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Guide to Tripod’s 7Cs Framework - Consolidate -Tripod Student & Teacher Surveys

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Consolidate: Integrate ideas and summarize key points.

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Free Choice Boards templates for Google Slides or PowerPoint - SlidesMania

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Editable Digital Choice Boards for Google Drive or PowerPoint. Choice boards are a great way to allow student choice during classroom activities and you can use them for any subject.

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Choice menus (sometimes called Extension Menus or Choice Boards or fifty other titles) are a foundational technique for many teachers. Typically, they're a grid somewhat like a tic-tac-toe board that has different options students can choose from to complete some task or project. Just do a quick search and you'll see thousands of them.

I've taught teachers how to use them for years, and when my colleage Ian Byrd wrote about why he's totally over them, I realized I'd been leading teachers astray.

Now, I don't agree with Ian's conclusion (essentially that we should ditch them), but I do think we need to be better at creating them. To do that, we need to understand their true purpose and not fool ourselves into confusing quantity with quality.

If You're Doing This, You're Doing Menus All Wrong

Let's look at a few examples of Menus Gone Wrong so you can see what Ian's talking about.

Menu Gone Wrong #1

Look at the two choices in this section of a menu:
You already know how I feel about Accelerated Reader, so I'm not going to give a lecture on how much I hate it. For our purposes here, that's not the point.

The point here is the total disparity in the quality of the thinking required for these tasks.

Read a book and take a low-level quiz on it or research a topic and create a product based on that research. These tasks are connected how, exactly?

It's like saying, "Either take your car to the car wash or develop a new chemical formula for a superior cash washing soap." They're just not on the same playing field.

First, let's be honest: most of our students can pass the AR quizzes without even reading the books. So there's that.

Secondly, there is no way that a knowledge/comprehension task is the pedagogical equivalent of a research/create task.

It definitely offers the option for high ability learners to avoid a mind-numbing AR test, but just because a student can do higher-level work doesn't mean they'll want to. Your high-ability learners could just as easily pick reading a Puppy Place book (those are 2 AR points) that's four hundred points below their Lexile. And then where will you be? How is that really differentiation?

If Ian reads this, he'll be (metaphorically) bashing his head into a wall. This is exactly the kind of nonsense we see in menus.

It looks good because there are options, but it's not actually good.

Menu Gone Wrong #2

This is a book report menu. Students can choose any way to share their understanding of a book they read. There are really nine choices, but I'm just showing six because you'll be able to see what I mean from them.

I was going to leave the horrible clipart out of the discussion, but I really can't because it's part of the problem. The teacher is taking up space with pictures that could have been used for better instructions. You can make stuff look good - I believe there's real value in that - but not at the expense of pedagogy, and not for something ugly like this clipart.

1990s-era clipart aside, I have two real beefs with this menu.

First, it's dying on the hill of "I must have nine choices to be a menu." While you can only see six, you know what I'm saying. There's no magic in the number nine. The teacher could have accomplished the same idea of student choice with fewer choices that were better aligned in thinking level.

Secondly, there is not separate rubric, so the only information the student has about the task is what's in the little box. Look at the section called "Letter to the Author." There is nothing about the quality of the work. A student could write, "Dear Ms. Patterson, I hated your book because it ended sad. Why did you write such a sad book? What is your middle name? Do you like ice cream? Sincerely, Sidney Student."

This would fulfill the requirement as listed.

It would have been far better for this teacher to have fewer choices and have those choices more fleshed out to encourage quality thinking.

Menu Gone Wrong #3

Let's look at a math example. As you look at this, consider the different standards being covered here.

First, let me say that the options in the top of the menu are strong. I have no beef with that. The options on the bottom include concepts that must be mastered, no argument there. (This menu only had four options.)

Now that I've complimented it, I'm going to tell you what's wrong with it.

The menu has four different tasks with four *very* different standards. I was going to go look up all of the standards, but I don't think we need that. It's easy to see that they're so, so different. Place value and equivalency are not the same.

Why is this a problem? Why does it matter if the menu is a hodge-podge of standards?

Because it begs the question, what exactly are you trying to do here?

If you are doing this as a review, you'd need them to do all of it (unless you had some kind of pretest for the menu, which is not a bad idea at all).

This menu also suffers from a common issue: too little actual instruction. Look at the top left corner. Are you 100% confident you know what to write on the lines? Would your 4th-graders be?

The Mosaic activity and the "Find the Pairs" activities are both quality activities that deserve their own time. They don't need to be lost in a sea of other choices. They are at different thinking levels. Just let your mind rest f or a moment on the "Find the Pairs" activity and then on "What Number Is..." It only takes a few seconds to feel the difference in neural pathway involvement between the two.

If students can actually choose these, you could easily end up with students choosing tasks that will not stretch them at all.

Menu Gone Wrong #4:

This one is the one that really got me. I realized I'd done so many almost exactly like this, and I was making some critical errors. Do you ever want to go back and apologize to former students? Yeah, that's a thing.

There are a number of things that are fine with this menu. Giving lots of choice for basic practice is a valid use of menus. Here's what's wrong:

Having a pretest be a choice is a huge no-no. Everyone should pretest, and they're work should be adjusted as a result of that pretest. Having students take a pretest and then practice all of the words the same no matter how they did is ridiculous and a waste of time (both yours and theirs).

Typing words is not how the brain learns to spell, so that's another waste of time. I love fonts, but having students put the words in a funky font is an egregious misuse of technology that defies all we know about the neuroscience of learning.

Writing words in ABC order is trying to practice two skills simultaneously: alphabetizing and spelling. Kids who struggle to alphabetize will not gain the benefit they could have from another activity that didn't require mastery of alphabetizing to accomplish. This is a perfect example of how students with any kind of learning difficulty or deficit get a double whammy.

So, I've shared some examples of what can go wrong. Let's look at how to make it better.

Making Choice Menus Better in Five Steps

Choice menus are a useful tool in a teacher's arsenal, but only if they're done well. This is true of so, so many things! Here are five steps to making choice menus better.

1. Make the purpose of your menu clear.

Just having menus because you think you should is poor pedagogy. There is nothing inherently superior about letting kids choose their tasks. The tasks must be worthy of being chosen. I know this goes against the self-directed learning mantra being spouted everywhere right now, but I stand by it.

Choice alone is not adequate differentiation.

With menus, choice alone can never be the goal. It's insufficient.

What is a worthy goal of a choice menu? Here are a few possibilities:

I have students with disabilities and I want to include options for them without having them feel separate or excluded.

The students are going to be presenting their work, and I want to offer a variety of presentation modalities to keep the interest of the students who will be seeing the presentations.

I have several quality possibilities for demonstrating learning that I've used over the years, and I think students may have strong preferences for one over the other. I'm going to give them choice to decrease resistance to the assignment.

The content is new to students, and they need different types of exposures to it.

There are a number of steps in an activity, but they don't need to be done in order. I want to maintain student interest to the greatest extent possible by allowing them to choose the order they do them OR I don't want all of the students on the same step at the same time because it means they don't all need help at the same time.

I've pretested them, and I need different choices based on the results of the pretest.

They're at the point in the process of knowledge acquisition that they need lots of different kinds of practice, so I'm giving them lots of different kinds of practice opportunities.

This list is not exhaustive, but you get the idea: choice menus must be about more than just looking cute. There must be intention and deliberation behind them.

Teachers must be able to answer the question: In what way does this truly advance students' thinking/learning/experience in a way that a single opportunity would not have?

2. Keep the thinking foremost in your mind.

Ian and I have a mantra: It's not about what they're doing; it's about what they're thinking. Too often, menus are all about doing. Are they making a brochure or a poster? Are they making a crossword or a wordsearch?

Here's where Ian and I split: I would consider differentiation of product a type of differentiation. It's just not enough by itself.

Consider the spelling word menu above. I'm pretty sure this teacher did what I used to do: just think of a bunch of different things kids could do with words, and then make those the choices.

What would be better is to truly consider what activities actually help kids learn to spell. Which words are kids most likely to misspell? How can the menu make it more likely that students will acquire the knowledge they need?

Here's one idea: The research is clear that the practice of interleaving leads to better acquisition. Interleaving is when students can't answer a group of consecutive problems with the same strategy. It's research-speak for "mixing it up."

To add that research-based strategy into my menu, I can make sure that the students have to select options that don't allow for use of the same strategy over and over. I have to make sure the menu offers different types of thinking.

Here's another idea: I want students to identify patterns in their misspellings. It makes no sense for students to practice spelling words in isolation if the issue is actually a particular type of phonetic pattern. To do this, I must use the pretest and have students do some self-reflection of the pretest. I need to look at it as well. I need to know if missed words are part of an ongoing issue with "th" words or words with a silent letter. You get the idea.

While I've used a spelling example, what I say about this applies to all. We need to be thinking about thinking before we think about doing.

3. Two is a choice.

Let's abandon the idea that choice menus need to have nine choices. There are no choice menu police who are going to show up at your classroom and demand an explanation as to why you only offered two or three choices.

Additionally, as I mentioned before, I think choice is somewhat overrated. I don't let eight-year-olds choose everything they eat, and the idea that students with no training or experience are superior at pedagogy to trained teachers is somewhat silly.

If we think that our students know better than we do about what they need to learn, we don't know our students well enough. Enter more/better preassessment.

Giving a choice is great. Humans in general don't like to feel trapped, so choice can allow students to feel more autonomy. That's necessary for motivation. However, choice shouldn't trump quality pedagogy.

If you have two great activities that go with the learning goal, give a menu of two. If you have three, then use those. And if you have one solid activity, then use that and don't feel badly about it.

Only give the number of choices necessary to accomplish the goal, and only give the number of choices that you can offer while maintaining quality.

This will grow over time, so you may find that after a decade of teaching something, you have more activities than did. That's fine, too.

4. Don't skimp on the rubric.

If the menu choice offers more than just simplistic tasks (e.g., "Solve this problem and then create another similar problem that uses the same solving process."), you need to have a rubric available.

In the book report menu above, you can see exactly what I mean.

