Donald Burkins's List: Instruction - Generic

"Word Generation is a research-based vocabulary program for middle school students designed to teach words through language arts, math, science, and social studies classes. The program employs several strategies to ensure that students learn words in a variety of contexts.

The program consists of weekly units that each introduces 5 high-utility target words through brief passages outlining controversies currently under debate in this country. The paragraphs are intended to help students join ongoing "national conversations" by sparking active examination and discussion of contemporary issues. The target words are relevant to a range of settings and subject areas. The cross-content focus on a small number of words each week will enable students to understand the variety of ways in which words are related, and the multiple exposures to words will provide ample opportunities for deeper understanding.

studentThe Word Generation program focuses on academic vocabulary, i.e., words that students are likely to encounter in textbooks and on tests, but not in spoken language. Interpret, prohibit, vary, function, and hypothesis are examples. Academic vocabulary includes (a) words that refer to thinking and communicating, like infer and deny, and (b) words that are common across subjects, but hold different meaning depending on the subject, like element and factor. Both types of academic vocabulary are likely to cause problems with comprehension unless students have been taught how to deal with them. "

"The Academic Word List (AWL) was developed by Averil Coxhead as her MA thesis at the School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. The list contains 570 word families which were selected according to principles. The list does not include words that are in the most frequent 2000 words of English. The AWL was primarily made so that it could be used by teachers as part of a programme preparing learners for tertiary level study or used by students working alone to learn the words most needed to study at tertiary institutions. The Academic Word List replaces the University Word List.

For detail on the development and evaluation of the AWL, see Coxhead, Averil (2000) A New Academic Word List. TESOL Quarterly, 34(2): 213-238."

Wow!

"Guardian of Democracy: the Civic Mission of Schools" report provides a comprehensive look at the role civic learning plays in maintaining our democracy, examines the major problems confronting civic learning, shows six proven practices in effective civic learning and provides recommendations for policymakers, educators and all citizens."

1. Learners have to be at the center of what happens in the classroom
2. Learning is a social practice and can't happen alone
3. Emotions are an integra part of learning
4. Learners are different
5. Students need to be stretched, but not too much
6. Assessment should be for learning, not of learning
7. Learning needs to be connected across disciplines.
cf. the Jenaplan School, Germany

To analyze thinking we must identify and question its elemental structures: purpose, question at issue, information, interpretation and inference, concepts, assumptions, implications and consequences, point of view.

"Never did Jay and I intend for our template to be a mandatory act of pointless drudgery, a required piece of busywork required by thoughtless supervisors. Never did Jay and I intend people to fixate on filling in boxes. Never did Jay and I advocate using the UbD Unit Template as a lesson planner. Indeed, in our latest books on unit planning we stress this point in an entire module. You can download an excerpt here: Mod O – on lesson plans (excerpt).

Rather, as with any tool, we hoped that people would use our template as a helpful aid, as a mental check. The idea of a good checklist is what’s key. Atul Gawande has written extensively on how the “pre-flight” checklist in medicine, modeled on the one used in every airplane cockpit, has saved lives. Here is an article on its power to save lives."

"At the third annual Education Innovation Summit at Arizona State University (ASU), the 800 attendees—among them leading education entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, private-equity funders, foundation officers, policymakers, and others—were abuzz, or perhaps “atwitter,” about this hot and emerging space called social learning into which Grockit, among others, has blazed a trail over the last few years."

"Innovations in Education is the second of three blog series on social innovation culminating in three Think Tanks organized by the Advanced Leadership Initiative at Harvard University. "

"Welcome to Space for Personalised Learning (S4PL)

In 2008 the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) set up a project to understand the relationship between the school environment and fundamental shifts in education that were rapidly establishing themselves as a priority, globally.

The aim was for the project, Space for Personalised Learning, to identify the spatial features that supported schools in their ability to deliver the new ways of learning and make widely available detailed information on the design interventions - and the ways of arriving at them - that had been shown to achieve the desired change.

This site compiles the output, including a final summary report, an interactive guide to the design process used by the team, facilitator guides and tools, and raw output files from the various pilot projects. "

"A Community School is a strategy for organizing the resources of the community around student success. It is both a place and a set of partnerships between the school and other community resources. Its integrated focus on academics, services, supports and opportunities leads to improved student learning, stronger families and healthier communities. Schools become centers of the community and are open to everyone —all day, evenings and weekends, year round."

"Public Media to Launch First-Ever AMERICAN GRADUATE DAY on September 22, 2012"

"A Colorado university is announcing on Thursday that it will give full transfer credit to students who complete a free introductory computer-science course offered by the online-education start-up company Udacity."

"According to a report that KIPP issued last spring, only 33 percent of students who graduated from a KIPP middle school 10 or more years ago have graduated from a four-year college. That rate is considerably better than the 8 percent of children from low-income families who currently complete college nationwide, and it even beats the average national rate of college completion for all income groups, which is 31 percent."

Published Online: August 27, 2012
Published in Print: August 29, 2012, as New Laws, Programs Expand K-12 Online-Learning Options
Includes correction(s): August 30, 2012

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New Laws, Programs Expand E-Learning Options
Several states now require districts to give students more choices
By Michelle R. Davis
Premium article access courtesy of Edweek.org.
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Lawmakers in Utah recently mandated that school districts allow high school students to take online courses from state-approved providers. In Florida, large districts must give students online-course options from at least three different providers. Recent legislation in Georgia altered the funding structure for students who take virtual courses; the action provides an incentive for districts to encourage students to try online classes.

In recent years, several states have enacted laws that require more choices for students who want to try taking courses online, outside the offerings of brick-and-mortar school districts. In some cases, such legislation—as in Florida—is a companion to requirements that students take at least one online course before graduating from high school."

Creating math lessons (stories) in an era in which Khan et al provide the "how," but teachers still need to motivate with "why"

"This fall, there will be 16 cyber charter schools trying to attract students from across Pennsylvania. Last school year, 13 cyber charter schools, one of which has closed, drew more than 32,000 students."

"Julia, Christina and Maria take classes in a mixture of synchronous lessons in a virtual classroom where the teacher instructs in real time online and asynchronous courses in which the students work at their own pace and check in with a teacher periodically. About 60 percent of the courses taken by PA Cyber students are in a virtual classroom. Christina and Maria prefer being engaged with teachers in the synchronous classes, but Julia, who likes to work ahead, prefers to take as many asynchronous courses as possible."

"Many educators, including state Education Secretary Ron Tomalis, predict the future expansion of online education will be in blended learning -- part online, part on-site.

"I think the days of old when you go to a school and [are told] 'here's your teacher, here's your textbook and curriculum' are over," Mr. Tomalis said. "I think blended learning will be more the norm in the future. It really individualizes learning. Technology allows us to have a platform that has a large reach.""

"In Project Based Learning (PBL), students go through an extended process of inquiry in response to a complex question, problem, or challenge. Rigorous projects help students learn key academic content and practice 21st Century Skills (such as collaboration, communication & critical thinking). "