Interesting Links on Assessment, Grading, and Mastery

On the Shoulders of Giants: Grading for Mastery in a Progressive Classroom
Sometimes teachers design such compelling learning experiences that students are able to forget they are doing a "school" activity. They derive genuine pleasure from the curiosity and intellectual engagement of the experience. This is what we want and, in my experience both as a teacher and student, leads to the highest levels of understanding. But it's not ALL we want. It's a necessary step in the learning process called exploration.

ARK-StudyGuideR_0.pdf (application/pdf Object)
A Repair Kit for Grading, by Ken O’Connor describes 15 ways to make grades and marks more consistent, accurate, meaningful, and supportive of learning (page 4). These are called 15 fixes. This study guide is intended for use in conjunction with study of the book. It suggests discussions and activities for each fix that serve one or more of the following purposes:
• Clarifying ideas
• Providing extra information on a topic, or where to locate it
• Thinking through and planning changes to try; we call these replacement strategies
• Posing common grading/marking dilemmas to solve

How to Grade for Learning, K-12 - Google Books
Ken O'Connor's book How to Grade for Learning

8StepsMeaningfulGrading.pdf (application/pdf Object)
Grades earned in traditional grading systems are usually based on a combination of formative and summative assessments. With standards-based grading, grades are based solely on summative assessments designed to measure content mastery.

Educational Leadership:Assessment to Promote Learning:Grading to Communicate
Throughout my career as an educator, I have experienced frustration with how my traditional classroom grading practices have influenced my students' learning. When I discuss this issue with colleagues, parents, and—most important—students, I find that I am not alone in my frustration. Paradoxically, grades detract from students' motivation to learn. It is time to reconsider our classroom grading practices.

Educational Leadership:Assessment to Promote Learning:Seven Practices for Effective Learning
Classroom assessment and grading practices have the potential not only to measure and report learning but also to promote it. Indeed, recent research has documented the benefits of regular use of diagnostic and formative assessments as feedback for learning (Black, Harrison, Lee, Marshall, & Wiliam, 2004). Like successful athletic coaches, the best teachers recognize the importance of ongoing assessments and continual adjustments on the part of both teacher and student as the means to achieve maximum performance. Unlike the external standardized tests that feature so prominently on the school landscape these days, well-designed classroom assessment and grading practices can provide the kind of specific, personalized, and timely information needed to guide both learning and teaching.

Tenets of Assessment/Grading Reform | Jason T Bedell
"…changing classroom assessment is the beginning of a revolution – a revolution in classroom practices of all kinds…Getting classroom assessment right is not a simplistic, either-or situation. It is a complex mix of challenging personal beliefs, rethinking instruction and learning new ways to assess for different purposes." (Earl, 2003, pp. 15-16)

GullenHandouts.pdf (application/pdf Object)
Grading policies such as refusing to accept late work, giving grades of zero, and refusing to allow students to redo their work may be intended as punishment for poor performance, but such policies will not really teach students to be accountable, and they provide very little useful information about students' mastery of the material. Assessment and feedback, particularly during the course of learning, are the most effective ways for students to learn accountability in their work and in their personal lives.

Developing grading and reporting ... - Google Books
Developing grading and reporting systems for student learning
By Thomas R. Guskey, Jane M. Bailey

More Links for Writing for an Audience

• S.O.A.P.S: FOR-PD Reading Strategy of the Month - November 2008
  The SOAPS strategy can be used to teach students how to read and understand narrative and expository texts. Each text structure has unique characteristics and students can benefit from instruction on how "to read" and understand text. This becomes particularly important with implicit text and messages as many students have underdeveloped inferential skills. The SOAPS comprehension strategy includes the following: SOAPS- Speaker; Occasion; Audience; Purpose; and, Subject.
• "The Structure of Advanced Composition" (article)
  Students must learn to distinguish between three separate operations: analyzing the audience, determining the effect they want to achieve with that audience, and taking the steps necessary to achieve that effect.
• Audience Analysis.pdf (application/pdf Object)
  R.E.A.D. Your Audience
  Relationship: What is your relationship to them? What is their relationship to each other? What is their relationship with the topic?
  Event: How many people will you be addressing? Where will you be speaking? What part are you playing?
  Attitudes: What are the attitudes toward the topic? Do they want to be there?
  Demographics: What is their age? What is their gender? What is their ethnicity? Do they belong to any groups? What is their economic status?
• How to Conduct Audience Analysis - wikiHow
  Follow this acronym and answer the resulting questions. Just remember the AUDIENCE.
  
  * Analysis- Who is the audience?
  * Understanding- What is the audience's knowledge of the subject?
  * Demographics- What is their age, gender, education background etc.?
  * Interest- Why are they reading your document?
  * Environment- Where will this document be sent/viewed?
  * Needs- What are the audience's needs associated with your document topic?
  * Customization- What specific needs/interests should you the writer address relating to the specific audience?
  * Expectations- What does the audience expect to learn from your document? The audience should walk away having their initial questions answered and explained.
• English Composition 1: Audience Analysis
  Writing to your audience may have a lot to do with in-born talent, intuition, and even mystery. But there are some controls you can use to have a better chance to connect with your readers. The following "controls" allow any writer a better chance of communicating with the audience:
• Writing for an Audience
  Once you know your audience, you are ready to begin writing. Knowing your audience enables you to select or reject details for that specific audience. In addition, different audiences expect different types or formats for texts. Readers of Environmental Impact Statements don't want to read rhyming poetry extolling the virtues of nature. Mothers getting letters from children don't want to read a laboratory report about the events of the past month.

