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Collaboration

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Information and Communication Literacy Model Comparison

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Information and Communication Literacy Model Comparison

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Information inquiry models

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Learning
Advocacy

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South Carolina Association of School Librarians (SCASL)

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South Carolina Association of School Librarians (SCASL)

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Project Based Learning (PBL)

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George Lucas Educational Foundation

The benefits of movement in the classroom aren't limited to younger students. Pairing new words and concepts with gestures or dance moves locks in understanding-and active brain breaks prime students to learn even more.

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A free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education.

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Information Literacy
Lesson Plans
Teacher Resources

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Michael Eisenberg

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Project Information Literacy (PIL) is a nonprofit research institute that conducts ongoing, national studies on what it is like being a college student in the digital age. We examine how college...

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Joyce Valenza

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A Copyright-Friendly Toolkit - For makers and other media creators (by Joyce Valenza) by joyce valenza

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Copyright

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Join a global community working to strengthen the Commons

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Tech & Learning

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It is the responsibility of all educators to model good digital citizenship for their students. Especially when it comes to copyright, plagiarism and intellectual property. The waters are murky. Not being familiar with online digital rights and responsibilities ( hey, teachers did not grow up with the Internet being around), educators are wading through uncharted waters ( hey, I did not know that I could not just google an image to use. If someone puts it up online it is free for the taking). That does not mean they can close their eyes and pretend life is the same or that the same rules apply to online versus offline use of copyrighted material with their students.

It is every educator's responsibility to become familiar , observe and model for their students! It is also every educator's responsibility to not lump in all educational use of copyrighted material under the claim of Fair Use (hey, I am using it in school, I am not making money off of it...) . It is not that simple...

I have written about copyright on this blog many time. Some highlighted posts are:

The waters are murky, it is not an easy topic. While there are some clear cut rules about copyrighted material, Creative Commons and Public Domain content, Fair Use in Education are supported by GUIDELINES, not clear cut rules!

Together with the Academic Technology Team at Graded- The American School of São Paulo, the importance of developing a school policy in regards to copyright was discussed. It was not just about developing a policy, but also about:

raising awareness of copyright issues in a digital world

bringing relevance to classroom teacher at all levels and subject areas in understanding copyright in digital education spaces and seeing it not just as part of the domain of a 'technology person"

helping teachers shift from previous practices regarding copyrighted material in an analog world

internalize ethical behavior regarding intellectual property available in an online environment

We did our due diligence in researching and gain a better understanding of how other educational organizations were dealing with copyright policy creation, teacher education and support.

Meryl Zeidenberg, the school's library coordinator, and I started working on taking the gathered research to inform the development, articulation and design of an "If this... Then that..." type flowchart to better support teachers in making decision when using different types of media in teaching, blogging, presentations or projects.

We have ubiquitous digital access, ease of duplication and distribution of information. We encourage students and faculty alike to write, record, and film for global audiences, thus ushering in a new era of copyright consciousness.

The following infographic chart was developed with an introduction of a New Era of Copyright Consciousness and a suggested simplified flow to follow:

create your own media (then you don't have to worry about infringing on someone else's copyright)

search for public domain media (then you don't have to worry about copyright, since it has been voluntarily released or has expired. No worries about giving proper attribution or citing the source either)

search within the Creative Commons domain (make sure you double check requirements under the license: attribution?, non-derivative? non-commercial? etc.)

determine if your use of the copyrighted material can fall under Fair Use?

[The flowchart is an attempt in creating a clear route to follow to something that is not as clear cut in nature. If you choose to use it, please do so in the spirit of such disclaimer.]
cross posted at langwitches.org/blog Silvia Tolisano is a Curriculum21 faculty member, author of the book Digital Storytelling Tools for Educators and founder of the Around the World with 80 Schools project. Read more at http://langwitches.org/blog.

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Copyright Flowchart: Can I Use It? Yes? No? If This... Then...

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It is the responsibility of all educators to model good digital citizenship for their students. Especially when it comes to copyright, plagiarism and intellectual property. The waters are murky.

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American University School of Communication Center for Social Media

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American University School of Communication Center for Social Media

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Fair use
Copyright

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Copyright Infringement: 5 Myths vs Facts | Visual.ly

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We're in the middle of a Copyright Infringement epidemic happening on the Internet right now. Copyright is misunderstood and as a result webmasters an

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Use Copyrighted Materials for Digital Literacies

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Use Copyrighted Materials for Digital Literacies

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Media Education Lab
ISTE
Copyright

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Yes, You Can Use Copyrighted Materials for Digital Literacy ISTE 2015 | Media Education Lab

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The Media Education Lab at the University of Rhode Island advances media literacy education through research and community service. We emphasize interdisciplinary scholarship and practice that stands at the intersections of communication, media studies and education.

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SCASL

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Charleston Strong: From Tragedy to Healing

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Contributors: Patricia C. Bradley, Pam Cadden, April Dawkins, Susan Dicey, Sharon G. Flake, Karen Gavigan, Diane Geddings, Joyce Hansen, Dianne Johnson-Feelings, Leigh Jordan, Thomas Maluck, Lindsay McKay, Karen Perry, Charleston Preston-Briegel, Fran Sanderson, Jennifer Simmons, Martha Taylor, Jennifer Tazerouti, Sarah Moise Young, Sharon Dennis Wyeth

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Teaching
Help

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School library
Public library

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Cyberbullying
Technology
Teacher Resources

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As in many states, K-12 teachers in Massachusetts now have new responsibilities to respond to, report, and address bullying and cyber bullying. The Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center (MARC) ...

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Twitter

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Tweets by joycevalenza

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Media Specialist's Guide to the Internet

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Media Specialist's Guide to the Internet

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Media Specialist
Guide
Blog

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Here's a MEGALIST for my fellow media specialists/teacher-librarians. It's taken a while to gather all the information and I will continue to add to this page. Currently there are close to 185 sites listed. There is SO MUCH information out there! Please feel free to add your suggestions!-

LIBRARY MEDIA CENTER MANAGEMENT

Library Media Center Management- covers policy manuals, management, patrons with disabilities, volunteers, ideas for new school librarians, library promotion and advocacy; long list

Bibomatic- for books only; enter the ISBN number of a book for the citation

CiteBite- link directly to specific quotes on web pages

CiteFast- covers MLA, APA, Chicago and newspaper, magazine, web site, journal, book

EasyBib*- also now has an iPhone app where you can scan the ISBN number on a book

GoBiblio- free bibliography and citation generator

KnightCite- enter the information in the blank fields and your citation is generated; covers MLA, APA, Chicago

OttoBib- for books only; enter the ISBN number of a book for the citation

BOOK REPAIR

I don't know about you; when I earned my certification as a media specialist, I had never been required to take a course in book repair. My colleague Nancy just received an MLS from Rutgers University ( well known for their library sciences program) and she also never learned how to deal with damaged books. How is this possible? Can't figure that one out. But, if you can't attend a training workshop locally, you can always benefit from those who have posted videos and information online. ( When I first started my job, the Internet was just a little baby....)

CARTOONS FOR THE TEACHER-LIBRARIAN

Creaza- suite of creative tools, including cartoonist, movie editor, audio editor and mindmaps

DigiTales- create 3-5 minute stories from these types: living memories, beyond words, itza wrap

Do Ink- create Flash-style animations using a "simple and friendly vector editor

Domo Animate- free animation website offers characters with dialogue, backdrops and special effects

Glogster- drag and drop text, images, audio, video drawings and more; premium edition has no ads

Kerpoof- make movies, cards, drawings,pictures, tell stories; for grades K-8; site also has lesson plans and teacher tools.

Lightning Bug -assists students in writing a story from finding an idea to finishing the story

PicLits- students are given a picture with a list of keywords to inspire them to write a story about that picture

Pinball- helps students get started with ideas which are bounced around

Shiddoni- create an imaginary world with animals

Smilebox- mix photos, videos and music into a multimedia presentation

Storybird- "short, art-inspired stories you make to share, read and print

ThumbScribes- online collaboration of poems, short stories, fiction, novellas

Xtranormal-create online movies using their characters who speak what you write for them; free service will cost $$ soon.

Mr. B's Library Skills TV- for grades K-6; videos cover plagiarism, evaluating information, maps, the Dewey Decimal System and more

Ode to Librarians- use this video to introduce your students to the library

CAM SCANNER- your phone becomes a scanner!

CURATOR-collect and organize your stuff

DRAGON DICTATION- just speak and see your text or email messages

Types of Plagiarism- lists six types of plagiarists and five sources cited by still plagiarized types of people

What is Plagiarism?- a video from Rutgers University; explains the seriousness of plagiarism; excellent!!

WriteCheck- submit your paper to see if you plagiarized anything; $$

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Here's a MEGALIST for my fellow media specialists/teacher-librarians. It's taken a while to gather all the information and I will continue to add to this page. Currently there are close to 185 sites listed. There is SO MUCH information out there!

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Technology Training
Certification
Educators

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You've spent the time growing your skills, now get certified to be recognized for the work you've done. We offer two educator certifications so that you can show mastery at the level that's right for you.

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Project-Based Learning Through a Maker's Lens

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Project-Based Learning Through a Maker's Lens

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PBL
Makerspace
Teacher Resources
Patrick Waters

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Making holds a number of opportunities and challenges for a teacher. Making, especially to educators and administrators unfamiliar with it, can seem to lack the academic rigor needed for a full-fledged place in an educational ecosystem. However, project-based learning has already created a framework for Making in the classroom. Let's see how Making could work when placed inside a PBL curriculum unit.

What Do You Want to Do?

The first step in designing a PBL unit for a Maker educator is connecting specific content standards to the project. The development and adoption of new content standards in math, ELA, and science has placed increased importance on the process and construction of a student's learning. Making loves the process and allows the teacher to move fluidly between levels and subjects. When I designed a middle school level Forces and Motion unit, NGSS MS-PS2 dovetails nicely with CCSS Mathmatical Practice. My students would have to interpret and communicate their results through mathematics. Once I chose the appropriate standard for my students, I could begin brainstorming projects.

Choosing, thinking, reflecting, and sorting possible projects should be a career-long process. Good projects don't fade with time -- they get richer and more exciting for both teacher and student. Great projects, on the other hand, are opportunities for learners and teachers to collaborate with those around them. As such, my students and I might spend weeks asking ourselves inquiry-driven questions and checking out online resources (such as those listed below) as brain fodder. Collaboratively, we narrow down our choices. I use my voice in the process as sparingly as possible, but I do guide my learners to projects which reflect our subject area, my own expertise, and my strengths as an educator to projects which can be completed in the time allotted. Lastly, we determine if we have the right resources and tools. It's a messy process, but the results can be incredible.

Essential Questions

With an appropriate project chosen, an educator can begin framing the learner's journey. Essential questions are best tool available for Maker educators to frame this journey. Essential questions are open-ended prompts which initiate, engage, and guide the student into the learning process. With practice, the students can frame the questions themselves. Collaborate with your students by having them list their queries and send them off to find answers from a myriad of sources. Keep the ones they can't answer yet. In a strong inquiry process, the students reveal their previous knowledge and their needs, allowing the teacher to craft respectful, differentiated learning goals that match. Once completed, the project becomes less of a daily race to fulfill lesson plans and more of a quest to document your students' growing capabilities. In my classroom, our Forces and Motion unit began with "How do we make a derby car travel faster?" Then it changed into "Does mass increase the car's velocity?" -- and a whole host of other questions. Making is a process, and strong essential questions allow the educator to frame the journey while allowing the learner to make inquiry-driven discoveries.

Making requires partners. Find a colleague in your school to support delivering cross-curriculum instruction. Chase down community partners, such as local Makerspaces and scientific organizations, who may lend expertise and resources. I've found Twitter indispensable for connecting with other educators with similar passions. Bring these resources into your classroom.

Finally, an educator can start thinking about individual lessons. The teacher can break down large units into smaller essential questions ("How does the arm length effect the distance of a catapult shot?"), and use these smaller questions to build to a monster prompt ("Can I make a catapult which shoots a marshmallow over 30 feet using these materials?"). With careful planning, these small labs take very little build time, often reuse materials, and allow for a gradual building and exploration of knowledge. Good preview and reflection cycles allow me space to introduce and reinforce the standards, and allow the students time to process and apply their knowledge. I often use blogging as an online showcase of my students' mastery.

Failure Is a Preferable Option

Good projects require failure. Great projects can teach a student grit, but you have to model it yourself first. Processing failure with your students turns a moment of fear into an opportunity for learning in a safe place. Strong PBL units increase student engagement while empowering students, therefore minimizing maladaptive behaviors.

Teachers new to PBL and Making often make similar mistakes:

Choosing projects too large for their comfort level and resources

Focusing on the outcome, not the process of Making

Thinking the educator must have the answer

Making is a discovery process for both educator and learner. Making allows the teacher to move from author of knowledge to master fabricator or builder. Making allows the educator to model the learner that he or she wants students to become.

Making requires support from all the stakeholders in the classroom: students, parents, colleagues, and administration. In order to build that support, an educator has to communicate by:

Giving voice to the students' desire to learn

Inviting parents to witness their students' learning and creations

Collaborating with other teachers to share and grow professionally

Building administration support by inviting them to see the growth of your classroom

Blogging in any form is the most effective tool available to the educator, a platform for all these levels of sharing.

If you're looking for more about Making, check out these resources:

And if you have experiences with approaching a PBL unit as a Maker, please share in the comments section below.

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Project-Based Learning Through a Maker's Lens | Edutopia

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Making holds a number of opportunities and challenges for a teacher. Making, especially to educators and administrators unfamiliar with it, can seem to lack the academic rigor needed for a full-fledged place in an educational ecosystem. However, project-based learning has already created a framework for Making in the classroom.

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Assessment
Teacher Resources
Information Literacy

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TRAILS: Tool for Real-time Assessment of Information Literacy Skills

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rd, 6th, 9th, and 12th grade standards. This Web-based system was developed to provide an easily accessible and flexible tool for school librarians and teachers to identify strengths and weaknesses in the information-seeking skills of their students. There is no charge for using TRAILS.

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Research model
Problem-solving

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The Simple Four is a problem-solving research model developed for South Carolina and works with the research and inquiry standard (Standard 6) in the 2007 ELA Academic Standards.

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Using Bloom's Revised Cognitive Domain to Improve Instructional Practice

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Using Bloom's Revised Cognitive Domain to Improve Instructional Practice

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Critical thinking

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Developing Questions for Critical Thinking

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ESSA, Title 1

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Education Reform and Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)

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Education Reform and Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)

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Online reading
Literacy
Scholastic

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Educational Leadership                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

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Educational Leadership                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

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Readicide

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March 2010 | Volume 67 | Number 6
Reading to Learn Pages 36-41

Kelly Gallagher

One major drawback of having students spend their formative years memorizing facts is that facts change. Robert J. Sternberg, former president of the American Psychological Association, notes that the "facts" he learned years ago in his introductory psychology course matter little today. Instead of pounding facts into students' heads, Sternberg (2007/2008) suggests, schools should nurture attributes and skills that are foundational to becoming expert citizens, such as solving problems creatively, working well in teams, and knowing how to lose as well as win.

I fear that in the rush to prepare students for the next round of exams, schools are neglecting attributes like these. And if we are to guide students to become thoughtful adults who possess such qualities, we must face the elephant in the room: U.S. students' lack of reading proficiency and their general disinclination to read.

The signs are not encouraging. Consider the following points taken from a 2006 report on adolescent literacy by the National Council of Teachers of English:

The 2004 National Assessment of Educational Progress showed that U.S. secondary school students are reading at a rate significantly below expected levels.

The Alliance for Excellent Education points out that 8.7 million secondary students-one in four-are unable to read and comprehend the material in their textbooks.

The 2005 ACT College Readiness Benchmark for Reading found that only one-half of the students tested were ready for college-level reading. Reading scores were the lowest in a decade.

Young people in the United States are not just substandard readers, they are increasingly reluctant readers-even in their free time. In the National Endowment for the Arts' comprehensive 2007 survey of American reading, To Read or Not to Read, researchers found that a "calamitous, universal falling off of reading" occurs for many students at around age 13 and often continues through the rest of these students' lives.

Educators know the commonly cited culprits behind the decline of reading: poverty, lack of parent education, print-poor environments at home, second-language issues, the overscheduling of children, and competition from electronic media. To this list, I would like to add a factor I call readicide, meaning practices educators employ to raise reading scores that actually kill students' love of reading. Readicide is occurring, ironically, in the one place where a love of reading should be fostered-schools.

How have schools become coconspirators in the decline of reading? I suggest four contributing factors: (1) Schools act as though they value the development of test takers more than the development of readers, (2) Schools are limiting authentic reading experiences, (3) Teachers are overteaching books, and (4) Teachers are underteaching books. Let's look at how each of these practices leads to readicide, and examine steps teachers can take to counteract them.

Factor 1: Schools develop test takers instead of readers.

A curriculum steeped in test preparation drives shallow teaching and learning. Consider, for example, the monumental task confronting social science teachers in California, who must teach the following standard from the 10th grade curriculum:

Compare and contrast the Glorious Revolution of England, the American Revolution, and the French Revolution and their enduring effects worldwide on the political expectations for self-government and individual liberty.

How long would it take to teach this standard so that students acquire in-depth understanding? A teacher could easily spend an entire year on this single standard-but this is only one of 49 similar standards 10th grade teachers must cover.

I purposefully use the word cover because that is what teachers must do to get students through the amount of material required to generate test scores that will appease administrators, school board members, and parents. Breadth is now winning out over depth in most subjects. Science curriculum frameworks in the United States, for example, are loaded with more topics than frameworks of other countries (Cavanagh, 2009).

It's good to have standards for what students should know, of course. But when there are too many standards, in-depth teaching gets thrown out the window, and schools start producing memorizers instead of thinkers. And when coverage trumps depth, close reading-the kind students need to develop their ability to read critically- gives way to surface-level, "one and done" reading.

Reversing the Trend

We must ask whether teaching in a coverage mode serves the long-term interests of our students as readers. If we look at students' critical reading scores on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) from 2002 to 2009, during the time NCLB has been in effect, we see a slight increase in points for several years, followed by a decline to below the average score for 2002 (Gewertz, 2009). Isn't it interesting that although many districts tout rising test scores at the local level, reading scores on a key national assessment are in decline?

One recent study, in fact, found that nearly one-third of states have lowered their academic proficiency standards in reading and mathematics to make it easier for schools to make adequate yearly progress under NCLB (Dillon, 2009). Reading scores may be "rising" in districts across the country, but when one looks at a national assessment like the SAT, it seems our brightest students are actually regressing.

