by:  Daniel Willingham

In The American Educator, summer 2007

“After more than twenty years of lamentation, exhortation, and little improvement, maybe it’s time to ask a fundamental question: can critical thinking actually be taught?” (p. 8).

Click here for PDF of article

By: Daniel T. Willingham (2006)

http://www.readingrockets.org/article/11728

“Learning happens when we connect new information to what we already know. When children have limited knowledge about the world, they have a smaller capacity to learn more about it. Here are four ways teachers can build content knowledge that will expand the opportunity for students to forge new connections — and make them better independent readers and learners.”

English Language Proficiency Measures and Accommodation Uses

Mikyung Kim Wolf, Joan L. Herman, Lyle F. Bachman, Alison L. Bailey & Noelle Griffin
CRESST/University of California, Los Angeles

The National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST) and the Center for the Study of Evaluation (CSE) at the University of California, LA issued this report in July, 2008. The fastest growing subgroup in the nation is ELLs. In the past 10 years, the growth of this subgroup was 60%; additionally, this population is increasingly diverse with over 400 different languages represented. This group typically fails to meet the proficient level in academic standards testing across the country. States face huge challenges in educating and assessing this subgroup.

As a result of NCLB, states must learn how to deal with ELLs needs. This report addresses questions related to proficiency and the development of new assessment methods.

Retrieved from the web, February 25, 2009.  Click here to access the PDF

Many studies show the importance of building children’s vocabulary. One study has shown that a set of 20 prefixes and 14 roots, and knowing how to use them, will unlock the meaning of over 100,000 words. A similar study showed that a set of 29 prefixes and 25 roots will give the meaning to over 125,000 words. Imagine adding suffixes! Below are lists of prefixes, suffixes, and roots - with their meanings and example words.* Reviewing these also can help many ELL students to see relationships between and among languages. Many prefixes have a basis in Latin - also the basis for Spanish, French, and Italian - or Greek. 

This list was developed by Judith Wilde, PhD for Beta Group - Albuquerque, NM and Arlington, VA (rev 8/06). Reprinted by NCELA with permission. Multiple copies permitted for educational purposes and with this credit line. Retrieved from the web: March 8, 2009.

Click here to access the PDF.

http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/practice/itc/

The “In the Classroom” Toolkit is designed to bring research and practice together for those involved in the education of culturally and linguistically diverse learners. Initiated by National Clearinghouse staff with experience in English as a second language (ESL)/bilingual classroom teaching, the project has the specific goal of making research-based lessons, activities, and curriculum accessible to all teachers of English language learners (ELLs), whether within bilingual education, ESL, or English-only settings. It is intended to be an ongoing effort. Contributions of lessons for the Toolkit are welcome. 

http://wordgeneration.org/

Welcome to the website for Word Generation, a middle school academic language program developed under the direction of Harvard University Professor Catherine Snow, one of the nation’s most prominent experts in literacy.

Differentiated Reading Instruction Q & A with Laura Robb

This brief interview with educator and author Laura Robb reviews the
fundamentals of differentiated instruction in the classroom, and
sources are included to help teachers begin to implement
differentiated instruction in their schools.

Click here to read the interview

http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/differentiated/bravmann.htm

by Stephanie Bravmann

The author reviews the origins of differentiated instruction in gifted education, and suggests that teachers can adjust elements of their classroom in order to provide appropriate instruction to each individual student. She proposes that differentiation is based on the following:  Everyone learns differently; Quality is more important
than quantity (e.g. significance trumps coverage); “One-size-fits-all” curriculum and instruction presumes that content is more important than students. Additionally, she suggests that the beliefs, in turn, require that every teacher answer three specific questions:
. In the content you must teach, what is it that you want all of your students to know?
. How can each student best learn this in ways that are appropriate to his/her specific needs?
. How can each student most effectively demonstrate what s/he has learned?
This short article summarizes key aspects of differentiated instruction.

http://www.prufrock.com/productdetails.cfm?PC=617

Authors: Julia L. Roberts, Ed.D., Tracy F. Inman

The authors provide detailed strategies for use in the classroom, and especially target teachers new to the concept of differentiation. The book offers practical instruction to motivate and challenge all students to learn. Included is a chapter that highlights Boom’s Taxonomy as an integral aspect of differentiated classroom learning
experiences.

Edited by Diane August, Principal Investigator and Timothy Shanahan, Panel Chair
Institute of Education Sciences’ National Literacy Panel on Language Minority Children and Youth

The entire volume of this report has been published and is available from Lawrence Earlbaum Associates. This is the Executive Summary of the nationally commissioned panel that investigated the development of literacy in second-language learners including cross-linguistic analyses and socio-cultural contexts as they relate to literacy for this population.

Retrieved from the web, February 25, 2009 - Click here to access the pdf file.