Teaching Tips - SWBAT

Tuesday Teaching Tips - Preparing for PARCC

Computer-Based Assessment:  To prepare students for the many different types of questions that could be on the PARCC test, check out this site.  On this site, there are many samples of innovative questions from less complex to more complex.  

Computer-Based Assessment: "Intermediate Constraint" Questions and Tasks for Technology Platforms

10 Key Online Testing Terms

Stems for use in writing PARCC-like items and text-dependent questions

PARCC FAQ

Here are some sites with sample Math & ELA questions:
*CCSS Aligned Practice Tests & Sample Questions for Grades 3-8
*Elementary Research Models
*PARCC Sample Questions
*ELA Practice Passages & Questions

Math Prototype Tasks

The Mathematics Common Core Toolbox site offers examples of the types of innovative assessment tasks that reflect the direction of the PARCC summative assessments.

Elementary School Tasks

• Flower Gardens (Grade 3)
• Fractions on the Number Line (Grade 3)
• Mariana's Fractions (Grade 3)
• School Mural (Grade 3)
• Buses, Vans, and Cars (Grade 4)
• Deer in the Park (Grade 4)
• Numbers of Stadium Seats (Grade 4)
• Ordering Juice Drinks (Grade 4)

Middle School Tasks

• Cake Weighing (Grade 6)
• Gasoline Consumption (Grade 6)
• Inches and Centimeters (Grade 6)
• Anne's Family Trip (Grade 7)
• School Supplies (Grade 7)
• Spicy Veggies (Grade 7)
• TV Sales (Grade 7)

PARCC-like Items

The below PARCC-like items have been developed by Arizona teachers, coaches and administrators. (The teacher version includes rationale, standards assessed, and scoring rubric, along with the test questions)

English/Language Arts

• Grade 3 Literary Analysis - student version
• Grade 3 Literary Analysis - teacher version

• Grade 4 Informational Text - student version
• Grade 4 Informational Text - teacher version

Math

• Grade 4 Math Samples - student version
• Grade 4 Math Samples - teacher version

Sample Items and Think-Throughs

The below Arizona sample assessment item and think-through sets were designed to help prepare students for the PARCC assessments.

Grades 3 - 5

• Caring for Your Pet Gerbil

Grades 6 - 8

• Second Chance for Chance
• Skateboarding Basics

Tuesday Teaching Tip - Child/Teacher Friendly "I Can" statements

As we write ELA curriculum, I find it helpful to look at "I can..." statements to guarantee that we are covering all the required common core standards.  I found this wonderful website that has many great resources called "The Curriculum Corner."  There are many helpful documents organized by grade level.  Find some time and check out your grade level:

The Curriculum Corner (Click on the links below)

I Can... Statements by grade level

Common Core Checklists by grade level

Tuesday Teaching Tips - Similarities and Differences

Instructional Strategy Focus

Similarities and Differences (Marzano)

Teachers engage students in activities that help them examine similarities and differences among ideas, issues, or events by engaging in mental processes such as:
*Compare & Contrast
*Classify
*Create metaphors
*Analogies

Sample Activities and Teaching Ideas:
*QAR
*Frayer Model (vocabulary)
*Knowledge Rating Chart
*Concept Circle
*Word Sort
*Semantic Feature Analysis
*Probable Passage
*Give One Get One
*Tea Party
*Anticipation Guide
*Metaphors and Similes
*Analogies
*Sentence Stem Comparison
*Venn Diagrams
*Double-Bubble Diagram
*Comparison Matrix
*Classification Chart
*Visual Analogies

Helpful Documents:
*Provide Students with tasks that require them to examine similarities and differences.  SAMPLES

*Similarities and Differences CHEAT SHEET

Tuesday Teaching Tip - Mental Math Stategies

Students may not have all facts memorized, but they should have strategies to solve these problems.

Here are some examples of mental-math strategies for addition:

1.  Counting On - Students start with a number and count on 1, 2, 3. For example, if the question is 5 + 2, students count 5, 6, 7. Note: This strategy is only useful for adding 1, 2, or 3.

2.  Make a Ten - Students make combinations that equal 10. Then they extend to make combinations that are multiples of 10. Examples: 6 + 4 = 10 extends to 76 + 4 = 80. This can then be extended to 10 + 4 = 14 or 50 + 8 = 58.

3.  Use Doubles - The first fact combinations students often learn are doubles. Examples:
2 + 2 =
3 + 3 =
8 + 8 =

4.  Think +10 for +9 -  Those 9s are such difficult facts!  But, adding 10 to a number is easy.  So, when I see 9 + 6, I can think 10 + 6 and then just subtract 1.

Here are some examples of mental-math strategies for subtraction:

1.  Counting Back - Students start with a number and count backwards. If the question is 5 – 2, students count 5, 4, 3. Note: This strategy is only useful for subtracting 1, 2, or 3.

2.  Counting Up - Students start with a number being subtracted and count up to the number from which it is being subtracted. For example, for the question 9 – 7, students can count 8, 9.

