We are proud to announce LearnZillion’s 2014 Dream Team

Over 4,000 people applied for the 200 spots available on the 2014 Dream Team, making it harder to get onto the Dream Team than get into any Ivy League school! Selected for their content knowledge, grit and humility, these impressive math and English Language Arts (ELA) teachers represent the best of district, charter and independent schools in 42 states and three countries (U.S., Singapore and Tunisia). Together, the 2014 Dream Team has more than 2,300 years of teaching experience, ranging from two to 42 years in the classroom.

The Dream Team will convene in New Orleans for TeachFest, a unique professional development event from June 4-7, where they will kick-off a rigorous summer-long collaboration to create high-quality formative assessment tools and resources that will support teachers implementing the Common Core across the United States. Following TeachFest, Dream Team members will return to their respective districts and continue to work in facilitated online professional learning communities (PLCs).

As the 77 returning Dream Team members will attest, being on the Dream Team is “the best professional development of my career.” However, being on the Dream Team is about more than world-class PD and creating great content — it’s about being a member of a vibrant and enthusiastic community of educators who are eager to help others and hopeful about the future.

 

2014 Dream Team Members

Dream Team Member	State	School District / Charter
Heidi King	AK	Little Rock School District
Victoria Whitfield	AL	Autauga County School System
Amy Ordonez	AZ	Kyrene School Distrcit
Ben Metcalf	AZ	Washington Elementary School District
Cheryl Martin	AZ	Dysart Unified School District
Deanna Jergenson	AZ	Deer Valley Unified School District
Jessica Finley	AZ	Wilson School District No. 7
Jill Patruno	AZ	Paradise Valley Unified School District #69
Cheryl Shay	CA	Berryessa Union School District
Debbie Neighbors	CA	Berryessa Union School District
Debi Bober	CA	Long Beach Unified School District
Helen A. Papadopoulos	CA	Walnut Valley Unified School District
Jaime Bonato	CA	San Juan Unified School District
Kim Bobadilla	CA	Davis Joint Unified School District
Kristen Miller	CA	Natomas Unified School District
Laureen-Nadirah Nayo	CA	Pasadena Unified School District
Lisa Stone	CA	Santa Clara County Office of Education
Marcello Sgambelluri	CA	Santa Clara Unified School District
Miriam Hannig	CA	Union Elementary School District
Nikole Gaines Reina-Guerra	CA	Davis Joint Unified School District
Rebecca Scarfone	CA	Temecula Valley Unified School District
Ryan Keeley	CA	Berkeley Unified School District
George Christopher Moore (Chris)	CO	Littleton Public Schools
Katherine Christie	CO	Littleton Public Schools
Kristi Steele	CO	Littleton Public Schools
Ruth A. Melendez	CO	Academy District Twenty
Wendy Turner	CO	Denver Public Schools
Colleen Haberern	CT	Watertown Public Schools
Jacqueline Kremer	CT	Ledyard, CT (JWL) & IDCS is its own district
Jameson Parker	CT	Danbury Public Schools
Lorrie Quirk	CT	New Haven Public Schools
Rachel Saunders	CT	Danbury Public Schools
Tiffany Dietelbaum	CT	Naugatuck Public School District
Tracy Yanouzas	CT	Monroe Public Schools
Becky Nolin	DC	E.L. Haynes Public Charter School
Jacqueline Christy	DC	Washington, DC
John F. Mahoney	DC	District of Columbia Public Schools
Lauren Jarrell	DC	District of Columbia Public Schools
Lisa Apple	DC	E.L. Haynes Public Charter School
Marija Crosson	DC	District of Columbia Public Schools
Michael Gueltig	DC	District of Columbia Public Schools
Valerie Krauser	DC	DC Prep
Caitlin Salmon	DE	Reach Academy for Girls Charter School
Christina Hanna	DE	Christina School District
Erica Matlock	DE	Worcester County Public Schools
Karen Warner	DE	Cape Henlopen School District
Kate Bowski	DE	Cape Henlopen School District
Kate Libby	DE	Woodbridge Elementary School
Margaret Brady	DE	Red Clay School District
Michelle Morton	DE	Red Clay Consolidated School District
Shani Benson	DE	Capital School District
Shannon Lapinsky	DE	Caesar Rodney School District
Jeremy Thompson	FL	Sarasota County Public Schools
Olga Westergaard	FL	Hillsborough County Public Schools
Ahmed Najm	GA	St. Martin’s Episcopal School
Amy Stanley	GA	Whitfield County Schools
Brenda Reagan	GA	Retired
Cathleen A Dees	GA	Clayton County Public Schools
Christine S Collins	GA	Edinburg Academy
EJ Sharif	GA	Richmond County Public Schools
Katherine Learnard	GA	DeKalb County
Lexie April Mobley	GA	Fayette County Board of Education Fayetteville, GA
Linda S. Smith	GA	Atlanta Public Schools
Linda Trawick	GA	Cobb County School District
Lisa Ashmeade	GA	Cobb County Schools
Lorenzo Dale Robinson	GA	Fulton County Schools
Mariaum Brunner	GA	Lumpkin County Public Schools
Melissa Huneycutt	GA	Gwinnett County Public Schools
Meredith Fletcher	GA	Houston County Schools
Michelle Blackwell	GA	Odyssey
Robin Valentine	GA	Gwinnett County Public Schools
Heather Dawn Harmon	ID	SD #271 Coeur d’Alene School District
Stacie Knight	ID	Meridian Joint School District #2
Alison Childers	IL	Carmi-White County CUSD 5
Andrew Parece	IL	Chicago Public Schools
Gabrielle Testerman	IL	Oak Park River Forest High School District/District 200
Jenni Iwanski	IL	Saint Charles Community Unit School District 303
Jennifer Rising	IL	Science & Arts Academy, Des Plains
Jessica Pilgreen	IL	Wesclin Community Unit District #3
Kathy Ogean	IL	Oak Lawn Hometown School District 123
Kim Stancl	IL	Illinois School District U-46
Kyle Harlow	IL	Herrin Community Unit School District No. 4
Terry Vaughn Jr.	IL	Germantown Hills School District 69
Bradley Mitchell	IN	Archdiocese of Indianapolis
