Clif Notes 1/28/19
50 Years Of Building The State & Now Global Workforce!
DATES TO REMEMBER
Birthdays This Week
Betsy Conly - 1/29
Tina Horgan - 1/29
Molly Hale - 2/1
Paul Brown - 2/3
Lauren Pressey - 2/3
Delcastle's COLD Conference
Raffling of TOY Parking Spot
Are you freezing in the morning? Would you like to park closer to the building? Come and support the Spirit Committee by purchasing raffle tickets for the coveted Teacher of the Year spot right in front of the building.
- Stop by Janet Gantert’s room in C004 all next week to purchase tickets for $1 each or $5 for an arm’s length.
- The winner will start parking in the spot Monday, February 4, through the rest of the school year. ~ Horgan
January Small Group PLC
Delaware Teachers Institute
What is DTI?
The Delaware Teachers Institute (DTI) is an educational partnership between the University of Delaware and five New Castle County school districts: Christina, Colonial, New Castle County Vocational-Technical, Appoquinimink and Red Clay Consolidated. The Institute is designed to strengthen teaching and learning in the community's high need public schools through content rich professional development seminars taught by University faculty, led by a University Advisory Council and a committee of K-12 teacher leaders, and administered by a director.
DTI is affiliated with the Yale National Initiative® which established the model and supports existing and potential Teachers Institutes nationally. Additionally, this affiliation allows select DTI fellows to attend the annual summer intensive session where they engage in seminars taught by Yale faculty and create additional published curriculum units.
How does it work?
The DTI Teacher Leadership Committee (TLC) seeks input from teachers in their districts and then works to match their content specific needs with the research and teaching goals of University faculty. Interested faculty then submit seminar proposals and five to six proposals are selected for each cycle. Seminars typically cover STEM and humanities/social science topics. Current topics include: A Short History of Story, Ancient Inventions, Social Problems through Artistic Expression, Seeing Into Movies and How Do We Power Our Planet?
Following a rigorous application process, K-12 teachers are admitted into small seminar groups organized around the content topics. In seminars, University faculty members contribute their knowledge of and expertise in a subject, while teachers apply their knowledge of elementary and secondary pedagogy, their understanding of the students they teach, and their grasp of what really works in the classroom.
Successful completion of a seminar requires that teachers each research and write a curriculum unit related to the seminar topic to be used in their own classrooms, shared with others in their home schools, and shared with a wider audience of educators through both print and electronic publication.
How can you be involved?
· Spread the word…
o Share this example of UD/School District collaboration and the positive impact on the community
o Promote the benefits to DTI Fellows
§ Stipends to those who complete the seminar
§ Creation of a high quality, standards based unit that will be published
§ Increased content knowledge
§ Access to UD library and facilities
o Access all existing units www.udel.edu/dti
Questions? Ideas? Contact Us:
Trish Hermance, Director
Delaware Teachers Institute
77 E. Main Street
Newark, DE 19716
302-831-2744
SAVE THE DATE
The Delcastle 50th Gala (Formal attire $50)
March 29th, 2019 (7 PM - 11 PM)
Tickets are on sale now. The link to purchase tickets is available on Schoology and the Delcastle website. Tickets are first come first served. Tickets are limited! Please plan accordingly. https://delcastlehighschool.ludus.com/
Ignite the Night 5K
April 5th, 2019
The 50th Celebration Car Show
May 4th, 2019
State Wide Benefit Office
Over the past six months, SBO has been working behind the scenes to streamline our website design, layout and format to make it easier for users to find benefit information that applies to them. We are pleased to announce that our new website will launch on February 1, 2019. The new design is user, mobile and consumer-friendly; contains less text and more icons, images and logos; customizes the user experience by group (for example, State Agency Employees vs. DOE, K12, DTCC & DSU Employees); and provides users with easy access to information to help them be wise health care consumers, save money and stay healthy. SBO’s website address, de.gov/statewidebenefits, will continue to be used. Please note that the pages ben.omb.delaware.gov and de.gov/healthconsumer will no longer be available effective February 1, 2019. Check out the new website design on February 1 and uncover and explore your benefits!
February 4th PD Preparation
The Internet Archive: A Massive Collection of FREE Digital Resources
The Internet Archive (see link below) is a non-profit library that houses millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more. The Internet Archive contains one of the biggest collections of books that are in the public domain (no copyright violations). The best way for teachers to use the Internet Archive is to find what they want students to access then download it and place it into a Google Drive folder or in Schoology for students to access without having to actually go to the Internet Archive. Watch this video to see how to download books from the Internet Archive.
