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Jacob’s Ladder Reading Comprehension Program: Grades 7-8 a book by Joyce Vantassel-Baska and Tamra Stambaugh

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The Jacob’s Ladder Reading Comprehension Program targets reading comprehension skills in high-ability learners by moving students through an inquiry process from basic understanding to critical analyses of texts, using a field-tested method developed by the Center for Gifted Education at William & Mary. Students in grades 7-8 will learn to comprehend and analyze any reading passage after completing the activities in Jacob’s Ladder, Grades 7-8 (2nd ed., previously published as Level 5). Using skill ladders connected to short stories, poetry, essays, and nonfiction, students move from lower order, concrete thinking skills to higher order, critical thinking skills. The ladders include multiple skills necessary for academic success, covering language arts standards such as sequencing, determining cause and effect, classifying, making inferences, and recognizing main ideas, themes, and concepts. The second edition of the book builds off the previous Level 5 edition, including new readings and ladders for student use. This book provides teachers with an explanation of the nature of supplementary tasks that scaffold reading comprehension. Also included is an overview of the goals and objectives of the Jacob’s Ladder tasks and suggestions for implementation, giving every teacher the tools needed to promote successful reading comprehension. Optional Student Workbook Packs In addition to this teacher’s guide, companion student workbooks are available for Poetry, Short Stories, and Biographies. The student workbooks feature ample room for student responses and notes, make reviewing and providing feedback on student work easier than ever, provide students with an easy-to-use reference to use during discussions, and save time, as there is no need to reproduce student handouts. Grades 7-8

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The CommonLit assessment questions are aligned to our ELA standards, which is extremely helpful when prepping for the state exam.

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CommonLit | Free Online Reading Passages and Literacy Resources

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CommonLit is a comprehensive literacy program with thousands of reading lessons, full-year ELA curriculum, benchmark assessments, and standards-based data for teachers.

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National History Day forms thoughtful citizens and confident teachers by improving the teaching and learning of history.

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Explore math with our beautiful, free online graphing calculator. Graph functions, plot points, visualize algebraic equations, add sliders, animate graphs, and more.

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Pikes Peak Regional Science and Engineering Fair

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Pikes Peak Regional Science and Engineering Fair

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Pikes Peak Regional Science and Engineering Fair

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SENG (Social Emotional Needs of the Gifted) Website

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SENG (Social Emotional Needs of the Gifted) Website

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SENG - Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted

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Supporting the social & emotional needs of the gifted, talented, and twice-exceptional since 1981.

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Welcome to America's Battle of the Books

America's Battle of the Books is a reading incentive program for students in 3rd thru 12th grades. Students read books and come together, usually in groups, to demonstrate their abilities and to test their knowledge of the books they have read. The student competitions are usually similar to the TV series Family Feud or Whiz Kids styles of competitions. However, the structure, format, and rules of the competitions may vary depending on the educational goals, student needs, local resources, and personal preferences at various school sites, school districts, county libraries, or offices of education.

America's Battle of the Books (ABB) offers resources to students, parents, schools (public or private), librarians, home schools, and international schools.

Our resources include:

Questions to our books lists (membership required)

A Starter Kit for Battle of the Books participants

Forms, logos, and video on how to get started in our thumb drive 'Starter Kit'

The 'how to' in operating 'a battle' in your area or at your school site

Listing of possible sponsors and resources

Contacts to support and increase your success at your battles

ABB Membership

Free technical support and information

Various types and grade-level booklists (see Selection of Titles)

We are a 'membership organization' and to order questions each school or organization must become a member. All our questions are free with memberships. If you would like to sponsor or help organize a state-wide competition in your particular state, please contact us. America's Battle of the Books is operated by a volunteer staff of educators and librarians; and our logo, questions, program, and competition format are copyrighted. No individual or entity (other than our current members) may use any of our materials or duplicated our materials without our written permission.

