Parent's G...

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ELA Literacy K-2 Foundational Skills Resources 

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ELA Literacy K-2 Foundational Skills Resources 

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All students should have access to the instruction, materials, and practice opportunities necessary for them to flourish as readers. For most students, coherent, structured reading foundational skills instruction is critical to unlock the code of written language. Below are planning resources to support the components of reading foundational skills instruction.

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The goal of the Center for Early Literacy Learning (CELL) is to promote the adoption and sustained use of evidence-based early literacy learning practices. This site has resources for early childhood intervention practitioners, parents, and other caregivers of children, birth to five years of age, with identified disabilities, developmental delays, and those at-risk for poor outcomes. Watch a brief video introduction to the Center for Early Literacy Learning.

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Center for Early literacy Learning : CELL

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The goal of the Center for Early Literacy Learning (CELL) is to promote the adoption and sustained use of evidence-based early literacy learning practices. This site has resources for early childhood intervention practitioners, parents, and other caregivers of children, birth to five years of age, with identified disabilities, developmental delays, and those at-risk for poor outcomes.

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What I Use in My Classroom by Achieve the Core

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What I Use in My Classroom by Achieve the Core

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Free resources, real teachers, honest reviews.

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Graphic Organizers for any subject at any grade