Cory Howard	IN	Maconaquah School Corporation
Kristi Harris	IN	Wawasee Community Schools
Natalie Hines	IN	Indianapolis Public Schools
Ronald Shaffer	IN	Maconaquah School Corporation
Sarah Smith	IN	Evansville-Vanderburgh School Corporation
Holly Milam-Bush	KY	Warren County Public Schools
Kelly Boles	KY	Floyd County Schools
Kimberly Johnson	KY	Jefferson County Public Schools
Leslie Lloyd	KY	Bullitt County Public Schools
Katy Patterson	LA	Orleans Parish School Board
Laci Maniscalco	LA	Lafayette Parish School System
Stephanie Renoda Gullage	LA	St. Charles Parish Public Schools
Andrew Vickstrom	MA	Wachusett Regional School District
Barbara Delaney	MA	Bellingham Public Schools
Dorrian Galvin	MA	Oakland Unified School District
Jil Blake	MA	Hartford
Alison Giska	MD	Worcester County Public Schools
Analin Adriano	MD	Mary Mcleod Bethune Day Public Charter School
Ashleigh Swiontek	MD	National Board Certified//Graduate School
Jennifer Reynolds	MD	Frederick County Public Schools
Julia Hill	MD	Worcester County Public Schools
Meghan Hearn	MD	Howard County Public Schools
Nick Pyzik	MD	Frederick County Public Schools
Rafael Velez	MD	District of Columbia Public Schools
Shanna Williams-Carr	MD	District of Columbia Public Schools
Rebecca Schouvieller	ME	Falmouth Public Schools
Anita Vecziedins	MI	Grand Rapids Public Schools
Abby Kahara	MN	Barnum Publich Schools
Carol DeFreese	MO	Ft. Zumwalt School District
Carolyn Sue Nixon	MO	Willard R-II School District
Amanda Gosek	NC	Johnston County Schools
Amy Barsanti	NC	Washington County Public Schools
Amy Phillips	NC	Chatham County Schools
Anna Gustaveson	NC	Orange County Public Schools
Carol Sholette-Gillespie	NC	Cumberland County Schools
Dana Marie Stachowiak	NC	Guilford County Schools
Daylen Moore	NC	Onslow County Schools
Kimberly Shelor	NC	New Hanover County School
Michelle Barnhill	NC	North Carolina Department of Public Instruction
Rachel Sanchez	NC	Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools
William Jarrett	NC	Guilford County
Lisa Vojacek	ND	Grand Forks Public Schools
Shana Lindeman	ND	Grand Forks Public Schools
Elisabeth Chestnutt	NH	Amherst School District
Steve Lebel	NH	Derry Cooperative School District
Tim Putnam	NH	SAU 41 – Brookline Public Schools
Dianne Leoni	NJ	Hillsborough Township Public Schools
Elizabeth Stupar	NJ	Point Pleasant Borough School District
Mary Jane Custy	NJ	Flemington Raritan Schools
Rebecca Alvarado-Alcantar	NM	Las Cruces Public Schools
Chris Hayes	NV	Washoe County School District
Jodi Westmont	NV	Washoe County School District
Richard Villanueva	NV	Clark County School District
Alice Lombardo	NY	Rochester City School District
Caitlyn Calabrese	NY	New Visions for Public Schools
Daniel Steinberg	NY	Harlem Link Charter School
Dennis Pawlikowski	NY	Oswego City School District
Jacqueline Wagner	NY	District 15
Jeanette Simpson	NY	Penn Yan Central School
Jesse Goodglass	NY	Syracuse City School District
Juaneika Agyeman	NY	Lansingburgh Central School District
Julie Bocciolatt	NY	LaFargeville Central School
Lauren McIntyre	NY	Great Neck Public School District
Leslie Hefez	NY	New York City Public Schools District 15
Luciano D’Orazio	NY	New York City Department of Education
Mark Anderson	NY	Bronx District 10
Sarah Merchlewitz	NY	Manhattan District 3, Childrens First Network 408
Sarah Peterson	NY	New York City Public Schools
Staci Intriligator	NY	Various
Tammy Plucknette	NY	Elba Central School District
Wendy Sachel	NY	Phoenix Central School District
Samantha Fales	OH	Nordonia Hills City School District
Sarah Cummings	OH	Gahanna-Jefferson Public Schools
Sierra Cooley	OH	Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow
Susan Nolan	OH	Coshocton City Schools
Michelle Collum	OK	Tulsa Public Schools
Stephanie Eggen	OK	Oklahoma City Public Schools
Elizabeth Tautalamoto Ellis	OR	Portland Public School District
Erin Maass	OR	North Clackamas School District #12
Jaimee Massie	OR	Eugene District 4J
Lisa Nichols	OR	Salem Keizer School District
Elizabeth Kim	PA	School District of Philadelphia
Ellen Hartman	PA	Commonwealth Connections Academy
Emily Edmonds	PA	Charter School Network
Leah R Weimerskirch	PA	New York City Department of Education
Megan Maples	PA	KIPP: Philadelphia Schools
Michael Cote	PA	Commonwealth Connections Academy
Rebecca Ritenour	PA	Uniontown Area
Stephanie Clarke	PA	Commonwealth Connections Academy
Sue Choi	PA	Spring-Ford Area School District
Stephen Skaggs	RI	North Kingstown School Department
Ashley Gombar	SC	Dorchester District 2
Daniel Stewart Beasley	SC	York District 3
Elizabeth Beerbower	SC	Dorchester District 2 Schools
Melissa Huffman	SC	Orangeburg Consolidated School District 5
Michelle Greene	SC	Darlington County School District
Kimberly Clark	SD	Multiple Districts in SD
Terri McComb	Singapore	Singapore American School
Christina Foran	TN	Tennessee State Special Schools
Tifin Calcagni	Tunisia	American Cooperative School of Tunis
Jennifer Yu	TX	Richardson Independent School District
Leslie Hirsh Ceballos	TX	Richardson Independent School District
Jennifer Shirts	UT	Jordan School District
Lauren Burton	UT	Alpine School District
Melissa Hesterman	UT	Mountain Heights Academy
Christine Gault	VA	Prince William County Schools
Jennifer Newman	VA	Friendship Public Charter Schools
Lindsay M. Stuart	VA	Alexandria City Public Schools
Sara Elizabeth Equi	VA	Roanoke City Public Schools
Michael Signal	WA	Auburn School District #408
Sarah Spring	WA	Auburn School District
Aaron Beiniek	WI	Whitnall School District
Dr. Michele Schmidt Moore	WV	Loudoun County Public Schools
Kayleigh Gillespie	WV	Putnam County Schools
Stephanie L. Runion	WV	Harrison County Schools
Virginia Guynn	WV	Berkeley County Public Schools