Links for Teaching Writing with the Audience in Mind

• Getting Real: Authenticity in Writing Prompts - National Writing Project
  Summary: Teachers often strive to develop exercises in which students write "authentic" pieces for an audience beyond the teacher. Here Slagle demonstrates the next step: sending student writing to people outside the classroom.
• Teach How to Write to Different Audiences: Students Learn to Adjust Vocabulary or Language for Specific Reader
  Writing to an Audience: The reason it is important to know the audience is because the writer needs to know how much explanation to give in a piece of writing. Depending on the expertise of the audience, a writer can use jargon of the topic with or without explanation.
• JSTOR: Reading Research Quarterly, Vol. 36, No. 2 (Apr. - May - Jun., 2001), pp. 184-201
  Understanding how writers address and invoke audience may simultaneously enhance children's growth as readers and writers. Most research on student writers' sense of audience has focused on secondary and college writers. This study examines first graders' demonstrations of audience awareness in the context of Family Message Journal writing. In Family Message Journals children write a message to their families and receive a written family reply each day. These journals provide a fertile context for the study of audience awareness because of the existence of an authentic, responsive audience for children's messages.
• ReadWriteThink: Lesson Plan: Teaching Audience Through Interactive Writing
  One of the most difficult aspects of writing is keeping audience in mind throughout the writing process. Developing lessons that support this strategy for writing is essential in the elementary classroom. This lesson supports first-grade students in learning about audience. Through interactive writing, students work together to create a genuine invitation letter for a group of their peers. In addition to the interactive writing experience, students work independently to create invitation letters for their families. Extension activities include conducting additional interactive writing experiences, reading books with samples of letters, and creating invitations at a learning center.
• Audience Awareness: When and How Does It Develop?
  Many theorists contend that the purpose of writing is to communicate with an audience, which can be defined as actual readers or as the writer himself. Scholars also seem to agree on another point: "no matter who/what the audience is (from real people to fictional construct), writers adjust their discourse to their audiences. In other words, writers do things to bring their readers into their texts, to establish a community that includes themselves and their reader" (Wildeman, 1988). A strong case can be made for teachers to use audience-oriented teaching strategies that encourage children to write for a wide range of readers.
• Educational Leadership:Giving Students Ownership of Learning:The Power of Audience
  When student work culminates in a genuine product for an authentic audience, it makes a world of difference.
  
• A Collection of Online Publishing Opportunities for Student Writing - National Writing Project
  Writing Project teachers have always found authentic ways to propel their students toward writing to an audience beyond the classroom. This collection focuses on online publishing opportunities for students of all ages—including literary magazines, book review sites, and even jokes and riddles.
• Lesson Plan: Writing for Purpose and Audience. Teach Students How to Write and Revise with Purpose and Audience in Mind.
  Cover the following points about writing for purpose and audience: 1) Your audience determines what you write, what examples and details to include, what to emphasize, word choice and tone. 2) Your purpose for writing determines what you write, the point of your writing, and how you will make your point. 3) Knowing audience and purpose gives your writing focus.
• audience_purpose_classroom_activities_2009-04-14.pdf (application/pdf Object)
• EJ0985Focus.pdf (application/pdf Object)
  Wiggin's English Journal article on Real-World Writing: Making Purpose and Audience Matter
• Strategic Writing: The Writing Process and Beyond in the Secondary English Classroom
• Learning Through Listening | R.A.F.T. Strategy
• Exploring Audience and Purpose with a Single Issue - ReadWriteThink
  Students explore the rhetorical concept of audience and purpose by focusing on an issue that divided Americans in 1925, the debate of evolution versus creationism raised by the Scopes Monkey Trial. Students first become familiar with the case by reviewing a newspaper article and other resources with details about the trial. They then identify the purpose and audience of a newspaper article about the trial, and explain how the purpose and audience for the article shaped the text. Then, students brainstorm a list of positions someone writing about the trial might take and the audience they might address as they consider how audience and purpose might shape other communication on the issue using an online Audience Analysis Inventory tool.
• Engaging Audience: Writing in an Age of New Literacies
• 50 Useful Blogging Tools for Teachers
  Blogging is becoming more and more popular in the classroom. Teachers can blog to stay in touch with parents and students or they can incorporate blogs from all of the students as a learning tool. The beauty of the student blog is that children from Kindergarten to high school can blog. No matter how you use blogs in your classroom, these tools will help you get started, enhance your experience, or bring the students into the fun.
• Welcome to Great Source iwrite!
  Welcome to Great Source iwrite!
  Everything educators, students, and parents need to make the writing process work in the classroom and at home
• Elements of Literature: Writing Resources
  Holt Writing Resources
  Interactive Writer's Models
  Analyze the elements of good writing with these interactive writer's models. Each model includes annotations and tips to help you be a good writer yourself.
• 21stCenturyConcepts - 70 Tools in 70 Minutes
  A great presentation on Web 2.0 tools for teaching

Today's Interesting Links and Tools for Teaching Writing

• FactCheckEd.org
  This is what we offer:
  Many of our Lesson Plans are topical, presenting students with a message, such as an actual political or product advertisement, and guiding them through a process of discovery leading to the facts. Another group of lessons teaches some of the core concepts of reasoning, giving students the building blocks to help them parse others' arguments and strengthen their own. Using clips from Monty Python and other popular films and television programs, our lessons explain deductive versus inductive reasoning, how to pick out logical fallacies, the power of visual rhetoric and similar tools of critical thinking. Resources is our go-to directory of Web sites, including synopses of what they offer. Official government sites can be terrific fonts of facts. So can think tanks and issue advocacy groups; we give rundowns on their political leanings and reliability.
• ProfHacker
  Great post of Google Docs in the classroom
• Embeddable Forums by Tal.ki
  Add an embeddable discussion to your PBWorks wiki (or other website) using Tal.ki. No account registration needed. Your forum will be integrated with Facebook, Twitter, Google, and other services so members can skip registration. Engage your website's visitors. Turn passive blog and content readers into participating members, contributing content.
• 50 Useful Blogging Tools for Teachers - TeachingTips.com
  Blogging is becoming more and more popular in the classroom. Teachers can blog to stay in touch with parents and students or they can incorporate blogs from all of the students as a learning tool. The beauty of the student blog is that children from Kindergarten to high school can blog. No matter how you use blogs in your classroom, these tools will help you get started, enhance your experience, or bring the students into the fun.
• Great Source - iWrite
  Everything educators, students, and parents need to make the writing process work in the classroom and at home.
• Holt Writing Resources
  Interactive writing models for middle and high school students. Analyze the elements of good writing with these interactive writer's models. Each model includes annotations and tips to help you be a good writer yourself.

