Hello!

Since I am in the throes of helping my online Spanish learners to do their first recorded assignments, it made me realize how much easier it is to teach a phonetic language like Spanish than it is to teach English. I empathize with all teachers who are teaching English Language Learners because both the teacher and the student could easily end up struggling.

Here is something to think about that might help.  Plus, there is a special free offer for you when you finish reading…

Enjoy!
Teresa Roebuck

Differentiated Instruction For Struggling ELLs

By Dorit Sasson

As a way of thinking about differentiated teaching for ELLs, “each student needs and deserves a teacher who will be an active partner in helping that student identify and build upon personal strengths and identify and address areas of weakness” [Carol Ann Tomlinson, An Educator's Guide to Differentiating Instruction, 2006].

Since more and more ELLs (English language learners) are not achieving proficiency in general education classes, teachers need to differentiate instruction so that their struggling ELLs can encounter words heard orally on both a word and text level.

A balanced mode of teaching reading using oral instruction is slowly becoming the accepted norm for teaching early reading skills for entering ELLs in ESL learning groups and large general education classes. Unfortunately, there is no transitional group for such groups and very quickly, ELLs need to catch up with their native English speaking peers with regard to achieving reading proficiency.

Defining a Balanced Mode of Reading Instruction in Differentiated Learning Contexts for ELLs

A balanced mode of reading instruction is differentiated when teachers provide activities that reinforce ELLs’ oral knowledge within a reading-based context. Here are some examples of a balanced mode of reading instruction in action:

* Lower-performing ELLs-This group reads orally a list of targeted vocabulary words of varying length and difficulty depending on their performance.

* Middle-performing ELLs-This group reads orally a list of targeted vocabulary words/sentences of varying length and difficulty and and then matches the word to the picture or matches the sentence that describes the picture.

* Higher-performing ELLs -This group reads a short text of varying text and difficulty using the targeted words teacher has taught previously. In pairs, they then read the sentence found in the text that corresponds to the questions. This assumes that ELLs have acquired a deeper meaning of the words and sentences.

For struggling ELLs in general education classes, teachers need to strengthen the decoding process, which leads to comprehension. This allows ELLs to make connections between ideas while reading. Teachers should provide effective oral reading instruction that includes vocabulary and phonological skills. It is absolutely critical that teachers use oral instruction with other teaching approaches to maintain student interest. Many discipline problems have been known to occur when teachers rely too much on oral instruction.

Helping ELLs Succeed using a Balanced Approach to Differentiate Reading Instruction

In conclusion, when teachers differentiate oral instruction to support early reading instruction, they have a higher chance of helping struggling ELLs achieve fluency and deeper comprehension. As ELLs are expected to read with deeper understanding, oral instruction helps teachers close some of their reading gaps in word and text based skills.

Make Your Teaching Sparkle. Teach for Success. Make a difference in the classroom.

Subscribe to receive your FREE e-zine and e-book, “Taking Charge in the Classroom” when you visit the New Teacher Resource Center at http://www.newteachersignup.com.

Purchase your ebook of classroom tested tips – “Tips and Tricks for Surviving and Thriving in the Classroom,” at: http://www.MakeYourTeachingSparkle.com and you’ll receive a FREE ebooklet, “Yes! You Can Teach K-12 English language learners Successfully!”

Dorit Sasson is a freelance writer, speaker, educator and founder of the New Teacher Resource Center.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dorit_Sasson

http://EzineArticles.com/?Differentiated-Instruction-For-Struggling-ELLs&id=3584181

Hello! Are you ready to bring your brilliance? Join us! Our mission is to support our nation's novice teachers in their professional lives. We want to help you connect - or reconnect - your passion with your purpose in order to increase and honor your authentic power as a teacher.

Congratulations to Sheree Crites, Outstanding Distance Education Faculty in Arkansas for 2009!  She has received a complimentary membership in the GATE to show our appreciation to her!  Way to go, Sheree!  Keep up the great work!  We know you make a huge difference in the lives of your students.

This  award was awarded to Sheree Crites, teacher with the Arkansas Department of Education Distance Learning Center by the Arkansas Distance Learning Association.  Sheree exhibits enthusiasm for using technology and has impacted not only her colleagues, but also her peers in both public and private schools. Wherever she meets with colleagues and during presentations, she demonstrates the many ways technology can facilitate, enhance, and enrich student learning. She was the first of the Distance Learning Center’s faculty to use podcasting for literature, grammar, and short story lessons; her excitement about the difference it made in her classes encouraged colleagues to try it in their classes. She can frequently be seen at school sporting events or awards banquets at the schools after hours, when the activity or school is within driving distance.  Nominees were submitted by the faculty member’s president, chancellor, or senior administrative representative.

We will be hearing more from our newest member of the GATE community in the near future.  Look for her contributions to our online professional learning community when you join with us!

Hello, 21st Century Teachers!

One of the biggest concerns that we hear from novice teachers, or any teacher,  is that they feel isolated. They feel isolated in the classroom among the students. They feel isolated among their fellow teachers. They really feel isolated from the administration. They even feel isolated at home, because of the work load that bleeds into family time.