Literacy Office Hours with David Liben of Student Achievement Partners pt. 3

Get tips on how to implement Common Core ELA in your classroom.

In this webinar, David Liben of Student Achievement Partners shares his insights about bringing exceptional literacy instruction to k-12 classrooms. David is the Senior ELA/literacy Specialist at Student Achievement Partners, an organization founded by the authors of the Common Core. A principal and teacher with more than 20 years experience in the classroom, David was one of the educators closely involved in the writing of the Common Core Standards, including synthesizing the research behind Appendix A.

Implementing the Common Core: Literacy

This is the third of our series of three literacy office hours (view part 1 and part two).

You won’t want to miss his explanation of the best way to share vocabulary at minute 6:10, how literacy coaches can bridge the gap between explicitly teaching comprehension strategies (inference, visualization), and Common Core’s emphasis on close reading at minute 14:25.

 

Additional Common Core Implementation Resources:

David also shared a plethora of resources that you can access below:

 

Vocabulary

COMING SOON to the Student Achievement Partners site:  The Significance of Vocabulary in the Common Core State Standards, article by David Liben. Includes research findings about vocabulary instruction and practical exercises to help teachers learn to select and teach vocabulary.

Word Nerds: mostly geared towards elementary school but works for middle school. Great book for vocabulary. Describes how to build a culture of loving and using words in your school.

Wordly Wise: Books to support targeted direct vocabulary instruction; has Greek and Latin Roots from the same publisher.

Zaner Bloser’s Word Study Programs: Word study methods to help students understand word structure and learn new vocabulary context.

 

Text dependent questions

Student Achievement Partners: Text-Dependent Question Resources – Collection of tools to help learn to write and use text-dependent questions.  Includes short and long guides and examples.