It is unlikely that there will be enough space in a choice menu to give students the information they need to do a full and delicious job on it.

Solutions include making the choice menu digital with links to rubrics for each choice or having the rubrics available on paper somewhere else.

You don't need to give every child a copy of every possible rubric. That's overkill. Just make sure they exist and are available. Not that I don't think my author letter was amazing...

5. Remember that it's not enough by itself.

As I mentioned earlier, choice alone is not sufficient differentiation.

Differentiation must involve adjusting learning to students' needs and strengths.

It does not require choice, but it does require appropriate thinking activities.

You can use menus as a method of accomplishing that, but you have to make sure that the menu choices offer options that accomplish that adjustment.

You can use colors, numbers, columns, rows, or other techniques to guide students to the choices that are appropriate for them. You can also have different menus for different students.

Consider, however, how much work that is. I'm not sure the benefits outweight the effort needed to accomplish that.

Wrapping Up:

While I'm not eager to throw menus out the window, I would say that they need to be reconsidered as necessary or even desirable. They are not inherently better, and if they're not done well, they are worse.

Like so much in education, we have to stop accepting techniques without challenging their true value.

We would expect that of our students, and we should expect no less of ourselves.

The bottom line is that menus can be great, but to make them so, they take a lot of time and thought.

That is true of excellent teaching in general.

Teachers should not feel badly about having one quality task. Doesn't it sound ridiculous to read that? Of course you shouldn't feel badly about having a quality task!

Use menus if they move students forward, and leave them alone if they don't. Use menus if they work for you, and don't feel badly if they don't.

You May Also Like:

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Making Choice Menus Better: Taking Extension Menus to the Next Level

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Making choice menus (extension menus) better benefits all students. You may be surprised at what you're doing wrong. Learn how to make it all right.

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Choice boards, tic-tac-toe boards, choice cards... there are many names for tools that provide student choice. Whatever you call them, choice boards is a perfect differentiation strategy for struggling readers, gifted learners and all students in-between.

When you give students options, even limited ones, they feel a connection to the assignment and perform at their highest level!

In my classroom, I use variations of choice boards for specific assignments, projects, and options for early finishers. But, they aren't just content specific! You can use choice boards for un-homework ideas, positive behavior rewards, easy enrichment of learning or building relationships in the classroom. Plus, providing choice is one way to easily differentiate instruction!

Three Ways Choice Boards
Enrich Learning
(in and out of the classroom)

1- Support Student-led Differentiation

Differentiation. Teachers know it's important, and we usually do it without thinking about it, but differentiation strategy ideas can be overwhelming and time consuming. Enter the choice board, which can provide various ways to practice skills with differentiation through choice.

In addition, your board can be tailored to needs by having students complete specific tasks first, varying the level of similar tasks (seen below), or changing the number of required tasks based on student academic level. Now, differentiation for gifted learners or differentiation for struggling readers is simplified.

Watch this for a quick tutorial for how to make choice boards... digitally!

2- Increase Student Engagement

Teacher announces, "We're going to start our project!" Followed by groans and scuffs from all around the room. We've all been there, but what if projects could feel, dare I say, *fun*!? Using a choice board for independent or small group work can increase student engagement by allowing kids to feel in control of their academic outcome. When kids can work on what they love, they love working!

Be sure to include a variety of tasks like drawing, writing, creating and designing to reach a large variety of learners ( see the example project page below). Don't forget to provide a choice board rubric and any A+ work samples to help students measure and reflect on their own work before it's finished.
Visit my TeachersPayTeachers store for choice board options.
Support Student Growth with Goal Setting

3- Boost Classroom Management

On task behavior

Less grading

Early finisher struggle

One of the hardest classroom management areas for me to tackle has been center/rotation time. My students aren't wild or out-of-hand, they're just bored because they finished their assignment. So, I created an early finisher choice board (grab it below) and an accountability system to put the work in my students' hands.

When someone thinks they're finished with a center and ready for a choice, they have a peer check their work and sign a completed work form. Then, they grab a choice board (the bright orange makes it hard to miss) and choose what they want to do. Choice boards have also made my grading life easier!

I provide opportunities for students to conference about their work with me or a peer (using the choice board rubric) then all I need to do is check over the rubric.
Download a simple (FREE) Early Finisher Choice Board below!
Tell me your favorite ways to use student choice and if you want monthly enrichment ideas, join my newsletter!

Share what you love!

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3 Ways Choice Boards Easily Differentiate Gifted Learning - Inspired to Enrich

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Choice boards, tic-tac-toe boards, choice cards... there are many names for tools that provide student choice. Whatever you call them, choice boards is a perfect differentiation strategy for struggling readers, gifted learners and all students in-between. When you give students options, even limited ones, they feel a connection to the assignment and perform at their highest level!

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https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ogK3ZGnds_rngzXfy9dInjTT5ri85zu4JgTPJP5OeIo/edit#slide=id.p1

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IC&E - GUIDING PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES with Frayers

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Get access to files anywhere through secure cloud storage and file backup for your photos, videos, files and more with Google Drive.

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Get access to files anywhere through secure cloud storage and file backup for your photos, videos, files and more with Google Drive.

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One of the simplest planning moves can yield the greatest results: scheduling buffer times in your instructional progression to support students in getting whatever they need to reach mastery. During these learning times, we as teachers commit not to teach new content to the whole group but to create a space for students to focus on previously taught materials they need to get better at.

Many call this strategic learning time "Whatever I Need" or W.I.N. time, but you might also find it under names like workshopping or filling in the gaps. As a math teacher and coach, I used it repeatedly in my classroom and coached many teachers on how to plan, structure, and maximize this routine. Every time, the same magic happened: Students grew academically and gained essential skills such as self-awareness, goal-setting, data analysis, action planning, and focused practice. In addition to all these benefits, students who are taught and trusted to engage in structures like W.I.N. time often develop stronger relationships with their teachers because they see in them the willingness to let mistakes be true learning opportunities and to give them more than one chance to reach mastery.

W.I.N. Time in Action

What is happening in a classroom where learners engage in W.I.N. time? In the video below, Blended Learning Master Teacher Daniel Guerrero leads his students through his own version of W.I.N. that he calls Workshop.

Notice the following key characteristics in action:

Daniel is NOT teaching new content nor is he engaging in whole-group instruction.

Students know what they need to get better at and are taking ownership of how they want to get better at it.

Daniel offers a variety of learning modalities including small group and independent work so each student can focus on exactly what they need.

Students are invited to self-assess and reflect on what growth looks like for them today and what still remains a work in progress.

Daniel compares self-assessment data and student decisions with the actual learning data he analyzes after the activity to determine how to improve the next W.I.N. time.

Getting Started with W.I.N. Time

To implement W.I.N. time successfully, start small with a limited number of options and no teacher station for the first few times so that you can support students in being successful with more autonomy. Gradually, you can increase the number of learning modalities available and offer your teaching in a small group once you have a good grasp on how to support students in maximizing this time.

But beyond this tip, I would like to leave you with this planning and execution checklist with steps and resources to help you before, during, and after your first W.I.N time. Enjoy building your students' growth mindset and agency, you won't regret it.

Your W.I.N. Checklist

Before W.I.N. Time: What do I need to prepare?

Give students access to their learning data on a previous assessment.

Support them in analyzing this data to extract growth areas and set goals for W.I.N. time. Check out some templates here.

Analyze the data on your own so that you can cross-reference and create groups that need help with the same concept. Identify students at mastery on everything and think about how you will leverage their strengths while challenging them.

Organize a variety of resources for students working independently or with peers on a given growth area. Resources can include identifying assignments in your favorite learning platform or using hyperdoc pathways, activity cards, manipulatives, etc.

Support students in creating a documented work plan for their W.I.N. time that includes areas to address, a place to check off completion, and room for self-assessment. Plan to check this document before they start working and after they have self-assessed.

Get students excited about this opportunity by framing it as a chance to grow and learn from our mistakes without judgment. Also share how this could positively impact their grades. Once they are fired up, co-create learning expectations with them for their first time using W.I.N. time.

During W.I.N. Time: How do I maximize my time and effectiveness?

Strategically plan where you seat students. Ensure that your small group workstation still gives you a wide-angle vision of all of your learners and their tasks and screens.

When you work with a small group, include a warm-up as the first task so that you can take a moment to support the launch of the other independent or collaborative activities.

Use the fact that you can see the whole room to notice students meeting your expectations and positively narrate what you see. Quickly redirect off-task behavior in a non-intrusive way.

Think about assigning helpful jobs students could hold during W.I.N. time and that would minimize your need to troubleshoot small issues. It is a great opportunity to leverage the strengths of your students. Think of roles like tech helper, tutor for a skill, etc.

Consider strategically using peer tutoring for your students near mastery and who might just need a slight extra push. Determine your process to select them and the expectations for what their support should look like

After W.I.N time: What can I do next time to improve efficacy?

Take a deep breath and be proud of the fact that you gave your students a chance to use their mistakes as learning opportunities. Even if it did not look perfect, remember the message you sent to your students by creating a space for growth.

Take a look at the student work plans and see what they are reporting being able to accomplish during this time.

Cross-reference student self-assessment data with the data you can collect from the assessments embedded in the independent tasks.

Shout out and celebrate students who have worked hard and in alignment with what they needed the most.

Kindly check in with the ones who did not pick the right topic or the right modality for themselves and help them reflect so that they can do a better job next time.

Determine a few logistical changes you will make next time to respond to what we did not go as well as you wanted. You will keep growing and they will too!

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Find Time for Formative Assessment with W.I.N. Time - BetterLesson

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One of the simplest planning moves can yield the greatest results: scheduling buffer times in your instructional progression to support students in getting whatever they need to reach mastery. During these learning times, we as teachers commit not to teach new content to the whole group but to create a space for students to focus on previously taught materials they need to get better at.

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https://illustrativemathematics.org/

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My favorite part of organizing my W.I.N. rotations is figuring out what I will have students work on at each station. When planning for station activities, I am always looking at three things:

1. Does the activity meet students' needs in the area we are working on?

2. Is the activity fun yet rigorous?

3. Is the activity easy to organize, understand, and clean up so that students are able to work at it independently? This is going to look very different depending on what grade you teach.

