Thursday, September 2, 2010
Using four exemplary practices that support cognitive growth, Imagine Learning English is a great way to help students with disabilities expand basic and academic vocabulary, increase reading grade levels, and master literacy and vocabulary.
- Screen and monitor student progress. Identify students’ instructional needs and regularly monitor their progress.
- Elaborate on and model instructional tasks. Present tasks explicitly and systematically, so students are more able to perform and understand task parameters.
- Differentiate instruction based on assessments and ongoing monitoring.
- Deliver intensive daily instruction. More time and more intensity is required when instructing students with disabilities–the amount of time spent on learning tasks is the single best indicator of academic gains.
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Tuesday, August 31, 2010
The start of the school year is all about new things—new classrooms, new students, new friends, and that newly-sharpened pencil smell come to mind. The back-to-school season is also the perfect opportunity to find a new favorite book. September is Read-A-New-Book Month, and it’s the perfect time to challenge your students (and yourself!) to pick up a good book and have a new adventure.
There are a lot of great resources out there with wonderful suggestions of books for struggling readers, English learners, students with disabilities, and students in early childhood. I’ve gathered a few suggestions here just to get you started, including award-winners, picks from the American Library Association, and favorites from some of us here at Imagine Learning. I’ve included thirty-one books—one for each day of Read-A-New-Book Month, plus a spare, just in case.
If you have a book recommendation, please add it to the comments section!
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Friday, August 20, 2010
If you were tasked with creating a program to help struggling readers, what would your program include? That’s a question that two researchers (Crystal Kelly, a teacher practitioner, and Linda Campbell, a university professor) set out to answer by comparing several struggling reading programs and interviewing teachers and reading specialists. They found that these sources agreed significantly on both the reasons why some students struggle with reading and the components an effective reading program must have. Read more »
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Over the next few weeks, more than one million early childhood education students will head off to their very first day of school. And while most of these students will be nervous about meeting their teachers, finding their cubbies, and making new friends, some of them will be apprehensive about something else entirely: learning a whole new language.
English learners at the pre-K level need support from their teachers just as much as English learners in K–6 grades. In fact, supporting young English learners in preschool is critical to their success in later years. NAESP President Barbara Chester notes that “when kids come to kindergarten unprepared, they struggle and continue to struggle.” In other words, getting off on the right foot with your young English learners can make a big difference as they progress to kindergarten and beyond.
So how can you help your early childhood English learners feel welcome in your classroom and get ready for kindergarten? One of the beset things you can do is create a positive learning environment. Here are three tips for getting ready for a new school year with your linguistically and culturally diverse (LCD) students:
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Thursday, August 12, 2010
Recently, members of the Imagine Learning instructional design and writing teams have started using Twitter to connect with the educational communities. In this way we have each developed our own personal learning network (PLN) and retweet the best of what we discover through our @ImagineLearning account. By doing so we have found a powerful space in which educators can interact with developers. Here we learn about student needs and teacher challenges.
These vital conversations allow developers to build pragmatic tools which will ease the teachers’ burden to address individual student needs, ultimately translating into more effective learning environments. We’re grateful to you for allowing us to participate in these online communities and are excited about our future involvement and the new discoveries we will come up with together.
Using Twitter has helped me stay connected to the educational community. Yet I realize the hesitancy some may have in using Twitter. This post’s aim is to help you maximize your Twitter experience to grow your PLN. Read more »