Student Achievement Partners: Featured Lessons – 20 lessons that focus on text dependent questions to support close reading (mentioned at minute 15:40).

“Scaffolded Reading Instruction of Content Area Texts” by Doug Fisher and Nancy Frey, shows how to create text dependent questions that are aligned to the standards.

 

Text complexity

Student Achievement Partners: Text complexity resources– Collection of tools and guides to help teacher analyze the complexity of texts. Includes both quantitative and qualitative measures.

Student Achievement Partners: free webinar done along with Metametrics on how people can find texts at different levels of text complexity.

 

Curriculum evaluation

Student Achievement Partners: Instructional Materials Evaluation Tool gives a step by step description on how to evaluate materials.

Engage NY is a comprehensive site from NY State with a free Common Core aligned curriculum as well as a variety of tools and resources to help teachers and districts with Common Core. It has lessons, units etc.  In particular their elementary school literacy resources are useful. Also check out EngageNY’s Pre-K Through Second Grade ELA (mentioned at minute 25:15).

 

Parent resources

Greatschools.org terrific resources for parents. Click your grade band here (Elementary School, Middle School, High School) It is a website just for parents.

 

Science and Social Studies

Student Achievement Partners: Science and Technical Subject Lessons + History and Social Studies Lessons (mentioned at minute 12:00).

 

Additional

Structured Journals – Structured journals are a great strategy for helping kids to hold students accountable for learning from their reading. Check out these resources: Essay on use of structured journals by Meredith Liben and Example of a close reading lesson that uses the structured journal technique (mentioned in minute 13:40).

 

Lily Wong-Fillmore’s “Juicy Sentences” approach – Teaching syntax is crucially important, but often ignored.  Lily Wong-Fillmore’s “Juicy Sentences” approach represents one good approach to teaching syntax. Check out this presentation on Fillmore’s approach. Also, here is a blog post by a teacher who succeeded with her (ELL) students by using the approach.

 

Ready for more?

Check out our Writing Office hours with Joey Hawkins of Student Achievement Partners, as well as David’s first two office hours (#1) and (#2).

The Power of Delaware TeachFest

We are honored to be working with the State of Delaware to recruit and develop a Delaware Dream Team to create high-quality Common Core formative assessment items that will be shared with teachers throughout the state.

The video below gives you a quick view into the spirit and impact of working with teachers in this rigorous, collaborative way — a spirit that is shared by our own national Dream Team.

It is truly an honor to help develop the teachers that, in turn, make a difference for students every day.

STATE NAMES 97 TALENTED TEACHERS TO ‘CONNECTICUT DREAM TEAM’

We’re delighted to share that the Connecticut State Department of Education (SDE) has announced that 97 teachers from 86 schools across Connecticut will take part in TeachFest Connecticut, an intensive professional learning session on the Common Core State Standards, where they will develop high-quality resources to be shared with fellow teachers. The ‘Connecticut Dream Team’ will continue working with their peers in the weeks following TeachFest and later serve as teacher leaders at a larger event for Connecticut educators this summer. Participants teach a wide spectrum of different grade levels, with 60 specializing in English language arts and 37 in mathematics.

Commissioner Stefan Pryor announces members of the 2014 Connecticut Dream Team

“TeachFest will provide teachers with the opportunity to collaborate and innovate as they develop high-quality Common Core resources to be shared with their colleagues. Participants will also serve as teacher leaders in future Common Core-related events and activities. We thank and congratulate the teachers who have volunteered and been selected for the Connecticut Dream Team,” State Department of Education Commissioner Stefan Pryor said. “This is a new and exciting element of our growing array of Common Core supports for teachers and school leaders. We are grateful to Governor Malloy and the General Assembly for providing the resources that enable us to provide these critical supports for educators.”  

TeachFest Connecticut represents one of the professional development opportunities supported by the State Department of Education regarding the implementation of the Common Core State Standards.The Connecticut Dream Team will first convene in Hartford from April 25-27 for TeachFest Connecticut, a celebration of teaching and an intensive, structured working session facilitated by LearnZillion. A provider of digital curriculum and professional development for the Common Core, LearnZillion developed this innovative model for their national Dream Team.

“Connecticut teachers’ response to this opportunity has been wonderful,” said Eric Westendorf, CEO of LearnZillion. “We’re excited to support the SDE’s commitment to teachers by sharing our high-energy, rigorous and practical approach to developing exceptional instructional practice with the Connecticut Dream Team.”

Following TeachFest, the Connecticut Dream Team members will return to their 86 elementary, middle and high schools to continue working with peers and content coaches in facilitated online professional learning communities (PLCs). During this process, the Dream Team members will translate their proven teaching methods and classroom expertise into high-quality Common Core resources for use by teachers in Connecticut and will be available on CTCoreStandards.org. These resources will also be made available to teachers across the country, through a free Common Core resource library.