In my class I run five to six math stations at a time, depending on how many student groups I have.

As mentioned in the second post in this series, I always start my planning with the Teacher Time station. I've heard this station called many things, but it is basically the station in which you, the teacher, meet with a small group of students for direct instruction. The focus should be whatever caused you, while looking at your data, to group these students together. I am currently scoring a set of post assessments for my math students. While I am looking over their papers, I am keeping a list of students who struggled in each of the areas covered on the test. When I plan for my next round of stations, I will group my students based on the needs I noticed and focus my lesson on that skill, strategy, or concept.

During Tech Time, my students work on iReady. This is software that provides students with individualized lessons and practice based on a beginning of the year diagnostic. My school is lucky to have this resource, and I know that not all schools do. There are several free online math resources that are available for students. Some examples are MobyMax and Khan Academy Two game based websites are Prodigy and Skoolbo. I have used MobyMax, Khan Academy, and Prodigy in my own classroom. My students LOVE prodigy and will even ask to stay in at recess to play it.

Number Corner
Because my school uses the Bridges curriculum, it comes with another component called Number Corner. It is probably similar to a calendar time you would see in a primary classroom. I have never taught primary, so I'm hoping this is an accurate assumption. During number corner, students are working on finding patterns on calendar markers, working with problem solving and computation, fact fluency, and measurement among other things.

Game time is a great opportunity to focus students on different skills and concepts. Games can be geared toward what you are working on in class or you can easily differentiate for each group that comes to that station. For example, my students just finished a unit on fractions. After looking through their assessments and organizing groups, I can easily have game kits ready for groups who are working on adding fractions, another for students who need review with equivalent fractions, and still another for students who are struggled with common denominators.

There is always a skill I would like my students to get more practice with. During this station, I focus on one skill and then differentiate within that skill. This is one of the few stations that I use worksheets in. At the beginning of the school year I invested in a subscription to Math Worksheets 4 Kids. I have found this website to be very helpful. I am able to look up worksheets my concept and then find worksheets by level. Another great website is commoncoresheets.com . Other options for this station are task cards or task mats. If you can find ones that are self-check, that is a bonus!

Geometry
Geometry seems to always be the last unit of the curriculum and the hardest to get to. Because of this, I have a geometry station. I use my math curriculum and the state standards to guide this station. My goal is to give students an opportunity to work with these concepts before state testing in May.

The above stations are the ones I currently have in my W.I.N. rotation. Some other ideas for stations are:
Fact Fluency - Practice math facts - This station would be easy to differentiate as student work on the facts they have yet to master. This station could be as easy as flash cards and timers as student work to be able to quickly recall their math facts.

Mathematical Picture Books - Sometimes reading a picture book based on a math concept can be a great way for students to connect. There are a lot of wonderful picture books available depending on what you are focusing on in class. For this station, you could have a picture book focusing on the concept you are teaching in class. Inside the book, you could ask discussion questions on sticky-notes strategically placed throughout the book. As students read, they stop to answer and discuss your question. Depending on the book, you could add an extension task.

- Integrating art into your math stations can really motivate students to participate. When working with area, symmetry, plane figures, angles, and more. The activity featured below is from a blog post I wrote a few years ago.

As you can see, there are MANY ways you can support students in stations during your W.I.N. block. The thing to keep in mind is that whatever task you are asking your students to participate in, it is one that will move them forward and help them be successful.

Once you decide on what stations would best benefit your students, try to find a space on a classroom wall, blackboard, or whiteboard to host your W.I.N. Station rotation board. This is the area you will post your station signs and student names. Click below for a free download of the station headers and sign. There are two options: Google Slideshow which is easily editable or PNGs which can be printed as is or placed in a PowerPoint slideshow and edited.

I have my W.I.N. board located on a blackboard. My signs all have magnetic tape on the back which makes it easy to move. At the end of each day, I move my station headers to the left, rather than move the student names.

As you can see, coming up with ideas for your W.I.N. stations isn't difficult! There are a plethora of options available to you. If you have a great idea for a math station that wasn't mentioned in this post, please share it in the comments below.

In my next post in this series, I will be sharing with you ideas for organizing and managing your teacher paperwork and your station materials.

* - free download of "What is W.I.N. Time?" and "Expectations" posters.
*Organizing Student Groups - Free download of Group Organization tool
* Station Ideas - free download of editable station signs and group headers
* Managing Materials - free download of binder cover and spine
* Keeping Kids Accountable - free download of student recording sheet
* Launching a W.I.N. Block - Mystery download!

I'm always adding products, free and paid, so please follow Literacy Loves Company on TpT so that you get notification. I price all of my newly added paid resources at 50% of for 48 hours, so it is a great way to save money.

Thanks for visiting Literacy Loves Company!

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How to W.I.N. in the Classroom: Station Ideas

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My favorite part of organizing my W.I.N. rotations is figuring out what I will have students work on at each station. When planning for station activities, I am always looking at three things: 1. Does the activity meet students' needs in the area we are working on? 2.

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UNIS Pathway Session: September 27 SEL and UDL

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Matt:
Hello SEL education community, my name is Matt Pearsall. I am the community manager here in the SEL and education community and I am really excited to be able to share with you today at the beginning the inauguration of our of our new speaker series when we start- we're having a regular series of community members and other people coming in and talking to us giving brief talks around various different topics on social emotional learning and I am not only excited to be kicking off this event but also really excited to be able to kick off at this event featuring somebody who had a chance to meet here before A long time SEL champion in the SEL education community, Lynn Thomas. And so we're gonna be talking about supporting learner variability and without further ado I wanto kind of introduce you all to Lynn Lynn can you tell everybody a little bit about yourself before we jump in?

Lynn:
Hi I'm Lynn Thomas I'd love to Matt. I'm really happy to be here. Really excited about speaking to everybody I'm an ed secondary school english teacher from dunville ontario and I'm also an HP Teaching Fellow and I really advocate for mental health support and mental wellness and social emotional learning. I'm really excited to be here today.

Great! And so this topic of supporting learner variability one of the things on it that I really appreciated when I heard that you wanted to talk about this was that this is something that we all, we, every educator deals with every single day and so kind of hearing how you this connection you found in a little bit you were telling me about it before we started got me really excited. So can you tell us a little bit more about about this this this tool that you've been using and and why it's so exciting?

Well yes definitely. I'm really excited to share it with you so um it's a tool that was introduced to me through being an HP Teaching Fellow and it's something that has been created by Digital Promise who are a non-profit organization who research and try and fill the digital learning gap. And the wonderful thing about it is like learner variability as we all know our kids come to school with all kinds of stuff in their backpack and everybody learns different and we try to adjust and do everything in our programs to try and support all those students and that's a real feat how do you do it for you know 30 odd kids in a room and that kind of thing and a lot of times it can be overwhelming when we try and think about well but how do I account for trauma? How do I account for social emotional learning? how do I account for any cognitive issues? How do I account for background knowledge? You know English language learner, there's so many things that it can feel overwhelming.

And how do you put all that together so the really cool thing about it - and it's called the Learner Variability Navigator - is that it does put all those things together and I love the fact that a lot of times we often think about when we want to do a social emotional learning activity it's very explicit and what I love about this is it offers strategies that are based on research to support any of the different variables or factors that affect learning. And it gives you teaching strategies and methodologies that support those things so you can build it as a thread throughout your program, like every single day and every single lesson without feeling like you're adding more. You know it's switching to how you teach something as opposed to teaching one more thing. And I think that sometimes can really you know it's it's a hard thing to figure out how to do. And you know what are those things it supports so well.

Matt: I think we got you got muted there Lynn there we go you're back

Lynn: okay so I'm having trouble picking which screen I want. That's the one. I got it. Okay sharing. Okay is it right can you see the Learner Variability Navigator? Yep okay.

So this is the Digital Promise's Learner Variability Project. As I said, Digital Promise is an independent nonprofit and their mission is to accelerate innovation and improve opportunities for learning. So basically, what they've done is they've taken research and put it at our fingertips. This is open source and free for all educators. So, you can see as we move down through their research, they've defined basically four pillars that are the main areas that they look at.

So you know here we have social emotional learning, and but we also have content cognition and student background. And then what they did is created looked at those pillars and looked at them in these different models. So they've broken it down basically into kind of numeracy and literacy, which basically they can hit on every single subject. Right, so for ease and because it's the one I'm most familiar with. So you know we'll have a look at the grade 7-12 model and explore the factors. So the first time I saw this, I was blown away by this part so here you can see the four pillars divided in the columns and you can see the factors that they discovered affected learning the most what's really marvelous is when I hover over any one of these factors you can see how some fade out and highlight and it shows automatically right there visually how they're interconnected. And I thought that was just brilliant because sometimes we would forget like you know I wouldn't have thought reading fluency would be affected that much by social emotional learning right and it really emphasized the importance of integrating everything together to support the whole child. And you know you can see like hearing is a factor you know it. I thought it was marvelous, but it gets better.

So on any one of these I can click on and it will take me to a summary page. And then basically outlines what the factor is here it can go it goes into a little more deeper explanation about those connections you know critical literacy so it talks about why is emotion why does critical literacy get affected by emotion you know why does competition get affected so those it really helps. It's, it's like the best teacher PDA out there, I think also.

And again explains all the main ideas so in emotion and if you continue down the page it gives you lots of opportunities to learn more. And I like this - the view measures and references. And it's a little different on for each of the factors, but what's wonderful is one you could dig into the references if you wanted to, but it also gives you measures. So sometimes, these are specific sorts of assessments that you could use in the classroom sometimes they're more specialized where it might be your school psychologist or something like that would deliver and interpret these sorts of assessments but there's a lot of them that the classroom teacher could utilize to then give themselves a better base of understanding so then if we go back and as I said sometimes there's a couple of different measures in there and and then you can see it goes into what are the strategies for this factor and before we get into there I will go back up to the top and you'll notice here we have strategies. So I'll show you that and again here we can see all the different areas down the left hand side and on the right hand side we see all the various strategies again that have been extensively researched and you can see just by the color coding what ones support each of the different factors and for example we can look at annotating. And again like before when I click on annotating I'm taken to a summary page that gives me an overview of what is this strategy and what is it like. But it's really awesome because it then gives me a perfect like a lovely example of it in action in a classroom. It also on the right hand side gives me an example of a technology tool that does a really good job in supporting this specific factor, so you know if you want to need to want to etcetera integrate technology you can find out what ones are really good at supporting that factor.

