MIS Navigator
October Edition
Teachers set high expectations for learning and believe all students are capable of achieving success.
- Create an environment for personal growth (student goal setting)
- Promote, model, and nurture a growth mindset using the power of "Yet"
- Allow time for student feedback
- Use higher level vocabulary in your classroom
- Differentiate for all learners in your classroom using the jigsaw strategy, socratic seminars, tiered assignments, menus and choice boards, and student surveys!
USING COOPERATIVE LEARNING to support high expectations
"Techify" It!
Interested in other simple ways to incorporate various Tech Tools with our monthly M-Powerment Strategy: M-2? Check out the list of ideas below!
Blackboard Learn - Differentiating assignments using Adaptive Release
Mastery Connect - Utilizing question banks based on standards and Depth of Knowledge leveled questions
iReady - Student paced instruction
Smore - Sharing good things, expectations, etc. with students and parents
Google Apps for Ed - Setting up strategic groups and differentitated assigments students can easily collaborate on and access together
Google Sheets - Student data trackers
TenMarks - Adds rigor with multiple question types; allows for differentiation of assignments based on student levels
Quizlet - Various different learning/practice options for various levels of students
Symbaloo Lesson Plans -Track student completion of tasks
Google Calendar - Students taking responsibility for due dates
Using Easybib & Google Research to cite sources in all content
Rubistar - Utilizing rubrics for student performance grading
Educreations - Student created tutorials
Playposit - Teacher-created lesson modules with videos, practice, and self-assessment (when paired with data or student data tracker and reflection)
Kahoot/Quizizz - Students can monitor their own performance and growth on standards covered in class
Thinglink - Student created resources based on understanding/mastery of content
Padlet/Linoit - Warm-ups/Exit Tickets
Weebly.com/Google Sites - Students create their own sites or work portfolios for sharing and tracking learning/growth
Literacy Across Content Areas
5 Little Pumpkins Halloween Challenge
Our Halloween challenge started last week! Building off of the literacy sessions we completed as a school during the Summer Institute, Tara Gander and I chose 5 literacy strategies out of Jennifer Seravallo's book The Reading Strategies Book to continue to challenge all teachers to use literacy strategies across content areas.
Shrink-a-Text - Purpose: To guide students (in pairs) in determining the main ideas of paragraphs within a text to help them comprehend the text as a whole
Survey the Text - Purpose: To help students synthesize a larger section of text- like a whole book - by teaching them to survey the table of contents, images, cover, etc. before reading.
Conversation Playing Board - Purpose: To guide student participation and discussion in groups; students individually reflect on a topic and share within groups
Caption It! - Purpose: To help students monitor their own comprehension of the text; students create their own captions for pictures/tables/graphs within a text
Paraphrase Chunks & Put it Together - Purpose: To help students synthesize a larger section of text - like a whole article or passage - by teaching them to break it into chunks and paraphrase them, and then put them all together to analyze the complete meaning of the text
Now for the CHALLENGE! Try one strategy (or as many as you like) with your students and share all about it on this Padlet board. Don't forget to include your name! All entries will be entered into a drawing for a $20 credit for Amazon or Teachers Pay Teachers. However, you will be rewarded for participating regardless. You can also enter as many times as you like!
Destiny Challenge
Rigor is different for every child, especially when it comes to reading materials. Several teachers have asked Kristina Thoennes to show their students how to search the new Destiny Discover interface to find books at an appropriately challenging reading level. Let her know if she can do the same for your students! Meanwhile, she has posted a 4 1/2 minutes video tutorial on the Media Center website that shows how to log in, search for books, narrow by reading level range, and favorite books that look interesting.
Quality Sources for Research
Researching for information is like shopping for shoes. It is easy to go to Walmart or Google, but those resources are very general and don't always have the best quality. We need to expect our students to use quality sources for research. Ms. Thoennes has a presentation that communicates this idea and she is happy to do an activity using it with your students.
We have several resources where your students can find reliable information.
- Britannica (via NC WiseOwl): Encyclopedia - general overviews of many topics. The password for all NC WiseOwl resources is wiseowl16.
- Explora (via NC WiseOwl): Database of articles from many sources - more specific than encyclopedia articles.
- icurio (via MGSD Digital Resources): Users can search for websites that have been evaluated by educators.
The other benefit of using these reliable resources is that they usually provide the full citation for each resource. Fourth graders should be expected to give credit for sources using at least the website address. By the end of fifth grade, students should be giving a full citation for sources. The OSLIS Citation Maker is one option for students to create a proper citation. This is what Ms. Thoennes uses to cite the images used in Announcements.
MGSD TOP TEN TECH TOOLS FOCUS
SPOTLIGHT #1: Mastery Connect
Spotlight #2: Socrative
Spotlight #3: Smore
Need help with any of these MGSD Top Ten Resources or
any of our other ones?
Email one of us to set up a time to meet!
Sarah Dillard
Instructional Technology Facilitator
Email: sarahdillard@mgsd.k12.nc.us
KRISTINA THOENNES
School Library Media Coordinator