“We applaud all of the teachers who stepped up and volunteered to serve in this important role. Their firsthand classroom experience will be invaluable in helping their colleagues effectively implement Common Core — an effort that has been a significant challenge for so many of our state’s schools,” AFT Connecticut President Melodie Peters said. “Classroom educators were among the first to speak out and urge that their voices be heard in making new teaching standards work when they were adopted four years ago. This effort reflects a major step forward for implementing the core set of standards because it empowers teachers to train teachers.”

The Connecticut Dream Team will later serve as teacher leaders for a “Common Core Fest” to be held for hundreds of teachers across the state on July 29, 2014.   In addition to the LearnZillion experience, the State Department of Education is already sponsoring a series of professional development opportunities for educators across Connecticut. Since the beginning of the school year, school and district leaders have taken part in “communities of practice”— gatherings which focus on implementing the new standards and sharing best practices already in place.

Also, the SDE has convened over 1,500 teachers from 163 districts as Common Core Coaches to develop expertise in the new standards through a series of trainings and webinars. Common Core training opportunities are also being designed for 600 new teachers, student teachers and their mentors, as well as the faculty of teacher-preparation programs.   The K-12 educators selected for the Connecticut Dream Team were chosen through a competitive statewide application on the basis of their content knowledge, grit, and understanding of the Common Core State Standards. Each educator demonstrated the commitment and ability to “scale their impact” beyond their classroom.

 Teachers named to the 2014 Connecticut Dream Team

Name	School	District
Aaron Ribchinsky	Mary Morrison Elementary and Catherine Kolnaski Magnet School	Groton Public Schools
Alicia Loesche	East Haven High School	East Haven School District
Alicia Wetherbee	Edna C. Stevens Elementary School	Cromwell School District
Amanda Ashley Peterson	Danbury High School	Danbury School District
Amanda Johnson	Danbury High School	Danbury School District
Amy DiNoia	Chippens Hill Middle School	Bristol School District
Amy Inzero	Elizabeth Green	Newington School District
Andrew D. Deacon	Colebrook Consolidated School	Colebrook School District
Andrew Hill	Brookfield High School	Brookfield School District
Andrew Hutchinson	Meriden Elementary Schools	Meriden School District
Anna Capobianco	Hall High School	West Hartford School District
Barbara McLean	Hubbell Elementary School	Bristol School District
Barbette Warren	CREC Public Safety Academy	Enfield School District
Briana Visone	Bloomfield High School	Bloomfield School District
Catherine Freeman	Sage Park Middle School	Windsor School District
Cheryl R. Kerison	Betsy Ross Arts Magnet School	New Haven School District
Christine Turcotte-White	Henry Barnard Elementary School	Enfield School District
Christopher Affie	Ansonia High School	Ansonia School District
Clinton McLeod	Anna H. Rockwell School	Bethel School District
Colm Duffin	New Britain High School	New Britain School District
Corey Nagle	Chippens Hill Middle School	Bristol School District
Courtney Warner	Cook Hill Elementary School	Wallingford School District
Craig Wisniewski	Martin Kellogg Middle School	Newington School District
Danielle Durso	Crosby High School	Waterbury School District
David P Daigneault	Robert E Fitch High School	Groton Public Schools
Debra Parker	New Fairfield Middle School	New Fairfield School District
Diana Kloskowski	Slade Middle School	New Britain School District
Dr. Brian Moore	Bullard Havens Technical High School	Connecticut Technical High School System
Elizabeth Porter	Chippens Hill Middle School	Bristol School District
Ellen Meyer	Broadview Middle School	Danbury School District
Erin Birden	Washington Primary School	Regional School District 12
Eugenie George	Achievement First Bridgeport Elementary	Achievement First Bridgeport
Fallon Wagner	Meriden Elementary Schools	Meriden School District
Heather DeLaurentis	Polson Middle School	Madison School District
Hillary Singer	Roger’s Park Middle School	Danbury School District
Jacqueline Kremer	Integrated Day Charter School, Norwich; Juliet W. Long, Ledyard	Integrated Day Charter School
Jane Giresi	Miller-Driscoll School	Wilton School District
Jane Martellino	Warren School, James Morris School, and Goshen Center School	Regional School District 06
Jane S Potts	Mary Morrisson Elementary	Groton Public Schools
Jennifer DeRagon	Coventry High School	Coventry Public School District
Jennifer Lizee-Hammer	Pleasant Valley	South Windsor School District
Jennifer McDougall	Captain Nathan Hale Middle School	Coventry Public School District
Jennifer Murrihy	Frank T. Wheeler Elementary	Plainville School District
Jessica Szafran	A Ward Spaulding Elementary School	Suffield School District
Josh Egan	Washington Middle School	Meriden School District
Kara levenduski	Robert J. O’Brien STEM Elementary School	East Hartford School District
Karen Ciarleglio	Montowese Elementary	North Haven School District
Kari Baransky	Roger Sherman Elementary	Meriden School District
Katherine Brodaski	New London High School	New London Public Schools
Katherine Jesmonth	William J. Johnston Middle School	Colchester Public Schools
Kelly Bouchard	Ellen P. Hubbell School	Bristol School District
Kelly Palaia	International Magnet School for Global Citizenship	Capital Region Education Council
Kevin Stevenson	The Friendship School	Waterford Public Schools
Kristen Grabowski	Tolland Intermediate School	Tolland School District
Kristin LaLima	Griswold Middle School	Griswold Public Schools
Laurie LaBossiere	Griswold Middle School	Griswold Public Schools
Laury LaMarche	C.B. Jennings	New London Public Schools
Lisa Handfield	Andover Elementary School	Andover School District
Marika Heughins	Pawcatuck Middle School	Stonington Public Schools
Mariliz Fitzpatrick	Chippens Hill Middle School	Bristol School District
Mary Kay Rendock	Carmen Arace Intermediate School	Bloomfield School District
Mary Lou Woods	Meriden Elementary Schools	Meriden School District
Mary Strout	Griswold Elementary School	Griswold Public Schools
MaryJean Giannetti	Meriden Elementary Schools	Meriden School District
Matthew Taber	Coginchaug Regional HS	Regional School District 13
Melissa Potamianos	Orchard Hill	South Windsor School District
Michelle Bartlett	Sunnyside School	Shelton School District
Michelle Combs	Bennie Dover Jackson Middle School	New London Public Schools
Monica Lloyd	Toquam Magnet Elementary School	Stamford School District
Nadine Keane	Griswold High School	Griswold Public Schools
Natasha Domina	North Haven Middle School	North Haven School District
Paul Jeffrey Laedke	New Fairfield Middle School	New Fairfield School District
Randy Ewart	Windsor High School	Windsor School District
Rita Gregory	Booth Free School	Regional School District 12
Robin Greenwald	Leonard J. Tyl Middle School	Montville Public Schools
Robin Moore	James Morris School	Regional School District 06
Rosanne Field	Batcheller Early Learning Center	Winchester School District
Ryan Howard	Classical Studies Academy	Bridgeport School District
Sarah Forler	Hartland School	Hartland School District
Sarah Worley	Discovery Academy	Capital Region Education Council
Shannon VanderMale	Essex Elementary School	Essex School District
Sharon Campolo	Greene-Hills School	Bristol School District
Sherri Hall	Sarah J. Rawson	Hartford School District
Stacey Albertson	Dunbar Hill Elementary School	Hamden School District
Stephanie McKenna	Wethersfield High School	Wethersfield School District
Steven Gionfriddo	John C. Mead School	Ansonia School District
Steven St. Onge	Cromwell Middle School	Cromwell School District
Susan Coyle	Bullard Havens Technical High School	Connecticut Technical High School System
Tawana Graham-Douglas	Plainville Elementary Schools	Plainville School District
Tiffany Deitelbaum	City Hill Middle School	Naugatuck School District
Tim Shortt	Worthington Hooker School	New Haven School District
Tina Eisenbeis	Pawcatuck Middle School	Stonington Public Schools
Tina Manus	Platt Tech High School & Bridgeport Adult Education	Connecticut Technical High School System
Tomasa Raver	Center School	Ellington School District
Vannessa Jane Riggio	Chester Elementary School	Regional School District 04
Victoria Fox	Captain Nathan Hale Middle School	Coventry Public School District
William McKinney	Wilbur Cross High School	New Haven School District

