Welcome back to school!

1. Welcome back to school! http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=funny+videos+for+teachers+for+back+to+school&view=detail&mid=C321EFCB525DE2586233C321EFCB525DE2586233&first=0&FORM=NVPFVR

2. ELA Resources(Is this session for me?) Need some resources for ELA?  Would you like to easily find lesson plans already written by RIT Band?  Would you like to locate leveled text, materials and questions to use with whole group or small group lessons?  Then this session is for you!  With a few clicks and some ink, you will have ELA materials that match Common Core Standards ready for you students!  (Appropriate for teachers of grades K-10).

3. Before we talk “what”…Let’s talk “Why” • New standards don’t always match our old “stuff.” • Materials we have might not be rigorous enough. • Differentiation – RIT Band Groups – small groups….so many things to plan for!

4. Why should we work to find quality materials: SO WE CAN DIFFERENTIATE AND MEET EACH STUDENT WHERE THEY ARE! • What kids DO during reading block determines what kids LEARN during reading block. • Reading without comprehension is just “barking print.” It produces no reading growth. It is critical to have the right level text. • At least 90% accuracy is essential for reading acceleration. • 20 minutes of quality, high success reading works better than repeated reading of more difficult text.

5. Why should we differentiate? Think of your students as a leaf • A few students are at the tip. They’ve already mastered much of the work and are ready to move on to something new. • More students fall somewhere in the broad center, generally ready for grade-level instruction. • A few students are at the stem, still working on the foundational skills they need to grow.

6. why should we teachsmall groups? • In small groups you can keep all students engaged on their personal “next step” learning level. • In small groups you can precisely target the skills and instruction needed for each student. • In small groups you can closely monitor student performance. • Small group work provides more opportunities for immediate feedback. • It provides the teacher more time to meet the needs of the most challenging students who may require greater teacher guidance. • It provides high achievers time to work independently at a pace that promotes active learning. • Teachers have more time to teach & students have more time to learn (hard to believe that's possible, but it's true!)

7. To pull off effective RIT Band small group instruction, you need to be OK with doing different things for different kids based on their needs. Try to adopt the following mentality for your students, and teach them to do the same: FAIR VS. EQUAL • Equal means the same. • I will not be treating students exactly the same way. • Being fair means that I will do my best to give each student what he or she needs to be successful. • What you need and what someone else needs may be very different. • I will always try to be FAIR, but this means things won’t always feel EQUAL.

8. Lastly, you need to keep in mind the goals of your school and our state. • All students need to grow in their learning. Gaps need to close. All students need to make gains. How do we do this? Take them from where they are and move forward. But they are all in different places, you say? That’s why we need small group instruction along with great ELA resources!

9. We have a great tool – use the RIT scores! From their website: “NWEA's Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) tests measure a student's instructional achievement level, not a student's mastery level. Achievement on the MAP tests shows evidence of what a student has learned and can do with approximately 50 percent accuracy within a subject and goal area.”

10. Characteristics of the RIT Scale include: • It is an achievement scale. • It is an accurate scale. • It is an equal interval scale. • It helps to measure growth over time. • It has the same meaning regardless of grade or age of the student

11. look at the RIT bands inyour class. You may have 5-6 different RIT Bands, but you can do groups however you want. • Need simple to start? Do 3 groups – low, middle and high. • Like even numbers? Then do 4 groups – low, low average, average, high. • Have 30 kids in your class? Do 6 groups: Novice, Apprentice, Proficient Low, Proficient High, and Distinguished.

12. Need Resources? Be Resourceful! • You don’t have to spend your nights with your head in a dumpster! There are easier ways to find resources!!

13. ELA Resources • www.fortheteachers.org • www.foridahoteachers.org • OK, both of these sites are simply awesome. You can find lesson plans already written by RIT Band. Really! And you can also find leveled text, materials and questions to use with small group lessons. So, if you were doing main idea in 6th grade, you would select that, print off the plan, write your RIT groups in the blanks, print out 3 leveled articles and go. A few clicks and some ink, and you have lessons to match what you are teaching in whole group broken down by RIT level for your small group students.

