M-STEP Prep Webinars: Test Literacy & ELA Curricular Connections

by Delia DeCourcy

Grade Level(s): 3-5 & 6-8M-Step-Logo_474451_7

Description: Get your students ready! These hour-long, interactive webinars presented by teacher leaders will provide ready to use strategies for addressing test literacy, item directions and format, and MSTEP navigation with students. In addition, presenters will address how to integrate the content of M-STEP preparation organically into MAISA unit instruction.

SCECHs: no

Who Should Attend?: Elementary teachers and middle school ELA teachers interested in contrete ideas for addressing test directions, item formats, and test navigations as well as strategies for integrating M-STEP test prep into the MAISA units.

Dates & Times: 

Elementary Session – January 28, 2015  7-8pm

Middle School Session – January 26, 2015  7-8pm

Location: virtual, participants receive room link once registered

Event Contact : [email protected]

Presenter(s): Beth Rogers, Clarkston Community Schools (elementary) & Jianna Taylor West Bloomfield Schools, (middle school)

beth cropped

Beth Rogers is a fifth grade teacher for Clarkston Community Schools, where she has been teaching full time since 2006.  She is  blessed to teach Language Arts and Social Studies for her class and her teaching partner’s class, while her partner  teaches all of their math and science. This enables them  to focus on their passions and do the best they can for kids. Beth was chosen as Teacher of the Year for 2013-2014 in her district. She earned a B.S. in Education at Kent State University and a Master’s in Educational Technology at Michigan State University.

 

Screenshot 2014-09-26 at 12.44.07 PMJianna Taylor (@JiannaTaylor) is an ELA and Title 1 teacher at Orchard Lake Middle School in West Bloomfield.  She is a member of the AVID Site Team and Continuous School Improvement Team at her school, among other things.  She is also a MiELA Network Summer Institute facilitator and member of the OWP Core Leadership Team.  Jianna earned her bachelor’s degree from Oakland University and her master’s degree from the University of Michigan.  She also writes reviews of children’s books and young adult novels for the magazine Library Media Connection.

 

Webinar – Integrating Bring Your Own Device in Secondary Literacy Learning

by Delia DeCourcy
Facilitator: Liz Kolb, Professor, University of Michigan School of Education
Thursday, May 7, 2015  7-8pm EST (optional follow up discussion from 8-9pm)
recording   slides

Come learn some easy ways to integrate students’ cell phones, iPods and iPads into literacy learning.  Focus will be on tools for collaboration and writing.  There are numerous free and freemium resources that teachers can use to connect learning to student’s own devices.  We’ll explore several tools and the reasons to use or not use them based on curricular context.

Liz Kolb is a clinical assistant professor at The University of Michigan. She authored Toys to Tools: Connecting Student Cell Phones to Education (published by ISTE in 2008), Cell Phones in the Classroom: A Practical Guide for the K-12 Educator (published by ISTE in 2011), and the upcoming Unleash the Learning Power of Your Child’s Cell Phone (published by ISTE in 2013). In addition, Liz has published numerous articles and book chapters on new technologies and education in prominent publications such as Education Leadership, Scholastic.com, and Learning and Leading with Technology. Liz has done consulting work and has been a featured and keynote speaker at conferences all over the United States and Canada. She is passionate about engaging students in education and educational opportunity through their own technologies. Liz is a former social studies and computer technology teacher. In addition she spent 4 years as a technology coordinator and integration specialist in Ohio.