Clearly, the "coverage" approach is not working. It's time to bring depth back into the curriculum. Our students would be much better served if we taught them fewer concepts, slowed down, and taught them to think.

Factor 2: Schools limit authentic reading experiences.

I currently teach five periods of 9th grade English at Magnolia High School in Anaheim, California. More than one-half of my students are socio-economically disadvantaged. The student body is 68 percent Hispanic; more than one-third are English language learners, and nearly 40 languages are spoken on campus.

Although my students have passed innumerable tests in their journey to high school, they are shockingly unaware of what is happening in the world. For example, only a small percentage can tell me the name of the vice president of the United States. Not a single student can name the chief justice of the Supreme Court, and only a handful can define the rights protected by the 4th amendment to the U.S. Constitution. On the other hand, almost every student can name the four judges on American Idol. More than half of my seniors last year did not understand that newspapers have editorial sections. These students have since passed all their tests and graduated; they are the next generation in charge.

I point this out not to bash my students, many of whom are exceptionally bright. My concern is simpler: Schools are not doing the job they once did of engaging students in the kinds of reading that enable them to become literate, well-informed adults. Instead, as students progress through our schools, they are forced to read more and more worksheets focused on isolated facts.

Reversing the Trend

Teachers should be guiding students in real-world reading, assigning critical reading of magazines, newspapers, Web sites, and blogs that provide background knowledge about U.S. society, key political players and issues, and students' own role as informed participants. At Magnolia High, for example, all students are given an article of the week to read every Monday. These articles are selected to shore up students' lack of prior knowledge about life outside high school.

Factor 3: Teachers overteach books.

On my desk is a copy of the Los Angeles Unified School District's guide to teaching To Kill a Mockingbird. This guide contains overarching questions, chapter study questions, essay questions, vocabulary lessons, activities for specific chapters, guided reading lessons, directions for setting up a writer's notebook, literary analysis questions, collaborative activities, handouts, transparencies, 20 detailed lessons, quizzes, and projects. The guide is 122 pages long and includes numerous pages listing goals and "habits of thinking" that teachers should foster in students.

Why is this guide so exhaustive? Because it's aligned to the massive number of standards found on California's standardized exams each spring. As a result, teachers are driven into a "teach all things in all books" approach.

I am not suggesting that the goals in this unit of study are not worthy; they are. But using all these lessons to teach one novel, which teachers must do if they are to prepare their students for standardized exams, is a recipe for readicide. If I were to follow this curriculum guide step-by-step in my own classroom, there is little doubt my students would exit my class hating To Kill a Mockingbird -and possibly all reading-forever.

In the quest to prepare students for every standard that might be covered on this year's exams, teachers now chop great books into so many pieces that the books cease to be great. One teacher I observed, for example, required students to share their thinking on a sticky note on every page of Romeo and Juliet. As a result, this timeless work became an extended worksheet. Its beauty-its value-got lost in a sea of sticky notes. Imagine going to see a great movie, only to have the projectionist stop the film every four minutes to see if you are taking notes. Now imagine being forced to read a novel this way, and you'll see how overteaching destroys students' desire to read.

The antidote to this practice is not to simply assign great books and turn students loose-this practice leads to its own dangers-but to find what I call the sweet spot of instruction that gives students just the right amount of support for complex texts. Let's look at the flip side of how many schools introduce students to literature.

Factor 4: Teachers underteach books.

This may seem strange coming on the heels of my argument that too much teaching can kill a book, but underteaching a book can have equally devastating consequences.

At the end of her 10th grade year, my daughter was handed The Grapes of Wrath and told to read it over the summer. Her teacher did not "frame" the novel for her in any way; she provided little, if any, background information or support, and she communicated no purpose for reading the book other than to prepare for an exam on the first day of school. The assumption was that, as an honor student, my daughter could handle the task. You might guess what happened. My daughter started to read the novel, became frustrated, turned to a summary on Spark Notes, passed the test, and grew into an adult who still thinks The Grapes of Wrath is a lousy book.

If students could read academic texts or challenging literary works by themselves, they would not need teachers. But, of course, most cannot gain the full benefit from-and enjoy-difficult books when they read such books on their own. Assigning a book is not the same as teaching a book. When too much assigning and not enough teaching occurs, students are on the road to readicide.

Reversing the Trend

Realizing that neither chopping up books nor handing students a classic and wishing them good luck are the way to get students to read deeply, teachers must constantly search for the sweet spot of just enough reading instruction. To help find this balance, I ask myself as I assign texts, How much do my kids need me at this juncture of reading? How much support would be too much right now-or not enough?

One thing I have learned is that students need most of my help up-front, often before they even begin reading the text. To understand why, read the following passage:

The pitcher's stuff was filthy. He was bringing cheese. He mixed in some chin music. Along with the heat, Uncle Charlie would occasionally show his face, producing a number of bowel-lockers. Only two batters got a knock. No one came close to dialing 8. (Gallagher, 2009, p. 95)

You probably understood every word in the above passage, but I am guessing that unless you know baseball well, you had a tough time comprehending it. Your inability to understand the passage is not a phonemic awareness problem, a fluency problem, or a vocabulary problem. You can read the words; you just lack the proper prior knowledge to make meaning.

Many students have this problem when approaching a difficult text, be it a primary source document or a Shakespeare play. This is where teaching (as opposed to assigning) becomes crucial; students need a teacher to supply the context. Before reading Chapter 1 of To Kill a Mockingbird, for instance, students should have an understanding of Herbert Hoover, the Great Depression, the Scottsboro Case (which inspired Harper Lee to write the novel), and the kind of racism that existed in the U.S. South at the time. On a more concrete level, many of my students do not know what a veranda is. They need vocabulary support before reading Lee's classic.

This kind of framing, however, is not in itself enough to generate the level of motivation required for my students to tackle a classic. Students today need more than history recaps and vocabulary lessons; they need to have some idea from the start of what they will gain from reading a text. I don't teach To Kill a Mockingbird because it's a great book. I teach To Kill a Mockingbird because it's a great book that puts my students in a place where they can examine racism today.

In a similar vein, when I teach 1984, it doesn't overly concern me that some of my students are not going to like the novel. What concerns me is that all my students understand the value of the reading experience. As they read George Orwell's classic, I want my students to gain awareness of government surveillance today. I want them to understand that the torture site "Room 101" is not simply limited to Orwell's world-that many believe it has been recreated in Abu Ghraib and the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. I want them to recognize the degree of language manipulation and propaganda they will confront for the rest of their lives. But I must make this value visible before my students commence reading. In introducing novels like these, I always address the central question my students bring to the book: Why should I care?

Before reading Romeo and Juliet, for example, I begin by having my students explore the question of whether long-term feuds can ever be buried. This question resonates with these learners, many of whom live in neighborhoods where gangs are a way of life. Although Shakespeare asked this question more than 400 years ago, it still holds value for the modern teenager. As the reading progresses and my students begin to connect with the play, I gradually release more of the meaning-making responsibility to them.

Promote Close Reading

A key element to finding this instructional sweet spot is teaching students to read closely. Teaching close reading is not the same as chopping up a book into so many pieces that it becomes unrecognizable. It is accomplished better by having students read large, uninterrupted chunks of text and then strategically having them return to key passages for second- or third-draft reading and thinking.

If the only reading our students do is "one-and-done" reading, they will never develop a critical reading lens. One cannot read James Madison's Federalist papers or Toni Morrison's Beloved once and reach a deep level of understanding. If we are to sharpen students' critical thinking, we need to require them to read longer chunks of text and commit to giving them more close reading practice.

Another important way to promote close reading is to bring reading for pleasure back into students' lives. Our intense focus on testing has brought an intense focus on academic reading, so that students have little exposure to reading for enjoyment in school. Many teachers have pushed aside recreational reading, which may be one reason that so few youth read for enjoyment on their own.

The lack of recreational reading has dire consequences. Brain researcher Maryanne Wolf (2007) has discussed "word poverty," noting that "by kindergarten a gap of 32 million words already separates some children in linguistically-impoverished homes from their more stimulated peers" (p. 20). If students are to have any chance to develop their vocabulary or build the background knowledge needed to become effective readers, they must develop recreational reading habits early in life. And reading habits are not built by handing students reading passages buried in test booklets.

Teachers and administrators who are squeezing recreational reading out of the day have forgotten an important finding: Students who read for fun have higher reading scores than students who rarely read for enjoyment (National Center for Education Statistics, 2005). I have never had a student receive a high SAT verbal score who was not a voracious reader. And I doubt that any student I run into on the street 20 years from now will thank me for helping him or her recognize symbolism in The Scarlet Letter. In fact, I'd be happier if that student wanted to discuss the contemporary book he or she was carrying.

Pulling Out of the "Reading Recession"

Thomas Friedman (2009) claims that recessions have historically been great times for opportunities to arise. With apologies to Friedman, may I suggest that the United States is in a reading recession. I believe that the critical thinkers we so desperately need will emerge from classrooms where teachers have eschewed the coverage approach in favor of fostering deeper thinking- and where the development of lifelong reading habits has remained as important as next month's test.

References

Cavanagh, S. (2009, March 11). "Depth" matters in high school science studies. Education Week, pp. 1, 16-17.

Dillon, S. (2009, October 30). Federal researchers find lower standards in schools. The New York Times, p. A22.

Friedman, T. (2009, June 28). Invent. Invent. Invent. The New York Times, p. WK8.

Gallagher, K. (2009). Readicide. Portland, ME: Stenhouse.

Gewertz, C. (2009, August 25). 2009 SAT scores declined or stagnated, college board reports. Education Week. Available: www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/08/25/02sat.h29.html

National Center for Education Statistics. (2005). National Assessment of Educational Progress. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education.

National Council of Teachers of English. (2006). NCTE principles of adolescent literacy reform: A public policy research brief. Urbana, IL: Author.

National Endowment for the Arts. (2007). To read or not to read: A question of national consequence (Research Division Report 47). Washington, DC: Author.

Sternberg, R. (2007/2008). Assessing what matters. Educational Leadership, 65(4), 20-26.

Wolf, M. (2007). Proust and the squid: The story and science of the reading brain. New York: HarperCollins.

Kelly Gallagher teaches English at Magnolia High School in Anaheim, California, and is the author of Readicide (Stenhouse, 2009); kellygallagher@cox.net.

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March 2010 | Volume 67 | Number 6 Reading to Learn Pages 36-41 Kelly Gallagher One major drawback of having students spend their formative years memorizing facts is that facts change. Robert J. Sternberg, former president of the American Psychological Association, notes that the "facts" he learned years ago in his introductory psychology course matter little today.

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Grants
Scholarships
ProQuest

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Many educators view information inquiry as the foundation of all "traditional content areas." Rather than focusing on individual skills, many educators prefer to use a problem-solving or inquiry-based approach to the process of working with information and creating communication. Others focus on a subset of skills and call these study or research skills.

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International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE)

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International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE)

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Technology Standards

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The ISTE Standards provide the competencies for learning, teaching and leading in the digital age, providing a comprehensive roadmap for the effective use of technology in schools worldwide. Grounded in learning science research and based on practitioner experience, the ISTE Standards ensure that using technology for learning can create high-impact, sustainable, scalable and equitable learning experiences for all learners.

For over 20 years the standards have been used, researched and updated to continuously reflect the latest research-based best practices that define success in using technology to learn, teach, lead and coach. The standards have been adopted in all 50 U.S. states and many countries throughout the world. Aligned to UNESCO's Sustainable Development Goals, the standards are available in eight languages.

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The ISTE Standards are a framework for students, educators, administrators, coaches and computer science educators to rethink education and create innovative learning environments. The standards are helping re-engineer schools and classrooms worldwide for digital age learning.

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SC DOE

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Library Media Specialists - South Carolina Department of Education

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This page provides leadership resources for library media specialists.

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American Association of School Librarians (AASL)

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American Association of School Librarians (AASL)

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Teaching
Learning
help

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21st Century Skills
Students

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Educators and workforce experts alike often warn that our children need improved 21st century skills. Without these skills, they will not be able to successfully participate in the global economy. They won't be adequately prepared for college and work.

But what, exactly, are 21st century skills? Are we just talking about computer and technology skills? And who decides which skills make the list?

It depends on who you ask. But a Hanover Research report, A Crosswalk of 21st Century Skills, sheds some light on the subject.

More than Computers & Technology

Hanover Research recently analyzed six major educational frameworks designed to improve the development of 21st century skills. This included frameworks and critical skills listed by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, Tony Wagner's Seven Survival Skills, the Metiri Group's enGauge framework, the Iowa Core 21st Century Skills, developed by the Iowa Department of Education, the Connecticut State Department of Education and the Assessment and Teaching of 21st Century Skills (ATC21S).

While each framework has slightly different list of critical 21st century skills, all agree on four critical areas for development:

"It is easy to see how these skills could be valuable to a new high school graduate and to employers, as well as how these skills can easily interact with one another," according to the Hanover Research report. Others, such as the research division of the Kamehameha Schools in Hawaii, draw similar conclusions from the various frameworks on 21st century skills.

"More than technological expertise, 21st century skills refer to content knowledge, literacies and proficiencies that prepare individuals to meet the challenges and opportunities of today's world," stated the Kamehameha Schools report, An Overview of 21st Century Skills.

Other Critical Skills for Success

The Hanover Research analysis also identifies a second tier of important 21st century skills, present in five of the six major frameworks:

The following skills were present in four of the six frameworks:

Civic literacy and citizenship

Oral and written communication skills

Social responsibility and ethics

Technology literacy

Initiative

"The driving force for the 21st century is the intellectual capital of citizens," said the Metiri Group in its white paper, Twenty-First Century Skills. "Political, social and economic advances in the United States during this millennium will be possible only if the intellectual potential of America youth is developed now."

Deeper Dives

In other blog posts, we will continue to provide you with information about critical success skills for the 21st century. For example, what exactly do we mean by collaboration and teamwork, or critical thinking? How can we, as supportive parents, do more to help our sons and daughters develop these skills? What are the best educational environments for teaching and learning these skills?

We are also interested in hearing from you about the ways you are helping young people prepare for a world in need of highly skilled professionals. Just contact us at mediainfo@envisionexperience.com if you'd like to share your story. And, of course, we hope you will consider Envision programs as an important way to help your children and students develop these critical skills. We believe our mission is vitally important. We hope you do too.

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13 Essential 21st Century Skills for Today's Students | Envision

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Read about the essential skills for students to successfully participate in the global economy. With these, they'll be adequately prepared for college & work.

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Manifesto for 21st Century Teacher Librarian

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Manifesto for 21st Century Teacher Librarian

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21st Century
Teacher Librarian
Joyce Valenza

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Editor's Note: This article was originally published as a Tag Team Tech column on Manifesto for 21st Century Teacher Librarians www.voyamagazine.com. It has been reprinted and reproduced numerous times and in many places. We are making it available here to ensure that all of our readers have seen it.
By Joyce Kasman Valenza
We're all doing different stuff. The other school librarians I know are not doing what I am doing. Some maintain Web sites and blogs; others do not. Some have seriously retooled; others have not. In the 21st century, what does a school librarian do?
October 2010

A couple of summers back a young school librarian, fresh out of library school, asked a very honest question at one of our state retreats:

Well into the 21st century, it is clear that the concept of modern teacher librarian practice is not clear. There is no textbook for what effective practice looks like in continually morphing information and communication landscapes.

What I know for sure is that if the Joyce who graduated from library school in 1976 (and again with a school specialty in 1988), heck, if the Joyce from the 2007/2008 school year, were to visit my library today, she would be stunned by the differences in my/our practice.
You know you are a 21st century school librarian if . . . Reading
In the past few years many of us have re-imagined school library for learners using the array of new tools and abilities in front of us today.

And in my humble opinion some aspects of emerging practice are nonnegotiable.

● You consider new ways to promote reading. You are piloting/supplying learners with downloadable audio books, Playaways, Kindles, iPads, Nooks.

● You share ebook apps with students for their iPhones, droids, and iPads and other mobile devices (Check out Gale's AccessMyLibrary, School Edition)

● You market, and your students share, books using social networking tools like Shelfari, Good Reads, or LibraryThing.

● Your students blog or tweet or network in some way about what they are reading

● Your desktop screensavers promote great reads, not Dell or Apple or HP.

● You link to available free ebook collections using such tools as Google Books, International Children's Digital Library (See ebook pathfinder.)

● You review and promote books in your own blogs and wikis and other websites. (Also Reading2.0 and BookLeads Wiki for book promotion ideas)
Information Landscape
● You embed ebooks on your websites to encourage reading and support learning

● You work together with learners to create and share digital booktalks or book trailers.

● You know that searching various areas of the Web requires a variety of search tools. You are the information expert in your building. You are the search expert in your building. You share an every growing and shifting array of search tools that reach into blogs and wikis and Twitter and images andmedia and scholarly content.

● You open your students to evolving strategies for collecting and evaluating information. You teach about tags, and hashtags, and feeds, and real-time searches and sources, as well as the traditional database approaches you learned way back in library school.

● You organize the Web for learners. You have the skills to create a blog or website or wiki or portal of some other type to pull together resources to meet the specific information needs of your learning community.

● You make sure your learners and teachers can (physically & intellectually) access developmentally and curricularlydatabases, portals, websites, blogs, videos, and other media.

● Your presence reflects your personal voice. It includes your advice and your instruction, as well as your links. You make learning an engaging and colorful hybrid experience.

● You think of your web presence as a knowledge management tool for your entire school. It includes student-produced instruction and archived (celebrated) student work, handouts, policies, and collaboratively built pathfindersto support learning and research in all learning arenas. (Checkout Pathfinder Swap for examples.)

● You help learners put together their own personal information portals and Knowledge Building Centers to support their research and learning, using widgets, embedded media, andpersonal information portals like iGoogle, PageFlakes ,and NetVibes and wikis and Google Sites.

● You intervene in the research process online while respecting young people's need for privacy.

● You work with learners to exploit push information technologies like RSS feeds and tags and saved databases and search engine searches relevant to their information needs.
Communication and publishing and storytelling
● Your own feeds are rich with learning content, evidence of your networking. You embed dynamic widgets(including your own database widgets) wherever students live, work, and play.

● You integrate dynamic interactive features in your library's website-Google calendars, RSS feeds, delicious bookmarks, Flickr photo galleries, online presentations, blogs, surveys, polls, as ways to interact with and teach students.

● You know that communication is the end-product of research and you teach learners how to communicate and participate creatively and engagingly. You consider new interactive and engaging communication tools for student projects.
Collection Development
● Include and collaborate with your learners. You let them in. You fill your physical and virtual space with student work, student contributions-their video productions, their original music, their art.

