Skip to main content

Supporting Classroom Instruction: Text & Task Resources for Adult Education

Many educators in Washoe County School District's Adult Education classrooms have questions about where to find texts appropriate for both the learning and maturity levels of their adult students. While the resources for K-12 teachers have expanded immensely over the last couple of years, textbooks fully aligned to Adult Education's College and Career Readiness Standards are still in development. As publishers work to better align resources, Adult Education teachers might consider newspapers, periodicals, and civics course materials to support pairing complex text and text dependent tasks in basic adult literacy and English language courses . In working with Adult Education teachers, Dawn Adams and I drafted a text-dependent activity resource (linked here) that teachers could possibly use to integrate texts worth reading and tasks worth doing into their lessons. Later supports will look at selecting a series of texts to support building a coherent body of knowledge throughout basic literacy and language courses.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

'Focusing on the Core for All' - Session 1 for Science

Options Area science educators gathered this morning for their first session of   'Focusing on the Core for All' , the Options NVACS professional learning cycle for the 2015-2016 school year. This group includes teachers from Options Area schools, Implementation Specialists from MTSS and Student Support Services departments, Student Support Services area administrators, and Options Area school site principals, each of whom has chosen a content focus for the year (English Language Arts, History-Social Studies, Science, or Mathematics). The professional learning cycle for this year builds on that of past years (namely, the   High School Core Task Project   and   Shifting Instruction to the Core ) and is focused on  supporting teachers, implementation specialists, and administrators in the Options Area to expand and deepen alignment of instruction, materials, and programs  Common Core Standards  and  Instructional Shifts  so that all students are prepared for college and career.
Post a Comment
Read more

Shifting Instruction to the Core, ELA Session II: Writing to Sources

English Language Arts teachers and their administrators gathered this morning for the second session of Shifting Instruction to the Core. Participants continued their focus   Instructional Shift 2  and  Core Action 2  from their  previous session , this time with an emphasis on writing to sources. The session included a reflection on teacher's classroom use of Keep It or Junk It , a review of Core Action Two and Argumentative Writing, a careful annotation of "The Writing Revolution" , engagement in a lesson model for ranking evidence, and time to apply the lesson to their future lessons. Materials for the session are linked below. Presentation deck in  PDF Reflection Note Taker College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Writing ELA Writing Standards Grades 9-10 Instructional Practice Guides for ELA/Literacy   ELA/Literacy  Instructional Shifts Excerpted copy of "The Writing Revolution"  Annotation Guide : Annotating for Claim-Reasoning-Evidence
2 comments
Read more

The Importance of Curriculum, Part One

I have curriculum on the brain this summer. Most of my current work is focused on curriculum; reviewing it, curating it, or exploring it in some way. Simultaneously, there is an increasing amount of scholarship in the field on the importance of curriculum. Much of this work answers the questions; does curriculum really matter? And if it does, what can we do about it? Educators in the field, academics, publishers and supportive organizations are recognizing that quality curricular materials can support equity in our schools, be a significant force for reform, and act as a key ingredient in high performing classrooms. Of recent note is the Aspen Institute's report, "Practice What You Teach" , which provides relevant research, profiles of curricular implementation, and key recommendations. EducationNext has a great post by Chester Finn titled " Education Becomes a Reform Strategy ". The latest research report by StandardWork, " Curriculum Research: What We K
Post a Comment
Read more