Wow, Nixa Teachers Are Throughout Linda Dorn's New Book!

Linda's new book, Changing Minds, Changing Schools, Changing Systems: A Comprehensive Literacy Design for School Improvement, will be introduced at the Reading Recovery Teacher Leader Institute in June 2014.  On the cover is our very own Valerie Jett and Sarah Pollack from High Pointe Elementary.  

All proceeds from this book will be used in the area of professional development of teachers.  Linda's hope is that this book will illustrate how literacy educators are working together to improve school culture, enhance teacher expertise, and increase the literacy achievement for all students.

Chapter 7 is written by our very own Dr. Cindy Owens.  It focuses on the effectiveness of the Interactive Writing intervention for struggling readers in kindergarten.  Featured in the chapter are the instructional practices of Rena Comer and Valerie Jett.  

LNW Survey

As we begin thinking about Literacy the Nixa Way for the 2014-2015 school year, we are requesting your feedback.  Please complete the short, anonymous survey to help us make LNW the best it can be next year!  We truly appreciate your feedback. :-)

Click HERE to complete the survey.

The Missouri Reader

Aimee Tinsley, fourth grade teacher at Summit Intermediate, shared the first issue of the new digital version of The Missouri Reader, a publication of the Missouri State Council of the IRA.  Aimee proudly serves on the Editorial Board.  Click on the picture below to read the new digital publication.

The Missouri Reader is always looking for teachers that love to share their literacy ideas with others.  See the information below (also found on page 50 of the digital publication) if you are interested in submitting articles for publication.

Another opportunity to be involved in The Missouri Reader would be to submit pictures of your students or class in action.  See page 5 of the digital publication for more information.

 

ELA and MLS Videos Adaptable to Many Grade Levels

These videos were included in the fifth and sixth grade ELA presentation for the Missouri Learning Standards.  We had so much positive feedback about these video clips that we wanted to share them with everyone.  All of the videos are presented by intermediate and secondary teachers, but they can easily be adapted to many grade levels.

Higher Order Questions

The Stoplight Method:  An End-of-Lesson Assessment

"Be Sure To":  A Powerful Reflection Strategy

Sharing Common Core Language with Students

ELA Common Core Resources

We attended a Rick Wormeli conference one week ago today.  It was fantastic!  There were so many new things that we learned and one of the take-a-ways for me was this:   We are our best resources.  We have to share with each other.  When discussing the sharing of ideas and resources, Wormeli said, "You have to think of it as: I'm standing on the shoulders of those before me.  Now I can be a catalyst for someone else."

Keeping that in mind, today's post is all about sharing some more resources!  Here are a couple of things you might want to check out.

ASCD Webinars

ASCD offers a series of free Common Core Webinars.  Click on the link below to view archived webinars or register for an upcoming webinar. 

If you're interested in earning college credit, ASCD also has many online courses that are reasonably priced.

OER Commons:  Open Educational Resources

Launched by the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education, OER Commons has kept up with Common Core. Now, they offer a variety of resources -- from reference materials to outside links -- and you can also browse open ed resources by grade-level.

Click on the link below and scroll down to see featured content.

Achieve the Core

This website is full of free content. It includes practical tools designed to help students and teachers see their hard work deliver results.  Check out their lessons, student writing samples, assessment questions and more! achievethecore.org was created in the spirit of collaboration. Their motto on collaboration is:  Please steal these tools and share them with others.  Gotta love that! :)

Of course, there are our favorites such as:

and

Share your favorite resources with us by commenting on the post!  HAPPY COLLABORATING! :)

One Stop Shop for ELA Curriculum!

Thanks to an idea that Sarah Knight envisioned and lots of help from Stevie Stryker, our uber-positive and up-for-anything web designer, our online curriculum pages are now up and running!

Once you sign in to Nixa's web page, you are a few short clicks away from *TONS* of grade-level resources.  The best part is, it really is a one-stop-shop!

Once you select "ELA Resources" from your grade-level page, this is what you'll see:

From here, you can access ELA assessments, curriculum resources such as the scope and sequence and curriculum cards, quick access to our district blogs, and links to all of the Units of Study that our tireless grade-level teams created during their final LNW sessions!

Scroll down a little farther, and you'll see this:

Here, all of the Missouri Learning Standards for ELA are listed with links to mentor texts and various resources that are listed for each standard.  This is a living document that YOU can help us continue to improve!  Simply fill out the Google form at the top of the resource page to share your favorite resources with all our Nixa teachers.

A quick video is posted below where Sarah will walk you through the steps to get to the new online curriculum pages.  ENJOY!

Poetry Resources for Poetry Month

Check out this Teaching Channel video, 
Poetry Work Stations for the Upper Grades:

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/poetry-and-technology

30 Ways to Celebrate Poetry Month:

http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/41

Check out this website, 
Poetry for Upper Elementary Students:

http://farhadtash.blogspot.com/2008/10/poetry-for-upper-elementary-students.html

Poetry Resources for Younger Students 
and Older Students:

http://farr-integratingit.net/Integration/General/poetry/