● Know and celebrate that students can now publish their written work digitally. (See these pathfinders: Digital Publishing, Digital Storytelling)

● You expand your notion of collection.

● You no longer strive for the standard catalog, long-tail, just-in-case approach. In tight times, with shared catalogs and easy online purchasing, a just-in-time approach is far more effective. You build your own collection collaboratively, with an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the available collections around you.

● Collection should include: ebooks, audiobooks, open source software, streaming media, flash drives, digital video cameras, laptops, tripods, RSS feeds, and much more! And we should seek effective, federated approaches to ensure these diverse formats and platforms are equally and seamlessly accessible.

● You involve your community in collection building using interactive polls and web-based suggestion forms.
Facilities, your physical space
● You understand that library is not just a place to get stuff, it is a place to make stuff, collaborate on and share stuff. Not a grocery store, but a kitchen!

● Your collection-on- and offline-includes student work. You use digital publishing tools to help students share and celebrate their written and artistic work.

● You know your physical space is about books and way more than books. Your space is a libratory. You welcome, and create space for, media production-podcasting, video production, storytelling-producing and presenting.

● You welcome and host telecommunications events and group gathering for planning and research and social networking.

● You cope with ubiquity. No, you learn to love it. Ubiquity changes everything. In one-to-one schools, students may visit the library less frequently. In such environments, in all modern, truly relevant environments, library must also be ubiquitous. Library MUST be everywhere. Librarians must teach everywhere, in and outside of the library.
Access , Equity, Advocacy
● You realize you will often have to partner and teach in classroom teachers' classrooms. One-to-one classrooms change your teaching logistics. You teach virtually. You are available across the school via email and chat.

● You know that laptops can actually walk back to the library for its space and additional resources in all formats.

● You are concerned about a new digital divide: those who can effectively find quality information in all media formats, and those who cannot.

● You are concerned about a new digital divide: those who have access to the new tools for creation and publishing and those who do not.

● You consider just-in-time, just-for-me learning as your responsibility and are proud that you own real estate your students' desktops and mobile devices 24/7.

● You grapple with issues of equity. You provide open source alternatives to students and teachers who need them. You lend flash sticks and laptops and cameras and . . . You ensure your students can easily get to the stuff they most need by using kid-friendly terms and by creating pathfinders.

● You ensure that all students have access to readings appropriate for their differentiated needs and offer books in a variety of formats.
Audience and collaboration
● You know that one-to-one classrooms will change your teaching logistics. You realize you will often have to partner and teach in classroom teachers' classrooms. You will teach virtually. You will be available across and outside the school via email and chat.

● You don't stop at "no." You fight for the rights of students to have and use the tools they need. This is an equity issue. Access to the new tools is an intellectual freedom issue.

● You recognize that the work your students create has audience and that they may share newly constructed knowledge globally on powerful networks,. You help them see that they have the potential to make social, cultural, and political impact.

● You recognize that learners may share their ideas and participate in dialogs beyond the walls of the library or classroom.

● You exploit the cloud as a strategy for student collaboration, sharing and publishing.

● You share with students their responsibilities for participating in social networks.

● You see teleconferencing tools like Skype as ways to open your library to authors, experts, book discussion, debates, and more. Consider starting by examining Skype an Author Network.

● You use new tools for collaboration. Your students create together, They synthesize information, enhance their writing through peer review and negotiate content in blogs and wikis and using tools like GoogleDocs, Flickr, Voicethread, Animoto and a variety of other writing or mind mapping and storytelling tools.

● You help students create their own networks for learning and extracurricular activities.

● You teach students to care about their own digital footprints-and monitor them using people search tools.

● You encourage students to develop academic-NOT invisible -digital footprints.

● You teach students about norms for appropriate behavior in wikis and blogs.

● You model respect for intellectual property in a world of shift and change. You encourage and guide documentation for media in all formats.

● You lead students to Web-based citation generators and note-taking tools to guide them in these efforts.

● You recognize and lead students and teachers to the growing number of copyright-friendly or copyleft portals.

● You understand Creative Commons licensing and you are spreading its gospel.

● You encourage learners to apply Creative Commons licenses to their own creations.

● You are revising and expanding your notion of Fair Use in line with the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media LiteracyEducation .

● You say "yes" a lot more. You know that in their creative remixes and mash-ups, students may use the copyrighted works of others in their own work without asking permission under certain conditions. You are discussing transformativeness with students and faculty. (See The Cost of Copyright Confusion for Media Literacy and Fair use and transformativeness: It may shake your world)

● You use a tool for reasoning whether a proposed use is Fair Use. ( Tool for reasoning Fair Use.pdf)

You ask students to ask these two questions when they are using the copyrighted work of others in their own media:

1. Did the unlicensed use transform the material taken from the copyrighted work by using it for a different purpose than that of the original, or did it just repeat the work for the same intent and value as the original?
New Technology Tools
2. Was the material taken appropriate in kind and amount, considering the nature of the copyrighted work and of the use?

(From the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education)

● You consider iPods and iPhones and iPads learning tools and storage devices and reference sources. You know that when you interrupt a student she might be in the middle of a chapter, recording a podcast, transferring data, taking audio notes. You establish classroom or library academic guidelines and norms for their use during the school day.
Professional Development and Professionalism
● You know this is only the beginning of social networking. Students will get to their Facebook accounts through proxy servers and their mobile devices despite any efforts to block them. You plan educationally meaningful ways to incorporate student excitement (and your own) for social networking. You establish classroom or library academic guidelines and norms for their use during the school day.

● You consider your role as info-technology scout. You look to make "learning sense" of the authentic new information and communication tools used in business and academics. You figure out how to use them thoughtfully and you help classroom teachers use them with their classes.

● You seek professional development that will help you grow even if it is not offered by your school district. Even if you don't get PD credit. You can't "clock" these hours.

● You build your own personal/professional learning network using social networking tools

● You guide your teacher colleagues in setting up their own professional learning networks.

● You read both edtech journals and edtech blogs, not just the print literature of our own profession.

● You follow selected educators,experts, authors, etc. with microblogging apps like Twitter

● You use Twitter to mine realtime chat about your professional interests. You use hashtags like #tlchat and #edchat

● You learn by visiting the webcast archives of conferences you cannot attend. (For instance, ISTE)

● You share your new knowledge with others using social bookmarking tools like Delicious and Diigo.

● You set up feed readers to push the blog of experts and educators you respect to you on a regular basis.

● You join a Ning or other social network for instance:

○ Classroom20NingTeacherLibrarianNing

○ English Companion

○ NCTE Conference Ning

○ ISTE Ning
Teaching and Learning and Reference
○ Future of Education

● You are contributing to the development of a new brand for our profession. When your students move on to the next library, they are going to expect visionary service and instruction and caring, helpful relationships.

● You are figuring out how to be present for your learners and teachers 24/7, at the point of the information, research, or communication need. Ubiquity changes everything. With computers in every classroom and every home, heck with computers in every pocket, how are you going to share your wisdom and collaborate?

● You understand that learning can (and should) be playful.

● You understand that learning should be authentic.

● You understand that learning can be multi-modal, media-rich, customized to the needs of individual learners.

● You know the potential new technologies offer for interaction-learners as both information consumers and producers. You understand that in this world learners have the power to create and share knowledge.

● You are concerned that, when it matters, your students move beyond information satisficing. They make solid information decisions.

● You are concerned that students learn to evaluate, to triangulate information in all media formats. We must guide them in an increasingly complex world, to make information decisions, to evaluate all their information choices, including books, blogs, wikis, streamed media, whatever comes next.

● You are concerned and excited about what you can do that Google or Wikipedia cannot. What customized services and instruction will you offer that will not be outsourced to Bangalore?

● You continually share new understandings of searching, and evaluation, and analysis and synthesis, and digital citizenship, and communication, integrating and modeling our new standards, dispositions and common beliefs.

● You understand that exploration and freedom are key to engaging students in a virtual environment to promote independent learning.
Into the Future (acknowledging the best of the past)
● You know the potential new technologies offer for interaction-learners as both information consumers and creative information producers.

● You ensure that the library provides an independent learning environment that connects students and teachers in a social, digital, community.

● You unpack the good stuff you carried from your 20th century trunk. Rigor, and inquiry, and high expectations, and information and media fluency matter no matter what the medium. So do excitement, engagement, and enthusiasm.

● You lead. And you look ahead for what is coming down the road. You continually scan the landscape. As the information and communication landscapes continue to shift, do you know where you are going? You plan for change. Not for yourself, not just for the library, but for the building, for your learners.

● You see the big picture and let others see you seeing it. It's about learning and teaching. It's about engagement. If you are seen only as the one who closes up for inventory, as the book chaser, and NOT as the CIO, the inventor, the creative force, you won't be seen as a big picture person.

● You continue to retool and learn.

● You represent our brand (who the teacher-librarian is) as a 21st century information professional. What does the information professional look like today? Ten years from today? If you do not develop strong vision, your vision will be usurped by the visions of others. You will not be able to lead from the center.
This modest "manifesto" describes my idea what today's practice ought to look like. In a What modern practice looks like also has a lot to do with what it doesn't look like. a little while back I pondered the flip side of that young librarian's question.
● You enjoy what you do and let others know it. It's always better when you do what you love. (If you don't love this new library world, find something else to do.)

● You continue to consider and revise your vision and feed it with imagination. Think outside the box. Heck, there is no box!

Here's a list of things I believe teacher librarians should unlearn:

1. That the little things really matter to those we serve and teach. (For instance, whether or not we decide to shelve Mc and Mac together.)

2. That you should annually close a library for inventory.

3. That Boolean logic is the best search strategy since sliced bread.

4. That Wikipedia is bad, or less-than-good, in almost every context.

5. That databases are the only online sources with value and credibility.

6. That having a web presence, no-that having a really good and really useful web presence-is optional.

7. That someone else is exclusively or ultimately responsible for learning relating to information and communication and search technologies.

8. That the price initially quoted is the price you have to pay.

9. That vendors' have the final say.

10. That issues relating to Fair Use are generally going to be answered with the word no.

11. That no really means no or will continue to mean no when it comes to issues relating to access to the information and communication tools of today and intellectual freedom.

12. That intellectual freedom is a phrase connected to books alone.

13. That libraries should be quiet.

14. That libraries should be tidy.

15. That a library's effectiveness and impact should be measured by the number of books it circulates.

16. That your stakeholders automatically will know what you contribute to your school or your community's culture.

17. That a library is merely a place to get stuff.

18. That your collection should be just-in-case rather than just-in-time.

19. That someone else is responsible for your professional development.

20. That ubiquity won't change your practice profoundly.

Joyce Kasman Valenza loves her work as the librarian at Springfield Township High School (PA)!
21. That your library is bounded by its walls.
Contact Joyce at joyce_valenza@sdst.org
22. That your library is open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

23. That there is a box. (to think outside)

For ten years, she was the techlife@school columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Joyce is the author of Power Tools, Power Research Tools and Power Tools Recharged for ALA Editions. (PowerTools Remixed is currently in progress.) She currently blogs for School Library Journal. Her NeverendingSearch Blog (now on the SLJ Web site) won an Edublogs Award for 2005, was nominated in 2008, and won again in 2009. She was awarded the AASL/Highsmith research grant in 2005. Her Virtual Library won the IASL School Library Web Page of the Year Award for 2001. She has won her state's PSLA Outstanding Program (2005) and Outstanding Contributor (2009) Awards. Joyce is active in ALA, AASL, YALSA, and ISTE and contributes to Classroom Connect, VOYA,Technology and Learning, and School Library Journal. Joyce speaks nationally and internationally about issues relating to libraries and thoughtful use of educational technology. She earned her doctoral degree in Information Science from the University of North Texas in August, 2007.

Manifesto for 21st Century school Librarians by VOYA Magazine, E L Kurdyla Publishing; Joyce Kasman Valenza, author is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at publisher@voya.com.

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Manifesto for 21st Century Teacher Librarians

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Editor's Note: This article was originally published as a Tag Team Tech column on Manifesto for 21st Century Teacher Librarians www.voyamagazine.com . It has been reprinted and reproduced numerous times and in many places. We are making it available here to ensure that all of our readers have seen it.

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SC
Literacy

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Early Learning and Literacy - South Carolina Department of Education

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The goal of the Read to Succeed Act is to ensure that every educator at every grade level in every school and subject area is committed and able to support reading development of the South Carolina students they serve.

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AASL
Advocacy

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ALA Libraries Transform | An initiative of the American Library Association

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Designed to increase public awareness of the value, impact and services provided by libraries and library professionals, the Libraries Transform campaign will ensure there is one clear, energetic voice for our profession.

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AASL

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American Association of School Librarians (AASL)

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-american association of school librarians

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Definition of an Effective School Library Program NEW

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Reading
Elementary literacy Websites

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The Big List: 50 Elementary Literacy and Reading Websites

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By Whooo's Reading Blog Team There are so many resources available to you and your students online and we want to find all the best ones so you don't have to. This Big List is dedicated to reading websites and literacy resources for every K-12 teacher.

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AASL

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Libraries face a number of challenges in protecting the privacy of users, especially students in elementary, middle, and high schools. School libraries offer print, media, and online content to meet students' educational and research needs as well as to nurture their intellectual curiosity and development. Students' use of library resources is also incorporated into classroom activities, learning outcomes, and assessment.

School libraries typically are integrated into their district's administrative and technology infrastructures. Depending on district administration and outside cooperative technology or vendor agreements, school libraries have greater or lesser degrees of autonomy. A lack of autonomy may make it difficult for librarians to implement policies and procedures to protect student privacy in regard to the use of library systems, applications, and collections. In addition, state and federal laws regarding library records, educational records (e.g., the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), and the online activities of minors (e.g., the Child Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) have both positive and negative impacts on the privacy rights of students. For example, FERPA defines explicit rights to privacy for students and minors but at the same time grants schools and parents access to, and oversight over, student records that weakens these privacy rights.

ALA issues these guidelines to provide school libraries with information about appropriate data management and security practices in respect to student use of library collections and resources in order to strengthen student privacy protections.
Why Privacy Is Important
Protecting user privacy and confidentiality has long been an integral part of the intellectual freedom mission of libraries. The right to free inquiry as assured by the First Amendment depends upon the ability to read and access information free from scrutiny by the government or other third parties. In their provision of services to library users, librarians have an ethical obligation, expressed in the ALA Code of Ethics, to preserve users' right to privacy. Librarians and libraries may also have a statutory or regulatory obligation to protect library users' personally identifiable information and data from unauthorized disclosure and use.

Students' and minors' First Amendment rights to free inquiry and privacy must be balanced against both the educational needs of the school and the rights of the parents. As students and minors mature, it is increasingly important that they are provided with opportunities to exercise their curiosity and develop their intellect free from the chilling effects of surveillance by educators, peers, parents, or commercial interests. As students begin to participate more fully in the online world, they must develop an appreciation for their own privacy and a corresponding respect for the privacy of others.
Clear Privacy Policies
It is important for libraries to develop privacy policies for student use of library resources that are adopted by both the library and the school's policy-making body. Students should be notified about library privacy policies when borrowing materials or accessing resources for the first time and as appropriate when there is a change in services, policies, or access. Library privacy policies should be made easily available and understandable to students in an age-appropriate manner. Safeguarding user privacy requires that staff keep all in-library use and reference questions confidential and assure that there is no monitoring by staff or peers of what students are reading, viewing, or researching while in the library.
Audit
School librarians should conduct privacy audits to determine the current threats to student privacy and what protections are already in place. The audit should cover the library management system; computer and network use in the library; eBooks and other online content; interactive Web tools; social media; and other technologies such as scanners/photocopiers and surveillance cameras. The results of the audit can be used to help create or revise privacy policies.
Collection and Retention of User Data
Libraries should limit the amount of personal information collected about students. Libraries should collect the minimum amount of personal information required to provide a service or meet a specific operational need. Libraries should not build services or resources using sensitive personally identifiable information that, if leaked or accessed by an unauthorized party, could prove detrimental to the user's privacy.

Personally identifiable information should not be retained in perpetuity. The library should establish record retention policies specifying how long to retain different types of data and specifying methods for securely destroying data that is no longer needed. Retention policies should also cover archival copies and backups.
Encryption
The use of data encryption helps enhance privacy protection. All online transactions between client applications (staff desktop clients, web browsers, mobile apps, etc.) and server applications should be encrypted. Client applications that do not support encryption (such as staff desktop clients) should employ virtual private network (VPN) technologies. In addition, any personally identifiable information and student data housed by the library or school off-site (cloud-based infrastructure, tape backups, etc.) should use encrypted storage.
Data Sharing
Library privacy policies should define when school library records can be shared (and under what conditions) with parents or guardians, school staff and teachers, and third-parties such as online service providers.

Federal laws such as FERPA and COPPA as well as state laws concerning the confidentiality of library and student records may impact if and how data is shared. Because of the broad leeway FERPA gives schools in using student data for internal educational purposes, librarians need to clearly distinguish among library records, educational records, and administrative records in order to provide explicit privacy rights in accordance with professional ethical obligations.

Agreements between school libraries and online service providers should address appropriate restrictions on the use, aggregation, retention, and dissemination of students' personally identifiable information. Agreements between libraries and service providers should also specify that libraries retain ownership of all data and that the service providers agree to observe the library's privacy policies, data retention policy, and security policies. In the event of a data breach, users whose data was compromised should be informed promptly (in the case of minors, the parents or guardians should be informed).

Many service providers have signed the Student Privacy Pledge which indicates a commitment to work in an ongoing fashion to meet and exceed all federal requirements to protect student data. Librarians should make participation in the Student Privacy Pledge a criterion when making purchasing decisions.

In addition, many states are passing legislation that restricts the collection and use of students' data by service providers (e.g. California's Student Online Personal Information Protection Act - SOPIPA). Librarians should only contract with service providers that comply with applicable state laws.
Educational Technology Systems
Primary and secondary schools are adopting learning management systems and other technologies that enable educators to monitor student reading habits (e.g. did the student access/read the assigned eBook or online text?) As a result, school districts are co-opting librarians into surveillance regimes by adopting these types of technologies. Librarians need to advocate for protecting student library use in an age of ubiquitous data logging and surveillance technologies, including learning management systems.
Digital Literacy & Advocacy
School librarians have a responsibility to teach students about their privacy rights, practices they can use to protect themselves, ethical behavior online, and respect for the privacy of others. In addition to educating students, school librarians should become advocates for protecting student privacy and intellectual freedom in the larger school environment. Often school librarians are focused only on user privacy within the library to the detriment of larger privacy issues in their school and district context. Because of their professional training and ethical commitment, librarians are well-equipped to be privacy advocates outside of the school library.
[The Library Privacy Checklist for Students in K-12 Schools is intended to help libraries of all capacities take practical steps to implement the principles that are laid out in this guideline.] Additional Resources Approved April 2, 2016 by the Intellectual Freedom Committee of the American Library Association

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Library Privacy Guidelines for Students in K-12 Schools

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Introduction Libraries face a number of challenges in protecting the privacy of users, especially students in elementary, middle, and high schools. School libraries offer print, media, and online content to meet students' educational and research needs as well as to nurture their intellectual curiosity and development.