What is it about the teaching profession that makes it generate such a sense of isolation? There might be as many explanations for this as there are teachers out there, but I imagine the main reason is in the simple daily realities of the job. We, generally, spend the greater part of our day in a closed environment behind closed doors with 20 or so other people who, generally, don’t want to be there with us.

We are held accountable for other people’s learning. We are held accountable for other people’s physical well-being while in our classrooms. We are held accountable for other people’s psychological well-being while in our classrooms. We are held accountable for other people’s skill sets and motivation. We are held accountable for other people’s actions, even if they are not in our classrooms, if we think that they might be in danger from self- or other’s abuse.

Wow. Wow. We do great things. We are good people. We put ourselves out there. We care.
Why, then, do we receive so little appreciation? Why do we so often feel like it is us against the world? Why aren’t we the greatest force for change the world has ever known? Oh, wait. We are. We just don’t get the credit for it often enough. And we don’t connect to one another enough to see it in action in our daily lives.

We need to reach out to each other. We need to encourage each other. I may be having a terrible day, but someone, somewhere, might be able to provide me with a small acknowledgment that what I do matters and I will feel better. It is a simple thing to do, really. Just connect with someone you know who is a teacher and let them know that you appreciate what they do. Connecting can be a multi-lane expressway and it is open to all.

The world in 2010 is ripe for connection. You don’t have to be isolated and you can change those feelings of isolation into a sense of community. Professional learning communities can help and just talking to each other can help, too.

But you have to take a first step and get out of your own way and simply connect. It doesn’t matter if you do it virtually, like in our association community or on Twitter or Facebook or in some physical location. Use the faculty lounge. Use the supermarket aisles. Use your in-service time… just let some other teacher know that you understand what they do and that you appreciate it. Tell someone how great they are. Maybe they will return the favor.

Call or email me. I’ll tell you how great you are. In a heartbeat.

Enjoy!
Teresa

From Seth Godin via Squidoo…

Get the What Matters Now ebook (and spread it)

We want to shake things up. More than seventy extraordinary authors and thinkers contributed to this ebook. It’s designed to make you sit up and think, to change your new year’s resolutions, to foster some difficult conversations with your team.

Click the photo to go to the download site.

Hello!

I found this excellent video on education visionary Barbara Bray’s blog: Rethinking Learning. Barbara is the founder and CEO of My eCoach, one of the building blocks of our GATE professional learning community Team benefit for members. It is an amazing tool to help our GATE teachers to collaborate and be in community and I am honored to be able to work with Barbara and other great educators I have met along my journey in education.

Since I am always looking for the tech perspective in relation to the teaching excellence needed today, I would like to share this video with all of you. It speaks for our 21st Century learners in a truly authentic voice.

Enjoy!
Teresa

2009 ARDLA Conference:  Award Winners

by Karen Liebhaber

Congratulations to the ARDLA award winners!

The Outstanding Distance Education Program award went to the Arkansas Department of Education Distance Learning Center.  As the Outstanding Distance Education Program, the Arkansas Department of Education Distance Learning Center was a distance education program whose staff has demonstrated leadership and replicable innovation in several areas such as ensuring quality instruction, efficient course development, instituting effective retention strategies, promotion, and providing outstanding student services and faculty professional development.  Nominees were submitted by the organization’s CEO, president, or senior administrative representative.  The Arkansas Department of Education Distance Learning Center has been a successful distance-learning provider for eight years, from 62 students at 3 schools in 2001-02 to 3,049 at 98 schools in 2008-09.

The Outstanding Distance Education Faculty award was awarded to Teresa Sheree Crites, teacher with the Arkansas Department of Education Distance Learning Center.  Teresa exhibits enthusiasm for using technology and has impacted not only her colleagues, but also her peers in both public and private schools. Wherever she meets with colleagues and during presentations, she demonstrates the many ways technology can facilitate, enhance, and enrich student learning. She was the first of the Distance Learning Center’s faculty to use podcasting for literature, grammar, and short story lessons; her excitement about the difference it made in her classes encouraged colleagues to try it in their classes. She can frequently be seen at school sporting events or awards banquets at the schools after hours, when the activity or school is within driving distance.  Nominees were submitted by the faculty member’s president, chancellor, or senior administrative representative.

The first recipient of the Lifetime Achievement in Distance Education award was John Davis.  In the early 1990’s, institutions within the State of Arkansas were beginning to adapt interactive video for telemedicine and education. After a meeting of the state video users group (Starnet – now VNet) it was decided that the video users would coordinate and consolidate to a centralized network. John Davis served as the Technical Engineer for this network as en employee of then Southwestern Bell. John Davis provided the connection between customer functional requirements and network architecture. He worked diligently to ensure that the technical foundation of the video network would meet the application demands of distance learning and telemedicine.