Today's Interesting Links

• Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration (CILC): Advancing ...
  The Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration (CILC) supports and advances education through videoconferencing and other collaborative technologies. A nonprofit, CILC offers access to quality professional development and student educational content, as well as consulting and technical assistance. This helps schools leverage technology to improve educational outcomes, while saving time and money.
• GrowingWithGoogle - home
  Essential Questions:
  - Which Google Tools can help us to be more effective in our teaching and learning practices?
  - How can Google Tools be used collaboratively to transform teaching and learning experiences?
  - How can specific Google Tools be used creatively in classroom instruction?
  - How can specific Google Tools be used to organize documents, presentations and other types of materials?
  - How can specific Google Tools be used to create efficiency in teaching and learning?
  - How can Google Tools create rich documentation of teaching and learning?
• Google Forms: Self-Graded Quizzes « Robin's Technology Tips
  Google forms can be used to create a quiz that can be graded automatically in the spreadsheet using formulas. To save you time, these instructions are for a 20 question (or less) quiz using the template with the formulas already entered.
• embedit.in — Any file, in your website
• Wissahickon School District's eToolBox - pln
  Personal Learning Networks defined:
  * Personal - particular to a given individual
  * Learning - the acquisition and development of memories and behaviors, including skills, knowledge, understanding, values, and wisdom
  * Network - an interconnected system of things or people

Interesting Links for Teaching the Holocaust

• Classroom Resources for Teaching Night: I put this list of resources together for my students and fellow teachers. It includes a number of resources specific to the Philadelphia area as well as a number of excellent national sources. There are enrichment reading pieces and extra credit assignments.
  
• Music of the Holocaust: Music of the Ghettos and Camps. Although the inhabitants were incarcerated, music was composed and performed giving voice to the indomitable human spirit within the ghettos and camps. Most cruelly, the large camps had orchestras and bands who were forced to play while their families, friends and neighbors were selected for death then sent to the gas chambers or firing squads.
• Holocaust Related Music: This Hebrew song, written in the twelfth century, is by Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon, also known as Maimonides, who was a great religious philosopher. His Talmudic Psalm Number Twelve from The Articles of Faith entitled "Ani Ma'amin" (I Believe) was later sung by many Jews during the Holocaust, even as they entered the gas chambers. Maimonides' descendants clung to his words for hope for the future and for humankind.
• Fragments of a Lost World
  Holocaust Resources and Organizations in the Philadelphia Region
  Courtesy of:
  Auerbach Central Agency for Jewish Education
  Seidman Educational Resource Center
  7607 Old York Road, Melrose Park, PA 19027


• Holocaust Resources for Teachers: A wealth of resources for teachers!

Today's Interesting Links

• Bloom's Taxonomy Blooms Digitally, Andrew Churches - In the 1990's, a former student of Bloom, Lorin Anderson, revised Bloom's Taxonomy and published this- Bloom's Revised Taxonomy in 2001.Key to this is the use of verbs rather than nouns for each of the categories and a rearrangement of the sequence within the taxonomy. They are arranged below in increasing order, from low to high.
• The New Writing Pedagogy - According to a recent Pew Internet and American Life Project study, 85 percent of youths aged 12-17 engage at least occasionally in some form of electronic personal communication, which includes text messaging, sending e-mail or instant messages, or posting comments on social networking sites. In other words, our students aren't waiting for us to teach them the ins and outs of writing in these digital spaces.
• Microsoft Word - Glogster Instructions - A wonderful tutorial/handout for using Glogster Edu with students
• TICAL PRESENTATION (digitalliteracynow) - Tara Seale's presentation on teaching digital literacy
• Technology Integration for Teachers - Home - The purpose of this site is to take an extensive list of websites that are considered high quality, reliable, and valuable and organize them in a way that even "non-techy" teachers can utilize them. It took around 10 years to collect these resources, but new ones are found every day. All of these websites have been recommended by other teachers and educational organizations and qualify as "the best". You'll find support for all core curriculum areas. In addition, you will find lesson plans, multimedia, and primary sources to enhance your students' learning environment.
• Presentation Zen: Ira Glass:Tips on storytelling - There are a lot of books on presentations, giving speeches, using PowerPoint, etc. on the market. I think I have just about every book ever written on the subject. Many are good but most are rather mediocre "how to books" that seem dated and rarely inspire or talk much about creativity or storytelling, for example. This is why it's important to look outside to different disciplines for new perspectives, wisdom, and creative guidance. For example, I have been reading (and rereading) Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting by Robert McKee for the past six-seven months. The 480-page book sits on my nightstand; I usually find something interesting, applicable, and inspiring every time I pick it up. It's a book on screenwriting, yet there is much we (non-screenwriters) can learn.