The inexpensive membership fee (between $50.00 and $60.00 for a set of questions) for whatever book list you are requesting is designed for many types of groups, schools, or libraries (small or large); there is no charge for questions for any of our booklists or a charge for the number of students participating. All of our resources are free, except for the 'Starter Kit'-a donation is requested. ABB offers three levels of questions: local/site, district/county, and area/state competitions (there is a slightly greater cost of membership for district or state questions, and permission from ABB is required before ordering these rounds of questions). Members are not required to compete in any county or state competitions. Please click-on ABB Memberships (Order Form) to find more details on how to order and what is available to our members.

If you have any questions or would like more information please browse our website, email us at awentland@battleofthebooks.org, or contact us by phone at 661.248.1009 PST.

Sincerely-the staff at America's Battle of the Books

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Welcome to America's Battle of the Books America's Battle of the Books is a reading incentive program for students in 3rd thru 12th grades. Students read books and come together, usually in groups, to demonstrate their abilities and to test their knowledge of the books they have read.

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Gifted Guru – Empowering Educators & Parents of the Gifted

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Hello! I'm Ian Byrd. I've been writing about education since 2009. I grew up as a gifted student, taught gifted students, spoke at dozens of conferences, and led professional development around the US. Now, I take work off of teachers' plates by developing video lessons that they can just use. Check it out at Byrdseed.TV.

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Differentiated lessons from Ian Byrd that'll get your students' brains sweating.

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2024 TAG Poetry Contest--Secondary--Dizain 

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There has been a broad consensus on the definition of creativity for more than 60 years, with most researchers agreeing that creativity represents to some degree of a combination of two core elements (Barron, 1955; Guilford, 1950, 1967). The first is newness, novelty or originality. The second is task-appropriateness, usefulness or meaningfulness. In more recent years, these two elements have been defined within a particular sociocultural and historical context (Beghetto, 2013; Glăveanu, 2013; Plucker, Beghetto, Dow, 2004). This context is not separate from other aspects of creativity, such as task-appropriateness and novelty; rather, context establishes the criteria for what counts as original and task appropriate. This interdependent relationship among originality, task appropriateness, and context has been represented in the following notation (Beghetto & Kaufman, 2014):

C = [O x TA] Context

As illustrated in the above formulation, creativity requires both originality and task appropriateness as defined within a particular context. Something that is deemed as original in one context (e.g., primary school science fair) may, for instance, be judged as quite mundane in a different setting (e.g., university science lab). In this way, judgments of creativity are determined by a particular sociocultural and historical context. Creativity and context are inseparable. (read more here)

James Kaufman and Ron Beghetto's Four C Model of Creativity has shed new light on this context.

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Creativity | Renzulli Center for Creativity, Gifted Education, and Talent Development

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There has been a broad consensus on the definition of creativity for more than 60 years, with most researchers agreeing that creativity represents to some d ...

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conundrum question ethics ethical spacex "spacex school" "elon musk" "elon musk school" ad astro nov synthesis school school. elon musk "ad astra" adastra as...

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Astra Nova is an experimental school in Los Angeles. The precursor to Astra Nova, Ad Astra, was co-founded by Elon Musk and Josh Dahn and spent six years on the campus of SpaceX. Astra Nova is a fully independent not-for-profit school that aims to share compelling work with students and families around the world.

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What do giant cat armies, alien probes and river crossings have in common?

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Students become scholars, combining research, history, language arts, and drama to develop a presentation.

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National Novel Writing Month is a fun, empowering approach to creative writing. The challenge: draft an entire novel in just one month. For 30 wild, exciting, surprising days, you get to lock away your inner editor, let your imagination take over, and just create!

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The competition season has ended. To see this year’s winners click the links to the regional and championship tournaments below. The results are at the bottom right of each tournament page.

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This site provides instructions for a variety of engineering type activities.

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Share your engineering ideas and drawings with the community. Join special design challenges. See what other kids are creating and add to their inventions.