And as before you there's a ton of examples so you can really learn how are people using this strategy in their classroom and find something that really works for you and learn about it better and even dig into more research if you want to go down rabbit hole, which I have you know so and you can really find out different strategies and what they look like and how successful they can be and work in the classroom.

And finally up here in explorers what's really cool is you can create your own workspace and I'm just gonna show you directly the workspace that I created and what it does. Basically, it's you can go and select five or six factors that maybe you want to focus in on. You know, your class needs etc and that's what I did with this where I was given a new course to start this year our whole board is shifting our grade english courses to indigenous literature and so looking at that coming into coming back to school this year obviously I had a lot of things that I had to think about so I selected specific factors that I thought were going to be really important. So background knowledge because it's kind of lacking critical literacy always important in the english classroom but I also looked at given the emotions and adverse experiences and it's great because this workspace you can give annotation notes so you know I thought okay there's a lot of things that might be triggering just because of the subject matter this year emotions are probably going to be a big factor because of coming out of you know isolation etc and you can share the workspace so you could collaborate with colleagues wow you can just share it straight as a view viewing piece and the strategies that it came up with now it gives me a really great panorama I guess strategies that I can use and build on in my classroom so I know I'm supporting those different factors throughout what I'm teaching, no matter what the content material is.

This is really cool. This is, it's amazing yeah - the depth and breadth has just been phenomenal and the learning possibilities like as a teacher to see how those things are connected and learn the strategies that can support so many different things at the same time is just phenomenal. Yeah I think I mean one of the most powerful things I think from this is I hear a lot, I hear people saying "Well how do we move social motion learning into the classroom?" and I think there's a lot of real there's a lot of high level ways that we talk about that a lot but this really makes it very concrete it's like here's this teaching strategy that that probably most educators will recognize They'll say "oh I already do that, yeah like a gallery walk." How many of us do gallery walks all the time? Well now it's like, "Oh look at that, it supports emotion and it supports motivation. Wow, I wouldn't have thought that." Yeah right - or a guided inquiry. Like, "oh it didn't occur to me that that could be a social emotional learning tool."

Lynn: Yeah and and when when when when we kind of are aware of that then we can be a lot more intentional about how we're approaching it and saying that I'm not just doing this as an academic exercise I'm doing it as a social emotional learning exercise at the same time.

Yeah. Yeah, and I thought it was really cool you know obviously we still need those explicit times where you know maybe we're looking at the vocabulary and the social emotional word wheel or you know and that check-in and that kind of thing but to then carry it throughout the day in the various ways that you teach I think is just phenomenal. Yeah, wow. I really appreciate you you sharing this with us. I think I'd like to ask just one one question here at the end before we before we wrap up and say that that for people approaching this for the first time, what's the what's the where should they start? What's the what's the what's the first place they should go to, you know, What I - just again - it's pretty straightforward how they have it set up is just go to the Learner Variability Project, and I believe you put that n the chat for people to grab and I also gave you a link to a slideshow. Oh yeah let me put that I I made surrounding the learner Navigator Yeah sorry the Learner Variability Navigator and there's a ton of links in there and one specific link at the end resources is basically kind of a one-pager of how to get started and how to create your own workspace. And it's like a one-pager and there's a ton more examples of workspaces that are really really helpful to see how people have utilized it like one teacher used it and sent the link home of her workspace because it explained to the parents all the different strategies and factors

That is a really cool yeah really neat idea because I feel like that's that's something that that's often a real that's a it's a gap in communication between families and educators about about why are we doing things what are the what are the reasons what are the reasons that we do this why does education look different than it used to that sort of those sort of conversations though yeah exactly exactly. So you know there's a wide array of ways that you can use it you know for for your own learning to improve your own practice but also to reach out and make connections with your parents and community

Matt: Well thank you so much for sharing this Lynn, I know the thing I'm going to dig into in this as soon as we get off of here is I'm going to go look at the assessment tools that are laid out in there because that is something that I come that comes up all the time about what are some different ways that we can assess things that are that are they can be done alongside academics. This would be is going to be really useful to a lot of people. That's where I'm headed, yeah for sure.

Lynn: And like I said you could get lost going down the rabbit hole in this Navigator, but it's well worth it.

Matt: Cool! Well again Lynn, thank you so much. I really appreciate you joining us, and for those of you watching at home, I just wanna remind everyone that this is the this is the first of our of our social emotional learning kind of speaker series we're having in the SEL and education community you can continue the conversation right here you see the link to our group. We'd love to see you there. We'll be doing more of these. We've got another one coming up a week from from today with JV Johnson talking about emotional motion management. So, without further ado thank you very much, and we will see you all next week take care everybody. Thank you, Lynn.

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Learner Variability Navigator | Learner Variability Project

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Matt: Hello SEL education community, my name is Matt Pearsall.

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ALWAYS UPDATING

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Page 11: Effective Instruction at Tier 2

After eight weeks of Tier 1 instruction, Mrs. Hernandez's progress monitoring data reveal that four students-DeJuan, Jack, Ryan, and LaToya-are not making adequate progress. Although these students will continue to receive high-quality, Tier 1 instruction from Mrs. Hernandez, she has determined that they would benefit from supplemental Tier 2 intervention and continued frequent progress monitoring.

High-Quality Instruction

Just as with Tier 1, Tier 2 instruction should be of high quality. The implementation of high-quality Tier 2 instruction may vary from school to school but is typically delivered in small groups ranging in size from three to five students. However, all schools should implement supplemental interventions, which are based on research-validated instruction, for at least 30 to 45 minutes three to five times a week, depending on the ages of the students. School personnel may need to be creative to identify instructional time for Tier 2 intervention. Two options to consider are:

Taking time from two consecutive classes (e.g., 15 minutes from social studies and 15 minutes from science)

Taking time from "specials" (e.g., music, library, art)

In addition to the 90 minutes of core reading instruction provided by Mrs. Hernandez in the general education classroom, DeJuan, Jack, Ryan, and LaToya will receive 30 minutes of Tier 2 intervention with Ms. Washington, the reading specialist. Because Rosa Parks Elementary chose to use the standard protocol approach, the identified struggling readers will receive a standard research-validated instructional program provided in a small-group format. Ms. Washington will provide all four students with the same, empirically validated intervention, which will address all five components of high-quality reading instruction. The schedule below depicts the amount of time she will spend on each of the components.

For Your Information

In some cases, a larger percentage of general education classroom students may require Tier 2 intervention than would be expected. When this occurs, school professionals should reexamine the quality of the Tier 1 services and make changes accordingly.

Tier 2 intervention may be provided by the general education teacher or by another trained instructor, within or outside the general education classroom. If Tier 2 intervention is provided by someone other than the general education teacher, collaboration between the teachers is particularly important so that the intervention program is aligned with Tier 1 instruction. For example, Ms. Washington will identify additional, supporting instructional resources (e.g., letter/ sound cards, word cards, strategies specific to working with English Language Learners, and progress monitoring assessments) to supplement the Tier 1 comprehensive core reading program. She will also use these resources to provide extra practice opportunities for students receiving Tier 2 intervention. For instance, if students have worked on the /a/ sound during Tier 1 then the same skill should be reviewed and reinforced during the Tier 2 intervention. The sample lesson activity (below) shows how Ms. Washington's Tier 2 lesson will reinforce one of the skills taught by Mrs. Hernandez during Tier 1 instruction.

Tier 2 Intervention

Remember, teachers who provide Tier 2 interventions should:

Provide instruction with modeling

Check that students are doing the activity correctly

Have students demonstrate what they are doing

Have students repeat instructions

Provide corrective feedback to individual students

Provide multiple examples

Phonemic Awareness: Here is an example of how Ms. Washington uses phonemic awareness.
Say the parts of a word then put them together and say the word. The parts are /m/ /a/ /n/.
Ms. Washington holds up a finger as she says each sound so that she has three fingers up when she finishes.

That word is "man." Let's try another word.
The parts of this word are /p/ /a/ /t/. The word is "pat. "

She gives her students further practice by asking them to say the following blended words after she says the individual sounds.

mat cat map pan

tap tack tan
nap

Now look at the table below and compare the phonemic awareness lessons between Tier 1 and Tier 2. Although the lessons seem similar, Tier 2 provides a more intense level of instruction. This is achieved by providing additional attention, focus, and support, and by adjusting the pace of the lesson to match students' needs. For example, where a Tier 1 lesson might have students practice on three different sounds, a Tier 2 lesson might start with one sound and gradually progress to the second and third sounds once students can demonstrate their understanding of each previous sound. Students have multiple opportunities to participate and respond, and Ms. Washington is able to provide immediate corrective feedback.
Phonemic Awareness Phonemic Awareness
As indicated in the table above, small-group activities for Tier 1 and Tier 2 instruction appear to have comparable content. However, Tier 1 teachers most likely will not have as much time with their struggling students during small-group instruction (5-20 minutes) as teachers will have during Tier 2 small-group instruction (30-45 minutes). Tier 1 teachers will have to prioritize what the struggling students need to learn or practice during Tier 1 small-group instruction. Therefore, the Tier 1 teacher may be able to cover only one or two core reading components during this short time. Subsequently, because Tier 2 intervention is for a more extended time, the Tier 2 teacher should be able to address most, if not all, of the five components during the intervention.

Listen to Thea Woodruff discuss Tier 1 and Tier 2 instruction (time: 0:32).
View Transcript
Transcript: Thea Woodruff, PhD

They really should look very similar and provide the students with more practice opportunities that are consistent across the two instructional times. You want some consistency across what kids are doing, so you are reinforcing the same skills and having them practice them. Especially with struggling readers, you're wanting to be consistent in the instruction that you're providing across these different interventions. If you're doing different things, it's going to be difficult-especially for struggling readers-to grasp on to the activities and learn how to do them and get as much out of them if you're not being consistent.