Google Goodies

• 100 Great Google Docs Tips for Students & Educators | AccreditedOnlineColleges.org

• googleined - home
  Google More... An Introduction to Google Tools in Education Google provides much more than just a web search engine; they offer a wide variety of free web-based and desktop applications. This wiki was created to support a workshop that introduces participants to many of these services that may be useful to teachers and students. Please feel free to add to these resources by clicking on "Edit This Page" above.
• Reframing Google's search options - NeverEndingSearch - Blog on School Library Journal
  Over the past couple of years, those brilliant Google engineers designed stunning search options, moving Google search way, way beyond an effective, but relatively unflexible vertical search. And over the past couple of years I've been pasting links to all these options into my subject pathfinders so my students can find them. The problem is--so many of the very best search options are buried in the vast Google wilderness of labs, or in the wonderful pulldowns of more and even more--places where few but our most intrepid students and teachers dare to go.
• springfieldlibrary - Google Search Options
  Google Tools
• Kiva - Kiva Lending Team: Team Google Certified Teachers

Professional Development Links

• Teach Digital: Curriculum by Wes Fryer / ingredients
  Good teaching is similar in many ways to good cooking. Recipes are helpful, but master cooks often modify those to meet different needs and situations. The same is true for teachers. If we extend this analogy of cooking to teaching and learning in a web 2.0 world, what are the best "ingredients" to use as we help both teachers and students learn to be more effective, safe, and powerful communicators in our flat world? As we blend learning by providing digital opportunities to interact with content and individuals along with face-to-face, synchronous interaction, we can increase student engagement as well as student achievement.
• Authentic Assessment Toolbox Home Page
  The Authentic Assessment Toolbox is a how-to text on creating authentic tasks, rubrics and standards for measuring and improving student learning.
• principals - legal
  CIPA, COPPA, and FERPA Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) * FCC Summary * Judicial Interpretation of CIPA's Unblocking Provision: According to the Supreme Court, a library that is required to filter can either disable the filter or unblock a site in response to an adult patron request to do so. Justice Rehnquist stated "[a]ssuming that such erroneous blocking presents constitutional difficulties, any such concerns are dispelled by the ease with which patrons may have the filtering software disabled. When a patron encounters a blocked site, he need only ask a librarian to unblock it or (at least in the case of adults) disable the filter." FCC Order 03-188 subsequently instructed libraries complying with CIPA to implement a procedure for unblocking the filter upon request by an adult.
• educon22 - home
  What is EduCon 2.2? EduCon 2.2 is both a conversation and a conference. And it is not a technology conference. It is an education conference. It is, hopefully, an innovation conference where we can come together, both in person and virtually, to discuss the future of schools. Every session will be an opportunity to discuss and debate ideas -- from the very practical to the big dreams.

Google Goodies: Links

• Home (Google Teacher Academy Resources)
• Welcome (Gone Google)
• Welcome to Aviary
  video editing on the fly
• Gapminder.org - For a fact based world view.
  Fun with statistics
• Google Certified Teachers | Google Groups
• What is Google Voice? | Business Center | Macworld
• Home (Dan Russell's Home Page & Site)
• copyrightfriendly - home
  Most of the media in these collections are attached to generous copyright licensing. Though you may not need to ask permission to use them when publishing on the Web for educational purposes, you should cite or attribute these images to their creators unless otherwise notified! If you see any copyright notices on these pages, read them for further instructions. Note: always check individual licensing notices before publishing on the Web or broadcasting!
• New Google Features: The Five Best New Search Tools -- And How To Use Them (PHOTOS)
• #gtadc - Google Teacher Academy DC 2009
• 2 Great Days at #gtadc | 21st Century Literacy Log
• K12 Online Conference 2009 | GETTING STARTED KEYNOTEThe Wizard of Apps
• Google For Educators
• Google Certified Teachers (Google Teacher Academy Resources)

Even More Kite Runner Links

• Film Education | Resources | The Kite Runner | Background
  'The Kite Runner' has many different layers, these include political policy and tribal and religious dimensions. To help to under these elements, Film Education spoke with Adbul-Rehman Malik Contributing Editor from Q News to help us understand the context behind the story. Q News is Britain's leading Muslim magazine, providing outside-the-box analysis of current affairs, culture, ideas and spirituality.
• Kite Runner Lesson Plan
  Links in the schedule connect to handouts and projects related to reading Kite Runner
• Following Amir A trip to Afghanistan in which life imitates art
  Amir will be the first to tell you that he is neither the noblest nor the bravest of men. But three years ago, he did something both noble and brave: He went back to Afghanistan, then ruled by the Taliban, to settle an old score. He went back after a 20-year absence to atone for a sin he had committed as a boy. He went back to rescue a child he had never met, and to rescue himself from damnation. The journey almost cost him his life. The thing is, I was the one who sent him. It was easy. After all, I created Amir; he is the protagonist of my novel, "The Kite Runner."
• Curriki - TheKiteRunnerUnit
  This table of contents provides an overview to the materials contained in this novel unit. The table is broken down into the Curriki folders found in this collection so all teachers can easily find all the resources available in this novel unit.
• Spence's Stuff / The Kite Runner
  Lesson plan for The Kite Runner
• kiterunnerwebquest - The Kite Runner Webquest
  Today starts the adventure of immersing yourself into Afghan life. As a youth, you spent many hours making, flying, and running kites. You knew that someday you would help your own kids enjoy these same activities, until 1994 when the Taliban stepped in and halted all kite flying. It's an important part of your culture; the significance of kite flying is an analogy to Afghanistan's history; you cannot let this interference continue.
• CCHSEnglishII - The Kite Runner
  Pre, during, and post reading activities for The Kite Runner.
• The Kite Runner - English Companion
  So many resources are mentioned in this thread found on the English Companion's Ning. Check it out!
• Multicultural Literature - The Kite Runner
  Synopsis / Description: The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, is a story about the past, and rectifying the mistakes of the past. The protagonist, Amir, grows up in Kabul, Afghanistan, before the Russian invasion of the land. As children, Amir and Hassan play with slingshots and kites, tell stories, make errands to the market. They are not unlike two boys playing in any part of the world. Students will hopefully notice that human nature is the same across borders of time and place. However, they should also notice and appreciate the differences in the customs, beliefs, and habits of Afghanis. In our current political situation, it's extremely important for students to humanize the people of Afghanistan, and see that people are all people; we all make mistakes, and we are not so different after all.
• Literature from the Modern Middle East: Making a Living Connection
  While our country is deeply involved in the Middle East, most Americans, including our students, lack knowledge about the region. Yet from Afghanistan to Palestine, from Morocco to Iraq, there is a vibrant and exciting literature by living authors that can bring the diverse experiences and perspectives of this vital part of the world to our classes.
• Teach Middle Eastern Literature
  Information, resources and suggestions for teaching literature and film from and about the modern Middle East in middle school, high school, and college. Supporting the 2009 NCTE presentation: "Who is a Terrorist? Teaching Contemporary Literature from the Middle East"
• Khaled Hosseini Interview -- Academy of Achievement
  Khaled Hosseini Interview Afghanistan's Tumultuous History July 3, 2008 Khaled Hosseini Interview
• explore - cultural and educational films and photos
  explore is a multimedia organization that documents leaders around the world who have devoted their lives to extraordinary causes. Both educational and inspirational, explore creates a portal into the soul of humanity by championing the selfless acts of others. explore's growing library consists of more than 250 original films and 30,000 photographs from around the world. We showcase our work at film festivals, on over 100 public broadcast and cable channels, and on numerous online destinations including explore.org, Snag Films, Hulu and TakePart.