Ways to help parents understand the Common Core

Many parents are eager to take a proactive and productive role in student learning.

To help you out, we hosted a conversation between Eric Westendorf, CEO and co-founder of LearnZillion and Greg Mullenholz, former teacher, coach, 2013 Dream Team member, and current principal in Montgomery County Public Schools, to discuss some practical actions teachers can take to engage parents. Highlights include 5 tips on how best to share resources and specific ways to support student learning in light of identified gaps or advanced student needs. We’ve summarized some of their main points in the blog post below.

VIDEO

How can LearnZillion help Parents?

1. Help them understand the standards
2. Help with homework
3. Support struggling students
4. Accelerate bored students

For more, check out this blog post: Parent Resources: 4 Ways to Support Your Child’s Learning with Instructional Videos.

 

What’s the best way to share?

 

1. Email:

Send parents the Common Core content their child needs to master via URL, Quick code, or use the assign feature.

On LearnZillion we’ve made resource-sharing easy. You can simply copy and paste the URL or quick code of a video lesson and email it to parents. You can also directly assign math content or ELA content to students to complete for homework; parents can help their child complete this work at home.

 

2. Letter Home:

Tell parents HOW they can use the resources available on LearnZillion.com

Sometimes paper is still the best medium to communicate with parents. Simply download this letter, customize the yellow portion to the standards your students learned that day and voilà, your students’ parents are ready to access the content online.