Frequent Monitoring

Ms. Washington is responsible for conducting the weekly progress monitoring of those students receiving Tier 2 instruction, which typically lasts 10-12 weeks. However, she and Mrs. Hernandez are responsible for collaborating and making decisions about the students' instructional needs. At the end of the 10-12-week period, they also are responsible for determining, whether individual students should receive Tier 1 instruction only, whether they should continue to receive another round of Tier 2 intervention, or whether they need more the intensive intervention provided by Tier 3.

The table below offers a brief summary of some options for Tier 2 intervention.

Tier 2 Intervention Options

Who receives instruction

Students who are not making adequate progress with Tier 1 instruction.

Amount of daily instruction

Instruction may vary, depending on the age of the student, from 30-45 minutes per day (+ Tier 1):

Younger students (e.g., kindergartners) have shorter attention spans and might require shorter amounts of time (e.g., 30 minutes)

Older students are able to attend for longer amounts of time (e.g., 30-45 minutes)

When instruction is provided

Scheduling options for Tier 2 could include:

Taking time from two consecutive classes (e.g., 15 minutes from social studies and 15 minutes from science)

Taking time from "specials" (e.g., music, library, art)

In the event that a large percentage of students requires Tier 2, the teacher might need to schedule more than one Tier 2 intervention period per day.

Duration of instruction

10 weeks-20 weeks:

The number of weeks may vary, but a minimum of 10-12 weeks is recommended.

Students may need an additional round of Tier 2 intervention.

How instruction is implemented

Instruction should be implemented with teacher/ student ratios of 1:3-1:5.

Frequency of progress monitoring

At least one time every 1-2 weeks

Who provides instruction

Trained personnel may include:

General education teacher

Reading specialist

Paraprofessionals

Other personnel

Where students are served

Within or outside the general education classroom

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IRIS | Page 11: Effective Instruction at Tier 2

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After eight weeks of Tier 1 instruction, Mrs. Hernandez's progress monitoring data reveal that four students-DeJuan, Jack, Ryan, and LaToya-are not making adequate progress. Although these students will continue to receive high-quality, Tier 1 instruction from Mrs. Hernandez, she has determined that they would benefit from supplemental Tier 2 intervention and continued frequent progress monitoring.

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Response to Intervention | RTI | RTI Resources | Intervention Central

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Intervention Central is the leading resource for Response to Intervention (RTI) tools and resources, including academic and behavior interventions for classroom management.

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As an initiative of the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) was created in 2002 to be a central and trusted source of scientific evidence for what works in education.

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1 Multi-Tier System of Effective MTSS Tier 2 Reading : Guidelines for SchoolsJim System of System of System of PPTs and handout available at: System of System of 26 April 2019: Half-day visit to audit school s RTI/MTSS process for reading. 24 Sept 2019: Full-day workshop on Tier 2 reading services. 21 Oct 2019: Full-day workshop: Topic to be Wright: Training with Park Avenue School6 Multi-Tier System of System of 2 Reading : Agenda1. Quality Indicators. What are recommendations for high-quality Tier 2 ? What types of interventions are used for Tier 2 reading in your building---and are they research-based?3. Screening. What data sources should be used to identify students for Tier 2--and how are they prioritized? What is the minimum documentation needed to record a Tier 2 Intervention ? Steps. What key next steps will your school undertake in Tier 2 reading interventions ?Multi-Tier System of The perfect is the enemy of the ProverbMulti-Tier System of for Academics: An Overview.

2 What are the levels, or Tiers, of academic support in RTI/MTSS?10 Multi-Tier System of : Grosche, M., & Volpe, R. J. (2013). Response-to- Intervention (RTI) as a model to facilitate inclusion for students with learning and behaviour problems. European Journal of Special Needs Education, 28, 254-269. System of 1: Core InstructionTier 1: Classroom academic InterventionsTier 2: StrategicTier 3: IntensiveRTI/MTSS for Academics: Pyramid of InterventionsMulti-Tier System of 1: Core InstructionRTI/MTSS for Academics: Pyramid of InterventionsTier 1: Core Instruction (100%). Teachers in all classrooms deliver Effective instruction to reach the widest range of learners. Multi-Tier System of 1: Core Instruction. The teacher s whole-group time devoted to instruction by reducing or avoiding interruptions , overlong transitions, episodes of problem behavior, essential elements of explicit and systematic instruction into reading and mathematics instruction, uses programs and/or practices supported by differentiated instruction matched to student System of 1: Core InstructionRTI/MTSS for Academics: Pyramid of InterventionsTier 1: Classroom academic InterventionsTier 1: Classroom Intervention .

3 The classroom teacher provides Tier 1 interventions to those individual students with academic difficulties who need additional classroom support to achieve success in core instruction. Multi-Tier System of 1: Classroom Intervention . The access to a bank of academic Intervention ideas and data-collection methods accessible by all standardized form(s) to record classroom appropriate academic Intervention (s) supported by method(s) to monitor student progress, setting a goal and collecting baseline the student s presenting academic problem(s) in clear and specific System of 1: Core InstructionRTI/MTSS for Academics: Pyramid of InterventionsTier 1: Classroom academic InterventionsTier 2: StrategicTier 2: Strategic Intervention (10-15%). Students with off-grade-level skill deficits receive supplemental small-group interventions outside of core instruction to fill in those gaps. interventions used are System of 2: Supplemental Intervention .

4 At Tier 2,..students enter and exit Tier 2 services based primarily on the objective data of the school-wide screening tool(s) ( , 20-25th% or below), with teacher nomination as only a minor source of recruitment.. interventions are documented in writing before Tier 2 services begin,and Tier 2 plans are archived electronically for easy seek to fix off-grade-level academic deficits and are not simply a reteaching of classroom instruction ..the interventionist collects progress-monitoring data at least twice per month to monitor the success of the interventionist employs academic programs or practices supported by System of Qualification for AIS ServicesFor the 2017-18 school year, districts shall continue to identify students to receive AIS through a two-step process. First, all students performing below the median scale score between a level 2/partially proficient and a Level 3/proficient on a grade 3-8 English language arts (ELA) or mathematics state assessment shall be considered for AIS.

5 Upon identification of a student for consideration for AIS, districts shall then use a district-developed procedure, to be applied uniformly at each grade level, for determining which students shall receive AIS. After the district considers a student s scores on multiple measures of student performance, the district determines whether the student is required to receive : NYSED (22 August 2017). academic Intervention services for the 2017-18 school year based on 2016-17 school year 3-8 English Language Arts and mathematics assessment scores. Retrieved from System of 37. What is meant by [AIS] intensity of service?Intensity of service means the provision of services for students based on the level of their needs as determined through multiple measures and sources of evidence. Students with the most intense needs would receive more scheduled services, for a longer duration, and with more individualization. Students with the least intensive needs might only receive progress monitoring as a student support : NYSED.

6 (7 January 2000). academic Intervention Services: Questions & Answers. Retrieved from System of NYS RTI Guidance Manual (2010; p. 13)Tier 2 Intervention is typically small group (3-5) supplemental instruction. This supplemental instructional Intervention is provided in addition to, and not in place of, the core instruction provided in Tier 2 interventions focus on the areas of student need or weakness that are identified in the screening, assessment or progress monitoring reports from Tier 1. Therefore, students are often grouped according to instructional need. Approximately 5 to 10 percent of students in a class receive Tier 2 Intervention . The location of Tier 2 Intervention is determined by the school. It may take place in the general education classroom or in an alternate location outside of the general education classroom. Source: New York State Education Department. (October 2010). Response to Intervention : Guidance for New York State School Districts.

7 Retrieved November 10, 2010, from ; p. 13 Multi-Tier System of 1: Core InstructionTier 1: Classroom academic InterventionsTier 2: StrategicTier 3: IntensiveRTI/MTSS for Academics: Pyramid of InterventionsTier 3: Intensive Intervention (1-5%). Students with intensive academic gaps are reviewed by the RTI/MTSS Problem-Solving Team and receive a customized Intervention plan . Most students at Tier 3 are System of 3: Intensive Intervention . The RTI Problem-Solving on referred students within 1-2 weeks of initial a standardized problem-solving meeting format, with defined meeting roles and that providers of Tier 3 interventions will collect data at least weekly to monitor student schedules follow-up meetings 6-8 instructional weeks after the initial meeting to evaluate Intervention a written record of RTI /MTSS Team meeting discussion, including a customized Intervention System of academic Screeners. The school/district a set of school-wide screeners that reliably detect significant areas of student academic risk.

8 NOTE: These tools may screen for basic academic skills, general academic achievement, or a mix of the any additional data sources ( , teacher nomination, state assessments) to be used in determining studenteligibility for Tier 2 all Tier 2/3 data sources in descending order of importance in determining student Intervention placement specific cut-points for each data source (where appropriate) to determine eligibility for Tier 2/3 Intervention System of 1p. 2 Multi-Tier System of 2 Quality Indicators: ActivityEvaluate the Quality of Your Tier 2 off and use this form to rate your current Tier 2 RTI/MTSS reading services. 26 Multi-Tier System of Reading Programs. What are examples of Effective research-based Tier 2/3 reading programs? And what are quality indicators for any Tier 2/3 reading support?27 Multi-Tier System of Tier 2/3 reading interventions have these 4 important attributes. They: are supported by research. target off-grade-level reading skills to fill in gaps and catch the student up with grade peers.