Plagiarism Detection Links

• PlagiarismDetect.com | Free Online Plagiarism Detection System, Plagiarism checker
  100% plagiarism detection in any written content using novelty multi-layered technology. Convenient and fast search, which will save you a lot of time, instead of Googling every sentence. User-friendly plagiarism checker interface, for you to experience 100% productivity. Detailed plagiarism results display, which points out the most problematic fragments of your text. 100% guarantee of total confidentiality and safety. Detection without saving your text to any databases, to avoid any problems with further plagiarism check.
• plagium (beta)::: plagiarism tracker & checker ::: home
• DOC Cop = Accurate + Fast + Free + Simple + Plagiarism Detection
  What is DOC Cop? DOC Cop is a plagiarism, cryptomnesia and collusion detection tool that creates reports displaying the correlation and matches between documents or a document and the web. DOC Cop does not take copyright or ownership of your material. It does not retain your material beyond the time it takes to generate your report. DOC Cop gathers the evidence, and provides the information required for you to judge whether plagiarism, cryptomnesia or collusion has occurred.
• Turnitin: Home: Welcome to Turnitin
  Turnitin Originality Checking & Plagiarism Prevention is the #1 web-based solution that lets educators and their students check written work for improper citation or misappropriated content.

Today's Interesting Links

• Mapping the Holocaust
  The Museum is using Google Earth to map key Holocaust sites with historic content from its collections, powerfully illustrating the enormous scope and impact of the Holocaust.
• educationalwikis - Articles and Resources
  All sorts of wonderful information on using wikis in the classroom
• Public Domain Photos and Wallpapers
  This is a place for free public domain photos and desktop wallpapers. Large collection of High Resolution photos and wallpapers, Thousands of high quality public domain pictures, easy to search.
• 100 Best Blogs for Those Who Want to Change the World | Best Universities
  The world is full of students and visionaries and people who want to make a difference in the world, and many of those people share their knowledge online through their blogs. Whether you want to change the world through environment, humanitarianism, business, or any other way, there's a blog out there that can offer you guidance and inspiration. Read on, and you'll find 100 blogs that can help you change the world.
• Tools for Reading, Writing, & Thinking
  These tools should be used to help students engage in rigorous thinking, organize complex ideas, and scaffold their interactions with texts.
• Google Wave Use Cases
  Wave in Class After searching some public 'waves,' we came across an educational wave. Entitled 'Wave in Class,' this wave was started by Loren Baum (a self-described "collaborative learning enthusiast" and graduate student at Ben Gurion University) and Sam Boland (a Politics student and "Tech Enthusiast" at Occidental College, Los Angeles). The wave was started to explore concepts like "Collaborative Note Taking" and "Wave as a Debate Host." Nearly 100 people are included in the wave, ranging from teachers to PhD students to IT professionals to high school students.
• How to Address Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom | Edutopia
  Multiple-intelligences theory can provide a flexible approach to good teaching, say teachers and administrators at the Enota Multiple Intelligences Academy, in Gainesville, Georgia. Tailoring classroom activities to individual students' needs, interests, and strengths makes sense -- and, at this school, it has proved extremely effective. Whether you're interested in starting an MI-themed school or incorporating some of the MI philosophy into classroom activities, here are a few tips and resources that work at Enota.

Links for Writing Teachers

MAGPI
K12 students and teachers are creating unprecedented opportunities for inquiry-based learning by expanding the geographic boundaries of their classrooms - - virtually and cost effectively. K12 schools on the MAGPI network participate in interactive video exchanges in real-time - - with their students' peers, content providers or experts from anywhere in the world. They have access to more than 100 MAGPI-produced interactive video programs each year. Students and teachers take advantage of multimedia files and learning objects through digital library repositories, create their own virtual words and use remote scientific instruments - - all without leaving their classrooms.