Twitter ID: @lkolb

 

Literacy Webinar Archive

by Delia DeCourcy

Word Study, Vocabulary & Grammar: the Toughest Nuts to Crack Webinar Series 2016-17  

Thursday, October 27, 2016  7-8pm EST
Dr. Tim Shanahan, University of Illinois at Chicago
Complex Texts, Complex Sentences: Grammar and Comprehension in the Time of Common Core
slides

Thursday, November 17, 2016  7-8pm EST
Dr. Laura Tortorelli, Michigan State University
Words in the World: Transferring Word Study to Everyday Reading and Writing
slides and resources

Thursday, December 8, 2016  7-8pm EST
Dr. Jonathan Bush, Western Michigan University
Grammar in Theory; Grammar in Practice: Language Use in Culture, Society, and Our Classrooms
slides and resources

Tuesday, January 17, 2017  7-8pm EST
Dr. Laura Tortorelli, Michigan State University
Cracking the Code of Early Literacy: What Is Phonemic Awareness and Why Does it Matter?
slides and resources

Tuesday, February 7, 2017  7-8pm EST
Dr. Troy Hicks, Central Michigan University & Jeremy Hyler, Fulton Schools, MI
From Texting to Teaching: Teaching Grammar Beyond the Screen
slides and resources

Tuesday, March 28, 2017  7-8pm EST
Dr. Margaret McKeown, University of Pittsburgh
Cracking the Vocabulary Nut Requires Rich, Interactive Instruction
slides and resources

Thursday, April 20, 2017  7-8pm EST
Dr. Dianna Townsend, University of Nevada – Reno
Who Is Using the Vocabulary?: Engaging Students in Active Practice with New and Important Words
slides and resources

Tuesday, May 9, 2017  7-8pm EST
Sarah Brown Wessling, 2010 Teacher of the Year
Organically Integrating Vocabulary into the Secondary Classroom
slides and resources

 

Revision: the Heart of Writing Webinar Series 2015-16

Dr. Jennifer Fletchershutterstock_86277058
Revising Rhetorically: Re-seeing Writing through the Lens of Audience, Purpose, and Context
recommended reading: Teaching Arguments: Rhetorical Comprehension, Critique, & Response
resources and slides

Georgia Heard
The Revision Toolbox: Teaching Techniques that Work
recommended reading: The Revision Toolbox: Teaching Techniques that Work
resources

Marc Aronson
Revising Nonfiction: Dowsing for Depth
recommended reading: Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science
slides and resources

Dr. Troy Hicks
Revising Digital Writing
recommended reading: Crafting Digital Writing: Composing Texts Across Media & Genres
slides and resources

Dr. Nell Duke
Not Like Pulling Teeth: Revision in a Project-Based Context
recommended reading: Inside Information: Developing Powerful Readers and Writers of Informational Text Through Project-Based Instruction
more information 

Penny Kittle
Revision: the Heart of Writing
recommended reading: Write Beside Them: Risk, Voice, and Clarity in High School Writing
resources

Dr. Constance Weaver
Revising Sentences by Adding “Juicy Details”
recommended reading: Grammar to Enrich and Enhance Writing
resources

 

 

 

Webinar – Small Bites: Research in the K-5 Classroom

by Delia DeCourcy

Facilitator: Professor Kristin Fontichiaro, University of Michigan School of Information
Thursday, October 16, 2014  7-8pm EST (optional follow up discussion from 8-9pm)
recording     resources     webinar slides

The Common Core asks that students engage in small, focused research experiences across the year.  For many teachers, this is a curricular design shift.  In this interactive session, we will consider this important shift in a variety of ways: explore a continuum for varying levels of student independence in the research process; investigate the multiple and key skills we need to develop in our student researchers; and learn about tech tools that can help facilitate and support effective instruction for research and research writing.

Kristin Fontichiaro is a clinical assistant professor at the University of Michigan School of Information, where she coordinates the school library media program and teaches courses in library and information science. Kristin is interested in teaching and learning and the emerging roles of librarians. She speaks internationally on inquiry, information and digital literacy, and makerspaces. She coordinates the Michigan Makers service and action research project on maker learning. Kristin is the author of numerous books on technology, education, and inquiry learning including Podcasting 101 and Know What to Ask: Forming Great Research Questions and Navigating the Information Tsunami: Engaging Research Projects that Meet the Common Core State Standards, K-5.

Twitter ID: @activelearning