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CORE Academic Quarterly Newsletter, Fall 2017
Welcome to the Fall 2017 edition of the CORE Academic Quarterly newsletter!
The cool nights of autumn are upon us. We at CORE hope that your school year has started off well and the year ahead will be full of learning, fun, and new horizons.
In this issue of the Academic Quarterly, in the Reading Expert section, we summarize a recently published study by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), An Exploration of Instructional Practices that Foster Language Development and Comprehension: Evidence from Prekindergarten through Grade 3 in Title I Schools. For those of you who are Tim Shanahan fans, he is one of the authors.
In the Marvelous Mathematician, we correlate the practices recommended in Visible Learning for Mathematics with the recommendations in the IES Practice Guide, Organizing Instruction and Study to Improve Student Learning.
In the Leadership Corner, we feature a series of webinars for effective principal practices.
Happy reading!
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On-Demand Webinar: Making Special Education “Special:” Ensuring Maximal Instead of Minimal Benefits
The 2017 Supreme Court Ruling on Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District RE-1 re-affirmed that special education can, and should, deliver more to students with disabilities. The way to achieve improved outcomes is with fewer but better IEP goals and progress monitoring. Unfortunately, IEP goals have become a procedural compliance process disconnected from intervention intensity that doesn’t lead to the kind of progress monitoring that has been shown to be among the most powerful tools in an educator’s toolbox.
During this one-hour webinar conducted by Dr. Mark Shinn you will learn:
- How the ruling is consistent with the Office of Special Education Program’s Results Driven Accountability (RDA) Initiative.
- How appropriately intensive, research-based intervention(s) driven by scientifically sound, easily measurable IEP goals reduce the achievement gap.
- How progress monitoring practices drive intervention intensity and effectiveness.
- Strategies to improve instruction and academic achievement for students with disabilities in your district.
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Dyslexia Links
Hard to Read: How American schools fail kids with dyslexia (podcast and transcript by American Public Media)
International Dyslexia Association
The Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity
Shaywitz DyslexiaScreen: Quick, evidence-based screening tool that identifies students who are at risk for dyslexia.
Understood.org: Understanding Dyslexia
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Discourse in Math – Don’t Just Talk About It
Learning mathematics is not a spectator sport. The rigorous mathematical knowledge sought for at all levels of instruction requires deep thinking and persistent sense making from students. Communication about mathematics among students and between students and the teacher is the vehicle for bringing thinking to the surface, clarifying ideas, moving ideas forward, revealing misconceptions, and making key mathematical connections clear, transferable, and memorable. Mathematical discourse is the verbal and written communication that is centered around deepening thinking about and making sense of mathematics. Brummer and Kartchner Clark (2014) state, “students must think about, read about, talk about, and write about information in order to synthesize it and to retain it” (p. 21). Students cannot learn only by being told or shown information. Through language students communicate in ways that engage them in reasoning and talking about math (Fogelberg et al., 2008; McKee & Ogle, 2005). The math standards of all states emphasize the importance of student communication of mathematical ideas, making mathematical discourse a required process in learning mathematics.
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Lesson Model Video: Sound Spelling Review
The teacher reviews previously learned sound-spellings. Notice her explanation of the three “sounds” for the inflectional suffix ed and the order of frequency of those three “sounds.”
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