Developing the Global Student: Practical Ways to Infuse 21st Century Literacy Skills in Your Classroom

Here a must see presentation from Kim Cofino, and she presented this at two conferences:

• Teach IT! Conference, Singapore in November 2007
• EARCOS Teachers Conference, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in March 2008

Watch it let me know what you think, or let others, including Kim Cofino

[slideshare id=161540&doc=developing-the-global-student-v2-1194743695449510-4&w=425]

Here is student perspective of the same importance:

Education In The 21st Century

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Deriving UDL (Universal Design for Learning) Solutions Template

The Deriving UDL Solutions Template helps you select, assemble, or create flexible learning materials and methods including tools, digital content, and Web-based materials to minimize barriers for your students. You can download it in Microsoft Word or pdf Format, to use use on screen or in print.

Learner Supports and Differentiation

PDF DOC

The template has three parts:

1. The Model Template shows examples of UDL solutions to the anticipated barriers and missed opportunities derived using the UDL Class Profile Maker and the UDL Barriers Finder

2. Examples of UDL Solutions is divided into three segments, addressing the three brain networks: recognition, strategy, and affect. For each, Form 3B offers examples of technology-based tools, media, and methods as well as instructional strategies to expand your repertoire and engage more students. Note that the appropriateness of these solutions and options depends upon your instructional goal. Providing scaffolds such as spell checkers for writing or text-to-speech for reading is appropriate only if the goal of a lesson is focused on process and content, not on writing or reading mechanics.

3. The Blank Template offers structured support for selecting and designing UDL Solutions for your own class.

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This program was originally developed and launched for the staff at the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County in August 2006

This video, Seven and 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners, will provide you with a refresher on what it means to be a lifelong learner.

Seven and 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners

7 ½ Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners

Habit 1: Begin with the end in mind
Habit 2: Accept responsibility for your own learning
Habit 3: View problems as challenges
Habit 4: Have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner
Habit 5: Create your own learning toolbox
Habit 6: Use technology to your advantage
Habit 7: Teach/mentor others
Habit 7 ½: Play

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Here is an interesting article in how to effectively teach reading and writing

Reading and writing for understanding
HGSE Lecturer Vicki Jacobs

Secondary school students can benefit enormously when teachers of all subjects integrate reading and writing strategies into their instruction – so argues Harvard Graduate School of Education lecturer Vicki A. Jacobs. These strategies, typical of “reading and writing to learn” and “reading and writing across the curriculum,” are problem-solving activities designed to help students move from simply knowing a fact to understanding a fact’s significance. Helping students make that leap – from knowing to understanding – represents the very heart of the educational enterprise.

Reading and writing for understanding

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Technology and 21st Century Learning: A List of Resources

“Initiatives for change that don’t involve teachers as partners in rethinking educational practices and how technology might provide radically better tools are going to have a big problem.” – Roy Pea

Here is an impressive list of articles, tools, strategies, and instructional methods to enhance teaching and learning with technology. This is a great place to start your thinking around teaching and learning in the 21st Century. As the quote above suggests, this is about all teachers becoming leaders in teaching and learning. On may argue that the 21st Century learner requires such leadership.

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Here is a great article that outlines ways feedback has traditionally been carried out, and how to carry out new forms of feedback, including developing feedback models, that support learning in constructivist, problem-based ways.

Feedback Model to Support Designers of Blended-Learning Courses    

Abstract

Although extensive research has been carried out, describing the role of feedback in education, and many theoretical models are yet available, procedures and guidelines for actually designing and implementing feedback in practice have remained scarce so far. This explorative study presents a preliminary six-phase design model for feedback (6P/ FB-model) in blended learning courses. Each phase includes leading questions and criteria that guide the designer. After describing the model, we report research into the usability and quality of draft versions of this model. Participants in both a small usability pilot and an expert appraisal survey rated and commented on the model. We conclude that the overall quality of the model was perceived as sufficient, although experts recommended major revisions before the model could actually be used in daily practice.

Keywords: feedback; blended learning; instructional design model

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Differentiated Instruction

Effectively meet the individualized needs of students.

In addition, the strategies shared will enrich the following areas in your classroom.

Motivation • Social Skills • Classroom Management • Critical Thinking • Positive Environment

Curriculum Mapping

Explore, Plan, Evaluate, and Implement Curriculum that works.

Systemic Change • Classroom Curriculum• Collaborative Planning • Organization

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I would like to send a message of support to all those in the Bowcroft community: I have had the pleasure to meet, and begin working and collaborating with people whom are willing to discuss thorny issues, and try new ideas. Here are some recent ways that I have worked with teachers and supporters of learning:

September 12, 2007

I interrupted a conversation between the teaching assistants involved in literacy. They were wondering why the reading diagnostic tools used by teachers to assess student reading levels were difficult to align with one another. I claimed that I rarely looked a diagnostic test for reading until much closer to the first report card. I tried to learn how the kids read, how they found relevance and significance in the literature they were reading, and if they were not making sense, why they were not engaged. I suggested that they look at differentiating the reading process into the most significant aspects, and grouping kids around those main concepts: predicting, discussion and debate, analysis and synthesizing the main ideas and important aspects, building vocabulary with concept mapping, taking notes to support memory, fluency and confidence in reading aloud and silently, choice in reading material, and reading from different genres, which means becoming familiar with differing perspectives. So, I challenged them to think about moving beyond an isolated measure of reading ability to understand their kids as readers.

Here are some best practice ideas around reading that may be of some support:

Reading Rockets

Building A Powerful Reading Program: From Research to Practice

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