Click this image to download the parent letter

 

 

3. Text:

Use a service like Reminder 101 or Edmodo to text parents video lesson quick codes

Quick codes – short six digit number attached to each lesson – allow teachers and parents to easily access lesson content by typing the code into any search bar on LearnZillion.com. Remind 101 allows you to text these codes to parents with the click of a button. We’ve seen parents watch these videos on their phone while waiting to pick up their children at school, or during a quick 5-7 minute break in the middle of the day. It’s a great method to bring parents closer to their children’s education amidst their already busy schedules.

 

4. Create a context:

Make it easy for parents to take action.

It’s not enough to just give parents resources. Ease of use matters; the directions you give to parents should be as bite-sized and targeted as possible. Give parents a specific lesson that will best help with homework. Suggest how they can use the video with their child. Creating context can give parents confidence that they are supporting their child in the right ways.

 

5. Use as basis for math or ELA night:

Share this information with parents through an in-school educational session.

Consider using LearnZillion content as a basis for a math and ELA night. These nights – organized for parents, students and teachers for topic-specific support – are a great way to demonstrate effective practice of parent involvement. Model what it looks like to find a lesson, talk about a lesson, work on homework using the lesson, and take notes. You can kickstart a habit so that parents and students can feel comfortable using the resources without the teacher present.

 

These are some good steps to consider the next time you try to engage parents. Have any other ideas? Leave a comment below. And thanks for forwarding this post along to your friends and colleagues.

5 minutes to powerful whole class instruction

Thousands of teachers use LearnZillion every day to help their students learn.  But how do they do it? How can a 5 minute math or ELA video lesson help to drive high quality Common Core instruction? These teachers think of LearnZillion lessons as orange juice concentrate: they’re short but if you add water – in the form of questions, practice problems, and tasks – they expand into an amazing whole lesson.  In other words, these lessons are a perfect starting point for their whole class planning and instruction.

How LearnZillion Works

Each lesson on LearnZillion has been created by a member of our Dream Team directly from the language of the Common Core State Standards. As a result, every lesson is grade-level appropriate, visual, and focused on explaining the concepts at the heart of a standard.  In other words, it’s dense with high-quality, easy-to-understand Common Core content.  It’s also practical – each lesson comes with a set of power point slides that can be downloaded and customized to your particular class.

Learn how to customize downloadable slides

 

Turning LearnZillion concentrate into juice

Here are a few tips from our community about how to turn our short videos into powerful whole class instruction:

1. Add stopping points and questions to the video lesson.  For example, stop at the “Common Misunderstanding” part of the video lessons and ask, “why do you think students make that mistake?”
2. Use the guided practice and extension activities at the end of many of our slides as a basis for in-class practice.
3. Personalize and customize LearnZillion’s downloadable slides to create practice worksheets (see 5 ways to leverage LearnZillion’s Downloadable Slides for more ideas)

For more ideas, check out the lesson plans we’ve developed for the essential 3^rd-8^th grade math standards, or watch this engaging video discussion with Nick Pyzik, an elementary school teacher and math coach at Tuscarora Elementary School in Ballenger Creek, Maryland. Nick gives specific examples about how he uses LearnZillion to streamline his own planning, reflects on student reactions to using LearnZillion lessons in the classroom, and shares how he’s using LearnZillion as a coach.

 

What else can you do with the lessons?

When LearnZillion lessons are the building blocks for whole class instruction, it’s even easier to use them for differentiation, for homework, or for parent engagement. Students will benefit from that direct link to what happened in class, and parents can finally make sense of the standards-driven shifts. Administrators, too, are using LearnZillion Premium as the backbone of a digital Common Core curriculum, and to help drive high-quality professional development.

 

Stay in touch!

We like to help all our users benefit from ideas and discoveries, so thanks in advance for sharing your experiences and advice for using LearnZillion with us!

LearnZillion ELA Webinar Archive

This page is regularly updated with our webinars focused on implementing the Common Core ELA standards — be sure to create a free account on LearnZillion to receive invitations to future events.

 

Writing Office Hours with Joey Hawkins of the Vermont Writing Collaborative

Recorded 03/13/14 8:00pm EST Get tips on instruction and resources from a nationally acclaimed writing educator and expert. (All grades)

 

 

An Introduction to the EQuIP Rubric

Recorded 03/13/14 5:00pm EST Learn how to identify high quality materials aligned to the Common Core (All grades)

 

 

ELA Essentials: Understanding the structure and transitions of the ELA standards

Recorded 3/4/14, 4:30 PM EST focus your lessons and write meaningful teaching objectives aligned to the ELA standards. (All grades)

 

How Principals Can Relieve Anxiety Around Common Core Implementation

Recorded 3/5/14 3:00pm EST A discussion with Dr. Skip Fennell and Joan Tellish about how principals can help teachers implement the Common Core. (All grades; Administrators)

 

Save time, reduce stress. Streamline planning and supercharge your professional growth with LearnZillion.

Recorded 2/30/14 3:30pm EST Learn how to integrate LearnZillion into your lesson planning process. (All grades)

 

Literacy Office Hours with David Liben of Student Achievement Partners pt 2.

