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Showing posts from June, 2013

What Happened to Ebonics?

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Turmoil in 1980s Oakland Leads to Continued Definitive Conclusions about Language’s Impact on Education in the 2020s by Matthew Bamberg Photo by Kiana Bosman on Unsplash The Ebonics debate has often been misunderstood. It refers to the dialect of AAVE (African American Vernacular English). This type of language is prevalent in the Black community and has also spread into popular culture through lyrics in rap music and similar genres. I be workin’ Yes, I be workin’ on this article. This can be defined as: I’ve been working on this article for a while, although not necessarily at this very moment. I begin here because using AAVE helps readers understand the importance of training teachers to use it in our classrooms. Before getting into the meat and potatoes of the point, AAVE is an important dialect and, therefore, should be treated with the utmost respect, especially when dealing with it as a teacher. Slavery was Brutal The history of AAVE in the United States began in the 17th and 18t...
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Ten Vowel Sound Lesson Plan Links for First Grade

Nowhere can you see Common Core in actions than in a basic vowel lesson. The Core doesn't have first grade teachers teaching long vowels and short vowels as isolated subjects, but instead addresses them together: English Language Arts Standards>Reading>Foundational Skills>Grade 1>Phonological Awareness                         Distinguish long from short vowel sounds in spoken single-syllable words.   Here are some lessons that involve this standard with the topic of this standard covered: 1. short a           https://www.commonsense.org/education/lesson-plans/short-vowel-aa 2. short vowels   http://www.commoncoreelalessons.com/2013/01/its-short-vowel-time.html 3. long vowels   http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plan/long-vowels-lesson-plan 4. short vowels  http...
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Common Core--Shared Responsibility of Every Teacher

Common Core emphasizes that literacy is the shared responsibility of every teacher. In this video teacher Sarah Wessling shares her thoughts about thinking aloud when teaching and the difference between teaching English and teaching literacy as per the Common Core. When a teacher thinks aloud, he/she describes the strategies for answering a question or for solveing a problem out loud. From grade to grade, school to school and state to state teaching students how to think, or metacognition is universal. A good example of a teacher thinking aloud is when a he/she models pre-reading. SQ3R (Survey, Question, Read, Recite and Review) is one guide teachers can use for modeling. Here's how a teacher may talk to the students, sharing what's going on in his/her head: Now I'm going to read the first chapter in my social studies book : The American Revolution. First, I'm going to look at the headings, subheadings, words in bold print, captions, charts and graphs. Aft...
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Assessment--Take the Common Core Test

Assessments for the Common Core don't begin until the 2014-15 school year, which is about a year away. It seems like a long time away, but remember many school districts will be implementing Common Core this coming school year. Palm Springs (California) Unified School District begins implementing Common Core fully in grades K-2 and partially through grade 5 at the elementary level, though no testing on the standards occurs until the next school year. What do the assessments look like? Not anything like a standardized test has looked before. For one, tests are computerized, meaning no paper or number 2 pencils. The prompts at the third grade level in Language Arts might be research related, that is they have students read articles (referred to as sources ), comparing and contrasting what they've researched . The tests also not only require the filling in of bubbles with a mouse click to answer questions , but also typing in short answers into an input box.  Novel indeed....
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New York Times Article Reveals Common Core's Short History

The New York Times reports that all was relatively quiet as the Common Core standards took effect. That's in contrast to the noisy headlines of Hillary Clinton's Bengazi debacle, which has been in and out of the public's eye for the past year. Why hasn't the public been informed of one of the biggest changes in education in our nation's history? Some of the thinking about the standards reveals that they are a leftest indoctrination; other thinking is that it will add to the continued separation of political will among the electorate and Congress. Whatever is thought, the fact is the testing is the key to Common Core and that's how educators and others will judge its effects. The most important point about the tests is that they're the greatest challenge students have had in filling in bubbles on a computerized form ever (there are also short essays required of students taking the test). The test is hard, really hard. Finally, other than the tests, th...
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Vary Learning Experiences for ELLs to Pass English Language Proficiency Test