9 Provide remediation in specific, clearly defined academic skills. are scripted in sufficient detail to allow interventionists to carry them out with the Quality of Tier 2/3 Reading interventions /Programs28 Multi-Tier System of are 3 things that high-quality Tier 2/3 reading interventions are NOT: Homework help, test preparation, or reteaching of core-instructional content. People. (The reading teacher is not an Intervention .) Locations. (The Learning Lab or academic Support Center is not an Intervention .)Evaluating the Quality of Tier 2/3 Reading interventions /Programs29 Multi-Tier System of HELPS (Helping Early Literacy with Practice Strategies) is a free tutoring program that targets student reading fluency skills. Developed by Dr. John Begeny of North Carolina State University, the program is an evidence-based Intervention package that includes several Intervention elements in a 15-minute 1:1 tutorial High-Quality Tier 2/3 Reading interventions Example: HELPS ( )Multi-Tier System of Reading Fluency AVAILABLE ON CONFERENCE WEB PAGEM ulti-Tier System of System of : Tier 2 Reading-Fluency Program33 Multi-Tier System of : Is the HELPS Program supported by research?

10 A: Yes. Dr. John Begeny, the program creator, has published several studies demonstrating HELPS effectiveness in boosting reading fluency: Begeny, , Upright, , Easton, , Ehrenbock, , & Tunstall, (2013). Validity estimates and functionality of materials and procedures used to monitor the implementation integrity of a reading Intervention . Journal of Applied School Psychology, 29,284-304. Begeny, , Braun, , *Lynch, , *Ramsay, , & Wendt, (2012). Initial evidence for using the HELPS reading fluency program with small instructional groups. School Psychology Forum: Research in Practice, 6, 50-63. Begeny, , Ross, , Greene, , Mitchell, , & Whitehouse, (2012). Effects of the Helping Early Literacy with Practice Strategies (HELPS) Reading Fluency Program with Latino English language learners: A preliminary evaluation. Journal of Behavioral Education, 21, the Quality of Tier 2/3 Reading interventions /Programs: Example: HELPS Program34 Multi-Tier System of : Does HELPS allow the tutor to target off-level reading skills?

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Developing Effective MTSS Tier 2 ... - Intervention Central / developing-effective-mtss-tier-2-intervention-central.pdf / PDF4PRO

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Academic Interventions Tier 2: Strategic Tier 3: Intensive RTI/MTSS for Academics: Pyramid of Interventions Tier 3: Intensive Intervention (1-5%). Students with intensive academic gaps are reviewed by the RTI/MTSS Problem-Solving Team and receive a customized intervention plan. Most students at Tier 3 are still general-education.

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What Is the PAX Good Behavior Game? | paxgoodbehaviorgame.promoteprevent.org

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PAX is a set of strategies to help students learn important self-management skills while collaborating to make their classroom a peaceful and productive learning environment. Centered on the Good Behavior Game, PAX is not a classroom management program, but it makes managing classrooms much easier.…

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Supporting and Responding to Behavior (Elementary and Secondary Examples)

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Supporting and Responding to Behavior (Elementary and Secondary Examples)

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6 Tips for Teaching Math Problem-Solving Skills

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Solving word problems is tougher than computing with numbers, but elementary teachers can guide students to do the deep thinking involved.

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5 Vocabulary Games That Build Content Knowledge

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5 Vocabulary Games That Build Content Knowledge

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Engaging games support student understanding of subject-specific vocabulary and help ensure retention of content knowledge.

Subject-specific vocabulary goes hand-in-hand with a deep and meaningful knowledge of content. It allows us to engage with that subject, unlocks understanding, and promotes clear and precise communication.

At the end of a topic or unit of work, I like to encourage my students to play with the words they've learned. I use five different word-association games that get students to recall, describe, explain, listen, and verbalize the subject-specific vocabulary from that topic or unit of work. In my experience, the lighthearted nature of these games provides students with a fun, safe, and low-stakes environment where they feel more confident to just have a go.

Although the examples I've given are specific to my subject (biology) and age group (high school), I hope these games are also applicable to other subjects and student ages and provide engaging ways to help students master vocabulary.

How it works: For this five-to-eight-minute game, students work in small groups (two to four) and have to write down a word related to a topic for every letter of the alphabet. For example, if the topic is cells, "A" might be "apoptosis," "B" might be "binary fission," "C" might be "cytoplasm," and so on. For many topics, students might struggle to find a word for every letter (and sometimes you will too). You can support them and/or allow them to get more abstract or silly.

This is great as a starter activity for a lesson that falls at the end of the topic. I like to keep it visible and accessible throughout the lesson for students to add to if inspiration strikes them later on.

2. Articulate

Based on the popular board game Articulate, this 10-to-20-minute game (depending on the size of your class) gets students to describe and define key terms.

How it works: Prepare a number of cards containing four words related to a topic or subject and one silly or unrelated word. Students will work in teams of three or four. When it's the first team's turn, one student from that team stands at the front. The teacher gives that student a card, and the student has to describe the word to their team without ever saying the word, or variations of the word. I usually allow each team one free pass per round. The number of points that the team gets is equal to the number of words that the team guesses in 30 seconds. Teams rotate and continue until every player has had a turn.

The aim of this 15-to-20-minute game is to get students to make connections between key vocabulary words.

I first played the Just One game with my family and then modified it by making cards specific to vocabulary in my subject so that I could use it in my classroom.

How it works: Prepare a number of cards with five words related to a unit, topic, or subject (sometimes I reuse the ones I use in Articulate). Three to seven students work in a group. One student chooses a number between one and five and turns around, facing away from their classmates.

The first card is shown to the other students in the group, and without conferring, they write down one word (on a mini whiteboard) that relates to the corresponding word on the card. For example, if the clue is "muscle," possible related words might be "movement," "skeletal," or "tissue." All of the students reveal their mini whiteboards to their group-all except the first student.

If two students have written the same word, both words get erased (this encourages students to think beyond the most obvious links). Finally, the first student turns around to view the remaining words and has one chance to guess what the original word on the card was. Repeat the process with a new student guessing and a new card until everyone has had at least one turn. You can appeal to students' competitive natures by giving them a score to aim for. So, for a group of five, everyone has two turns, and the aim is to achieve a total score of 7 or more out of 10.

4. Telephone Pictionary

For this 20-to-30-minute game, students use diagrams to explain key vocabulary.

How it works: Create groups of about six to eight students, ideally sitting in a circle. Each student is given a note card or piece of paper with a different phrase or term on it (examples I have used include "human evolution," "the kidneys" and "cell membrane").

The student has 30-45 seconds to sketch a picture to represent the phrase or term and then paperclips their sketch over the word so that it isn't visible to the next student. This picture gets passed on to the next student, who (on a new card or piece of paper) writes a phrase or term that they think was given to the student before them based on the picture drawn. Then they use their sketch to cover the previous one. This continues around the group, alternating between drawing and writing until it returns to the original student.

This is happening simultaneously for all students-so everyone is always doing something. Once the cycle returns to the original student, they lay out all the cards, reveal the original phrase or term, and choose a winning contributor for their round-usually either the most accurate or the funniest one.

This two-to-eight-minute game gets students verbalizing and making links between vocabulary words. It works well at the end of a lesson when you have a couple of spare minutes.

How it works: Students are put into pairs, and on the count of three, they say a word related to a given subject or unit. For example, in the topic "cells," one student might say "cellulose," and another student might say "eukaryotic." On the count of three, they then simultaneously say another word that they think matches the two words just said. Now, one might say "plant" and another might say "cell wall." This keeps going until both students say the same word at the same time. Words can't be repeated at any time.

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5 Vocabulary Games That Build Content Knowledge

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Engaging games support student understanding of subject-specific vocabulary and help ensure retention of content knowledge.

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These simple tricks to improve motor skills can empower young learners to feel more in control of their handwriting.

One of the most common referrals I've received as a school-based occupational therapist and evaluator over the past 13 years has been regarding difficulty with handwriting skills. Why is this?

One reason is that kids tend to be on the computer or other devices frequently. More and more digital options are available, including phones, video games, and other technology. This leads to less exposure connected to handwriting, pencil-to-paper tasks, crafts, and other related activities that build on underlying skills that lead to functional handwriting, including formation, sizing, spacing, and line regard, as well as overall speed.

Why students struggle with handwriting

There are many underlying skills that can impact handwriting legibility, including gross motor skills (whole body strength and coordination), fine motor skills (strength and coordination of the small muscles of the hands), attention (the ability to attend to and process specific information within the environment while filtering out the rest), sensory processing (how the brain processes and integrates information from the senses), and visual motor skills (the ability to translate a visual image/plan into an accurate motor action).

It's important to remember the following before using the supports detailed later:

Your students may have a combination of underlying skill component difficulties affecting handwriting (i.e., sensory processing and fine motor skills), so you may want to have them complete supports for both of these difficulties before they work on writing tasks.

Provide your students with as much control over these activities as possible:

Ask them what parts of the handwriting process feel difficult (don't assume). This way you'll be giving them control over building their skills.

Have them choose from a selection of the specific supplies or tools they may need (e.g., a specific color of a grip).

Introduce the strategies below when your students are calm and regulated.

These supports are best utilized beginning in kindergarten; if students within the preschool level express an interest in writing or most probably drawing, the strategies below can assist in developing underlying components connected to supporting their drawing and consequent handwriting skills

List of strategies divided by skill area

1. Gross motor: Footstool.This is any object placed under the student's feet so that their feet aren't dangling. A footstool can help students feel where their body is in space when they write, increasing related focus.

Use objects such as a crate, a cardboard box, or a large block as a footstool.

2. Visual motor: Eye scans. This exercise helps strengthen the eye muscles. This is important, as the eye muscles help students keep letters on the lines and maintain spaces between the words. Another word for this exercise is saccade, which is when the eyes move quickly from side to side. This is an important skill to use when students are reading, as well.

Have two frozen-pop sticks ready--one with a smiley face and one with a check mark.

Students should keep their head straight and only move their eyes.

Have them look at the smiley face.

Have them look at the check mark.

Repeat five times.

3. Fine motor: Erasable pens. Erasable pens help students write in a smooth way and require less force to get the ink out than ordinary pens, making them a nice choice to use when students find it tricky to press hard enough on the paper or with "firm pressure."

4. Attention: Visual timer. Have students set the timer for however long they expect that they can sit. A good estimate is one minute per year of life; so if a student is 8 years old, they should be able to sit for at least eight minutes and write. Knowing how long they're expected to sit (especially when doing something challenging) can make it easier for them to focus.