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AASL
School Librarian standards
Learning
Training
Teaching

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Media
Literacy

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When searching for literature for my thesis I found a lot of material on media literacy but it seemed the more I found the more confused I became on the subject. It helped when I stumbled upon the CML MediaLit Kit. I think it's the most wise and well written on the subject and more importantly it combines theory and practice in a straightforward manner."
Jonas Jakobsen, Copenhagen, Denmark

Like a map for a journey, the ™ provides a vision and directions for successfully introducing media literacy in classrooms and community groups from preK to college. It offers a systematic way of constructing curriculum that is modular, flexible, replicable, measurable and scaleable -- and that meets 21st century needs. The CML MediaLit Kit Kit is comprised of all of CML's research and development work; a handy way to begin preparing for your own work is through CML's free Global Onramp (see below).

The MediaLit Kit™ provides, for the first time, an accessible, integrated, research-based teaching strategy needed to assist schools and districts in organizing and structuring teaching activities using a media literacy lens. Based on longstanding theoretical foundations and a research-based approach, education tools contained in the CML MediaLit Kit™ reflect a philosophy of empowerment through education and articulate the key components of an inquiry-based media literacy education.

The cornerstone of CML's approach rests with its basic framework, called Questions/TIPS (Q/TIPS), which feature the Five Core Concepts and the Five Key Questions of Media Literacy for both deconstruction or consumers of media, as well as construction or producers of media. (CML's Five Key Questions of Media Literacy for construction or producers of media are available in the second edition of CML's ground breaking book, Literacy for the 21st Century. The Empowerment Spiral, contained in Literacy for the 21st Century, provides a guide to decision-making and action.)

Adopting CML's basic framework creates a common vocabulary, generates common understandings and promotes consistent instructional methodology across disciplines, across grade levels, across schools and districts, even states and nations. Using CML's Five Core Concepts and Five Key Questions enables you to:

set your students on fire in the classroom

give them a filtering system for critical thinking and discernment about any media message, anywhere, anytime, anyhow

help them acquire content knowledge on a lifelong basis

significantly impact their health choices and behavior

show them how to represent themselves effectively as active citizens and contributors, and

dare we say it -- have a fun way to learn.

Most of all using the CML MediaLit Kit™ as the foundation for organizing and teaching media literacy in the PK-12 classroom, creates a 21st century learning environment in which students gain the communicating, problem-solving, and decision-making skills needed for living all of their lives in a global media culture.

The MediaLit Kit™ documents can be used individually or together, for training workshops, in-services, library reference and parent/community education as well as in the K-12 classroom. The CML MediaLit Kit™ and its various elements are available for sale as well as for licensing to publishers, training organizations and service agencies needing an established framework for incorporating inquiry-based media literacy in their own products and services.
Resources for Learning and Teaching in a Media Age
CML puts power into the hands of educators and students through the tools and resources contained in the CML MediaLit Kit. Covering the Theory, Practice and Implementation of media literacy and based on CML's research-based framework, several educator resources are available.

If you are new to media literacy, we offer Global OnRamp resources to help you get started. These materials explain the fundamentals of media literacy and our framework.

Take advantage of the free downloads -- in Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Turkish, Korean-- accessed through our online Global OnRamp Resources (Free for Getting Started)
Store.
Theory
Practice
Implementation
...A marvelous piece of work - clear, concise, the distillation of the most available research and practice...As a framework for taking teachers through all of the necessary stages, components, ideas and assumptions about media literacy, it could scarcely be bettered. I hope it gets into the hands of every teacher in the land."
Len Masterman, author, Teaching the Media

Sign-up for CML's monthly newsletter to keep current with the field and have access to MediaLit Moments, free activities using CML's Five Key Questions.

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When searching for literature for my thesis I found a lot of material on media literacy but it seemed the more I found the more confused I became on the subject. It helped when I stumbled upon the CML MediaLit Kit.

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Copyright
Fair Use

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The Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School is a leader in the study of the law and policy around the Internet and other emerging technologies.

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AASL

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American Association of School Librarians (AASL)

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-american association of school librarians

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Best Websites for Teaching & Learning honors websites, tools, and resources of exceptional value to inquiry-based teaching and learning. Sites recognized foster the qualities of innovation, creativity, active participation, and collaboration.

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The Question Mark An Educational Magazine

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The Question Mark is a leading provider of free information to guide school thinking about questions and questioning.

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Ten things your Adminstrator needs to know as the School Year Begins

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Ten things your Adminstrator needs to know as the School Year Begins

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School Librarians

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10. That you are a teacher who teaches not content but process. You teach children to be information literate, digitally literate, media literate, and visually literate. The skills that you teach, the dispositions that you help children to develop, the responsibilities that you foster, and the self-assessment strategies that you instill will serve children not only in school but also in life. You are, first and foremost, a teacher!

9. That you are an information specialist, the original, most powerful search engine, able to decipher the most cryptic reference question and connect that child or that teacher with the information needed. You know the resources; you know your patrons, and you connect the two.

8. That you are an instructional partner who works collaboratively with all other educators in the building to teach critical information skills in the context of content curriculum. You are there to partner with that teacher who wants to present a lesson in a different way or who wants to have children create a more authentic product to demonstrate real learning. Because of your participation, the lesson is stronger and more effective.

7. That you are an instructional leader with a view and perspective of the school like no other. You see across grades and across content areas. You work with all students and with all teachers. You are well versed in the latest technologies and are able to integrate them effectively into instruction, and you're able to provide professional development on library resources and technologies for your colleagues.

6. That you are a program administrator who does a tremendous amount of work behind the scenes to make sure that the library program runs smoothly. So much of your job is invisible, and your principal needs to know that.

5. That you empower students to become critical thinkers. Through lessons in the library students experience everything from comparing and contrasting nonfiction and fiction works on the same topic to creating in a makerspace to evaluating information found on the Web.

4. That you empower students to become enthusiastic readers as you do everything in your power to help them develop not only skills in reading but also a lifelong love of reading. You provide books in various formats (print, audio, ebook) and in various genres to meet students' information and recreational reading needs. You host reading promotions, and you stress the joy of reading.

3. That you empower students to become skillful researchers. You teach children to unpack information using text features in books. You teach children how to summarize and how to synthesize, and you teach them the differences in the two. You teach children to narrow topics, develop research questions, and search effectively to answer those questions.

2. That you empower students to become ethical users of information. You teach the concept of intellectual property, of citation, and of giving credit where credit is due. You help children to understand what plagiarism is, and you teach them how to extract and process and synthesize information to create a new product.

1. That school librarians transform student learning and that this is much easier to accomplish with administrative support. An administrator's support can come in many forms: a healthy budget, a schedule that allows for common planning time with teachers, affirmation to faculty of the important role of the library program in the school and in student learning.

If your administrator already knows these things, wonderful! You or a librarian with whom they've worked in the past has demonstrated what a 21st-century school librarian does! If your administrator is not so knowledgeable about the key role that you can play in the instruction that takes place in your school, now is the time to speak up and share. Be the librarian that delivers that message!

Categories: Advocacy/Leadership, Blog Topics, Community, Presidential Musings

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Audrey Church, Leadership Development Committee Chair and 2017-2018 AASL Past President

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Ten Things Your Administrator Needs to Know as the School Year Begins | Knowledge Quest

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10. That you are a teacher who teaches not content but process. You teach children to be information literate, digitally literate, media literate, and visually literate. The skills that you teach, the dispositions that you help children to develop, the responsibilities... Read More ›

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The National Center for Fair & Open Testing (FairTest) works to end the misuses and flaws of standardized testing and to ensure that evaluation of students, teachers and schools is fair, open, valid and educationally beneficial.
Learn more about us and our mission.

SPOTLIGHT

Shifting an unnecessary, biased, coachable, and poorly predictive multiple-choice exam that few schools currently require from pencil-and-paper delivery to an electronic format does not magically transform it into a more accurate, fairer or valid tool for assessing college readiness. Just as with previous versions of the "new improved SAT," the latest repackaging will not improve its overall value.

1,650+ have already extended test-optional or test-blind admissions policies to cover current college bound juniors.

Students whose standardized exams were inaccurately scored or ineptly administered and those who experienced other problems with tests such as the SAT, AP, and GRE can now fight back using a new advocacy resource offered by the firm FairShake.

See U.S. Representative Jamaal Bowman, civil rights leaders, academic experts, and assessment reform activists explain why the federal government and states should cancel Spring 2021 standardized exams.
Join the campaign today...

Scores from the Graduate Records Examinations (GRE) are not good predictors of success in many graduate school programs, according to leaders of an effort to reduce reliance on test results launched today.

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The National Center for Fair & Open Testing

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The National Center for Fair & Open Testing (FairTest) works to end the misuses and flaws of standardized testing and to ensure that evaluation of students, teachers and schools is fair, open, valid and educationally beneficial.Learn more about us and our mission.

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Routine
Rethink
Respect

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Last week I blogged about " Entrance and Exits " and how to manage them for a smooth transition. This week my focus is on what happens in-between the coming and going. You have many roles as a librarian-information specialist, instructional partner, teacher, and program administrator, but the one you will be judged on is teacher.

Managing the library environment, as I noted, is challenging and many have difficulty with it. The topic is rarely covered in library school and what works in the classroom doesn't translate easily to the library. You don't have a regular seating arrangement, you don't give grades, and there are many places where students can be out of sight.

The first thing to remember is it's called "classroom management" not "classroom control." It's hard not to put "do not" rules in place when you are striving to maintain discipline, but control comes from fear. You are so concerned about not being on top of everything, you clamp down to prevent something from happening. Management comes from confidence, from trusting yourself and your abilities, and trusting how you are will create a climate that fosters good behaviors. To achieve the environment you want, remember these three "R's:" Routine, Rethink, and Respect.

Students at all ages are better behaved when routines are in place. " Entrances and Exits " highlighted routines to use during those key times, but you need routines for transitions. At the elementary level when a class comes in, once the entrance routine is complete, you need to move them effortlessly into the lesson or story time. To the extent possible, have the area set up, and place yourself so you are guiding them to where they need to go, even without saying anything. When a middle or high school class comes in and you are working with the teacher, recognize a bit of "fooling around" may occur either as they move to the tables or computer. If you say something like "I see you are all eager to get started, so ..." and give the necessary direction things will begin to move as you need them too. Trying to quell anything beyond quiet movement will only lead to further disruption as the lesson proceeds. If you are with one class and another comes in, either notify the teacher in advance as to where you want students to go, or put up a small sign on the back of an easel identifying the location.

Rethinking means recognize your attitude and change it as needed. You may tense up as a "troublesome" class arrives or anticipate a problem with a student with whom you have had trouble. Your thoughts communicate without your realizing it and will trigger the behaviors you wish to avoid. Instead, plan ahead to find something that will engage their interest-ask them a challenging question as they enter - and try "I want to hear what you come up with" as a leading statement. For a single student, think "He/she is often made to feel stupid or hard work, I can make his/her day better." When you speak, you will then naturally smile and say something kind.

Respect permeates throughout if you want to manage the library. To get respect, you must first give it. Before you say something to a student, consider whether you would speak the same way or use that tone of voice if you were dealing with an adult. If a teacher or administrator walks in while you are helping a student, don't say, "I'll be back right after I speak with so-and-so." Instead, tell the adult, "I will be right with you soon as I am finished here." When a student comes up for help while you are talking with a teacher, let the child know how much longer you will be. It's common courtesy.

You all have various techniques to gain quiet. These will work better if you are also using the "3 R's." And do realize, some days you won't behave well. You are human. Apologize immediately. You can be a role model for routines, rethinking and respect. Imagine if that spread throughout your school!

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Classroom Management - It's Not About Control - SLWorkshop

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Last week I blogged about " Entrance and Exits " and how to manage them for a smooth transition. This week my focus is on what happens in-between the coming and going. You have many roles as a librarian-information specialist, instructional partner, teacher, and program administrator, but the one you will be judged on is teacher.

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AASL

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Richard Byrne

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Free Technology For Teachers – A TeacherMeade site

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from now on - the educational technology journal

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from now on - the educational technology journal

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School Librarians

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Joan of Arc? Have we reached the point where teacher librarians will be replaced by artificial intelligence and poorly paid aides? New Zealand did away with most of its highly skilled and trained teacher librarians at the turn of the previous century.

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SC state library
Twitter

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The latest Tweets from Discus (@scdiscus). Thousands of magazines, newspapers, and reference books available 24/7 through Discus - South Carolina's Virtual Library. A service of the SC State Library. Columbia, SC

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Virtual learning comons
Template

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A template to build your Virtual Learning Commons.

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Common Craft

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Download/Embed 3 Videos Download 3 Lesson Plans
Designed for Teaching

Use in Classrooms, LMSs & Online

Download/Embed ALL Videos Download ALL Lesson Plans Access Current & Future videos Access ALL Video Packs
Designed for Teaching

Use in Classrooms, LMSs & Online

Access ALL Cut-outs Download/Embed ALL Videos Download ALL Lesson Plans Access Current & Future videos Access ALL Video Packs EDIT Our Videos w/ Your Software
Add Logos, New Scenes, URLs

Change the Voice-over

Start a New Project Quickly

Access Cut-outs ONLY
Formats: PNG, EPS, SVG

Hi-Res + Clear Backgrounds

Use in Presentations & Videos

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Copyright and Creative Commons Explained by Common Craft (VIDEO)

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Download/Embed 3 Videos Download 3 Lesson Plans Designed for Teaching Use in Classrooms, LMSs & Online Download/Embed ALL Videos Download ALL Lesson Plans Access Current & Future videos Access ALL Video Packs Designed for Teaching Use in Classrooms, LMSs & Online Access ALL Cut-outs Download/Embed ALL Videos Download ALL Lesson Plans Access Current & Future videos Access ALL Video Packs EDIT Our Videos w/ Your Software Add Logos, New Scenes, URLs Change the Voice-over Start a New Project Quickly Access Cut-outs ONLY Formats: PNG, EPS, SVG Hi-Res + Clear Backgrounds Use in Presentations & Videos

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Guide
Step by step

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As the Flipped Classroom gains popularity, teachers around the World are making the choice to implement this innovative instructional method.

In the Flipped Classroom teachers use technology to move direct instruction into students' individual learning space in order to make the most of their face to face time. Each teacher adds their own style to the Flipped Classroom and has to make choices about technology depending upon their specific situation. In this step-by-step guide learn how to navigate the technology choices that need to be made as well as get advice on how to rethink your class time as you get started with the Flipped Classroom.

EdTechReview (ETR) is a community of and for everyone involved in education technology to connect and collaborate both online and offline to discover, learn, utilize and share about the best ways technology can improve learning, teaching, and leading in the 21st century.
For more latest updates, You can join us on Google+, Twitter, Linkedin

Like what we do?

The Latest EdTech News To Your Inbox

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Flipping Your Classroom: Step by Step Guide

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As the Flipped Classroom gains popularity, teachers around the World are making the choice to implement this innovative instructional method. In the Flipped Classroom teachers use technology to move direct instruction into students' individual learning space in order to make the most of their face to face time.

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Lesson Plans

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Lessons Plans - Educator's Reference Desk

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Teacher Resources

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Serving more than 5 million educators and 51 million students, available in approximately half of U.S. classrooms and primary schools in the U.K., and more than 90 countries around the globe.

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Digital Textbooks & Education Resources | Discovery Education

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Serving more than 5 million educators and 51 million students, available in approximately half of U.S. classrooms and primary schools in the U.K., and more than 90 countries around the globe.

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If I'm trying to get from Los Angeles to Minot, N.D., I start with a map. I build a route that includes the sights I'd like to visit, shows me the connecting roadways, and gives me a rough idea of how long it'll take.

The same is true with teaching a class. I need a map to show how best to blend my curriculum and the school's standards, scaffold skills on each other, and connect to all stakeholders that are involved. In education, that's called a curriculum map.

According to "Education World," a curriculum map is "A process for collecting and recording curriculum-related data that identifies core skills and content taught, processes employed, and assessments used for each subject area and grade level. -- Education World: Virtual Workshop: Curriculum Mapping"

A curriculum map first and foremost is a planning tool, a procedure for examining and organizing curriculum that allows educators to determine how content, skills and assessments will unfold over the course of the year. It is an in-depth view of topics teachers will instruct over the school year, their pacing, and how they blend with other subjects. In an IB school, that includes the learner profiles that are satisfied. In a Common Core school, that covers the math and literacy standards addressed. In other states, it'll be how lesson plans meet their unique state standards.

In general terms, a Curriculum Map includes:

Specific skills

Assessments

Essential questions

Big ideas

Accommodations

Materials required

How do you use a Curriculum Map?

A curriculum map doesn't tell teachers HOW to teach, rather what needs to be taught to achieve goals. Because it's a living document, notes added by the teacher each year address how varied student needs were accommodated within a lesson plan. These changes can be planned for the following year. Entries are viewable by all personnel in a school or district, likely located on a secure server that can be accessed through the Internet. This allows educators to view within their grade level as well as vertically, to see if students enter the grade level with the skills required and leave the grade prepared for requirements of the next grade.

How do you create a Curriculum Map?

Curriculum mapping is a process, not a one-time initiative. It is created by the core teacher with the assistance of all other involved teachers. With this collaboration, lesson plans integrate all subjects, spiral up or down as needed, and are scalable to student needs. Key to the map is that each teacher enters what is taught in real-time throughout the school year, in contrast to having an outside committee make teaching decisions.

A curriculum map can be built from a basic spreadsheet tool or a sophisticated online program like Atlas Rubicon. Whichever you pick, make sure it's accessible from the internet and allows for online collaboration and sharing. It must become a living document that is part of the teaching process.

Here are basics:

Start with a list of topics that will be taught that year. This is developed based on:

Teacher input -- grade-level teaching team and vertically aligned teachers.