The Fischbowl: This I Believe Goes Global - We Want You!
For the past three years, I have had my classes write their versions of National Public Radio's "This I Believe" segment. I was introduced to this idea by a colleague and have been always impressed by what my students hold as their personal values and beliefs. Writing these essays has allowed for them to do something they don't get to do all that often at school - express their heartfelt beliefs. After writing the essays the first year, we submitted them to NPR, but we also decided to podcast them ourselves – no need to wait to see if NPR might choose to broadcast them. The writing was good at expressing their values, but once their voice was added to their written expression, WOW, it simply transformed that personal essay. Instead of the words simply being words, the words conveyed deeply held emotions. Now, this is the standard.

ReadWriteThink: Lesson Plan: Weekly Writer's Blogs: Building a ...
In this digital rethinking of the traditional weekly writer's logs, students analyze example writer's blog entries then begin the habit of writing their own weekly entries, which focus on the writing that they have done over the past seven days. These reflective assignments ask students to think about their progress on writing activities and to project how they will continue their work in the future.

Personal and Professional Development Links

• A Teacher's Guide To Web 2.0 at School
  great tool for introducing web 2.0 tools to teachers
• Where do you find the time? Shirky's Answer " Moving at the Speed of ...
  This past Thursday night, I was delighted to be a guest on the Seedlings' show on EdTechTalk, hosted by Alice Barr, Bob Sprankle, and Cheryl Oakes. My daughter, Sarah, joined us for the conversation and chimed in with both her ideas and questions for other participants. Near the end of the show, Bob asked me a question I've been asked a few times in the past: How do you find all the time to publish what you share? I fumbled around for an answer, and ended up saying something about MarsEdit (my favorite offline blogging software) and the value of creating and sharing for my own learning, long term memory, and digital archive of ideas (this blog.) I don't think that was a very good answer. A better answer, and much shorter one, would have been similar to the message of Clay Shirky at the Web 2.0 Expo in April 2008. The answer I SHOULD have given to Bob was this: I don't watch much television.
• Blooms Taxonomy Tutorial FLASH - CCCS Faculty Wiki
  The tutorials were created as interactive adaptations of the three Tutorial References listed on this page. If you cannot view/use the tutorials, please consult the references instead- Churches (2008) is especially useful as it includes in-depth information about the revised taxonomy and numerous activity examples and rubrics for evaluation of those activities. This page focuses exclusively on the cognitive domain of learning, but there are taxonomies for the affective and psychomotor domains. To learn more about these, see the Clark (2007) resource listed in the Tutorial References section of this page. There are also Other Resources to explore.
• Google For Educators
  The Google Teacher Academy is a FREE professional development experience designed to help K-12 educators get the most from innovative technologies. Each Academy is an intensive, one-day event where participants get hands-on experience with Google's free products and other technologies, learn about innovative instructional strategies, receive resources to share with colleagues, and immerse themselves in an innovative corporate environment. Upon completion, Academy participants become Google Certified Teachers who share what they learn with other K-12 educators in their local region.
• What is Web 3.0? Semantic Web & other Web 3.0 Concepts Explained in Plain English
  Web 1.0 – That Geocities & Hotmail era was all about read-only content and static HTML websites. People preferred navigating the web through link directories of Yahoo! and dmoz. Web 2.0 – This is about user-generated content and the read-write web. People are consuming as well as contributing information through blogs or sites like Flickr, YouTube, Digg, etc. The line dividing a consumer and content publisher is increasingly getting blurred in the Web 2.0 era. Web 3.0 – This will be about semantic web (or the meaning of data), personalization (e.g. iGoogle), intelligent search and behavioral advertising among other things. If that sounds confusing, check out some of these excellent presentations that help you understand Web 3.0 in simple English. Each takes a different approach to explain Web 3.0 and the last presentation uses an example of a "postage stamp" to explain the "semantic web".

Today's Interesting Links

• Promoting Literacy Skills and a Love of Reading | Literacy Connections
  Literacy Connections provides a wealth of information on reading, teaching and tutoring techniques, ESL literacy, and adult literacy. We recommend resources that are useful for teachers, volunteers, and directors of literacy programs. Topics include the language experience approach, phonics, word study, and the best in children's literature.
• Son of Citation Machine
  Citation machine is designed to help student and professional researchers to properly credit the sources used. Its primary goal is to make it so easy for student researchers to cite their information sources, that there is virtually no reason not to -- because... SOMEDAY THE INFORMATION THAT SOMEONE ELSE WANTS TO USE -- WILL BE YOURS!
• Silva Rhetoricae: The Forest of Rhetoric
  This online rhetoric, provided by Dr. Gideon Burton of Brigham Young University, is a guide to the terms of classical and renaissance rhetoric. Sometimes it is difficult to see the forest (the big picture) of rhetoric because of the trees (the hundreds of Greek and Latin terms naming figures of speech, etc.) within rhetoric. This site is intended to help beginners, as well as experts, make sense of rhetoric, both on the small scale (definitions and examples of specific terms) and on the large scale (the purposes of rhetoric, the patterns into which it has fallen historically as it has been taught and practiced for 2000+ years).
• Concept to Classroom: Course Menu
  Welcome to Concept to Classroom! We've got a new look with the same great workshops. The site features a series of FREE, self-paced workshops covering a wide variety of hot topics in education. Some of the workshops are based in theory, some are based in methodology - but all of the workshops include plenty of tips and strategies for making classrooms work. Access the workshops in the menu below or visit the About the Series section to learn how you can apply these workshops toward professional development credit.
• 100 Twitter Feeds To Make You a Better Teacher - Online Courses
  New technology is not only unavioidable, it's a crucial part of education today. That's why so many teachers are Tweeting, and many others are following close behind. After you set up your account at Twitter.com, be sure to check out some of these great education feeds. Who knows? You might even learn a thing or two.