The second recipient of the Lifetime Achievement in Distance Education award was Lee Gupton.  Also at the beginning of the VNET system listed above, Lee Gupton was the central figure for operations, scheduling, troubleshooting, and end-user support. Without the help, assistance, and diligent work of Lee Gupton early adaptors of video conferencing would not have enjoyed the level of success achieved.  Lee was a pioneer in video conferencing in Arkansas. While employed with Southwestern Bell and SBC, Lee Gupton was responsible for supporting all aspects of video conferencing including customer care, diagnostics, trouble shooting, scheduling, technical support, installation coordination, video bridge operations, and reporting. Lee Gupton made collaborative video conferencing possible.

The Lifetime Achievement in Distance Education award winners were chosen by the ARDLA board of directors because of their role as a leader who has made a lifetime contribution building and improving the field of distance education.

The Greg M. Heuberger Grant for High School/1st Year College is a $1500 scholarship awarded to an Arkansas high school senior who has currently or previously taken either high school credit or college credit classes via a distance and will be enrolling in college fulltime for the 2009-2010 academic year.  According to one of her teachers, Lindsay Davis “is one of the most poised and focused students I’ve taught in my ten years of teaching.”  During a particularly tricky incident involving the use of her work by another student, Lindsay “not only impress[ed] me with her honesty in regard to the situation, but also did not try to place blame anywhere else when I honestly feel she could have done so….She not only faced that challenge and accepted the consequences, but moved on to become a determined and effective writer.”

The Greg M. Heuberger Grant for Returning to College is a $1500 scholarship awarded to a student who is currently enrolled in an Arkansas college or university taking distance learning classes and is returning as fulltime student for the 2009-2010 academic year. Melissa Lambert was selected because, according to one of her instructors, not only is she a “conscientious student” but “Her main goal seemed to be ‘learning,’ rather than merely “’making a good grade.’”  Not only does Melissa work hard as a student, she balances her classes with work in the SAU Alumni office and as an active member of two cheerleading squads:  the sporting event squad and the competition squad.

Finally, Cathi Swan was awarded the ARDLA Exemplary Service Award. The ARDLA Exemplary Service Award is a special award that tries to display gratitude to a member who has performed outstanding work for ARDLA.  Cathi’s intensive work with her committees, her labors on the conference program, her cheerful and willing attitude, and her extreme effort in organizing the conference made her the perfect choice for this award.  Cathi’s jobs as both ARDLA Vice-President and Conference Committee chair were very labor-intensive, yet despite balancing her work as K-12 DL Coordinator and balancing her family, Cathi managed to complete her tasks in what seemed to be effortless style.  Cathi was forever on top of her duties and in every meeting was both prepared and positive.  She managed the sessions, presenters, and conference activities with an air of confidence.  Cathi’s devotion to ARDLA and the success of the ARDLA conference merit her as an exemplary ARDLA member.

Join the GATE and national expert, Dr. Howie Knoff for a conversation on Response to Intervention systems and his new book:  Implementing Response-to-Intervention at the School, District, and State Levels: Functional Assessment, Data-based Problem Solving, and Evidence-based Academic and Behavioral Interventions

Response-to-Intervention (RtI) involves evaluating the degree that students (a) master academic material in response to effective instruction and (b) demonstrate appropriate, prosocial behavior in response to effective classroom management. When students are not progressing or “responding,” academically or behaviorally, to effective instructional conditions, RtI includes a functional assessment/problem solving process to determine the reason(s) for the lack of success, and the implementation of strategic through intensive interventions to help those students progress and be successful. At an operational level, RtI is often described as working within a flexible, three-tiered system that is guided by students’ academic and behavioral outcomes.

This E-Book represents the most comprehensive, up-to-date single-authored volume on Response-to-Intervention (RtI). Based on Dr. Howie Knoff’s experience in implementing RtI at the school, district, and state levels, and his extensive research in the field, this “how-to” book discusses step-by-step RtI implementation from a practitioner’s perspective, including how to conduct a systematic, data-based, functional assessment, problem solving process.

This is a free downloadable session: registration is required in order to obtain the download information.

You may register online here:

US DEPT. OF ED ANNOUNCES STUDENT VIDEO CONTEST

School technology organizations say they welcome the initiative, and several companies offer special assistance to participating students
By Meris Stansbury, Associate Editor, eSchool News

The contest, called “I Am What I Learn,” is accepting entries from students ages 13 and older.

To get students invested in their education, President Barack Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan have announced a new video contest, asking students to “inspire” them with their stories. Advocates for educational technology say the contest is a great way to reach the digital generation and help students develop key 21st-century skills.

The contest, called “I Am What I Learn,” is accepting entries from middle school, high school, and college students ages 13 and older. Students can submit videos up to two minutes long, and entries must be received by Nov. 2.

“Students share responsibility for their education and for fulfilling their dreams,” said Duncan. “This video contest is an opportunity for young people to share their stories about where their education and career training can take them. At the same time, I encourage parents, schools, and communities to play a strong role in their stories by being accountable for forming stronger partnerships that guide students to their goals.”

More…

Contest submission site:
http://www.ed.gov/iamwhatilearn/index.html