What kind of information should you know to become adept at administering Common Core to your students? A good place to start is with ELLs (English Language Learners). Consider the example of the group of students who aren't acquiring the language quickly enough (be aware, though, that it takes about seven years to become FEP, or Fluent English Proficient). The Common Core Modules, which train California educators in using Common Core states that in order for students to pass the CELDT (an English language proficiency test in California)  in greater numbers, they must be exposed to "literacy rich school environments where students are offered a variety of language experiences." How is an educator going to provide these experiences? Check out these lesson plan suggestions from Sacramento State University Education Lesson Plans for K-12 Teachers . The activities are varied, offering a variety of language experiences for all students.
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Common Core Nonfiction--Hurricanes, Tornados and Tropical Storms

As you might have heard the emphasis of common core is nonfiction, that is the standards address the fact that students will be reading more nonfiction titles than fiction ones. A popular and relevant nonfiction topic would be hurricanes and tornadoes--popular because the topic is one that generates a high interest level among students and relevant because of the increased activity of these storms in the United States. The conversation is bound to come up whether you are covering them in the curriculum or not. A lesson about these storms is a must. The first consideration you will want to keep in mind is why these two types of storms are paired together. When students learn about hurricanes and tornadoes at the same time, they get the opportunity to compare and contrast these two types of tumultuous weather events that subtly contrast each other at the same time as having many characteristics in common. From there, students will have the opportunity to write a compare/contrast e...
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Free Common Core Standards App

Technology is now a part of the Common Core. An app has just been released that let's you search for standards by keywords you type into a search box. The Common Core Standards app is free from the iTunes store- a must-have for teachers, students and parents. The app also searches for standards in Spanish and other languages.
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Common Core Standards for Multicultural Literacy

The Common Core Standards for Multicultural Literacy encourage teachers to cover the following: World literature Comparing web resources to print for a multicultural topic Write an analysis of complex ideas dealing with multiculturalism Write succinctly Develop and organize writing appropriate to task, audience and purpose Use technology to publish writing projects Plan, revise, edit and rewrite works or develop another technique suitable new media Could this mean learn how to write informally for websites such as engadget.com? Conduct research projects to prove a hypothesis Synthesize many works, coming up with new idea(s) ...and more at Multicultural Literacy--Common Core Standards
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STEM Wildfire Education Necessity

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  California Wildfires Are Getting Worse. Why Schools Must Teach Fire Survival Now From science to social-emotional learning, a comprehensive approach is needed to safeguard communities from natural and man-made hazards Wildfire in the Inland Empire of Southern California as seen from the desert. Photo by Matthew Bamberg Communities in California and elsewhere have shown remarkable resilience in uniting to cope and heal after a wildfire. Yet wildfires will remain a critical challenge, especially during droughts. The future doesn’t have to mirror the past. To ensure a safer tomorrow, California’s education system must prioritize wildfire preparedness and mitigation as a core part of its curriculum. A New Interdisciplinary Wildfire Curriculum The current model of isolating academic disciplines is inadequate for preparing students to face the uncertain world shaped by climate change. A significant curriculum overhaul is urgently needed to equip students with the skills and knowledge t...
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Social Emotional Skills and Holistic Education

Holistic education focuses on students identity in order for them to become good  community members by teachers instituting appropriate  moral, social, emotional, psychological and academic goals for functioning as a productive member of society.  As a teacher, you have to consider what's going on in students' lives order to teach the students coping skills to deal with challenging situations. Holistic education can really help students who are falling behind. Creating engaging lessons that reach all students is the primary focus of planning for instruction in most schools.  You can combine this inclusion with extensive education in all areas. "All students will learn the skills they need to succeed across all domains, including social, cognitive and academic" (Schwartz as cited in Volk, 2013, para. 5). Students perform better academically when teachers address the social emotional needs of students Socio-emotional skills are for school, work and life. They inc...
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Writing a Personal Essay

Writing a personal essay doesn't have to be hard. One would think that the most important part of a personal essay would be writing a draft. This isn't so. While it is important, there are other parts of the writing process that are just as important for writing a focused "A" paper. One of the first tasks you do before you write the rough draft is to have a topic that is appropriate for a personal essay. As you may recall, a personal essay should be written in first person, usually about an account of an event, a story about a person, a travelogue of a place or  an illustration of an object (in words) that is or was special to you. Well, does that mean you should write about your mom, your childbirth (if you're a woman) or your vacation? Any of these topics are a good choice for a personal essay. Recall that the writing process: 1. Brainstorming--Create your topic. Narrow it down. 2. Outlining--Yes, this is necessary! 3. Drafting--Writing your draft f...
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