Links to Summer Reading Book Reviews and More

• Assessment Cyberguide for Learning Goals and Outcomes
  Although Bloom's Taxonomy proved useful to teachers and students alike, recent decades gave rise to numerous criticisms, implying that the model was out of date. These criticisms included concerns with setting applicability, contemporary language, and process conceptualization. More recently, Anderson and Krathwohl (2001) have adapted Bloom's model to fit the needs of today's classroom by employing more outcome-oriented language, workable objectives, and changing nouns to active verbs (see "stairs" below). Most notably, knowledge has been converted to remember. In addition, the highest level of development is create rather than evaluate.
• Marzano - How Classroom Teachers Approach the Teaching of Thinking
• The Innovative Educator: Ten Ideas for Getting Started with 21st Century Teaching and Learning
  I'm often asked for advice on how to get started with using 21st century tools to enhance teaching and learning. The mistake some people make is believing educators instantly need to become producers of websites, blogs, wikis, podcasts, social networks etc. Most educators need to become comfortable and familiar as participants in these environments before they can feel successful as creators in these areas. To follow are ideas that educators who want to get started with educating innovatively can explore.
• Review: Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace… One School at a Time « Books on the Brain
  So let me save all of you a few precious hours of your life and just give you the condensed version of Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace… One School At A Time by Greg Mortenson and David Relin. I wish someone had done that for me! There's this big dorky American who climbs mountains, but not that well...
• She Is Too Fond Of Books … » Blog Archive » Book Review: Three Cups of Tea
  There were two obstacles in my way as I tried to enjoy reading Three Cups of Tea, both involve the way the story is conveyed, not the underlying message. The first lies in the almost hero-like worship Relin bestows upon Mortenson , allowing perhaps a generous amount of artistic license taken with the details, which Relin acknowledges fully in the opening pages, confirming for example that Mortenson seems to work with a very fluid sense of time.
• Of Beetles and Angels: a Boy's Remarkable Journey from a Refugee Camp to Harvard - Book Review | Black Issues Book Review | Find Articles at BNET
  Asgedom employs elegant, uncluttered prose to tell of his struggle, surviving both the daily battles of the Sudanese camps, and the more insidious battles during his acculturation into the lily-white Chicago suburbs where he lands upon his arrival.
• The Labyrinth Library: Review 27: Three Cups of Tea
  Podcast of this review is also available. It's a great book, which opens a vivid window into a part of the world that most Westerners greatly misunderstand. It illustrates the wide variety of cultures and peoples that live in Central Asia, and the cultural history that has given rise to such a potential for conflict. The writing is very engaging, and there were a few points where I thought that the landscape descriptions were worthy of Tolkien - high praise indeed, I should think.
• Of Beetles and Angels | Bookstove
  Student review: If you had to leave America, move to another country, and without knowing the language, the people, or anything about the land how would you feel? Would you expect to be treated nicely by the native people? In the book Of Beetles & Angels a family from Ethiopia, moved to America and had to survive in America.
• "A Conversation with Mawi Asgedom" by Bella Stander
  Sometimes you meet the best people-and read the best books-by accident. Of course, there's a greater probability of such accidents happening if you attend the publishing industry's enormous trade show, BookExpo America. At the end of a long day last June, I was crammed into a ballroom with hundreds of other weary conventioneers, and fell into conversation with a slim young man standing next to me. His name was Mawi Asgedom, he said, and he was at BEA for the first time because he'd written and self-published a memoir, Of Beetles and Angels: A True Story of the American Dream.
• One journey, one book, one school
  Asgedom's first book was selected by the leadership team at Mckinley because it fit the goal of applied interest across age levels and reading ability. Students in grades six through eight read the book during April and May. Asgedom will visit the school today to discuss his journey from Ethiopia, to graduation from Harvard in 1999, to his life today as an author, speaker and American success story.
• Coded Inspiration: A Conversation with Mawi Asgedom by mikeOne < feature | Abesha.com
  As individuals, we are by definition unique. Bottled within each and everyone of us, is a life unlike any other, full of its own laughs and tears; joys and heartache; triumphs and trials. The one constant is the journey in time we all, willing or otherwise, embark on. For people in the diaspora the journey is both literal and figurative. Along with the steady tides of time, we brave new shores in search of that elusive betterment. Whether we find what we seek is both subjective and immaterial.
• Building schools in Afghanistan | PRI.ORG
  Greg Mortenson, co-author of the mega-bestseller Three Cups of Tea, has his own version of the debate over guns versus butter. How much a society spends on military needs versus civilian needs comes down to bombs versus books, or as Mortenson puts it, peace through literacy.
• YouTube - Loco Book Review - Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
  I can't imagine anyone who wouldn't enjoy reading this book - it's full of adventure, heartwarming relationships, a rollercoaster of emotions, exciting culture, and downright goodness.

Links for Teaching Literary Criticism

• John Lye's Courses and Sources Pages
  "Meaning" is a difficult issue, and what I have to say here only scratches the surface of a complex and contested area. How do we know what a work of literature is 'supposed'; to mean, or what its 'real' meaning is? There are several ways to approach this: * that meaning is what is intended by the author ; * that meaning is created by and contained in the text itself ; * that meaning is created by the reader.
• Department of English Languages and Literature - Courses
  Professor John Lye explores: -What is the Nature of and What Are the Functions of Literature? -What is the Nature of the Subject? -Who is the Reader? -What is the Relation of the Author to the Text? -What are the Relations of the Author and the Text to Society? -Where (and How) Does 'Reality' Exist? -What is Representation (Mimesis)? -What is the Nature and Status of Language? -What is the Relation of "Form" and "Art" to Meaning? -Where is Meaning?
• Brock University - Department of English Language and Literature
  Professor John Lye's page on literary theory.

What Teachers (and Students) Should Know About Facebook Privacy Settings

Did you know that a Google search can pull up photos you post to Facebook? Did you know that college admissions offices are now using services like Pipl to see what potential candidates are posting to social networking sites? Below are links to number of blog posts and websites that go into more detail about what both teachers and students should know when it comes to Facebook's privacy settings. Are you protecting yourself, your images, and your content? You should be.

