Posts by Gare Thompson
U.S. Education Market Snapshot: English Language Learners (ELLs)
The Early Days In the 1960s, Victoria Porras attended Melrose High School in Massachusetts as an exchange student from Bogotá, Colombia. She was far from home. Her host family, teachers, and new schoolmates were friendly and eager to help, but the everyday English spoken in the Boston area is accented, idiomatic, and studded with acronyms.…
Read MoreRead MoreThe Texas Reading and ELA Adoptions
All eyes are on Texas as it adopts reading programs, first for grades K–8 and then the following year for grades 9–12. Shifting Markets The textbook adoption market has changed over the last five years. While in past adoptions the major purchase was reading and language arts textbooks, the definition of what is a core…
Read MoreRead MoreWhy It’s Critical to Implement Civics Lessons and the C-3 Framework
Recently, citizens once again exercised their right to vote. They used the power of voting to have their voices heard. But what does it all mean? Now is the time for civics lessons that teach students civic responsibility. As the saying goes, “Actions speak louder than words,” and students must know how to act, deciding…
Read MoreRead MoreInsights From NCSS 2016
Mark Twain said, “What gets us in trouble is not what we don’t know. It’s what we know that just ain’t so.” Today’s students are bombarded with information and images and there is a need for lessons that foster critical thinking and civic responsibility. The time for strong, innovative social studies lessons has arrived. The…
Read MoreRead MoreHow to Manage Classroom Instruction
Not having heard something is not as good as having heard it; having heard it is not as good as having seen it; having seen it is not as good as knowing it; knowing it is not as good as putting it into practice.—Xun Kuang, c. 312-230 BCE Choosing Instruction Modes Facing a classroom of…
Read MoreRead More5 Keys to Unlock Read-Aloud Success
Why Read Aloud? When I first taught kindergarten, I read aloud The Very Hungry Caterpillar. The kids in my class loved it and we spent hours discussing caterpillars, eating habits, stories, and Eric Carle. Luckily for me, the third-grade teacher down the hall, probably tired of hearing me read the book aloud again and again,…
Read MoreRead More5 Keys to Assessment Literacy
At Victory, we have been developing many kinds of assessments. Whether the assessment is high-stakes summative testing, a performance-based task, or formative student self-assessment, assessment has a huge impact on classroom instruction. This means assessment literacy is a critical tool for teachers as they develop curriculum and apply classroom strategies. What Is Assessment Literacy? What does…
Read MoreRead More5 Keys to Digital Literacy
Recently, we premiered our digital lesson on the Boston Massacre at the ISTE and ILA conferences. The lesson was a big hit. It inspired many discussions with technology coordinators and educators on what makes a lesson good for digital literacy. The table below summarizes what we learned, and the video that follows gives concrete examples…
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