3.  Using Doubles - For the question 13 – 6 = ?, students think addition using doubles. For example, 6 + 6 = 12, then add-on 1 to make 13, so 6 + 1 = 7.

4.  Make Ten and Then Some - Given a subtraction question such as 14 – 8 = ?, students start with the part (8), add-on to make 10 (i.e., 8 + 2), then add-on from 10 to make 14 (10 + 4). Then the students add the numbers they added-on to make 14 (4 + 2 = 6).

Tuesday Teaching Tips - Informational Text

Reading Informational Text Tips

1.  Use Graphic organizers - Using graphic organizers throughout lessons helps students improve their comprehension and good readers use graphic organizers to summarize texts.

Here are some sample organizers:

 

2.  Share Mentor Texts for each Structure - Read the text aloud and show students how to fill in the text structure graphic organizer.  The mentor texts become models you can refer to throughout the rest of the school year.

Here are some sample Mentor Texts & their Text Structure:

Description	Animals Nobody Loves by Seymour Simon Students will remember the facts about each of the creatures on the least favored list!
Sequence	Liberty Rising by Pegi Deitz Shea The wonderful illustrations show the sequence of how the great Statue of Liberty came about.
Problem/Solution	Jimmy the Joey: The True Story of an Amazing Koala Rescue by Debora Lee Rose A little orphaned koala is rescued and learns to survive on his own.  Students are introduced to koala endangerment organizations for letter writing and project-based learning!
Cause/ Effect	Electrical Wizard by Elizabeth Rusch Whether Nikola Tesla was observing the sparks from petting his cat or studying the power of Niagara Falls, he lived in an inventor’s world of cause and effect!
Compare/Contrast	Lincoln and Douglass by Nikki Giovanni In spite of their differences, these two friends had much in common! What a great compare/contrast story.

3.  Pay Attention to Text Structures Throughout Reading - Encourage and guide students to use text structure to comprehend informational text.  Before reading, predict which text structure the author would use.  During reading, fill in the text structure organizer.  After reading, summarize the text using the graphic organizer.

Great 4th Grade Video - Ever Wondered Who Invented Pizza?

4.  Conduct Frequent Think-Alouds - "I think the author wrote this (article, book, chapter, section) by using (one of the 5 structures) because I see (clues, clue words, etc)."  When the class is reading informational text, pause to consider which structure fits the text.

5.  Assign a Text Structure to Groups or Pairs - Have students work in teams to hunt for text structures to identify in TFK, newspapers, online articles, trade books, and content textbooks.

Literacy Survival Tips - Informational Text

Tips for Reading Informational Text

Tuesday Teaching Tips - 5 Helpful Hints for Close Reading

1. Number the paragraphs

The Common Core asks students to be able to cite and refer to the text. One simple way to do this is by numbering each paragraph, section or stanza in the left hand margin. When students refer to the text, require them to state which paragraph they are referring to. The rest of the class will be able to quickly find the line being referred to. 

2. Chunk the text.

When faced with a full page of text, reading it can quickly become overwhelming for students. Breaking up the text into smaller sections (or chunks) makes the page much more manageable for students. Students do this by drawing a horizontal line between paragraphs to divide the page into smaller sections.

3. Underline and circle… with a purpose.

Telling students to simply underline “the important stuff” is too vague. “Stuff” is not a concrete thing that students can identify. Instead, direct students to underline and circle very specific things. Think about what information you want students to take from the text, and ask them to look for those elements. What you have students circle and underline may change depending on the text type.

For example, when studying an argument, ask students to underline “claims”. We identify claims as belief statements that the author is making. Students will quickly discover that the author makes multiple claims throughout the argument.

When studying poetry, students could underline the imagery they find throughout the poem.

Providing students with a specific thing you want them to underline or circle will focus their attention on that area much better than “underlining important information”.

4. Left margin: What is the author SAYING?

It isn’t enough to ask students to “write in the margins”. We must be very specific and give students a game plan for what they will write. This is where the chunking comes into play.

In the left margin, ask students to summarize each chunk. Demonstrate how to write summaries in 10-words or less. The chunking allows the students to look at the text in smaller segments, and summarize what the author is saying in just that small, specific chunk.

5. Right margin: Dig deeper into the text  

In the right-hand margin, again direct students to complete a specific task for each chunk. This may include:

·     Use a power verb to describe what the author is DOING. (For example: Describing, illustrating, arguing, etc..) Note: It isn’t enough for students to write “Comparing” and be done. What is the author comparing? A better answer might be: “Comparing the character of Montag to Captain Beatty”.

·     Represent the information with a picture. This is a good way for students to be creative to visually represent the chunk with a drawing.

·     Ask questions. I have found this to be a struggle for many students, as they often say they don’t have any questions to ask. When modeled, students can begin to learn how to ask questions that dig deeper into the text. I often use these questions as the conversation driver in Socratic Seminar.

There are many other things students can write in the margins. However, we must model and teach these strategies so that students will have an idea of what to write when they are on their own.