• Beyond Social Networking: Building Toward Learning Communities -- THE Journal

  Web 2.0 tools have critically elevated the social networking activity and skills of individuals. Not only are young people highly active in social networks, but older individuals are also showing a huge increase in their use of these tools. The attraction of older age groups is, of course, social connection and community building among professional and casual peers and friends.

• FACEBOOK FAIL: How to Use Facebook Privacy Settings and Avoid Disaster

  The beauty of Facebook’s many features is that now you can choose what you show and to what type of people. By using friend lists and playing with your privacy settings, you can create different views for each segment of your life.

• Langwitches » Teacher Code of Conduct… Revisited

  I am wondering if there is a necessity to create a guideline or code of conduct how teachers are to present themselves in their private online network places profiles? Does the administration at school or the district have the right (duty) to bring the subject up for discussion and in the end to make rules? Is it their business or not?

• Facebook in the Classroom

  A good PDF resource for teachers on how to use Facebook with students.

• Facebook Strategies For The Classroom

  This presentation explores the potential uses of Facebook for teaching and motivating collaboration between students. Issues of privacy and intellectual property will also be covered, as well as advantages and pitfalls of social networks.

• Facebook Privacy for Teachers « Megan Golding

  I’m a Facebook user AND a teacher. Here’s how I locked down my profile so that I can have a social life and not worry that the world is watching over my shoulder.

• 10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know

  All Facebook users should know this.

  
  
• NetSmartz Workshop | Facebook

  A good place to start for talking with students and staff about privacy issues on social networking sites like Facebook.

Resources for Teaching The Kite Runner

I'll be teaching Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner for the first time this fall. To prepare, I've spent the last few days gathering resources and thinking about how I might frame this story when I present it to students. I teach a tenth grade World Literatures course, where students study fiction, non-fiction, and creative texts from the non-western world. As we read the various texts, we hone in on perspective - What perspective does the narrator represent/present? What perspective do we as readers from particular backgrounds and with particular experiences bring to a text? What perspective do other readers and writers offer on this text? So in thinking about how I might bring this theme into our reading of The Kite Runner, I'm considering presenting the students the basics of literary criticism to help frame the reading of the text.

I've taught students literary criticism basics in the past. We've discussed the foundations of historical, formalist, feminist/gender studies, psychoanalytical, and reader response theories as a type of lens that a reader might don to help understand the particulars of a text. By teaching literary criticism as a lens, I have found it also helps students understand some related literary tropes and devices. In the past, students have completed a WebQuest activity to help introduce the various theories.

The Kite Runner could prove fruitful for this type of study. However, I worry that using this type of frame might reduce the story to nothing more than its devices and context. I suppose this is the danger when teaching literary criticism in general. I'd love your thoughts and feedback on anything I should consider as I work on this curriculum unit.

In the meantime, I thought I would share some of the resources that I found online that might help others as they consider teaching this text.

RESOURCES UPDATED MAY 2014

• My Lesson Plan Materials
  Using many of the sources listed below, I created the linked lesson plans above that I use with my tenth grade English students.
• Discussion Materials from Bucks County
  Kite Runner was selected as one of the "One Book, One Bucks County" project. This document includes a wealth of resources listed by grade-level.
• Teaching Materials from Literary Cavalcade
  This document contains an excerpt from the novel, background information, and follow-up activities, including a narrative based on an incident in the reader's childhood.
• Historical Materials from Amnesty International
  I want to thank the Human Rights Education Program at Amnesty International USA for this comprehensive guide to The Kite Runner film. I think they have done a terrific service to the students, and I am grateful to them for bringing to light the nuances and many complexities of Afghan society and Afghan life via this guide.
• My Pinterest Collection for Teaching The Kite Runner
  In an effort to keep a current collection of resources for teaching The Kite Runner, I am using this Pinterest board to continually curate a contemporary collection of resources.
• Study Guide for the Historical Background of The Kite Runner
  As the table of contents shows, this Study Guide is organized into sections corresponding to the requirements any teacher might consider - pre-, during and post-reading activities. One of the virtues of this novel is that it unequivocally places the reader inside the narrator's experience of the Pastun culture. At the same time, this quality may create barriers for younger readers. This guide includes writing and reading activities to familiarize students with the background, history, and culture of Afghanistan.
• The Kite Runner Connects the English and History Classrooms
  "Promote Independent Thinking with The Kite Runner" is a curriculum unit that includes discussion questions and links to a WebQuests and unit plans.
• Lessons shared on Teachers Pay Teachers
  Haven't used Teachers Pay Teachers before? Check it out! Registration is free. Teachers post lesson plans for just about anything you can think of, some for free, some for minimal cost. This is a link to all the lessons on the site for The Kite Runner.
• The Kite Runner Summary at WikiSummaries
  Just found this. Apparently, WikiSummaries is similar to Sparknotes with chapter-by-chapter summaries.
• "The Kite Runner" Banned In Afghanistan - CBS News
  The Afghan government banned the film more than a month ago because of a rape scene of a young boy and the ethnic tensions that the film highlights, said Din Mohammad Rashed Mubarez, the deputy minister of the Ministry of Information and Culture. Shops selling the movie would be closed, he said.
  
• Teacher Handouts for The Kite Runner
  A final assessment for reading The Kite Runner. Use the links on the left side of the page to also access the teacher's materials for teaching this book.
• My Prezi to Introduce The Kite Runner
  This is the Prezi that I put together to introduce the historical background of The Kite Runner.  Here is the video version of my introduction.

UPDATED: Here are some more background resources and even more curriculum planning materials.