5. Sensory processing: You can utilize a spiky pencil grip or a weighted pencil that will provide the students with tactile feedback.

Spiky pencil grip: This provides great tactile/touch input for students who tend to touch items in their environment. Do you have students who press extra hard when they write? This type of pencil grip may help them press less hard, since they're getting that touch input into their hands.

Weighted pencil: This type of pencil gives students a proprioceptive awareness through added weight into the hand (giving them awareness of where their hand is in space). By placing the weight specifically near the tip, you're also allowing for optimal hand placement.

You can create your own weighted grip with two rubber bands and three hex nuts, as well as an optional foam grip for hand placement. (You could also add a variety of other grips that address grasp difficulties as well, such as the "the pencil grip," "the crossover grip," "the claw grip," "the grotto grip," etc.)

Put the pencil through the nuts so the nuts are in the middle of the pencil. Wrap one rubber band just before the three nuts and the other rubber band just after the three nuts; the rubber bands should hold the nuts in place. The child's hand goes below the rubber band securing the nut nearest to the pencil tip (where you could also place a foam grip).

The above supports should help counterbalance time spent on the computer and enable young learners to strengthen the skills they need to feel secure in their handwriting.

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Tips to Help Students With Their Handwriting

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These simple tricks to improve motor skills can empower young learners to feel more in control of their handwriting. One of the most common referrals I've received as a school-based occupational therapist and evaluator over the past 13 years has been regarding difficulty with handwriting skills. Why is this?

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Why is a behavior occur and how to respond.

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During Quarters 2-4, NES ELL students receive Tier 2 interventions that are related to ECR storybooks, to help them better access the curriculum content in the classroom. It is important that the vocabulary used during Tier 2 interventions is differentiated for the needs of the students in the intervention. In many cases, that will mean differentiating ECR vocabulary down. In addition to building basic vocabulary for students, this will help them to better comprehend ECR vocabulary during whole group exercises.

ECR vocabulary word: Nightmare

Tier 2 Intervention word: Dream, Sleep

If students understand dream or sleep from the Tier 2 interventions, they will be able to understand nightmare better when it is presented during whole group activities (a nightmare is a bad dream, scary things you think of when you sleep, etc).

A list of 10 vocabulary words, with pictures, is listed for each week of ECR, beginning with Unit 5, below. The 10 vocabulary words include a mixture of nouns and verbs, to help students begin to form phrases with key vocabulary. The words include a mixture of ECR vocabulary and differentiated down ECR vocabulary. The vocabulary are related to one of the core storybooks from that week.

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ECR-Related T2 Vocabulary Suggestions - Language Acquisition- AELPCS

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During Quarters 2-4, NES ELL students receive Tier 2 interventions that are related to ECR storybooks, to help them better access the curriculum content in the classroom. It is important that the vocabulary used during Tier 2 interventions is differentiated for the needs of the students in the intervention.

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https://www.edutopia.org/article/promoting-love-reading-without-reading-logs

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Instead of measuring minutes or pages, these strategies guide students to see reading as an enjoyable activity.

Developing consistent independent reading habits allows students to practice reading skills, promotes choice, increases confidence, and develops a love for reading; however, many students need help to develop these habits.

Creating a classroom culture that shows students and families that you value independent reading along with classroom assignments and activities can provide the motivation, accountability, and encouragement students need to establish consistent reading habits without a need for reading logs.

Reading logs facilitate a culture around reading that promotes the idea that reading is such a chore that students can't be trusted to do it without getting an adult's signature. When students have to time their reading, they can hyper-focus on the timing of their reading instead of learning to stop at a natural stopping point.

Independent reading is a consistent focus in my classroom, and I've found various ways to hold students accountable and promote a love of reading without using reading logs.

Fostering a Love of Reading

Connect with families: Instead of asking families to sign a reading log, partner with them and ask them to encourage students to consistently read at home and create habits around reading. Be realistic and acknowledge that some days students may read for a longer period of time than others, and some days they may not have to read at all, but creating a habit of reading will benefit them as readers and as students in all of their subjects.

Make the connection to students and families that reading, like playing a sport, learning how to play an instrument, or learning any other skill, requires practice to improve, and while practice might not always be easy, it should be enjoyable. One way to help make it fun is to allow students to choose their independent reading books, provide access to high-interest books, and let students know that if they're not enjoying a book, they can abandon it and find a new one.

Weekly goals: Each Monday, have students set a reading goal for themselves and reflect on how they did with their previous week's reading goal. These goals should be individual and based on how they want to challenge themselves.

How did your reading make you feel?

What is one word you would use to describe the main character in your book?

Why did you choose your book?

Would you want to be friends with the main character?

Would you want to live in the setting of the book?

Quick responses: Ask students a question about their nightly reading that they can answer quickly. They can do this during a few minutes of class time a few times a week. For older students, it may be appropriate to ask "Why" to explain their answers and/or use details from the book to support their answers. Younger students may benefit from choices and/or the opportunity to draw their answers. Here are some examples of quick responses:

Reading partners: Assign or allow students to choose reading partners to share about the books they're reading a few days a week. Students may benefit from guiding questions to have these conversations.

Favorite Fridays: Create space and time in class for students to recommend to their classmates books they've read and enjoyed during their independent reading.

Reading chats: Whenever time allows, have informal individual conversations with students about reading. Share what you're reading, and ask them about what they're reading. Letting them know you're interested in their reading life and showing them how much fun it can be to talk about reading will encourage students to read and add to the conversation.

Reading webs: Get the whole class involved in sharing their reading by having one student stand up and share one thing about their book, then any other class member who can connect their book to the previous share stands up and shares how it connects and adds something new about their book. This continues until everyone has connected their book to someone else.

Quick connect: Ask students to make one connection between the book they're reading and themselves, the world, or another book. They can share their connection with a friend, write it down, or draw it.

Monthly reading challenges: Create a reading bingo board with different reading challenges, and have students fill in their board as they complete the challenges. Students can create their own monthly goals as to how many blocks they hope to fill in.

Reading pledge: Instead of parents and/or the child signing nightly that the child has read a certain number of minutes each night, create a reading pledge with your students and families that both sign at the beginning of the year, which states that they will make time for independent reading at home. You can personalize the pledge based on the grade level, needs, and goals of each student.

#AmReading board: Create a space in the classroom to display images of books that students have read or are reading. For younger students, who are likely reading shorter but more books, they can choose one book they've recently enjoyed to submit for the board.

Older elementary and middle school students who are likely reading the same chapter book over a longer period can submit each book they've finished reading to display on the board.

Providing students with the motivation, encouragement, and accountability needed to read independently on a consistent basis helps them develop reading habits that will lead to increased confidence, improved reading skills, and opportunities to find books that they enjoy reading.

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Promoting a Love of Reading-Without Reading Logs

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Instead of measuring minutes or pages, these strategies guide students to see reading as an enjoyable activity. Developing consistent independent reading habits allows students to practice reading skills, promotes choice, increases confidence, and develops a love for reading; however, many students need help to develop these habits.

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https://www.edutopia.org/article/4-ways-classroom-design-impacts-executive-functioning?utm_content=linkpos1&utm_source=edu-newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=weekly-2022-10-05

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4 Ways Classroom Design Impacts Executive Functioning

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Effective classroom design can help elementary students develop skills like organization and task initiation.

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https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1yVxNp8X7tSaY6x8f48U4Xjh26qs7p2698mRIYgWKUvU/edit?usp=sharing

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https://www.interventioncentral.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/pdfs_blog/student_motivation_growth_mindset.pdf

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https://www.readingrockets.org/shows/reading-interventions

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https://teacher.desmos.com/activitybuilder/custom/6232070f6f1f453e764b9543

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Twinkle- https://www.twinkl.com/resource/t-l-52341-handwriting-activity-sheets

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https://quizlet.com/

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https://ufli.education.ufl.edu/foundations/toolbox/?fs=e&s=cl

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https://www.heinemann.com/jenniferserravallo/resources/#WSB

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Link- https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/17_dnPhg_fbA6MzI230qfUSzxl-BE3FcbyyBnHpR4EXU/edit#slide=id.p

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Evidence shows that educators can implement approaches that benefit young children's self-regulation Self-regulation enables children to monitor their emotions and thoughts and choose how to adapt their behaviour towards a goal. Self-regulation and executive function are closely interrelated and often rely on each other. For more detail, see the overview section of this theme. and/​or executive function Executive function refers to a set of skills which are often used together. These skills involve children resisting their impulses (inhibitory control) and controlling how they direct their attention (cognitive flexibility). Executive function also helps children to hold information in mind so they can apply it (working memory), such as remembering the rules of a game whilst they play. Executive function and self-regulation are closely interrelated and often rely on each other. For more detail, see the overview section of this theme. . The EEF's Early Years Toolkit estimates that children who receive self-regulation Self-regulation enables children to monitor their emotions and thoughts and choose how to adapt their behaviour towards a goal. Self-regulation and executive function are closely interrelated and often rely on each other. For more detail, see the overview section of this theme. approaches make, on average, three months' additional progress.

While there is evidence that implementing these approaches could have a positive impact on children's self-regulation Self-regulation enables children to monitor their emotions and thoughts and choose how to adapt their behaviour towards a goal. Self-regulation and executive function are closely interrelated and often rely on each other. For more detail, see the overview section of this theme. and/​or executive function Executive function refers to a set of skills which are often used together. These skills involve children resisting their impulses (inhibitory control) and controlling how they direct their attention (cognitive flexibility). Executive function also helps children to hold information in mind so they can apply it (working memory), such as remembering the rules of a game whilst they play. Executive function and self-regulation are closely interrelated and often rely on each other. For more detail, see the overview section of this theme. outcomes, there are still some questions that are unanswered and so more research is needed.

