Our school year is steadily moving along. Spring break is over and testing season is upon us. At this time of year students in all grade levels have higher expectations for the quality of writing they turn in.
"By the end of grade x, students will be able to..."
If they haven't met the writing standards yet, there are only a few months left before final report cards.
Writing can be one of the more challenging skills to master, and teachers also find it one of the more challenging to teach. In many ways, writing is subjective, yet there are rules and conventions to follow. Writing style is personal, yet correct usage is important.
A helpful distinction we can make for our students is the difference between revising and editing.
Have you ever had a student who thought revising meant recopying their paper?
In Project GLAD® we separate the revising and editing processes into distinct lessons with the...
This month we’re diving deeper into the mysterious, marvelous brain! Our goal is to teach students the research behind neuroplasticity and generate their belief that “My brain can learn!”
Our tip for this month is to share with your students the Why behind your teaching practice. Oftentimes, this is all a reluctant learner needs to get hooked into all this “color-coded-singing-moving-around-the-room-stuff”. This is particularly true for older students. Here are 3 brain tips and how they relate to teaching with Project GLAD® strategies.
Pictures make a difference
Concepts are more likely to be remembered and recalled if taught through pictures in addition to their corresponding words. This is known as the Pictorial Superiority Effect. Pictures are superior to words when it comes to the response time for recognizing information. If the image moves, the information is retained even longer.
In Project GLAD®, all our teaching that...
The start of the school year is upon us and you will have, undoubtedly, seen your class list by now or you may already have met your new class. Unfortunately, a ritual that plays out in classrooms across the world on the first day of school is that teachers unintentionally mispronounce students’ names. The familiar scenario is the teacher mangles the name or doesn’t even attempt it and will try to cover by saying something like, “I’m not sure how to say this”, or laughing at themselves for the mistake. The student will then either try to correct the teacher, will say nothing, or will offer a nickname or Anglicized name as a replacement. The teacher internally breathes a sigh of relief that Eun Kyung can be called Sally, and everyone moves on. But has Eun Kyung moved on? What’s happening inside her head right now?
A simple act like not being able to pronounce a name may seem innocuous to us but can have devastating consequences for students. In...
Ever feel chatty when you’re happy? Or so angry you just want to yell? Ever talk late into the night with the love of your life? Or have sadness so deep words are lost in the swell?
Emotions are the language of the heart. They release, captivate and invite us to speak. In so many ways it is the overflow of the heart from which we speak… or are silenced.
Safety and stress produce and repress language. This is particularly true for those attempting to communicate in bi and multilingual settings. When we’re stressed, we all tend to revert back to what we know. Imagine trying to learn a new language, personally, in the midst of a pandemic. And then trying to communicate only in that language. It’s like trying to diet in the midst of a pandemic. Just too much!
And yet, that’s exactly what our emerging bi and multilingual students have been expected to do all year long. Our language learners deserve a standing ovation and our deepest...
Does the idea of hybrid teaching make you hyperventilate? How can I meet the needs of students online and in the classroom, while staying safe and sane myself?
You’re not alone!
Teachers across the country are currently tackling the challenges and opportunities of hybrid teaching models. A flipped classroom may be the key you’re looking for – without flipping out yourself.
Since you spent the last year learning how to implement distanced learning, the easiest way to pivot to a blended model is to keep doing what you’re already doing. Retain your digital LMS. Post all assignments digitally. Then get ready to FLIP!
The flipped classroom is a “pedagogical approach in which direct instruction moves from the group learning space to the individual learning space, and the resulting group space is transformed into a dynamic, interactive learning environment where the educator guides students as...
Let’s face it! The quarantine 15 is a real thing! It’s because we’re sitting on our backsides in front of the computer all day long. Students and teachers are used to getting up and moving around the classroom. We need that oxygen moving through our brains to think clearly and stay engaged.
It’s going to benefit our waistlines and chins, as well as our brains if we can think of ways to get moving during online instruction. In a GLAD classroom, there are multiple times throughout the day where we move students from their seats. We move to the carpet. Students stand when reporting an answer. We all move during chants and other strategies. We encourage you to continue those practices online.
When students are reporting an answer during synchronous learning, have them stand. Teach them to back up a little bit so they’re still in the camera view.
Continue...
Asset-based instruction and ensuring equal access for all students are cornerstones of the OCDE Project GLAD® model.
In order to create an inclusive environment with equal access, the teacher has to consider:
Districts are already struggling with hardware and internet access for all students and staff. But that's not all. The very practice of a video conference in a synchronous digital classroom is creating issues of inequity. Now that the classroom is being brought into the home, our homes and the homes of our students are front and center and all of the inequalities can be visually witnessed by all.
...The Project GLAD® model embeds classroom, team, and individual management strategies that create interaction in the classroom. Students practice language with teams and partners. They move around the classroom to bring oxygen and glucose to the brain that stimulates thinking. Students are provided daily opportunities for decision making and problem solving. Respectful, interactive, language-rich classrooms are the result.
In our GLAD® classrooms we create heterogenous mixed ability groupings of 3 or 4 students. These teams allow students to put heads together and share their thinking, listen to others’ thinking, reading, and problem solving, as well as come up with team responses for reporting out an answer.
When teaching in an online setting, the teacher would create a list of heterogenous grouped students, but instead of seating students together in a classroom setting, these...
Preparing for the new school year means paying more attention to your physical space and structures for student interaction than ever before. Each school has chosen a plan for physical distancing and now it’s your job to make that happen. All those great cooperative learning strategies you’ve been using will need some rethinking, too.
There are many options for schools to bring students back safely. The CDC’s recommendation is a plan called the Bubble Strategy. This strategy limits exposure to an isolated population reducing the risk of transmission to the rest of the school.
The same group of students would stay together all day in the same classroom with the same teacher(s). They would eat lunch in the classroom and would forgo specials, like library and PE. One iteration of the Bubble Strategy even calls for students to isolate with this group for recess.
We have an idea to take...
You are not alone. Every classroom is filled with internal and EXTERNAL processors.
How do we meet the needs of both?
How do we encourage a language rich environment where students are talking but not blurting?
First, resign yourself to the fact that a GLAD classroom is a noisy classroom. Scary sentence, we know. But it's language with purpose: guided, rich, surrounded with support and focused on the topic at hand.
GLAD classrooms have parameters in place to structure language and provide the internal processing and wait time other students need.
Consider these 4 TIPS to promote language acquisition while taming the blurting beast:
Language acquisition requires talking - LOTS of talking!
Either we provide structured time to talk or our external processors will incorporate it themselves. Consider going through your lesson plans for the...
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