School curriculum--the broad mission of the school. This includes criteria such as Common Core, TEKS, IB philosophy, and State Standards.

School learning philosophy -- this might include a focus on citizenship, problem-solving, and the development of lifelong learners.

Student needs.

Past experience.

Place the topics in the spreadsheet or online tool, sequenced throughout the ten months of the school year.

Add events that will impact your teaching time such as school holidays, teacher conferences, professional development days, and other. This allows you to be sure you have sufficient time in the school year to complete the assigned tasks.

Add other information that's important to your school such as essential question, assessments, pacing, and Standards met.

There are a lot of templates for Curriculum Maps (Google "Curriculum Map template" to see a wide variety). The one you pick must work for you, your team, and your students. A curriculum map isn't completed in a sitting, or a weekend. It takes a year to do it right -- planning it out, teaching with it, revising and reworking. What lessons took longer than you expected? When were students not ready for the unit (maybe they required earlier scaffolding to prepare)? What events popped up (like hour of code in December) that you wanted to involve students in, so you "made a hole" in your teaching to accommodate? What tie-ins to other subjects were too good to be passed up?

At the end of the year, look at what you have and prepare to start over the next year.

For lots more on curriculum mapping, visit Janet Hale's website called "Curriculum Mapping 101." She has answers to just about any question you come up with. Also, visit this link for Santa Ana Unified School District's complete collection of curriculum maps.

In a nutshell, curriculum mapping aligns and sequences skills within grade levels and from one grade level to the next. When you've finished your first year, you'll be amazed how much better you understand the part your teaching plays in the school's mission and the student's goal of becoming a lifelong learner.
How do you create a Curriculum Map for your class?
has been teaching K-8 technology for 15 years. She is the editor/author of dozens of tech ed resources including a K-8 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum. She is webmaster for six blogs, CSG Master Teacher, an book reviewer, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, CAEP reviewer, CSTA presentation reviewer, freelance journalist on tech ed topics, a tech ed columnist for , and a weekly contributor to . You can find her resources at Structured Learning.

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If I'm trying to get from Los Angeles to Minot, N.D., I start with a map. I build a route that includes the sights I'd like to visit, shows me the connecting roadways, and gives me a rough idea of how long it'll take. The same is true with teaching a class.

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Lesson Plans
School librarians

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Elementary Librarian - Library lesson plans and ideas for the school librarian. Lessons incorporate Common Core and AASL standards.

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Library lesson plans and ideas for the school librarian. Lessons incorporate Common Core and AASL standards.

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AASL
Primary source paring
Picture Books

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Picture books offer a tremendous amount of learning opportunities. Joanna Marek, the school librarian at Spring Avenue Elementary School in La Grange, Illinois, appreciates this fact. After attending a weeklong institute at the Library of Congress, Marek was inspired to create teacher guides that match award-winning books with primary sources. She freely shares her work on Primary Source Pairings to give teachers and librarians lessons they can use tomorrow.

What Is a Primary Source?

A primary source is the raw material of history created in the time of the study. Some examples include pictures, maps, video clips, recipe cards, cartoons and drawings.

Why Study Primary Sources?

Studying primary sources:

Supports the AASL Standards

Reaches many learning objectives

Enriches learning

Reinforces reading comprehension skills

Provides opportunities for exploring deep questions

Engages children in a unit of study

Lessons Using Award-Winning Books and Primary Sources

Visit Marek's Primary Source Pairings website to access valuable lesson guides pairing ALA award winners with primary sources. The links below will take you to the award-winning categories featured on the website:
The Randolph Caldecott Medal John Newbery Medal Coretta Scott King Book Award
Steps to Critically Look at Primary Sources

1. Observe: What do you notice? Look at the image. State what you see.
2. Reflect: Activate prior knowledge and infer what you see.
3. Question: Ask questions about what you see. Build on observations and reflections.

Online Resources

Below is a list of online resources for help in examining primary sources:

Primary Source Analysis Tool from Library of Congress. Use this online tool for grades K-12 to document thinking when looking closely at primary sources. This three part process is versatile and easy to use.

Teacher Resources from Library of Congress. Bookmark this website to find classroom materials that cover state and national standards for grades K-12.

Learn How to Teach with Primary Sources. The Library of Congress offers webinars, workshops and summer teacher institutes to learn more about teaching with primary sources.

Common Core in Action: 10 Visual Literacy Strategies. This relevant blog post, by Professor Todd Blake Finley, offers accessible resources that you can use in your library today.

AASL Standards Framework for Learners. Refer to this easy-to-follow chart when designing lessons and collaborating with teachers. Visual literacy lessons cover AASL standards l.A.2, ll.B.2, l.B.1, and V.A.1.
eCOLLAB
See Joanna Marek's AASL 2017 presentation on the AASL eCollab learning platform.

If you have ideas to share or questions for Joanna, contact her on Twitter: @joannammarek.

Categories: AASL National Conference & Exhibiton, Community, Uncategorized

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Primary Source Pairings with Award-Winning Books | Knowledge Quest

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Picture books offer a tremendous amount of learning opportunities. Joanna Marek, the school librarian at Spring Avenue Elementary School in La Grange, Illinois, appreciates this fact. After attending a weeklong institute at the Library of Congress, Marek was inspired to... Read More ›

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Home Battle of the Books Best Lessons Birthday Book Clubs Booklists Book Club Ideas Bookmarks and Displays Book Trailers Conferences 2008-2009 Dewey Decimal System Documents & Games Elementary Stuff End of the Year Reports High School Stuff High School Fiction, School Setting, surviving Hits too long to post on the list!

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Are you just as excited as we are for the movie release? So many of us have loved and taught this book for decades that it's beyond thrilling for us to see it finally come to the big screen. In celebration, we're sharing some of our favorite A Wrinkle in Time activities for the classroom.

Be sure to check out our Follett Collection for additional A Wrinkle in Time resources, discussion questions, videos, activity ideas, and more!

1. Pique their interest with wild news stories.
SOURCE: TeachingSparkNotes
We love this idea from blogger TeachingSparkNotes: Before reading A Wrinkle in Time, she has students bring in unusual news stories about UFO sightings, psychic powers, or anything else not easily explained by current science. She then has students post the stories on a bulletin board, which they fill in as they dive into the novel.

2. Learn about tesseracts.
SOURCE: Griffin Weatherman
The characters in A Wrinkle in Time are able to time travel through tesseracts. While we haven't quite made the same advances in real life, tesseracts are real mathematical objects. You can learn more about tesseracts and the math and science of A Wrinkle in Time by checking out our Follett Collection of videos and resources.

3. Design an A Wrinkle in Time board game.
SOURCE: Katie's Klassroom
Blogger Katie Reisinger has her students design A Wrinkle in Time board games as a final assessment after reading the novel. Some create physical board games; others make electronic ones in PowerPoint. What a fun opportunity for students to flex their creative muscles!

4. Make art inspired by favorite scenes.
SOURCE: Northwind Arts Center
Students at Port Townsend School of the Arts chose their favorite scenes from A Wrinkle in Time to illustrate, using mural-making techniques. Each of the paintings corresponds to a quote. We love the variety of styles!

5. Create a map showing the world of A Wrinkle in Time.

Professional artist Andrew DeGraff designed this map of the beloved novel. (Visit the Follett Collection of A Wrinkle in Time resources to view the whole thing.) Wouldn't it be fun to have students create their own maps of the book or of the characters' journeys?

6. Make book trailers.

There are some wonderful online examples of student-made book trailers for A Wrinkle in Time. You might compare them with the trailer for the Disney movie. What is similar? What is different? Ask students, based on the trailer, do they think the movie will be faithful to the book? Why or why not?

7. Read other time-travel stories and compare them to A Wrinkle in Time.
SOURCE: Harrison Densmore
Many other books for young readers explore time travel, including the Time Stoppers series by Carrie Jones and When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead. Invite small groups to read one of these stories and then compare how time travel is treated in these books versus A Wrinkle in Time. This 3 Theories of Time Travel poster explains some of the most common treatments in popular culture.

8. Discuss what makes A Wrinkle in Time a work of science fiction.

What elements are common to science fiction stories? What makes A Wrinkle in Time a work of science fiction? How is science fiction different than other fiction genres (e.g., realistic fiction, mystery, fantasy)?

9. Learn about the life of Madeleine L'Engle.

Did you know that A Wrinkle in Time was rejected by more than 30 publishers? You can learn more about Madeleine L'Engle's life by checking out the resources available in the Follett Collection on A Wrinkle in Time.

10. Invite students to perform the story in 90 seconds.

The 90-second Newbery film festival encourages students to retell famous stories in just a minute and a half. They'll practice their summarizing skills, creativity, and teamwork with this one!

It's so much fun to see A Wrinkle in Time in the spotlight! Remember to check out some of our other favorite resources and A Wrinkle in Time activities in this Follett Collection.
And here's where you can learn more about how you can use Collections by Destiny to share your favorite free or purchased resources for students and teachers.

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10 Great Classroom Activities for A Wrinkle in Time

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Are you just as excited as we are for the movie release? So many of us have loved and taught this book for decades that it's beyond thrilling for us to see it finally come to the big screen. In celebration, we're sharing some of our favorite A Wrinkle in Time activities for the classroom.

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Editing

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SC DOE
Template

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Web Tools

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Cranial Concoctions: An Outrageously FUN Collection of 100+ Free Online Tools | PODLS

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Make vital Common Core connections for every research and digital media standard through the use of group brainstorming tools, visual thinking maps, student response systems, movie-makers, cartoon creators, geo-located interactive timelines, augmented reality platforms, QR code campaigns, photo editors, infographic generators, and more!

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Education
Parenting

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Alfie Kohn writes and speaks widely on human behavior, education, and parenting. The author of fourteen books and hundreds of articles, he lectures at education conferences and universities as well as to parent groups and corporations. Kohn's criticisms of competition and rewards have been widely discussed and debated, and he has been described in Time magazine as "perhaps the country's most outspoken critic of education's fixation on grades [and] test scores."

A.P. European History was the best-reviewed class in my old high school. The teacher was a kindly man with an admirable devotion to his subject. Despite his skills, however, and despite the fact that I received an A, all that remained in my head from the entire course a few years later was the phrase . . . Pay Attention, Class: Here Come More Facts for You to Forget - (Read More)

Parenting Video

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EDUCATION VIDEO

for streaming!

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American Association of School Librarians (AASL)

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School Librarian's Role in Reading Toolkit

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Excerpt from the School Librarian's Role in Reading Position Statement

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Technology

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technology devices "web 2.0" apps "school libraries"

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A video series about online tools, apps, and technology and how they can be used in teaching and learning.

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Archived websites

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See what's new with book lending at the Internet Archive

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Education
Professional Development

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This new course Teaching and Learning in Carolina Classrooms, Series I fits the bill! Many South Carolina educators have been inspired by and enjoyed learning from the outstanding SC Teacher of the Year Finalists showcased in the ETV Teacher Recertification course SC...

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Multimedia Instructional Resource
Educational resources
Course materials
Individual learners

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Online learning platform for students and teachers that is designed to expand resources, tools, and opportunities to personalize learning.

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blogspot
Education

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I was surprised to discover that the Taiwan Ministry of Education will prioritize "listening and speaking skills" in English language education, and that they will encourage students to "first listen, then speak , then write" (Robert Dildine, "Education Magic," Letter to the Editor, April 22, referring to a report in Taipei Times, "A long road to improving education," Jan 24).

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AASL Position Statement on the Value of Independent Reading in the School Library Program

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AASL Position Statement on the Value of Independent Reading in the School Library Program

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AASL
Independent
Reading
SLMC

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American Association of School Librarians (AASL)

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In an information age, literacy demands not only the ability to read and write, but also the ability to process information and communicate effectively. Research suggests that reading proficiency increases with the amount of time spent reading voluntarily. Unfortunately, independent reading is often a casualty in our fast paced, media-oriented society. Today's students know how to read but have little or no interest in doing so. They have failed to catch the love of reading; therefore, they choose not to read.

The adoption of Goals 2000 has made literacy an issue of national importance; therefore, a primary goal of the school library program must be to create life-long readers. It is imperative that school librarians work with teachers and parents to find ways to instill in students the joy of reading while helping them build the reading habit.

To become life-long readers, students must have . . .

access to current, quality, high interest, and extensive collections of books and other print materials in their school libraries, classrooms, and public libraries;

contact with adults who read regularly and widely and who serve as positive reading role models;

certified school librarians and classroom teachers who demonstrate their enthusiasm for reading by reading aloud and booktalking;

time during the school day dedicated to reading for pleasure, information, and exploration;

opportunities specifically designed to engage young people in reading;

schools that create an environment where independent reading is valued, promoted, and encouraged; and

opportunities that involve care givers, parents and other family members in reading.

The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them. Mark Twain

(adopted June 1994; revised July 1999, September 2010)

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Position Statement on the Value of Independent Reading in the School Library Program

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In an information age, literacy demands not only the ability to read and write, but also the ability to process information and communicate effectively. Research suggests that reading proficiency increases with the amount of time spent reading voluntarily. Unfortunately, independent reading is often a casualty in our fast paced, media-oriented society.

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Education
Big Thinker
21st Century Learners

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Creative, Entrepreneurial, and Global: 21st Century Education

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Education

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Library research/statistics consultant - School library impact studies - LJ Index - Project evaluation - Proposal Writing

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Read-a-loud
Education

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AFTER writing his million-copy bestseller, The Read-Aloud Handbook, in 1982, Jim Trelease lectured in all 50 states and abroad, advocating the benefits of reading aloud to children. In doing so, he won the applause of both teachers and parents for his pleas in behalf of literacy efforts that contain less "pain" and more focus on turning books into friends, not enemies.

While more than 60 colleges use his Handbook as a text for education students, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian, and Spanish editions now reach parents and teachers worldwide, even inspiring the successful"All of Poland Reads to Kids" campaign in Europe.

Jim retired from the lecture circuit in 2008 and wrote his seventh (and final) edition in 2013 (see his retirement letter for a recap of his adventures). In 2018 he picked Professor Cyndi Giorgis of Arizona State University to take over the writing and editing of future editions of what is now named Jim Trelease's Read-Aloud Handbook.

ARRIVING in the Fall of 2019, the eighth edition of Jim Trelease's Read-Aloud Handbook has been edited and revised by Cyndi Giorgis and will include an updated compilation of the book's popular Treasury of Read-Alouds.

IF you're looking for concise, single-page brochures (or posters) aimed at parents that include highlights from Jim's seminars, films, and books, check out"Reading Handouts for Parents" for free downloads.
Highlights from 7th edition of The Read-Aloud Handbook
Complete with new children's titles and recomendations, as well as old favorites, this EDITION has research on reading aloud, SSR, libraries in the e-book age, boys' learning habits, new findings on digital learning (good news and bad). Once the 8th edition is published, this edition will no longer be available for sale.

JIM TRELEASE'S RETIREMENT LETTER

Looking back on the highs and lows of 30 years on the education lecture circuit, along with seven book editions, there were some unforgettable moments, along with much fun.

MEANINGFUL DIFFERENCES

The huge (and secret) differences in vocabulary between rich, working class, and poverty children, and how it impacts school scores.

SCHRAMM'S FRACTION OF SELECTION

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A site based on The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease, 7th edition, copyright 2013, focused on children's reading, children's literature, and the benefits of reading aloud to children of all ages; its goal is to create lifetime readers instead of just schooltime readers.

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Grades 4-8
Co-teaching

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MiddleWeb is all about middle school & the middle grades - with a sharp focus on teaching and learning in grades 4-8. Join us, learn about our 5 streams of content, and find out how to get involved.

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MiddleWeb is all about middle school & the middle grades - with a sharp focus on teaching and learning in grades 4-8. Join us, learn about our 5 streams of content, and find out how to get involved.

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Research help

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Need help with research? Having trouble with that paper, project, or assignment? Then this is the channel for you. Full of short videos with tips, tricks, an...

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Jim T. Librarian explains the ins and outs of U.S. copyright law.

This video is made available by the global rights licensing experts at Copyright Clearance Center as follows. We welcome you to watch this video here, to link to this page from your websites and intranets, or to download it for internal non-commercial use (but solely in its entirety and with attribution to us). Editing of this video is strictly prohibited, and posting of this video elsewhere on the Internet is strictly prohibited.

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Jim T. Librarian explains the ins and outs of U.S. copyright law. This video is made available by the global rights licensing experts at Copyright Clearance Center as follows. We welcome you to watch this video here, to link to this page from your websites and intranets, or to download it for internal non-commercial use (but solely in its entirety and with attribution to us).

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Crool Zone

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The purpose of this WebQuest is to engage a group of students from one school to learn as much as they can about creating safer, fairer, and better schools, then see what they can do to actually make this happen. This is definitely NOT a pretend activity.

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from Educators’ eZine --> Introduction and Background: Bloom’s Taxonomy In the 1950’s Benjamin Bloom developed his taxonomy of cognitive objectives, Bloom’s Taxonomy. This categorized and or

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AASL Position Statement on School Librarian's Role in Reading

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AASL Position Statement on School Librarian's Role in Reading

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AASL
SLMS
Reading

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American Association of School Librarians (AASL)

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Rationale: Reading is a foundational skill for 21st-century learners. Guiding learners to become engaged and effective users of ideas and information and to appreciate literature requires that they develop as strategic readers who can comprehend, analyze, and evaluate text in both print and digital formats. Learners must also have opportunities to read for enjoyment as well as for information. School librarians are in a critical and unique position to partner with other educators to elevate the reading development of our nation's youth.

Reading skills involve thinking skills. The extent to which young people use information depends upon their ability to understand what they read, to integrate their understandings with what they already know, and to realize their unanswered questions. To this end, school librarians model and collaboratively teach reading comprehension strategies: assess and use background knowledge, pose and answer questions that are appropriate to the task, make predictions and inferences, determine main ideas, and monitor reading comprehension as well as the learning process.

In addition, 21st-century learners must become adept at determining authority and accuracy of information, and analyzing and evaluating that information to synthesize new knowledge from multiple resources. School librarians model and collaboratively teach these skills and strategies.

With a deep knowledge of the wide variety of authentic reading materials available in the school library and beyond, the school librarian has a key role in supporting print and online reading comprehension strategy instruction in collaboration with classroom teachers and reading specialists. School librarians co-design, co-implement, and co-evaluate interdisciplinary lessons and units of instruction that result in increased student learning.