Some approaches educators use to support self-regulation Self-regulation enables children to monitor their emotions and thoughts and choose how to adapt their behaviour towards a goal. Self-regulation and executive function are closely interrelated and often rely on each other. For more detail, see the overview section of this theme. and executive function Executive function refers to a set of skills which are often used together. These skills involve children resisting their impulses (inhibitory control) and controlling how they direct their attention (cognitive flexibility). Executive function also helps children to hold information in mind so they can apply it (working memory), such as remembering the rules of a game whilst they play. Executive function and self-regulation are closely interrelated and often rely on each other. For more detail, see the overview section of this theme. require explicit teaching Formal educator-directed approaches in which educators explicitly support children to develop specific ideas and skills. and modelling. Others require educators to intentionally structure experiences for children to facilitate development during play enabling them to practise and try out different strategies.

Self-regulation Self-regulation enables children to monitor their emotions and thoughts and choose how to adapt their behaviour towards a goal. Self-regulation and executive function are closely interrelated and often rely on each other. For more detail, see the overview section of this theme. is supported by children's executive function Executive function refers to a set of skills which are often used together. These skills involve children resisting their impulses (inhibitory control) and controlling how they direct their attention (cognitive flexibility). Executive function also helps children to hold information in mind so they can apply it (working memory), such as remembering the rules of a game whilst they play. Executive function and self-regulation are closely interrelated and often rely on each other. For more detail, see the overview section of this theme. . Executive function Executive function refers to a set of skills which are often used together. These skills involve children resisting their impulses (inhibitory control) and controlling how they direct their attention (cognitive flexibility). Executive function also helps children to hold information in mind so they can apply it (working memory), such as remembering the rules of a game whilst they play. Executive function and self-regulation are closely interrelated and often rely on each other. For more detail, see the overview section of this theme. refers to a set of skills which are often used together. These require teaching and modelling, practice, and repetition to develop. Executive function Executive function refers to a set of skills which are often used together. These skills involve children resisting their impulses (inhibitory control) and controlling how they direct their attention (cognitive flexibility). Executive function also helps children to hold information in mind so they can apply it (working memory), such as remembering the rules of a game whilst they play. Executive function and self-regulation are closely interrelated and often rely on each other. For more detail, see the overview section of this theme. can help children resist their impulses and control how they direct their attention. Executive function Executive function refers to a set of skills which are often used together. These skills involve children resisting their impulses (inhibitory control) and controlling how they direct their attention (cognitive flexibility). Executive function also helps children to hold information in mind so they can apply it (working memory), such as remembering the rules of a game whilst they play. Executive function and self-regulation are closely interrelated and often rely on each other. For more detail, see the overview section of this theme. also helps children to hold information in mind so they can apply it, such as remembering the rules of a game whilst they play.

Within the statutory Early Years Foundation Stage Framework, developing self-regulation Self-regulation enables children to monitor their emotions and thoughts and choose how to adapt their behaviour towards a goal. Self-regulation and executive function are closely interrelated and often rely on each other. For more detail, see the overview section of this theme. is recognised as part of a child's Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED). The approaches for teaching self-regulation Self-regulation enables children to monitor their emotions and thoughts and choose how to adapt their behaviour towards a goal. Self-regulation and executive function are closely interrelated and often rely on each other. For more detail, see the overview section of this theme. and executive function Executive function refers to a set of skills which are often used together. These skills involve children resisting their impulses (inhibitory control) and controlling how they direct their attention (cognitive flexibility). Executive function also helps children to hold information in mind so they can apply it (working memory), such as remembering the rules of a game whilst they play. Executive function and self-regulation are closely interrelated and often rely on each other. For more detail, see the overview section of this theme. are complementary to some approaches within the Personal, Social, and Emotional Development (PSED) theme you will find this theme both within the PSED section of the Evidence Store and accessible as a standalone resource. Do consider exploring the approaches here and within the PSED theme.

1. Creating and navigating challenge:
Creating developmentally appropriate challenges for children to develop and practice their skills in different contexts.

2. Teaching self-monitoring and self-awareness:
Helping children to develop an awareness of their own thoughts and emotions, including how their feelings

3. Creating a community of collaborative learners:
Facilitating collaborative groups of learners where adults and children cooperate and work towards shared goals.

4. Promoting physical activity:

5. Facilitating talk to communicate about learning:
Encouraging talk that enables children to plan and reflect on their thinking and learning, including how they plan to approach or adapt an activity and evaluating this afterwards.

The page for each approach has two sections. The first is called​'What does the evidence say?' In this section, we share key messages about the approach from the research. The second section is called​'Approach in action.' This section provides practical examples of how the approach could be implemented in settings. It draws on the experience and expertise of educators.

curriculum;

professional development for educators; and

music.

Curriculum

There is mixed evidence on curricula that focus on self-regulation Self-regulation enables children to monitor their emotions and thoughts and choose how to adapt their behaviour towards a goal. Self-regulation and executive function are closely interrelated and often rely on each other. For more detail, see the overview section of this theme. or executive function Executive function refers to a set of skills which are often used together. These skills involve children resisting their impulses (inhibitory control) and controlling how they direct their attention (cognitive flexibility). Executive function also helps children to hold information in mind so they can apply it (working memory), such as remembering the rules of a game whilst they play. Executive function and self-regulation are closely interrelated and often rely on each other. For more detail, see the overview section of this theme. through a planned set of activities and instruction. Some studies found that these curricula can support children's self-regulation Self-regulation enables children to monitor their emotions and thoughts and choose how to adapt their behaviour towards a goal. Self-regulation and executive function are closely interrelated and often rely on each other. For more detail, see the overview section of this theme. , executive function Executive function refers to a set of skills which are often used together. These skills involve children resisting their impulses (inhibitory control) and controlling how they direct their attention (cognitive flexibility). Executive function also helps children to hold information in mind so they can apply it (working memory), such as remembering the rules of a game whilst they play. Executive function and self-regulation are closely interrelated and often rely on each other. For more detail, see the overview section of this theme. and academic skills. However, other studies found no impact. Some studies found a positive impact of self-regulation Self-regulation enables children to monitor their emotions and thoughts and choose how to adapt their behaviour towards a goal. Self-regulation and executive function are closely interrelated and often rely on each other. For more detail, see the overview section of this theme. curricula on children from lower-income families. However, the research does not say whether they benefit more, less, or the same as their more affluent peers.

Professional development for educators

Some of the studies that look at the impact of educators' practice on children's self-regulation Self-regulation enables children to monitor their emotions and thoughts and choose how to adapt their behaviour towards a goal. Self-regulation and executive function are closely interrelated and often rely on each other. For more detail, see the overview section of this theme. and executive function Executive function refers to a set of skills which are often used together. These skills involve children resisting their impulses (inhibitory control) and controlling how they direct their attention (cognitive flexibility). Executive function also helps children to hold information in mind so they can apply it (working memory), such as remembering the rules of a game whilst they play. Executive function and self-regulation are closely interrelated and often rely on each other. For more detail, see the overview section of this theme. involve the educator receiving professional development or training. There is some evidence that professional development focussing on self-regulation Self-regulation enables children to monitor their emotions and thoughts and choose how to adapt their behaviour towards a goal. Self-regulation and executive function are closely interrelated and often rely on each other. For more detail, see the overview section of this theme. and executive function Executive function refers to a set of skills which are often used together. These skills involve children resisting their impulses (inhibitory control) and controlling how they direct their attention (cognitive flexibility). Executive function also helps children to hold information in mind so they can apply it (working memory), such as remembering the rules of a game whilst they play. Executive function and self-regulation are closely interrelated and often rely on each other. For more detail, see the overview section of this theme. can improve children's executive function Executive function refers to a set of skills which are often used together. These skills involve children resisting their impulses (inhibitory control) and controlling how they direct their attention (cognitive flexibility). Executive function also helps children to hold information in mind so they can apply it (working memory), such as remembering the rules of a game whilst they play. Executive function and self-regulation are closely interrelated and often rely on each other. For more detail, see the overview section of this theme. . This included training and mentoring educators to create a calm, organised learning environment and to promote socio-emotional development. There is also broader evidence that general professional development for educators can improve outcomes for children in the early years. You can read more in our Guide to Effective Professional Development in the Early Years to consider key features of professional development that are associated with improved outcomes for children.

Music

The ​' self-regulation Self-regulation enables children to monitor their emotions and thoughts and choose how to adapt their behaviour towards a goal. Self-regulation and executive function are closely interrelated and often rely on each other. For more detail, see the overview section of this theme. strategies' strand of the EEF Early Years Toolkit summarises the best available evidence from 15 self-regulation Self-regulation enables children to monitor their emotions and thoughts and choose how to adapt their behaviour towards a goal. Self-regulation and executive function are closely interrelated and often rely on each other. For more detail, see the overview section of this theme. studies. These studies show that self-regulation Self-regulation enables children to monitor their emotions and thoughts and choose how to adapt their behaviour towards a goal. Self-regulation and executive function are closely interrelated and often rely on each other. For more detail, see the overview section of this theme. strategies can have a positive impact of three months on children's learning and may be a cost-effective approach for raising attainment. However, the evidence base is limited in the early years.

This booklet on ​'Supporting children's self-regulation Self-regulation enables children to monitor their emotions and thoughts and choose how to adapt their behaviour towards a goal. Self-regulation and executive function are closely interrelated and often rely on each other. For more detail, see the overview section of this theme. ' is part of the Early Years Library developed by the Early Intervention We recognise that in early years settings ​'intervention' might refer to activities that aim to enhance children's progress. In the evidence base, intervention is used more broadly to represent the different conditions in the experiment that are being tested. Foundation and PEDAL, the Play in Education, Development and Learning centre at the University of Cambridge. It provides suggestions for educators to support self-regulation Self-regulation enables children to monitor their emotions and thoughts and choose how to adapt their behaviour towards a goal. Self-regulation and executive function are closely interrelated and often rely on each other. For more detail, see the overview section of this theme. in early years.

Download resource References

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The EEF is an independent charity dedicated to breaking the link between family income and educational achievement.

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Phonemic awareness supports student understanding that words are made up of a series of discrete sounds.

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The system by which the sounds in spoken language are represented by the letters in printed language.

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Fluent reading supports understanding meaning but kids also need instruction that maximizes comprehension.

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Tier 2 Language Intervention Bank - Language Acquisition- AELPCS

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AppleTree Early Learning Public Charter School’s Language Acquisition Website for the 2013-2014 school year.