Common Core
Promoting Math Problem Solving Skills in Young Children
From the desk of Leigh Ann… “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” ~ Albert Einstein The Common Core encourages us to build our students’ math problem solving skills – focusing on the process as much as the outcome. Modeling math problem solving strategies and talking about the process is…
Read MoreToo Good for Guided Reading?
From the desk of Alice… I recently had a conversation with a teacher who said her kids don’t really need Guided Reading anymore because they are her top students and they can read well. If you are in a school working on Guided Reading, you may have heard this, too. In a perfect school world,…
Read More6 Tips for Using Mentor Texts
From the desk of Carol C… For a long time I had no idea what a mentor text was. I would hear the term thrown around but never really got the specifics of it. When I finally did learn what mentor texts were, I realized the power they had to grow student writers. I thought…
Read MoreTips for Teaching Argumentative Writing
From the desk of Carol C… Writing is an important component of the Common Core literacy standards. There are three types of writing the CC addresses: argumentative/opinion, informational, and narrative. All three of these types are found in the standards at every grade level K-12. In the past, most students have written narratives or informational…
Read MoreEducation Resource Group Supports Teachers with Common Core Standards
It is an exciting time in education! The new Common Core Standards have educators “on their toes” and this is fertile ground for us to learn professionally. ERG has been working for over a year to get ready to support schools with CCSS and we are ready, willing and able! If you haven’t noticed already,…
Read MoreRead. Analyze. Emulate.
From the desk of Alice… In case you missed it, Kelly Gallagher was in town this week and did a workshop related to reading and writing. I love it when we are able to bring high quality educators and authors to the area so I can learn from them. Kelly had many useful tips for…
Read MoreSeize the Opportunity
From the desk of Carol C… You have the opportunity to go to Hawaii, and everything for you is free. Would you take it? What about Paris, London, Rome, or southern Germany free of charge? Pearl Harbor, the Louvre, Tower of London, or Bavaria. Of course you would. It would be the opportunity of a…
Read MoreAnd the Answer Is…
From the desk of Carol C… I’ve thought a lot about the role of questioning in our classrooms and its effect on students. Questioning, if used to help students think more critically is a vital part of any high achieving classroom. Lately though I’ve started thinking about the answers we give children. Whether kids are…
Read MoreRaising the Levels of Questioning
From the desk of Carol C… Teachers have always asked questions. It is a natural part of any lesson, but questioning in 2013 must be different. Today in order to meet the rigorous demands of the Common Core Standards we must approach questioning from a different perspective. Now questions must be preplanned and deliberate just…
Read MoreRigor
From the desk of Carol C… Let’s be honest- why do we suddenly care about rigor? Most of us would say “because it’s in the new Common Core”. Understandable. After all, how often was that word mentioned before the introduction of the CC? Almost never. So are there reasons besides the CC that we should…
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