While the responsibility for the successful implementation of reading promotion and instruction is shared by the entire school community, library programs serve as hubs of literacy learning in the school. The following components of school library programs position school librarians in leadership roles in developing reading comprehension strategies and in promoting free independent reading:

School libraries provide students, staff, and families with open, non-restricted access to a varied high quality collection of reading materials in multiple formats that reflect academic needs and personal interests.

School librarians practice responsive collection development and support print-rich environments that reflect the curriculum and the diverse learning needs of the school community.

School librarians take a leadership role in organizing and promoting literacy projects and events that engage learners and motivate them to become lifelong readers.

Classroom teachers, reading specialists, and school librarians select materials, promote the curricular and independent use of resources, including traditional and alternative materials, and plan learning experiences that offer whole classes, small groups, and individual learners an interdisciplinary approach to literacy learning.

Classroom and library collaborative instruction is evidence-based, using research in librarianship, reading, English-language arts, and educational technology in order to maximize student learning. School librarians partner with classroom teachers, specialists and other literacy colleagues to make decisions about reading initiatives and reading comprehension instruction, and to develop all learners' curiosity in, and intellectual access to, appropriate resources in all formats and media.

When learners follow an inquiry process they assess and use reading comprehension strategies. The skills identified in the Standards for the 21st-Century Learner align with the reading process.

Opportunities for planned and spontaneous library use best serve learners as they identify, analyze, and synthesize ideas and information by using a wide range of materials in a variety of formats and media. Availability of library resources and professional staff at point of need develops intellectual behaviors that transfer to future academic pursuits and lifelong academic and public library use.

Along with classroom and reading specialist colleagues, school librarians provide and participate in continual professional development in reading that reflects current research in the area of reading instruction and promotion.

View the School Librarian's Role in Reading Toolkit.

Revised 09/01/2010

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Position Statement on the School Librarian's Role in Reading

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Rationale: Reading is a foundational skill for 21st-century learners. Guiding learners to become engaged and effective users of ideas and information and to appreciate literature requires that they develop as strategic readers who can comprehend, analyze, and evaluate text in both print and digital formats.

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Educactional Leadership Keys to Effective Feedback

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Educactional Leadership Keys to Effective Feedback

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ASCD
Grant Wiggins
Teacher Resources

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Vol. 70

No. 1

Abstract

What Is Feedback, Anyway?

Feedback Essentials

Progress Toward a Goal

"But There's No Time!"

Advice, evaluation, grades-none of these provide the descriptive information that students need to reach their goals. What is true feedback-and how can it improve learning?

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Abstract

What Is Feedback, Anyway?

Feedback Essentials

Progress Toward a Goal

"But There's No Time!"

Who would dispute the idea that feedback is a good thing? Both common sense and research make it clear: Formative assessment, consisting of lots of feedback and opportunities to use that feedback, enhances performance and achievement.

Yet even John Hattie (2008), whose decades of research revealed that feedback was among the most powerful influences on achievement, acknowledges that he has "struggled to understand the concept" (p. 173). And many writings on the subject don't even attempt to define the term. To improve formative assessment practices among both teachers and assessment designers, we need to look more closely at just what feedback is-and isn't.

What Is Feedback, Anyway?

The term feedback is often used to describe all kinds of comments made after the fact, including advice, praise, and evaluation. But none of these are feedback, strictly speaking.

Basically, feedback is information about how we are doing in our efforts to reach a goal. I hit a tennis ball with the goal of keeping it in the court, and I see where it lands-in or out. I tell a joke with the goal of making people laugh, and I observe the audience's reaction-they laugh loudly or barely snicker. I teach a lesson with the goal of engaging students, and I see that some students have their eyes riveted on me while others are nodding off.

Here are some other examples of feedback:

A friend tells me, "You know, when you put it that way and speak in that softer tone of voice, it makes me feel better."

A reader comments on my short story, "The first few paragraphs kept my full attention. The scene painted was vivid and interesting. But then the dialogue became hard to follow; as a reader, I was confused about who was talking, and the sequence of actions was puzzling, so I became less engaged."

A baseball coach tells me, "Each time you swung and missed, you raised your head as you swung so you didn't really have your eye on the ball. On the one you hit hard, you kept your head down and saw the ball."

Note the difference between these three examples and the first three I cited-the tennis stroke, the joke, and the student responses to teaching. In the first group, I only had to take note of the tangible effect of my actions, keeping my goals in mind. No one volunteered feedback, but there was still plenty of feedback to get and use. The second group of examples all involved the deliberate, explicit giving of feedback by other people.

Whether the feedback was in the observable effects or from other people, in every case the information received was not advice, nor was the performance evaluated. No one told me as a performer what to do differently or how "good" or "bad" my results were. (You might think that the reader of my writing was judging my work, but look at the words used again: She simply played back the effect my writing had on her as a reader.) Nor did any of the three people tell me what to do (which is what many people erroneously think feedback is-advice). Guidance would be premature; I first need to receive feedback on what I did or didn't do that would warrant such advice.

In all six cases, information was conveyed about the effects of my actions as related to a goal. The information did not include value judgments or recommendations on how to improve. (For examples of information that is often falsely viewed as feedback, see "Feedback vs. Advice" above and "Feedback vs. Evaluation and Grades" on p. 15.)

Decades of education research support the idea that by teaching less and providing more feedback, we can produce greater learning (see Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000; Hattie, 2008; Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock, 2001). Compare the typical lecture-driven course, which often produces less-than-optimal learning, with the peer instruction model developed by Eric Mazur (2009) at Harvard. He hardly lectures at all to his 200 introductory physics students; instead, he gives them problems to think about individually and then discuss in small groups. This system, he writes, "provides frequent and continuous feedback (to both the students and the instructor) about the level of understanding of the subject being discussed" (p. 51), producing gains in both conceptual understanding of the subject and problem-solving skills. Less "teaching," more feedback equals better results.

Feedback Essentials

Whether feedback is just there to be grasped or is provided by another person, helpful feedback is goal-referenced; tangible and transparent; actionable; user-friendly (specific and personalized); timely; ongoing; and consistent.

1. Goal-Referenced

Effective feedback requires that a person has a goal, takes action to achieve the goal, and receives goal-related information about his or her actions. I told a joke-why? To make people laugh. I wrote a story to engage the reader with vivid language and believable dialogue that captures the characters' feelings. I went up to bat to get a hit. If I am not clear on my goals or if I fail to pay attention to them, I cannot get helpful feedback (nor am I likely to achieve my goals).

Information becomes feedback if, and only if, I am trying to cause something and the information tells me whether I am on track or need to change course. If some joke or aspect of my writing isn't working -a revealing, nonjudgmental phrase-I need to know.

Note that in everyday situations, goals are often implicit, although fairly obvious to everyone. I don't need to announce when telling the joke that my aim is to make you laugh. But in school, learners are often unclear about the specific goal of a task or lesson, so it is crucial to remind them about the goal and the criteria by which they should self-assess. For example, a teacher might say,

The point of this writing task is for you to make readers laugh. So, when rereading your draft or getting feedback from peers, ask, How funny is this? Where might it be funnier?

As you prepare a table poster to display the findings of your science project, remember that the aim is to interest people in your work as well as to describe the facts you discovered through your experiment. Self-assess your work against those two criteria using these rubrics. The science fair judges will do likewise.

2. Tangible and Transparent

Any useful feedback system involves not only a clear goal, but also tangible results related to the goal. People laugh, chuckle, or don't laugh at each joke; students are highly attentive, somewhat attentive, or inattentive to my teaching.

Even as little children, we learn from such tangible feedback. That's how we learn to walk; to hold a spoon; and to understand that certain words magically yield food, drink, or a change of clothes from big people. The best feedback is so tangible that anyone who has a goal can learn from it.

Alas, far too much instructional feedback is opaque, as revealed in a true story a teacher told me years ago. A student came up to her at year's end and said, "Miss Jones, you kept writing this same word on my English papers all year, and I still don't know what it means." "What's the word? " she asked. "Vag-oo," he said. (The word was vague!)

Sometimes, even when the information is tangible and transparent, the performers don't obtain it-either because they don't look for it or because they are too busy performing to focus on the effects. In sports, novice tennis players or batters often don't realize that they're taking their eyes off the ball; they often protest, in fact, when that feedback is given. (Constantly yelling "Keep your eye on the ball!" rarely works.) And we have all seen how new teachers are sometimes so busy concentrating on "teaching" that they fail to notice that few students are listening or learning.

That's why, in addition to feedback from coaches or other able observers, video or audio recordings can help us perceive things that we may not perceive as we perform; and by extension, such recordings help us learn to look for difficult-to-perceive but vital information. I recommend that all teachers videotape their own classes at least once a month. It was a transformative experience for me when I did it as a beginning teacher. Concepts that had been crystal clear to me when I was teaching seemed opaque and downright confusing on tape-captured also in the many quizzical looks of my students, which I had missed in the moment.

3. Actionable

Effective feedback is concrete, specific, and useful; it provides actionable information. Thus, "Good job!" and "You did that wrong" and B+ are not feedback at all. We can easily imagine the learners asking themselves in response to these comments, What specifically should I do more or less of next time, based on this information? No idea. They don't know what was "good" or "wrong" about what they did.

Actionable feedback must also be accepted by the performer. Many so-called feedback situations lead to arguments because the givers are not sufficiently descriptive; they jump to an inference from the data instead of simply presenting the data. For example, a supervisor may make the unfortunate but common mistake of stating that "many students were bored in class." That's a judgment, not an observation. It would have been far more useful and less debatable had the supervisor said something like, "I counted ongoing inattentive behaviors in 12 of the 25 students once the lecture was underway. The behaviors included texting under desks, passing notes, and making eye contact with other students. However, after the small-group exercise began, I saw such behavior in only one student."

Such care in offering neutral, goal-related facts is the whole point of the clinical supervision of teaching and of good coaching more generally. Effective supervisors and coaches work hard to carefully observe and comment on what they observed, based on a clear statement of goals. That's why I always ask when visiting a class, "What would you like me to look for and perhaps count?" In my experience as a teacher of teachers, I have always found such pure feedback to be accepted and welcomed. Effective coaches also know that in complex performance situations, actionable feedback about what went right is as important as feedback about what didn't work.

4. User-Friendly

Even if feedback is specific and accurate in the eyes of experts or bystanders, it is not of much value if the user cannot understand it or is overwhelmed by it. Highly technical feedback will seem odd and confusing to a novice. Describing a baseball swing to a 6-year-old in terms of torque and other physics concepts will not likely yield a better hitter. Too much feedback is also counterproductive; better to help the performer concentrate on only one or two key elements of performance than to create a buzz of information coming in from all sides.

Expert coaches uniformly avoid overloading performers with too much or too technical information. They tell the performers one important thing they noticed that, if changed, will likely yield immediate and noticeable improvement ("I was confused about who was talking in the dialogue you wrote in this paragraph"). They don't offer advice until they make sure the performer understands the importance of what they saw.

5. Timely

In most cases, the sooner I get feedback, the better. I don't want to wait for hours or days to find out whether my students were attentive and whether they learned, or which part of my written story works and which part doesn't. I say "in most cases" to allow for situations like playing a piano piece in a recital. I don't want my teacher or the audience barking out feedback as I perform. That's why it is more precise to say that good feedback is "timely" rather than "immediate."

A great problem in education, however, is untimely feedback. Vital feedback on key performances often comes days, weeks, or even months after the performance-think of writing and handing in papers or getting back results on standardized tests. As educators, we should work overtime to figure out ways to ensure that students get more timely feedback and opportunities to use it while the attempt and effects are still fresh in their minds.

Before you say that this is impossible, remember that feedback does not need to come only from the teacher, or even from people at all. Technology is one powerful tool-part of the power of computer-assisted learning is unlimited, timely feedback and opportunities to use it. Peer review is another strategy for managing the load to ensure lots of timely feedback; it's essential, however, to train students to do small-group peer review to high standards, without immature criticisms or unhelpful praise.

6. Ongoing

Adjusting our performance depends on not only receiving feedback but also having opportunities to use it. What makes any assessment in education formative is not merely that it precedes summative assessments, but that the performer has opportunities, if results are less than optimal, to reshape the performance to better achieve the goal. In summative assessment, the feedback comes too late; the performance is over.

Thus, the more feedback I can receive in real time, the better my ultimate performance will be. This is how all highly successful computer games work. If you play Angry Birds, Halo, Guitar Hero, or Tetris, you know that the key to substantial improvement is that the feedback is both timely and ongoing. When you fail, you can immediately start over-sometimes even right where you left off-to get another opportunity to receive and learn from the feedback. (This powerful feedback loop is also user-friendly. Games are built to reflect and adapt to our changing need, pace, and ability to process information.)

It is telling, too, that performers are often judged on their ability to adjust in light of feedback. The ability to quickly adapt one's performance is a mark of all great achievers and problem solvers in a wide array of fields. Or, as many little league coaches say, "The problem is not making errors; you will all miss many balls in the field, and that's part of learning. The problem is when you don't learn from the errors."

7. Consistent

To be useful, feedback must be consistent. Clearly, performers can only adjust their performance successfully if the information fed back to them is stable, accurate, and trustworthy. In education, that means teachers have to be on the same page about what high-quality work is. Teachers need to look at student work together, becoming more consistent over time and formalizing their judgments in highly descriptive rubrics supported by anchor products and performances. By extension, if we want student-to-student feedback to be more helpful, students have to be trained to be consistent the same way we train teachers, using the same exemplars and rubrics.

Progress Toward a Goal

In light of these key characteristics of helpful feedback, how can schools most effectively use feedback as part of a system of formative assessment? The key is to gear feedback to long-term goals.

Let's look at how this works in sports. My daughter runs the mile in track. At the end of each lap in races and practice races, the coaches yell out split times (the times for each lap) and bits of feedback ("You're not swinging your arms!" "You're on pace for 5:15"), followed by advice ("Pick it up-you need to take two seconds off this next lap to get in under 5:10!").

My daughter and her teammates are getting feedback (and advice) about how they are performing now compared with their final desired time. My daughter's goal is to run a 5:00 mile. She has already run 5:09. Her coach is telling her that at the pace she just ran in the first lap, she is unlikely even to meet her best time so far this season, never mind her long-term goal. Then, he tells her something descriptive about her current performance (she's not swinging her arms) and gives her a brief piece of concrete advice (take two seconds off the next lap) to make achievement of the goal more likely.

The ability to improve one's result depends on the ability to adjust one's pace in light of ongoing feedback that measures performance against a concrete, long-term goal. But this isn't what most school district "pacing guides" and grades on "formative" tests tell you. They yield a grade against recent objectives taught, not useful feedback against the final performance standards. Instead of informing teachers and students at an interim date whether they are on track to achieve a desired level of student performance by the end of the school year, the guide and the test grade just provide a schedule for the teacher to follow in delivering content and a grade on that content. It's as if at the end of the first lap of the mile race, My daughter's coach simply yelled out, " B+ on that lap!"

The advice for how to change this sad situation should be clear: Score student work in the fall and winter against spring standards, use more pre-and post-assessments to measure progress toward these standards, and do the item analysis to note what each student needs to work on for better future performance.

"But There's No Time!"

Although the universal teacher lament that there's no time for such feedback is understandable, remember that "no time to give and use feedback" actually means "no time to cause learning." As we have seen, research shows that less teaching plus more feedback is the key to achieving greater learning. And there are numerous ways-through technology, peers, and other teachers-that students can get the feedback they need.

So try it out. Less teaching, more feedback. Less feedback that comes only from you, and more tangible feedback designed into the performance itself. And, of course, send me some feedback on this article at gwiggins@authenticeducation.org.

Feedback vs. Advice

› You need more examples in your report.

› You might want to use a lighter baseball bat.

› You should have included some Essential Questions in your unit plan.

These three statements are not feedback; they're advice. Such advice out of the blue seems at best tangential and at worst unhelpful and annoying. Unless it is preceded by descriptive feedback, the natural response of the performer is to wonder, "Why are you suggesting this?"

As coaches, teachers, and parents, we too often jump right to advice without first ensuring that the learner has sought, grasped, and tentatively accepted the feedback on which the advice is based. By doing so, we often unwittingly end up unnerving learners. Students become increasingly insecure about their own judgment and dependent on the advice of experts-and therefore in a panic about what to do when varied advice comes from different people or no advice is available at all.

If your ratio of advice to feedback is too high, try asking the learner, "Given the feedback, do you have some ideas about how to improve?" This approach will build greater autonomy and confidence over the long haul. Once they are no longer rank novices, performers can often self-advise if asked to.

Feedback vs. Evaluation and Grades

› This is a weak paper.

› You got a C on your presentation.

› I'm so pleased by your poster!

These comments make a value judgment. They rate, evaluate, praise, or criticize what was done. There is little or no feedback here-no actionable information about what occurred. As performers, we only know that someone else placed a high or low value on what we did.

How might we recast these comments to be useful feedback? Tip: Always add a mental colon after each statement of value. For example,

"Good work: Your use of words was more precise in this paper than in the last one, and I saw the scenes clearly in my mind's eye."

"This is a weak paper: Almost from the first sentence, I was confused as to your initial thesis and the evidence you provide for it. In the second paragraph you propose a different thesis, and in the third paragraph you don't offer evidence, just beliefs."

You'll soon find that you can drop the evaluative language; it serves no useful function.

The most ubiquitous form of evaluation, grading, is so much a part of the school landscape that we easily overlook its utter uselessness as actionable feedback. Grades are here to stay, no doubt-but that doesn't mean we should rely on them as a major source of feedback.

References

Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L., & Cocking, R. R. (Eds.). (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

Hattie, J. (2008). Visible learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. New York: Routledge.

Mazur, E. (2009, January 2). Farewell, lecture? Science, 323, 50-51.

ASCD is a community dedicated to educators' professional growth and well-being.

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Advice, evaluation, grades-none of these provide the descriptive information that students need to reach their goals. What is true feedback-and how can it improve learning?

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SSR

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by Steve Gardiner

It was 1977, the first day of my teaching career, and my schedule consisted of three sections of a class called Basic Communications I and two sections of its sequel, Basic Communications II. Some students in these classes lacked interest in reading and writing, were learning disabled, or had been recommended for extra help by a prior English teacher. Most, however, had failed every other English class. For an English credit and graduation, I was their last hope.

As I waited for students to enter Room 211, the burden loomed large. What if I couldn't motivate them? What if they didn't earn passing grades? What if I couldn't find a way to teach them?

My background offered no help. My neatly typed student-teaching units on The Grapes of Wrath and Huckleberry Finn remained in the file cabinet. The curriculum for the Basic Communications classes required making our way through a series of workbooks. Having reviewed my teacher's edition, I could see how it led us through each workbook, page by page. I intended to do what I'd been told.