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Supporting the future of creativity since 1923

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Pikes Peak Library District (PPLD) Teen Art Contest

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Pikes Peak Library District (PPLD) Teen Art Contest

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Our theme for this year's Teen Art Contest is Balance.

Balance can be a physical skill or how we approach all the demands of our life. Can you balance on a tight rope or balance beam? Maybe you balance on a skateboard or ski board. Balance could be how you handle all the different responsibilities in your life - including your own needs and wants with school, family, and friends. Create a piece inspired by the theme that shares your thoughts on Balance or expresses what Balance means to you and enter it to win a prize!

Entries are judged by other teens, along with one award that is judged by Library staff.

Important Dates

Sign up online between Thu., Dec. 1 - Tues., Feb. 13

Drop off your artwork from Fri., Feb. 9 - Tue., Feb. 13

Awards Ceremony on Tues., March 19th, at 6 p.m. at East Library Community Room

Art on display throughout April

Art pick up the first week of May

How to enter

Make sure you qualify:

Must be ages 12 - 19 at time of submission.

Must be an El Paso County resident.

Create your art following these guidelines:

Create something that is a 2D form of art!
Artwork can be any type of two-dimensional art form, as long as we can safely hang it on the wall.

Including but not limited to: Photography, Digital Art, Painting, Drawing, Mixed Media/Collage, prints, crochet, etc.

There are no formal size requirements, but it needs to be something we can hang on the wall and also transport in a regular passenger car.

Prepare your art:

We highly recommend mattes or foamboard for artwork on paper. This helps protect it during transportation and helps with hanging.

Submitting art plain or in a frame is fine, just not preferred.

Pieces on canvas don't need additional protection.

Your submission should be able to support being hung in our galley hanging wire system.

Ideally this means there is a hanging wire or a spot we can attach a hanging wire to.

There are several free or low-cost ways to attach a hook or D-Ring.

PPLD will supply hanging wire and attach hooks upon receiving submissions if needed.

Complete the entry forms:

Drop off your submission:

Bring in your art and the art agreement form.

Between Fri., Feb. 9 - Tue., Feb. 13., bring your submission to a drop-off location.

Other Entry guidelines:

Only one entry per person

Library Staff reserve the right to decline inappropriate entries

Award Categories

Award categories include:

One overall Best in Show

Middle School Division: First Place, Second Place, and Coordinator's Choice

High School Division: First Place, Second Place, and Coordinator's Choice for High School

Winning participants will be notified via letter in mid-March, with specific awards announced at the awards ceremony on Tues., March 19th, at 6 p.m. at East Library. All entries accepted into the show will be on display in April at East Library, Penrose Library, or Library 21c.

FAQs

When will I know if I have won?
We will notify award winners by mid-March. All participants and their friends and family are invited to the Awards Ceremony on Tue., March 19 at 6 p.m. in the East Library Community Room regardless of winning an award.

What can I do to improve my chances of winning?
Work with the theme-It doesn't have to be a literal interpretation, but we do look for pieces that have been inspired by the theme in some way. Your paragraph describing your piece can have a big impact on this.

Stand out! Whether through subject matter or having an unusual take on the theme, we notice unique entries more. For example, we tend to get a lot of close-ups on eyes, so they tend to not stand out as much.

Have fun! Don't view it as an assignment or chore. We can tell when someone submits a piece they are passionate about - so do something that you love!

I'm a teacher with an amazing class, can I enter them?
Yes! If you are a teacher who would like to enter a class of students, you can fill out the Excel Spreadsheet linked here to complete one entry form for all of your students. You will be responsible for communicating with participants about the award ceremony and art pick-up.

My question wasn't answered here.
Email Becca at rphilipsen@ppld.org

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Our theme for this year's Teen Art Contest is Balance. Balance can be a physical skill or how we approach all the demands of our life. Can you balance on a tight rope or balance beam? Maybe you balance on a skateboard or ski board.

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Winter Concerts
ENT Center
March 3, 2023 Youth Symphony side-by-side with CS Philharmonic