The Common Core State Standards include literacy standards that are to be used in history, science, and other technical subjects. These standards focus on developing literacy outside of the English classroom beginning in the 6th grade. There are three major components to these: Reading in History; Reading in Science and Technical Subjects; and Writing…
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“Huh?” “What was that?” “Can you repeat that one more time?” “I wasn’t listening; can you say that again?” Teachers frequently hear these types of responses, from all different types of students, during all types of classes. Students that do not pay attention, and do not listen closely during instruction, do not retain information. Teachers…
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For more than 50 years, success gurus in the business world have been urging employers and employees to work smarter not harder. In business, it often means to think big, delegate more, and let technology work for you. It’s often recommended for people who are overwhelmed with details, facing multiple deadlines, and feeling stressed out…
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Each state that has adopted Common Core State Standards will select an assessment consortium to assess how children are progressing in school. The two options most widely chosen at this point are: Smarter Balanced and PARCC. Each assessment consortium has provided practice test questions and today we will review one of these questions and…
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Every spring, kids in the U.S. take a bevy of standardized tests. Teachers and administrators fret over the results. A great deal of time and energy is invested in preparing students for the tests. Unfortunately, the only real official material of any direct use is often a set of released sample test questions and a…
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Anyone who has been teaching for a few years knows that teachers face huge amounts of stress. It comes unremittingly from 20-120 students all demanding attention, and from administrative requests for meetings and paperwork, and parental requests about how Johnny’s doing. In the midst of this, a teacher has to prepare daily lessons, correct assignments,…
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Usually in the Ask DataWORKS blog, we like to feature answers to questions that readers have asked. This time we are fortunate to have a special guest who has some definite opinions about education. Our guest is Yoda, the great 900-year-old Jedi Warrior, who played a starring role in the Star Wars movies. We…
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Each state that has adopted Common Core State Standards will select an assessment consortium to assess how children are progressing in school. The two options most widely chosen at this point are: Smarter Balanced and PARCC. Each assessment consortium has provided practice test questions and today we will review one of these questions and discuss its potential impact on classroom instruction.…
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Amidst all the hoopla about Common Core standards, and how to teach the lessons so students are ready for the new assessments, there is a quiet but very significant understanding that underlies all the standards. This key value, which all the standards are designed to achieve, is proficient practice. The standards want the students to…
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In November 2010, the U.S. Department of Education released the National Education Technology Plan. As we’ve mentioned in earlier Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4 this plan is a broad vision for schools and districts to implement technology for learning. In this post, we will look more closely at the implications in the Plan for infrastructure…
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