When the students entered the classroom, my fears were realized. Most showed up without pencils, paper, or interest. Most were quiet and filled the rows of seats from the back of the room. Some acknowledged me with a nod or a shy, "Hello." One slammed his backpack on the desk and asked, "You the new English teacher?"

"Yes, I am."

"I knew it. They always give these classes to the new guy."

"Why do you say that?"

"Nobody else wants to teach us. Like last year, I had that new lady and she failed me."

"Why was that?"

"Because English class sucks."

He laughed and most of the others laughed with him. Class had barely started and he had already succeeded in doing what he did best-making himself the center of attention. I would write his name, "Don," on several passes to the principal's office before the semester was over.

We settled in. I passed out the workbooks, loaned enough pencils to write names on the front of the packets, and gave instructions for the first three pages. When the bell rang, we stacked the workbooks on a shelf, and the students left the room.

By the end of the day, I was wondering how I would ever teach the way I wanted to and overcome the poor attitudes, histories of failure, and blank looks of boredom. They hated my class, and they hated school. I didn't know what I could do, but I knew I couldn't give up so early in my career.

Each day I passed out the workbooks and gave instructions. I tried telling stories to give some life to the lesson, but they weren't interested. We moved on, worksheet after worksheet. By the end of two weeks, I was depressed.

I remembered the discussions in the American Literature classes during student teaching. The short story collections and novels had sparked lively exchanges; final papers had been a joy to read. Now, discussions consisted of me talking while students looked at me. Or not. Writing assignments consisted of three-line paragraphs with no capital letters, no punctuation, and no main idea. I tried helping them as a group. I tried helping them individually.

One day, Tom-bless him for being so honest-said, "I know there should be some commas and periods in there somewhere, but I don't have any idea where. If I put them in and they're in the wrong place, I'll look stupid, so I just leave them out."

I'm sure others felt the same, but couldn't or wouldn't say it.

What could I do? How could I develop their confidence in themselves, and perhaps more important, some interest in what we were doing in class?

I spent the weekend trying to figure out how I could change something, anything, on Monday morning to help us all get through the next week. I remembered I'd heard another teacher talk about something called sustained silent reading. I decided to try it.

On Monday, I explained to each class, "We are going to start silent reading in class every day before we work in our packets. Choose a book from home or check one out from the school library tomorrow." I arranged with the librarians to help us look for books and by midway through each class on Tuesday, everyone had a book. We spent the remainder of class reading. On Wednesday, we read first, and then finished workbook pages. And each day after that, we read for the first 15 minutes, and then hustled to get through the daily lessons.

It didn't take long to see a change. Classes settled down sooner. They grumbled less about the workbooks. We even talked about the books they were reading.

It was better, but there were still problems. Kids left their books at home. They lost interest and complained about the books they chose. They fell asleep and couldn't remember what page they were on. Bottom line, it was still English class; Don had defined that in precise terms.

I still thought we were on the right track. With constant reminders, most students brought books to class; most remained quiet and read during the silent reading time. I don't know if research was available in the late '70s to tell me about the effects of SSR. If it existed, I didn't know about it, but within a month of starting SSR in my classes, I knew I was doing something that felt right.

During reading times, I sometimes looked around the room, amazed at the faces, concentrating, trying to read and comprehend. They liked the idea of choosing their own books with quiet time to read them.

About this time, a new grumbling began in the room when I asked them to put their books down and get the workbooks off the shelf. They often asked for a few extra minutes. Sometimes I allowed it, sometimes I didn't. Then someone asked, "Could we read the whole period on Friday?"

I bargained. "If we read for 15 minutes every day, then work hard in our workbooks Monday through Thursday, we can read all hour on Friday." It was the first time I saw them truly excited as a group.

We read every day. They were remembering to bring their books. We talked about our books and shared funny stories and memorable characters. It took less time to get settled each day. Occasionally, someone would already be reading before the tardy bell rang. I was enjoying it, and that made me enjoy the rest of our work more.

One day, a note from the school secretary explained that every new teacher was required to have three formal, written evaluations. The principal would stop by my room for one period sometime in the next two weeks. Two days later, he walked into my classroom during the passing period.

When he sat down in a vacant seat, I was nervous. Things had been going well. I liked my students. I had developed a routine that gave me a sense of belonging within the school and within my own classroom. But he was the principal, and I was young, unsure, and untenured.

When the bell rang, I began with my usual, "Take out your books and let's do our silent reading." They settled in and we spent our 15 minutes reading. The workbook pages that day had some exercises on spelling and questions about the sequence of events in a short passage I read aloud to them. They answered the questions, and we had one of our better discussions about the reading passage. Class ended, and the students and principal left my room. I felt pretty good about what had happened and hoped my evaluation would be a favorable one.

A week later, a note arrived, asking me to stop by the principal's office during my planning hour. I sat down across the desk from him; he slid a copy of my evaluation to me. "Take this with you and look it over," he said. If you have any questions, talk with me. If not, just sign it and put it in my mailbox.

"I thought it was interesting visiting your class," he continued. "You seem organized, and the students interact well with you." His tone indicated that something else was coming.

"I do have one question, however. I'd like to know about those 15 minutes at the beginning of class when the students are just sitting there reading. How do you justify taking that time away from them and their learning?"

I didn't know how to respond. I was so proud of how much the students had progressed, how their attitudes were more positive, how they seemed to be enjoying the silent reading, and how that spirit carried over into our work on the daily lessons. I mumbled, "I heard this was a good way to help students with their reading," but I knew that my disorganized and incomplete answer did little to "justify taking that time away." As soon as possible, I left his office, taking my disappointment with me. I knew I should have been able to give a better answer, but I still felt like the rookie and didn't have much more than a few bits of intuition to support my belief. Although my overall evaluation had been positive, his doubts about my reading program-my most successful activity-stung me.

That night at home, I worried about what I was doing. Was I really wrong in having the silent reading time? Was I wasting their time and my own? Was I misunderstanding my students and their work when I thought I saw improvement? And the hardest question-if this were wrong, what would I use to replace it and still get the positive results I was seeing from SSR?

The next day I started class with silent reading. My students, of course, knew nothing of what had happened in the principal's office, and I wasn't going to tell them. I wanted to read with them again and decided I'd continue silent reading until I had confirmed its value or found a better alternative. While they were reading that day, I again surveyed the room and watched their faces. They were engaged. They were interacting with words, they were thinking, they were learning. I realized that my principal's comment about the students "just sitting there reading" actually meant that, in his mind, I wasn't doing my job. I wasn't standing in front of them, "teaching" them. I wasn't writing notes on the board for them to copy. I wasn't probing them with questions, making them respond. What I was doing was sitting and reading, and perhaps even worse, enjoying it.

I decided then that we would continue silent reading every day. I would make sure we finished all the required lessons. I'd have them write book reports or give short speeches on their SSR books, so the books seemed more a part of the curriculum. I'd look for more reasons, more examples to support why silent reading was working.

I didn't have to wait long. David sat in the front row, right in front of me. My first impression of him hadn't been a good one. I'd watched him in the parking lot do a wheelie on his motorcycle and roar off down the street. He had put his helmet on first, but even that motion carried an attitude. When he walked into my class, I expected more of the aggression I'd seen on the motorcycle. I never saw it. He sat quietly in his desk every day. He was pleasant and turned his work in on time. I was pleased and relieved.

A couple of weeks after my meeting with the principal, I took roll at the beginning of class and began to read from a list of announcements of things that would affect students in the coming days. I was halfway through the list when David raised his hand.

"Do you think you could stop talking?" he asked. "We only get 15 minutes to read each day, and you're taking up a lot of our time."

"I'm sorry, David. You're right. I said we would read first, and I didn't do what I said. I'll save this until later, and we'll start our 15 minutes now."

He nodded. I'd solved his problem for him, and he was satisfied. He had no idea how big a problem he had solved for me. Students often say the right thing at exactly the right time.

David provided one of the first steps in confirming the silent reading program in my mind, removing doubts I'd suffered since my evaluation. If SSR was that important to David, it must be important to others, but I needed to find out exactly how important it was to them and why.

I created a list of questions (Figure 1) to survey students about their backgrounds in reading. From comments like Don's on the first day of class, I knew already that most of them hadn't done much reading and didn't like reading. I wanted more details about how silent reading could help them. I asked the questions aloud and had the students write answers to them. At the end of each class, I collected the papers and took them home that night. I got an education.

Figure 1. Survey Questions for Students' Background in Reading

1. Before our silent reading program in this class, when was the last time you read an entire book?

2. How many books have you read for our silent reading program?

3. Does your family have a bookshelf in your home? If so, how many books are on it

4. Do you have a bookshelf of your own? If so, how many books do you personally own?

5. Have you seen your parents/guardians read books? If so, how often?

6. Have you seen your parents/guardians read newspapers or magazines? If so, how often?

7. Have your parents/guardians ever recommended a book to you? If so, did you read it?

8. Have any of your friends ever recommended a book to you? If so, did you read it?

9. Answer the question below (A or B) that fits you best as a reader:

1. If you don't read books regularly, what are some of the reasons you don't?

2. If you read books regularly, what do you like about reading?

10. Do you like the silent reading program? Explain.

If students know that you are sincere and want the best for them, they will work with you, even though they may not like you or your class. Because we had talked frequently about the importance of English class and the skills I expected them to learn, and because the silent reading program had created a sense of interest and success in most of these students, they answered the questions honestly and fairly, with the usual comical responses. Overall, the answers gave me an insight into who they were as readers and where we needed to go.

As I read more than 100 papers that night, patterns emerged from the pages. These students, for the most part, had had little success in English class. Their answers to my questions made it clear that they needed and, in many cases, desperately wanted help in becoming better readers. Their answers confirmed for me that sustained silent reading was going to be one of the keys to giving them that help.

For the first question, I expected that most would say it had been quite some time since they had finished a book. That was an understatement. While some qualified their answers by saying the last book they finished was one a previous teacher forced them to read, more than half of the students stated either that they had never finished an entire book or that it had been so long, they couldn't remember when it was. While I understood that the distractions for high school students are many and powerful, I had imagined that most would have had a hobby or personal interest that would have inspired them to read a book or two occasionally. That was clearly not the case. They were not reading on their own and did not view reading as enjoyable or desirable.

When we discussed this in class, I had two further questions. First, I wanted to know what they did outside of school. The community we lived in was work oriented, so the most common response was that they had a job. Many said they worked almost every night after school, some logging nearly full-time hours. The second most common response was sports practice, followed by a variety of other activities, including homework and "hanging out with my friends."

Second, I wanted to know why they did not want to read on their own. "Not enough time" was the most common response. Because of their involvement in work and sports, their afternoons and evenings were often scheduled well in advance. "Reading is boring" and "There aren't any good books" were frequent answers. This discussion brought out problems with reading and mirrored the answers they gave to Question 9, Part A ("If you don't read books regularly, what are some of the reasons you don't?"), the overwhelming choice for that question. Time conflicts, distractions, and responsibilities in the home, on the athletic field, at work, and elsewhere were definitely more urgent than reading on their own.

To succeed at helping them become better readers, I would have to find ways to overcome both mental and physical barriers between these students and reading. Ideas came from answers to the other survey questions.

Most students reported that neither they nor their families had bookshelves in the home. Because books were not easily accessible to them, reading couldn't be a spur-of-the-moment activity. To read a book, they would have to take the initiative to find one. In most cases, that didn't happen.

For students with family or personal bookshelves, the difference was obvious. They were the better readers in the group and liked the idea of SSR from the beginning. A couple of them described reading at home with their families, a homebound version of SSR. However, most students had never seen their parents read a book and only slightly more had ever seen their parents read a magazine or a newspaper. Their parents seldom or never recommended books (although a few said they had read books based on recommendations from friends) and did not offer encouragement for reading at home. Reading, in most of these homes, simply did not exist and was not an important part of the family structure.

What I learned reading those papers that night was depressing. Obstacles to reading were huge, and my early attempts at an SSR program had been small. Students' attitudes were ingrained from years of experience; I had only 15 minutes each day to change those attitudes. It wasn't a fair conflict, but one final pattern in the papers made it seem that I might have a chance.

One question-"Do you like the silent reading program?"-stood out from the others. Nearly every student had complained about how difficult reading was, how boring it was, how every teacher made students write book reports, how students got in trouble for losing a book or library card, how hard it was to stay awake while reading. The list of complaints was long and resounding, until that last question.

Answers like "I didn't think I was going to like this, but it's not so bad" affirmed the program. Enjoyment of the current book or feeling more relaxed in class because of SSR time surfaced. One girl wrote, "If you're asking these questions because you are thinking about stopping the silent reading, please don't. I've really started to enjoy it, and I'm even reading my book at home before I go to bed."

The barriers to students' success in reading were real. I couldn't compete with the thrill of a football game or a wrestling match. I couldn't help pay for a new pickup or car. I couldn't replace family members and long-held attitudes. But the surveys had given me a better understanding of my students and their lives. I had much to think about.

Unfortunately, I didn't keep that stack of papers. I gave them back the next day in class, and we discussed what I had learned from their answers. While I knew SSR was going to be important to me and my students that year, I never guessed that day how important it would be in subsequent years, or that I would become such a strong proponent of it.

I never had the chance to convince my first principal of the value of SSR. He left at the end of the year to work in another state; however, I myself became convinced. Every English class I've taught in four different high schools for the past 27 years has featured sustained silent reading as the centerpiece of the classroom. Literally thousands of students have come to my room to read. They have been below-grade-level readers, average students, honors students, Advanced Placement students, and English as a Second Language students. Silent reading works for all of them. They've seen the magic that happens when they choose their own books, read them at their own pace, and share the joy of reading with their peers and teacher. Sustained silent reading is the single most important thing I have done for my students. I can't imagine teaching without it.

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Introduction: Why Use Sustained Silent Reading?

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by Steve Gardiner It was 1977, the first day of my teaching career, and my schedule consisted of three sections of a class called Basic Communications I and two sections of its sequel, Basic Communications II. Some students in these classes lacked interest in reading and writing, were learning disabled, or had been recommended for extra help by a prior English teacher.

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Life-long learning
Inquiry

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Student-centered learning helps students break cycles of learned helplessness and sets the stage for real learning to happen, said Katherine Goyette, educational technology and integrated studies consultant for the Tulare County Office of Education in central California.

Goyette discussed the value of student-centered learning with teachers during her "Averting Disaster: Full STEAM Ahead" workshop at a CUE Rock Star Camp in Oxnard, Calif. I caught up with her to talk about the components of a successful student-centered classroom and the steps teachers can take to get there. The following text has been edited for clarity and space.

What is the benefit of student-centered learning?

We want to create environments that foster lifelong learning and promote inquiry. Student-centered learning focuses not on a grade but on the joy of learning itself.

How do we foster curiosity in the classroom?

We start by modeling curiosity ourselves. We must show students what causes us to wonder. We must admit that we do not have all the answers - that we ourselves are always learning.

The Next Generation Science Standards tell us to begin lessons with an "engage activity," wherein students watch a phenomenon, either via video or real-life experiment. This helps promote curiosity and gives students a reason to research, hypothesize, create a model and change variables to test and learn by doing.

Educators were once taught to front-load vocabulary -- to tell students what it is they would be learning. We must now flip this traditional model and instead encourage students to first wonder and then explore. This wonder and exploration will naturally lead to learning.

How do we help students ask questions?

Again, we model this ourselves. When students ask me a question, I answer with another question or an "I wonder" statement, such as, "I wonder if there is a website or app that can help you find the answer to your question ..."

We must focus on wonder rather than grades. Students need to see our classrooms as a place to learn, not to regurgitate facts.

Why is it important that teachers make this language shift?

When we answer a question with another question or an "I wonder" statement, we honor student curiosity and validate learning rather than knowing. We create an environment that shows we value the process of learning rather than the attainment of knowledge. Information is available at the touch of a button (just ask Google or Siri!). We have to teach students to move past facts and to think critically -- to prepare for a future that is unknown by communicating, collaborating and creating.

What is one step teachers new to this model can take this year?

Give students voice and choice. Ask students how they would like to demonstrate understanding of the content. This goes deeper than a "choice board," in which students are given options. Rather, ask students how they like to learn things outside the classroom. Do they use the internet to figure out how to advance in a video game? If so, suggest they create a website. Do they use YouTube to learn new dance moves? If so, encourage them to create a video. And here's the secret: Teachers do not need to know how to create a website or make a YouTube video. Students who are motivated to share their learning in this way will often spend the time to learn this method themselves. These students can then become experts who teach their peers.

How do we keep students on track for learning targets?

Even in a student-led learning environment, teachers have an important role. They need to ask guiding questions to ensure students are meeting learning targets in a timely fashion and lead students to additional resources as needed. They need to facilitate systematic collaboration that fosters peer feedback. Teachers can help identify student "experts" and give them opportunity to work with their peers. Students get to learn from one another.

Teachers are similar to a coach; their role is to identify the strengths of each player and maximize individual and collective potential. They must be observant and focus on building a collaborative culture that values each member of the classroom for the contribution he or she brings to the group.

Need more? Connect with Katherine on Twitter, or visit her website for more tools and tricks. CUE Rock Star camps take place throughout California. Check here to find one near you.
Kanoe Namahoe is the editor for SmartBrief on EdTech and SmartBrief on Workforce.
___________________________________

Like this article? Read more like it in the full issue of SmartBrief's back-to-school guide, SmartReport on EdTech. Want to get news like this in your inbox? Check out all of SmartBrief's education newsletters, covering career and technical education, educational leadership, math education and more.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Student-centered learning helps students break cycles of learned helplessness and sets the stage for real learning to happen, said Katherine Goyette, educational technology and integrated studies consultant for the Tulare County Office of Education in central California. Goyette discussed the value of student-centered learning with teachers during her "Averting Disaster: Full STEAM Ahead" workshop at a CUE Rock Star Camp in Oxnard, Calif.

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Teacher Resources
Professional Development

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Not your everyday calendar, here you can find important events in literary history, authors' birthdays, and a variety of holidays, all with related activities and resources that make them more relevant to students.

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Not your everyday calendar, here you can find important events in literary history, authors' birthdays, and a variety of holidays, all with related activities and resources that make them more relevant to students.

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AASL Position Statement on Labeling Books with Reading Levels

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AASL Position Statement on Labeling Books with Reading Levels

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AASL
Reading Levels
Labeling Books

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American Association of School Librarians (AASL)

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Librarians use spine labels to organize and identify library resources by call number to help patrons locate general subject areas or specific fiction, non-fiction, reference, audiovisual, or other items. Viewpoint-neutral directional labeling in libraries increases students' access to information and supports their First Amendment right to read. Best practice in school libraries includes books and other resources being shelved using a standard classification system that also enables students to find resources in other libraries, such as a public library, from which they may borrow materials.

