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Cursive is dead. Long live cursive. Just over a year ago, we published an article asking if cursive handwriting is still relevant in today’s educational system. In it, one of the rationales cited was so that students could read historical documents and, as our company’s resident expert in history, that got me thinking about what…
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At the end of January, six DataWORKS consultants went “Down Under” again to train teachers and administrators across Australia. The training focused on Explicit Direct Instruction (EDI) and the roll out of the Foundation – Year 6 Australian English curriculum created by DataWORKS in 2015. DataWORKS’ partnership with Good to Great Schools Australia had us first…
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Educeri is Here We are proud to report that our new service, Educeri, is officially up and running! What is Educeri, you ask? Educeri (ed-ju-sair-ee) is a subscription-based lesson service that gives users unlimited access to hundreds of digital K-12 resources from any device. Through Educeri, we are committed to providing lessons – awesome ones…
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The teacher asked students to write a paragraph about video games. Adam wrote: Link is a clever guy who has to rescue Princess Zelda from the villain Ganon. Along the way, he learns to use the Triforce. Anthony wrote: To play the game, you have to be good at using a controller. With the right…
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How to learn better means giving students the skills to manage their own learning. We call these cognitive strategies. In previous blogs, we discussed chunking, rehearsal, and elaboration strategies. This time we will look at organization methods that you can use with your students. Organization strategies Where rehearsal and elaboration strategies focus on words,…
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We’re not giving up on you! Witnessing the moment that a light bulb goes on for a struggling student can be awe-inspiring. It’s even more rewarding when that student finds a renewed passion for learning and an excitement for a subject like math. That’s exactly what happened for the middle school and high school students…
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Math is Tough! When consulting with a high school in Southern California recently, I taught a lesson on graphing linear equations to Algebra I students. While I was teaching the lesson, I randomly selected non-volunteers to Check for Understanding, and through the student responses I found some very interesting math misconceptions! The lesson I am…
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Expanding Vocabulary Last time we discussed the Standards for Literacy Practice (SLPs) that are part of Common Core. These standards are recommended guidelines that subject area teachers (such as social studies/history, science, and technical subjects) should use to reinforce literacy in their classes. One of the main shifts in these literacy standards is the focus on…
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A surprising powerhouse In 2012 while working with Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools (NIS) Center of Excellence in Astana, Kazakhstan, as an educational consultant, I started to do reports and work on research, specifically, “Best Practices” methodologies. NIS wanted Kazakhstan to become a leader in education in Asia and the world. My colleagues and I started to…
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Giving students the skills to learn better, to take charge of their own learning, is critical to their development. That’s why cognitive strategies are so important. In a previous blog, we discussed chunking and rehearsal strategies. This time we will look at elaboration methods that you can use to help students understand and remember. Elaboration…
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