14. Additional Resources Readworks.org • This site is advertised as the “solution to comprehension” and it might well be. It has tons of lesson plans, and 1,000s of non-fiction articles that are leveled and ready to print. As a middle school teacher focusing on sequencing in a unit about Europe, I could go to ReadWorks, go to “find passages,” put in 6th Grade, sequence, and France and it gives me an article with the Lexile level listed to print. What? I’m telling you, it can be this easy!

15. Readworks • 900 New Passages for K-8 • Coming this fall: • - Engaging, high quality reading passages with question sets • - Non-fiction and original fiction • - Aligned with the latest science and social studies standards • Common Core Aligned • - Meets ELA Standards for All 50 States - Complements Core Reading Programs - Based on Leading Research - Free! http://www.readworks.org/

16. Learn Zillion • http://learnzillion.com/lessons?filters%5Bsubject%5D=ela • LearnZillionis a learning platform that combines video lessons, assessments, and progress reporting. Each lesson highlights a Common Core standard, starting with math in grades 3-9. • The LearnZillionStory: “We knew what lessons our students needed but we didn’t have enough time to teach each student the right lesson. To create more time, and to share best practices across classrooms, our teachers began to capture their expertise on screencasts. We posted them on a homemade website and coupled them with a short quiz to help us track student progress.” This was the starting point of LearnZillion.

17. So Far, So Free! • But What if we have a “little” money?

18. My eBookRoom K-5 • With My eBookroom, we have all the advantages of a print bookroom plus 24/7 access, more than 1600 digital books from a variety of series, and over 300 Interactive Whiteboard activities. • http://www.brainshark.com/hmhsupp/vu?pi=zEezX45LLz51GTz0 • https://www-k6.thinkcentral.com/ePCEval/evalLogin.do • Aone time cost of $780 covers a 6 year subscription.

19. Dataworks • What are Common Core Learning Objectives & Essential Tools? • These guides convert Common Core Standards into explicit, teachable Learning Objectives. Now teachers can rapidly comprehend, internalize, and implement new Common Core Standards. Exclusive bonus: Includes grade-level Common Core vocabulary lists that define key words students need to know to be successful. • $9.99 Per Grade Level

20. DataWorks – great teaching tips!

21. DataWorks Ready To Teach Lessons • What are Common Core READY TO TEACH Lessons? • Original and written for expressly Common Core Standards, these supplemental, multi-media Explicit Direct Instruction (EDI) lessons engage all learners through whole-class instruction as teachers introduce new concepts and skills and model the kind of thinking Core Standards and assessments require. • Lesson features: Rigorous, grade-level expository text and 2 – 7 new academic vocabulary words defined • Emphasis on deep conceptual understanding with optional scaffolding for differentiation • Opportunities to use evidentiary arguments and/or multiple representations when solving problems • $14.99 Per Lesson – teacher pricing • http://pendleton.kyschools.us/userfiles/80/Classes/6018/3rdELARI2.0MAINIDEADWCCSS.ppt • http://pendleton.kyschools.us/userfiles/80/Classes/6018/3rdELARI2.0MAINIDEADWCCSS-0.ppt

22. More cool dataworks tools • Vocabulary For Each Grade Level • Reading Success: Readers can read effectively when they can understand at least 95% of the words they read. Knowing only the most common 2000 words, studies show that readers should be able to comprehend about 80% of an average academic text. Adding in a list of 570 Academic and Content Vocabulary* words brings that total up to 90% comprehension (Nation & Waring, 1997). The remaining unknown words in academic text will largely be Content and Support Vocabulary and should be learned within the context of lessons throughout the school year.

24. Use NWEA Resources for Easy MAP Gains /

25. Next Step Log in to the reports site from there, then go to the Data-Tools section on the left-hand side of the page, and look for DesCartes. Following this link, scroll to the bottom of the page and look for a box that says: • Appendices • Vocabulary by Subject Area and RIT Range • Signs and Symbols by Subject Area and RIT Range

26. Here you go!

27. But Wait, there’s more!

28. Check out my webpage All of the links today – and more – are on my webpage: http://pendleton.kyschools.us/olc/teacher.aspx?s=80