One of the realities some school librarians face in their jobs is pressure by administrators and classroom teachers to label and arrange library collections according to reading levels. Student browsing behaviors can be profoundly altered with the addition of external reading level labels. With reading level labels often closely tied to reward points, student browsing becomes mainly a search for books that must be read and tests completed for individual or classroom point goals and/or grades. School library collections are not merely extensions of classroom book collections or classroom teaching methods, but rather places where children can explore interests safely and without restrictions. A minor's right to access resources freely and without restriction has long been and continues to be the position of the American Library Association and the American Association of School Librarians.

Labeling and shelving a book with an assigned grade level on its spine allows other students to observe the reading level of peers, thus threatening the confidentiality of students' reading levels. Only a student, the child's parents or guardian, the teacher, and the school librarian as appropriate should have knowledge of a student's reading capability.

Non-standard shelving practices make it difficult for library staff and patrons to locate specific titles. More importantly, students may have no understanding of how most school and public libraries arrange their materials, thus further affecting book selection in other libraries.

It is the responsibility of school librarians to promote free access for students and not to aid in restricting their library materials. School librarians should resist labeling and advocate for development of district policies regarding leveled reading programs that rely on library staff compliance with library book labeling and non-standard shelving requirements. These policies should address the concerns of privacy, student First Amendment Rights, behavior modification in both browsing and motivational reading attitudes, and related issues.

For additional supporting information see also:

American Association of School Librarians. " Position Statement on the Value of Independent Reading in the School Library Program."

American Library Association. " Labeling and Rating System: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights." July 11, 2011.

American Library Association. " Questions and Answers on Labeling and Rating Systems." January 16, 2010.

American Library Association. " Restricted Access to Library Materials: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights." July 1, 2014.

Adopted 07/18/2011

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Position Statement on Labeling Books with Reading Levels

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Librarians use spine labels to organize and identify library resources by call number to help patrons locate general subject areas or specific fiction, non-fiction, reference, audiovisual, or other items. Viewpoint-neutral directional labeling in libraries increases students' access to information and supports their First Amendment right to read.

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Education
Big Thinker
Curriculum21

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by Heidi Hayes Jacobs

Ubiquitous in every sphere of education; the word "technology" is splattered loosely. No subliminal messaging here, the term is to mean that schools with wifi, tablets, one to one laptop programs, and smart boards are preparing students for the future. Simply having a computer doesn't mean that the curriculum and instruction are contemporary and relevant. Students can be using the internet to research irrelevant and dated content. A word processor does not ensure quality writing competence. When a group of middle school students runs around campus with flip cameras, it is unlikely they will produce a first rate documentary. Perhaps there is some kind of magical thinking, that digital tools will prompt innovative outcomes.I share this concern as a firmly committed advocate for the modernization of learning opportunities.

Most telling is our current obsession with dated assessment forms. Teachers are not encouraged to innovate when their institutions are pushing time traveling to the past. Although mission statements are packed with phrases like "tomorrow's school" and "careers of the future" and "global preparedness", the truth is that all fifty states in my country value assessments that are basically identical in format to those used thirty years ago.Multiple choice, short answer essay prompts to de-contextualized paragraphs are the raison de vivre. Some national publishers are creating on-line testing, but the items are still the same type as those used when standardized testing first was developed. Certainly our learners need ACCESS to the global portals and dynamic applications available through digital media in order to become literate and connected, but access is insufficient.

We should pay attention to school faculties, leaders, and individual teachers who are actively and boldly upgrading curriculum content to reflect timely issues and problems and crafting modern assessments such as digital-media-global project based learning opportunities. Website curation, app design, global network research, and video/audio production are indicative of modern learning environments not only for students but for their teachers as well. What might happen if in our discourse we replace the loose use of the word technology with the phrase contemporary learning environments?
Cross-Posted to ASCD edge.
Mr. Coleman has already said that he hopes to align the SAT with the Common Core standards, which could further alter the identity of an exam that was long ago conceived of as a measure of students' abilities-and not as an achievement test. Moreover, he believes the standards provide a blueprint for helping more students succeed in Advanced Placement courses. "What the Common Core does in combination with the College Board is make it more realistic for us as a society to make sure that a kid's educational life is richer and more rigorous every year," he said, "so there's not this sudden rise in challenge when it comes time to take an examination."

Read the entire article here.

"As American students continue to fall behind foreign peers, 45 states and Washington, D.C. have adopted the Common Core State Standards, a new set of academic benchmarks aimed at raising the bar for teaching and learning across the country.

But as John Merrow reports for PBS News, meeting the new requirements won't be easy for many schools, as a long-taught reading curriculum for young children still learning to sound out words doesn't comply with the Common Core's guidelines for emphasis on nonfiction in literacy education..."

Read the entire article here.

"Science and social studies classes could look a little different next year as all New York City schools gradually adapt to a new set of curriculum standards.

The standards, called the Common Core, are expected to be in place at schools across 42 states, the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands by 2014, but New York City is introducing them gradually, increasing each year the extent to which schools must adhere to them..."

Read the entire article here.

"In June, a yearlong joint initiative by 48 states produced a set of uniform but voluntary educational standards in English and math. Urged on by the Obama administration, the initiative's main purpose was to encourage states with low academic standards to bring their expectations into line with those of other states. Twenty states have already adopted the standards; 28 more, including California, are considering them. Texas and Alaska are the only states that declined to participate in the project...

California has among the highest academic standards in the country; the new "common core standards" would neither toughen nor weaken them appreciably. But the state still has something important to gain by adopting them: a more coherent blueprint for instruction that builds students' skills in a clear and sensible way, and allows teachers to delve more deeply into each subject..."
Read the entire article here.
"Now, the standards face what experts say is their biggest challenge yet: faithful translation from expectations on paper to instruction in classrooms.

The implementation stage brims with possibilities both promising and threatening, depending on one's perspective...

...Whether opponents' nightmares come true, or advocates' hopes are borne out, will depend largely on how the standards are put into practice."

Read the entire article here.

"A quiet, sub-rosa fear is brewing among supporters of the Common Core State Standards Initiative: that the standards will die the slow death of poor implementation in K-12 classrooms...

...It's a Herculean task, given the size of the public school teaching force and the difficulty educators face in creating the sustained, intensive training that research indicates is necessary to change teachers' practices."

Read the entire article here.

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by Heidi Hayes Jacobs Ubiquitous in every sphere of education; the word "technology" is splattered loosely. No subliminal messaging here, the term is to mean that schools with wifi, tablets, one to one laptop programs, and smart boards are preparing students for the future.

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249 Bloom's Taxonomy Verbs for Critical Thinking

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249 Bloom's Taxonomy Verbs for Critical Thinking

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by TeachThought Staff

Bloom's Taxonomy's verbs-also know as power verbs or thinking verbs-are extraordinarily powerful instructional planning tools.

In fact, in addition to concepts like backward-design and power standards, they are one of the most useful tools a teacher-as-learning-designer has access to. Why?

As research has suggested, they can be used for assessment design, curriculum design, lesson planning, personalizing and differentiating learning, and almost any other 'thing' a teacher-or student-has to do.

For example, if a standard asks students to infer and demonstrate an author's position using evidence from the text, there's a lot built into that kind of task. First, a student has to be able to define what an 'author's position' is and what 'evidence from the text' means ( Knowledge-level). They'll then need to be able to summarize that same text ( Understanding-level), interpret and infer any arguments or positions ( Analyze-level), evaluate inherent claims ( Evaluate-level), and then write ( Create-level) a response that demonstrates their thinking.

Though the chart below reads left to right, it's ideal to imagine it as a kind of incline, with Knowledge at the bottom, and Create at the top. You may not always need this kind of tool to 'unpack' standards and identify a possible learning sequence, but it also works ideally as an assessment design tool. If students can consistently work with the topic in the columns to the right-designing, recommending, differentiating, comparing and contrasting, and so on, then they likely have a firm grasp on the material.

You can also read more about Bloom's Revised Taxonomy (or Bloom's updated Taxonomy) if you're so inclined.

While we've shared Bloom's Taxonomy posters before, the simplicity and clean design of the chart format make it a bit more functional-even useful to hand to the students themselves as a hole-punch-and-keep-it-in-your-journal-for-the-year kind of resource. It also makes a powerful self-directed learning tool. Start at the left, and, roughly, move right.
Examples Of Bloom's Taxonomy Power Verbs
Knowledge: Define, Identify, Describe, Recognize, Tell, Explain, Recite, Memorize, Illustrate, Quote, State, Match, Recognize, Select, Examine, Locate, Recite, Enumerate, Record, List, Quote, Label

Understand: Summarize, Interpret, Classify, Compare, Contrast, Infer, Relate, Extract, Paraphrase, Cite, Discuss, Distinguish, Delineate, Extend, Predict, Indicate, Translate, Inquire, Associate, Explore Convert

Apply: Solve, Change, Relate, Complete, Use, Sketch, Teach, Articulate, Discover, Transfer, Show, Demonstrate, Involve, Dramatize, Produce, Report, Act, Respond, Administer, Actuate, Prepare, Manipulate

Analyze: Contrast, Connect, Relate, Devise, Correlate, Illustrate, Distill, Conclude, Categorize, Take Apart, Problem-Solve, Differentiate, Deduce, Conclude, Devise, Subdivide, Calculate, Order, Adapt

Evaluate: Criticize, Reframe, Judge, Defend, Appraise, Value, Prioritize Plan, Grade, Reframe, Revise, Refine, Grade, Argue, Support, Evolve, Decide, Re-design, Pivot

Create: Design, Modify, Role-Play, Develop, Rewrite, Pivot, Modify, Collaborate, Invent, Write, Formulate, Invent, Imagine
100+ Bloom's Taxonomy Verbs For Critical Thinking

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100+ Bloom's Taxonomy Verbs For Critical Thinking

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by TeachThought Staff Bloom's Taxonomy's verbs-also know as power verbs or thinking verbs-are extraordinarily powerful instructional planning tools. In fact, in addition to concepts like backward-design and power standards, they are one of the most useful tools a teacher-as-learning-designer has access to. Why?

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Lesson Plans
Jamie McKenzie

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Cite this guide: Armstrong, P. (2010). Bloom's Taxonomy. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. Retrieved [todaysdate] from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/.

Background Information | The Original Taxonomy | The Revised Taxonomy | Why Use Bloom's Taxonomy? | Further Information

The above graphic is released under a Creative Commons Attribution license. You're free to share, reproduce, or otherwise use it, as long as you attribute it to the Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. For a higher resolution version, visit our Flickr account and look for the "Download this photo" icon.

Background Information

In 1956, Benjamin Bloom with collaborators Max Englehart, Edward Furst, Walter Hill, and David Krathwohl published a framework for categorizing educational goals: Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. Familiarly known as Bloom's Taxonomy, this framework has been applied by generations of K-12 teachers and college instructors in their teaching.

The framework elaborated by Bloom and his collaborators consisted of six major categories: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation. The categories after Knowledge were presented as "skills and abilities," with the understanding that knowledge was the necessary precondition for putting these skills and abilities into practice.

While each category contained subcategories, all lying along a continuum from simple to complex and concrete to abstract, the taxonomy is popularly remembered according to the six main categories.

The Original Taxonomy (1956)

Here are the authors' brief explanations of these main categories in from the appendix of Taxonomy of Educational Objectives ( Handbook One, pp. 201-207):

Knowledge "involves the recall of specifics and universals, the recall of methods and processes, or the recall of a pattern, structure, or setting."

Comprehension "refers to a type of understanding or apprehension such that the individual knows what is being communicated and can make use of the material or idea being communicated without necessarily relating it to other material or seeing its fullest implications."

Application refers to the "use of abstractions in particular and concrete situations."

Analysis represents the "breakdown of a communication into its constituent elements or parts such that the relative hierarchy of ideas is made clear and/or the relations between ideas expressed are made explicit."

Synthesis involves the "putting together of elements and parts so as to form a whole."

Evaluation engenders "judgments about the value of material and methods for given purposes."

The 1984 edition of Handbook One is available in the CFT Library in Calhoun 116. See its ACORN record for call number and availability.

Barbara Gross Davis, in the "Asking Questions" chapter of Tools for Teaching, also provides examples of questions corresponding to the six categories. This chapter is not available in the online version of the book, but Tools for Teaching is available in the CFT Library. See its ACORN record for call number and availability.

The Revised Taxonomy (2001)

A group of cognitive psychologists, curriculum theorists and instructional researchers, and testing and assessment specialists published in 2001 a revision of Bloom's Taxonomy with the title A Taxonomy for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment. This title draws attention away from the somewhat static notion of "educational objectives" (in Bloom's original title) and points to a more dynamic conception of classification.

The authors of the revised taxonomy underscore this dynamism, using verbs and gerunds to label their categories and subcategories (rather than the nouns of the original taxonomy). These "action words" describe the cognitive processes by which thinkers encounter and work with knowledge:

Remember

Understand

Interpreting

Exemplifying

Classifying

Summarizing

Inferring

Comparing

Explaining

Apply

Analyze

Differentiating

Organizing

Attributing

Evaluate

Create

In the revised taxonomy, knowledge is at the basis of these six cognitive processes, but its authors created a separate taxonomy of the types of knowledge used in cognition:

Factual Knowledge

Knowledge of terminology

Knowledge of specific details and elements

Conceptual Knowledge

Knowledge of classifications and categories

Knowledge of principles and generalizations

Knowledge of theories, models, and structures

Procedural Knowledge

Knowledge of subject-specific skills and algorithms

Knowledge of subject-specific techniques and methods

Knowledge of criteria for determining when to use appropriate procedures

Metacognitive Knowledge

Strategic Knowledge

Knowledge about cognitive tasks, including appropriate contextual and conditional knowledge

Self-knowledge

Mary Forehand from the University of Georgia provides a guide to the revised version giving a brief summary of the revised taxonomy and a helpful table of the six cognitive processes and four types of knowledge.

Why Use Bloom's Taxonomy?

The authors of the revised taxonomy suggest a multi-layered answer to this question, to which the author of this teaching guide has added some clarifying points:

1. Objectives (learning goals) are important to establish in a pedagogical interchange so that teachers and students alike understand the purpose of that interchange.

2. Organizing objectives helps to clarify objectives for themselves and for students.

3. Having an organized set of objectives helps teachers to:

"plan and deliver appropriate instruction";

"design valid assessment tasks and strategies";and

"ensure that instruction and assessment are aligned with the objectives."

Citations are from A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives.

Further Information

Section III of A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, entitled "The Taxonomy in Use," provides over 150 pages of examples of applications of the taxonomy. Although these examples are from the K-12 setting, they are easily adaptable to the university setting.

Section IV, "The Taxonomy in Perspective," provides information about 19 alternative frameworks to Bloom's Taxonomy, and discusses the relationship of these alternative frameworks to the revised Bloom's Taxonomy.

This teaching guide is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

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by Patricia Armstrong Print Version Cite this guide: Armstrong, P. (2010). Bloom's Taxonomy. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. Retrieved [todaysdate] from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/. Background Information | The Original Taxonomy | The Revised Taxonomy | Why Use Bloom's Taxonomy? | Further Information The above graphic is released under a Creative Commons Attribution license.

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Education
Big Thinker
Critical Thinking

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Howard Rheingold | Exploring mind amplifiers since 1964

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The future of digital culture-yours, mine, and ours-depends on how well we learn to use the media that have infiltrated, amplified, distracted, enriched, and complicated our lives.

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Statement of a Learning Objective using Bloom's Taxonomy

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Statement of a Learning Objective using Bloom's Taxonomy

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Learning objectives

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Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching

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A group of cognitive psychologists, curriculum theorists and instructional researchers, and testing and assessment specialists published in 2001 a revision of Bloom's Taxonomy with the title A Taxonomy for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment. This title draws attention away from the somewhat static notion of "educational objectives" (in Bloom's original title) and points to a more dynamic conception of classification.

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Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy - Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching

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Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy A group of cognitive psychologists, curriculum theorists and instructional researchers, and testing and assessment specialists published in 2001 a revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy with the title A Taxonomy for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment. This title draws attention away f…

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The Internet provides tons of free tools and resources for teachers to use in their classroom. This handbook is for new teahers and/or teachers who are wanting to integrate technology in their classroom. The tools are both to use with students and use professionally.

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Here's another poster to help get you thinking about how you can apply Bloom's higher-order thinking skills with your children. This poster shows the segments of an orange with each segment relating to a thinking skill and some helpful verbs to serve as prompts.

While there are many more verbs that we could have added, we felt that including just seven in each segment would make them easier to remember (For more information, see Miller's paper "The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information."

We thought it would be interesting to depict the verbs in a circular form as opposed to a hierarchical list, given that these skills don't often occur in isolation and are interconnected. We went through several concepts including a wheel, a pie, and an apple, but somehow the orange seemed to work best when we put everything together.

For those of you who prefer it, we've also created a grayscale version of the poster. And if for some reason you're against "oranges" and prefer lists, you can just download the Blooming Verb List. You should be able to glue the template onto a 3″ x 5″ index card or colored card stock, making it easy to carry around.

Let us know what you think - you know we're always listening! 😉
Download the pdf's here:

The Blooming Orange poster by Learning Today is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

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Blooming Orange: Bloom's Taxonomy Helpful Verbs Poster

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Here's another poster to help get you thinking about how you can apply Bloom's higher-order thinking skills with your children. This poster shows the segments of an orange with each segment relating to a thinking skill and some helpful verbs to serve as prompts.

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Creative Visualizations of Bloom's Taxonomies

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Creative Visualizations of Bloom's Taxonomies

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Creative Visualizations of Bloom's Taxonomies!

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This is an organic SlideShare presentation discovering the juiciest visualizations of Bloom's taxonomies (old and revised). If the collection is missing a jui...

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Research Process Livebinder USC-SLIS 742

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Digital Citizenship Curriculum
Professional Development

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Interactive lessons and activities for all students!

Use digital citizenship lesson plans to address timely topics and prepare students to take ownership of their digital lives. Browse lessons by grade and topic below, or see an overview of the curriculum.
We've got more new lessons! Explore all lesson plans or check our lesson collections!

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DigCit Curriculum | Common Sense Education

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Research-backed digital citizenship lesson plans help schools navigate timely topics, such as cyberbullying, online safety, privacy, and media literacy.