What is summer learning loss? Summer learning loss is the process by which students regress academically during the summer months. According to research by the Brookings Institution, students can lose as much as 30% of a school year’s academic attainment over the course of July and August, due to the lack of focused academic practice and structured [...]
Photo by Laercio Cavalcanti Understanding your students' families - and engaging with them effectively - has an impact on almost every aspect of school life and the success of your programs. Family engagement begins with understanding, and an effective way to do this is through a take-home or emailed family survey. Do you already have [...]
Photo by NeONBRAND What are Exit Tickets and Entry Tickets? Entry and exit tickets are perhaps the easiest and straightforward way to get the benefits of data for informing and differentiating instruction, especially when you use an app to do them digitally. Put simply, Entry and Exit tickets are short prompts [...]
This self-assessment checklist will get you thinking about everything that goes into a successful data program. Data overload is not helpful. Technology is not a solution in itself. But using data effectively makes teachers, parents, students, staff, and the community happy and successful! by Marlon Davis, Ed.M. Marlon is a 2-time [...]
5 ways to use family engagement to support classroom management During my tenure and experience as an educator, I learned that I must believe that all families want the best for their children, regardless of how that may manifest itself. However challenging it may be engage productively with some families, educators must begin to incorporate [...]
What is family engagement? Engaging students' families is an important step toward improving school climate, boosting teacher morale, and strengthening the school community. But in order to achieve the benefits of family engagement it is important to understand the difference between "family engagement" and "parental involvement." The practice of family engagement goes beyond parent involvement. [...]
Photo by Thought Catalog Sing the praises of your staff while “de-personalizing” the use of data for teaching and learning. As a former school principal (and current trainer of principals), I often hear well-intentioned teachers talk about the drudgery of using data to drive classroom instruction. If you are facing these objections - whether rooted [...]
Thank you for being a friend: Checking for Understanding in the Tiered Reading Classroom by Melody K. Gerard Let me tell you a story. Picture it. Sicily. 1922. Classes were 90 minutes long. Formative assessments were taken once every six weeks. Summative assessments were once a year. Test scores were always a surprise. If you [...]
How to use, measure, and track Bloom's Taxonomy in your Question Stems and Multiple Choice Questions According to Edglossary "Blooms Taxonomy is a classification system used to define and distinguish different levels of human cognition—i.e., thinking, learning, and understanding." It's currently fashionable to bash multiple choice questions [...]
Formative Assessment Tools and the Science of Teaching There are two critical keys to exceptional teaching. The first, effective transmission of content and skills as measured by formative assessment (short and medium cycle) and summative assessment. This scientific approach to student mastery relies on rigorous measurement. It is the key to identifying what doesn't work and improving on what does. [...]
