Happy New Year!
February is Black History Month
Black History Month is a time for reflection and celebration of the accomplishments of African American trailblazers. Check out Reading Rockets as they highlight children's books, interviews with authors and illustrators, classroom activities, online history resources, and powerful documentaries to learn about the lives and contributions of African Americans. Celebrating and Learning About Black History and Culture
Saturday, February 6, 2022 - 6 hours FLEX Content (Online)
1. Attendance and credit will be tracked and awarded through Eduphoria. For this reason, you MUST enroll in Eduphoria to receive FLEX CREDIT.
- Elementary (K-5): https://fwisd.schoolobjects.com//wshop/default.aspx?cid=32337
- Secondary (6-12): https://fwisd.schoolobjects.com//wshop/default.aspx?cid=32338
2. After you are enrolled in the FWISD Eduphoria course, please use the EVENTBRITE REGISTRATION LINK to officially register for the conference.
3. Upon conclusion of the conference, UPLOAD your certificate of completion to course in Eduphoria.
4. You must also complete the FWISD Request Credit for External Professional PL to count towards your T-TESS: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfylRdu9HfRFQhzHmdEDd2HTgaeki9mF8eSdgaXj70sAVlVow/viewform
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‘Decodable’ Books: Boring, Useful, or Both?Research has long shown that teaching early elementary students phonics is the most reliable way to make sure that they learn how to read words. And much of the current debate around reading instruction has focused on phonics teaching, as many schools don’t currently follow research-based best practice in this area. Click here for full article. | Writing...not so simple afterall...The original Simple View of Writing is a theoretical framework focused on writing as the product of two necessary sets of skills. The Not So Simple View of Writing illustrates that in order to integrate all of the writing rope strands, students must have sufficient executive function abilities including attention, the ability to set goals and organize, self-monitoring and regulation. | Student Support: What's the difference?Acceleration, remediation, and intervention have the same fundamental goal: supporting struggling students to ultimately achieve academic success. Dig a little deeper, however, and you’ll find that the differences between these three types of support are critical to determining what sort of environment, time, and approach might be required to best serve your students. Click here for full article. |
‘Decodable’ Books: Boring, Useful, or Both?
Research has long shown that teaching early elementary students phonics is the most reliable way to make sure that they learn how to read words. And much of the current debate around reading instruction has focused on phonics teaching, as many schools don’t currently follow research-based best practice in this area. Click here for full article.
Writing...not so simple afterall...
The original Simple View of Writing is a theoretical framework focused on writing as the product of two necessary sets of skills. The Not So Simple View of Writing illustrates that in order to integrate all of the writing rope strands, students must have sufficient executive function abilities including attention, the ability to set goals and organize, self-monitoring and regulation.
Student Support: What's the difference?
Acceleration, remediation, and intervention have the same fundamental goal: supporting struggling students to ultimately achieve academic success. Dig a little deeper, however, and you’ll find that the differences between these three types of support are critical to determining what sort of environment, time, and approach might be required to best serve your students.
Click here for full article.
Elementary (K-5)
Reading Interventions The video series shows the teaching of critical skills such as naming letters accurately, blending and manipulating the sounds in words, mastering the connection between letters and sounds, recognizing spelling patterns, and reading multisyllable words. Looking at Reading Interventions shows how teachers can help children develop their skills, overcome difficulties, and become proficient readers.
Middle School (6-8)
Just like the Reading Rope, the Writing Rope consists of strands that represent the key components of writing. These strands intertwine and work together to build strong writers. Four of the five strands of the Writing Rope have to do with writing skills that relate to composition. In this 6-minute video Joan Sedita, founder of Keys to Literacy, explains why students in grades 5-12 benefit from explicit writing instruction. She summarizes the categories of writing instruction represented in The Writing Rope. Click here to watch the video.
High School (9-12)
Reading and Writing in the Content Areas In recent years, researchers have differentiated content and discipline-focused literacy. Content literacy focuses on reading and writing processes that are common to all content areas. Disciplinary literacy focuses on reading and writing skills specific to a subject area. Students get the opportunity to use their skills to read and write like a mathematician, scientist, or historian.
Professional Learning
Effective professional development builds the knowledge, skills and qualities of teachers to improve the outcomes of their students. When teachers practice and apply new learning, their enhanced knowledge and skills improves their teaching which then enhances their students' outcomes. Participants should select courses that increase teacher efficacy and are directly-aligned to student achievement (and not solely on "flex credit" compliance).