As always, please contact me for additional assistance!!!
~Tara
Computer Usage at Delcastle for the Week Ending 1/18/19
Delcastle Instructional Focus
Talking in the classroom
Content-Area Conversations
by Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey and Carol Rothenberg
Talk in the Average Classroom
Classroom talk is frequently limited and is used to check comprehension rather than develop thinking. Consistent with the example from the beginning of the chapter, researchers have found that teachers dominate classroom talk. For example, Lingard, Hayes, and Mills (2003) noted that in classrooms with higher numbers of students living in poverty, teachers talk more and students talk less. We also know that English language learners in many classrooms are asked easier questions or no questions at all and thus rarely have to talk in the classroom (Guan Eng Ho, 2005). Several decades ago, Flanders (1970) reported that teachers of high-achieving students spent about 55 percent of the class time talking, compared with 80 percent for teachers of low-achieving students.
In addition to the sheer volume of teacher talk in the classroom, researchers have identified the types of talk that are more and less helpful. For example, Durkin's (1978/1979) seminal research on comprehension instruction confirmed that teachers rely primarily on questioning to check for understanding. Questioning is an important tool that teachers have, but students also need opportunities for dialogue if they are to learn. And, unfortunately, most questioning uses an initiate–respond–evaluate cycle (Cazden, 1988) in which teachers initiate a question, a student responds, and then the teacher evaluates the answer. Here is an example from a 7th grade social studies discussion of a reading on ancient Mesopotamia:
The problems inherent in this type of approach are multiple. First, in a classroom where we want students to talk—to practice and apply their developing knowledge of English—only one student has an opportunity to talk, and, as we see in this example, that talk does not require the use of even one complete sentence, let alone extended discourse. In a classroom where we want students to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate, neither does this type of interchange require them to engage in critical thinking. Instead, they may become frustrated as they struggle to "guess what's in the teacher's head" or become disengaged as they listen to the "popcorn" pattern of teacher question, student response, teacher question, student response, and so on. Last, in a classroom where assessment guides instruction, with each question the teacher learns that one student knows the answer but can make no determination regarding the understanding of the other 29 students in the classroom.
In sum, talk is used in most classrooms but could be more effectively used to develop students' thinking. Teachers must take into account their English language learners' current proficiency levels when planning instruction.
Differences Among Students
One of the most important things to recognize about teaching English language learners is that they are not a monolithic group. They differ in a number of important ways, including the following:
Linguistic. Although Spanish is the most common second language in the United States, students in a given school district might speak more than 100 different languages. These languages differ in their pronunciation patterns, orthographic representations, and histories—and thus in the ease with which students can transfer their prior knowledge about language to English.
Proficiency in the home language. Students who speak the same language and are in the same grade may have very different levels of academic language proficiency in their home language depending on such factors as age and prior education. The development of a formal first language facilitates learning in additional languages.
Generation. There are recognized differences in language proficiency for students of different generations living in the United States. First and second generations of English language learners differ in significant ways, including the ability to use English at home. Because protracted English language learners born outside the United States attempt to straddle their old world and the new world in which they live, they experience greater difficulty in developing English proficiency.
Number of languages spoken. Some students enroll in schools having mastered more than one language already and thus have gained a linguistic flexibility that can aid in learning additional languages. Others have spoken one language at home for years, and their exposure to English is a new learning experience.
Motivation. Students differ in their motivation to learn English depending on their migration, immigration, or birthplace. Immigrant families leave their homelands for a variety of reasons—political and economic are perhaps the most common. Many of our students have left loved ones behind, along with a familiar and cherished way of life. Some even hope to return when a war is ended or when the family has enough money to better their life in their home country. These students may not feel a great need to become proficient in a language they don't intend to use for very long.
Poverty. Living in poverty and experiencing food insecurity have a profound impact on learning in general and language learning in particular. Simply said, when students' basic needs are met, they are more likely to excel in school.
Personality. Some students are naturally outgoing and verbal; others are shy or prefer more independent activities. Some are risk takers who are not afraid to make mistakes; others want their utterances to be perfect. These differences in personality can lead to differences in the rate at which students gain proficiency in listening and speaking or reading and writing.
Continue reading next week....