Every summer I go back through my Pinterest boards and look at my pins, so see if there's anything that I forgot about. I reflect on the year and see if I have anything pinned that will make the next year even better. Seriously, I need some CPDUs for my time spent on professional development via Pinterest.
I came across this idea for a bulletin board for something called Article of the Week. I read the blog, clicked all the links, read some more, did some research, and stumbled upon the work of Dave Stuart Jr.. The knowledge that I've gained from reading the plethora of valuable advice on his website has been the most worthwhile research I've done this summer. He has provided so much background and insight into using an Article of the Week in the classroom. From links he's provided, I've traced the idea back to the beginning with Kelly Gallagher. After filling my head full of all the information that I could, I pulled the methods that were useful to be and came up with a plan to use Articles of the Week in my classroom.
WHO: 7th grade social studies classes
WHAT: Articles of the Week
WHEN: Handed out/discussed on Monday & turned in/discussed on Friday
WHERE: Articles will mainly come from two sites: Newsela and TweenTribune. The great thing about these sites is that they both provide articles with varying Lexile Levels. I was able to look at the MAP data from the students who will be in my class next year and the first thing that I noticed is that there is a very wide range of Lexile scores. I'm talking from beginning reader all the way to 1200L in the same grade. If I find an article that I think will work for my class, I can use either of the sites above to create article of the week assignments about the exact same topic but at different Lexile levels. Students will all be reading about the same topic, completing the same assignment, but the article that they read will be written at a level so that I can both challenge and support all learners in my classroom. Talk about differentiation at it's finest!
I came across this idea for a bulletin board for something called Article of the Week. I read the blog, clicked all the links, read some more, did some research, and stumbled upon the work of Dave Stuart Jr.. The knowledge that I've gained from reading the plethora of valuable advice on his website has been the most worthwhile research I've done this summer. He has provided so much background and insight into using an Article of the Week in the classroom. From links he's provided, I've traced the idea back to the beginning with Kelly Gallagher. After filling my head full of all the information that I could, I pulled the methods that were useful to be and came up with a plan to use Articles of the Week in my classroom.
WHO: 7th grade social studies classes
WHAT: Articles of the Week
WHEN: Handed out/discussed on Monday & turned in/discussed on Friday
WHERE: Articles will mainly come from two sites: Newsela and TweenTribune. The great thing about these sites is that they both provide articles with varying Lexile Levels. I was able to look at the MAP data from the students who will be in my class next year and the first thing that I noticed is that there is a very wide range of Lexile scores. I'm talking from beginning reader all the way to 1200L in the same grade. If I find an article that I think will work for my class, I can use either of the sites above to create article of the week assignments about the exact same topic but at different Lexile levels. Students will all be reading about the same topic, completing the same assignment, but the article that they read will be written at a level so that I can both challenge and support all learners in my classroom. Talk about differentiation at it's finest!
WHY: Like Kelly pointed out, students aren't always up-to-date on issues in the world around them. I can help bring an awareness of cultural and political issues, and at the same time work on CCSS in reading informational text and writing. When you add in Pop-Up Debates from Dave Stuart Jr, then you can encompass speaking and listening strands as well. When teaching jr. high language arts in the past, I found that I struggled with spoon-feeding reading complex texts to my students - talking through, explaining, and over simplifying concepts that they didn't get on the first take. Students need to learn to delve into complex text and wade though the murky waters on their own or with guided instruction. Due to my desire to use the article of the week assignment to help my students, I also extensively researched close reading and gained a better understanding of how to use it in my ELA classes, too. I want to prepare my students for the complex texts that they will encounter in high school/college/career, and there's no better time to start than now.
HOW: Students are to read/annotate the assigned article each week and write a 3 paragraph response using the questions provided or the student's own thoughts. I've modified the article of the week assignment to be less rigorous than what Kelly or Dave require in their classroom for a couple of reasons. 1) I teach jr. high, and they are high school teachers, so I had to adjust the writing requirements to reflect the age level. 2) After looking at the MAP scores (which I know are only one small piece of the puzzle), this assignment is going to be very rigorous for most of my students. I will of course model and guide them through several examples before turning them loose to practice independently. I plan to reteach and model using exemplars from the students' work using my ELMO.
Here's an example that I created using an article from Newsela that I will use when we start reading The Outsiders in ELA:
HOW: Students are to read/annotate the assigned article each week and write a 3 paragraph response using the questions provided or the student's own thoughts. I've modified the article of the week assignment to be less rigorous than what Kelly or Dave require in their classroom for a couple of reasons. 1) I teach jr. high, and they are high school teachers, so I had to adjust the writing requirements to reflect the age level. 2) After looking at the MAP scores (which I know are only one small piece of the puzzle), this assignment is going to be very rigorous for most of my students. I will of course model and guide them through several examples before turning them loose to practice independently. I plan to reteach and model using exemplars from the students' work using my ELMO.
Here's an example that I created using an article from Newsela that I will use when we start reading The Outsiders in ELA:
I can't wait to try this strategy with my students. I'm thoroughly excited about this new (to me) approach to addressing standard 7.RI.10 By the end of the year, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 6-8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.
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