Recorded 2/26/14 8:00pm EST Get tips and resources from David Liben, a nationally acclaimed ELA/literacy specialist. (All grades)

 

Writing, aligning, and sequencing text dependent questions

Recorded 2/19/14 4:00pm EST Learn proven strategies for crafting text-dependent questions. (All grades)

 

 

Text Talks: A First Step in Planning for Close Reading

Recorded 1/30/14 4:00pm EST Get tips, ideas and an actionable format for launching successful text talks. (All grades)

 

 

Literacy Office Hours with David Liben of Student Achievement Partners pt 1.

Recorded 1/8/14 4:00pm EST Get tips and resources from David Liben,a nationally acclaimed ELA/literacy specialist (All grades)

 

 

Ready for more? Click the button below to view our math webinars:

 

LearnZillion Math Webinar Archive

This page is updated with our webinars focused on implementing the Common Core math standards — be sure to create a free account on LearnZillion to receive invitations to future events.

 

Using the EQuIP Rubric: Math

Recorded 03/18/14 5:00pm EST Ensure your math resources are Common Core aligned. (All grades)

 

 

An Introduction to the EQuIP Rubric

Recorded 03/13/14 5:00pm EST Learn how to identify high quality materials aligned to the Common Core. (All grades)

 

 

How Principals Can Relieve Anxiety Around Common Core Implementation

Recorded 3/4/14 3:00pm EST Help your teachers implement the Common Core (All grades; Administrators)

 

 

Practical tips for using LearnZillion’s Math Lesson Plans in the classroom

Recorded 2/27/14 6:00pm EST Learn how to use LearnZillion’s Math Lesson Plans in your classroom. (Grades 3-8)

 

 

Save time, reduce stress. Streamline planning and supercharge your professional growth with LearnZillion.

Recorded 2/30/14 3:30pm EST Learn how to integrate LearnZillion into your lesson planning process. (All grades)

 

Learn how LearnZillion Lesson Plans can help you ensure students master the essential math standards

Recorded 2/12/14 5:00pm EST Ensure that your students master the essential math standards. (Grades 3-8)

 

Back-mapping from PARCC and SBAC items to Formative Assessments

Recorded 1/8/14 2:00pm EST Prepare for Common Core math formative assessments. (All grades)

 

 

Ready for more? Click the button below to view our ELA webinars:

Using the EQuIP Rubric: Math

Ensure your math resources are Common Core aligned.

The EQuIP Rubric  (Educators Evaluating the Quality of Instructional Product) for mathematics (download here) is a tool developed by state education leaders with support from Achieve to help teachers and principals identify high-quality materials aligned to the Common Core State Standards.

In this webinar, we sat down with Mimi Alkire, a mathematics consultant and collaborator with Achieve, to explore in-depth the components of the EQuIP rubric for Mathematics and how to use the rubric to guide lesson and unit planning.

Download the webinar slides here

Access the full suite of EQuIP resources

 

Want more context? Be sure to check out our Introduction to the EQuIP rubric webinar to get background context on why and how the rubric was developed.

 

Writing Office Hours with Joey Hawkins of Student Achievement Partners and The Vermont Writing Collaborative

Prepare for the Common Core writing standards. Webinar recorded 3/13/14.

Thousands of K-12 educators are working to implement the Common Core writing standards.

To help, we held a Q&A session with Joey Hawkins, one of the founders of the Vermont Writing Collaborative and co-author of Writing For Understanding: Using Backward Design To Help All Students Write Effectively.

A nationally recognized writing expert with more than 35 years teaching experience, Joey works closely with Student Achievement Partners to develop, curate, and review CCSS resources for teachers. With one foot still firmly in the middle school classroom, and as a founder of VWC, Joey has offered courses and school-based professional development in Writing for Understanding in Vermont and throughout the country. Watch the office hours here:

Joey’s suggested resources

• In Common – check out the In Common protocols, specifically designed for coaches and literacy leaders to use to work with the student writing samples with teachers. In Common provides a range of examples of Common Core-aligned student work, drawn directly from K-12 classrooms across the country. These student writing samples demonstrate how a student’s writing skills can progress as they gain fluency across the three major types of Common Core writing: argument/opinion writing, informative/explanatory writing, and narrative writing. In Common PD activities are in the third section on this page (“Professional Development for In Common”).
• Exemplar resources on Edmodo – check out the the Basil Alignment Project group and Anthology Alignment Project group.
• EngageNY – look at the middle school modules in particular- all free.
• Vermont Writing Collaborative site: check out the teacher made reading/writing instructional sequences, painted essay materials, study guide for the book – all free.
• Writing for Understanding: Using Backward Design To Help All Students Write Effectively – Check out the book Joey wrote, along with other writing experts, to give teachers a good overall sense of how to design Common Core writing instruction, at all grade levels.
• Sample Writing Tasks created by Student Achievement Partners: Check out these scaffolded analytical writing tasks. They provide examples for teaching Common Core writing and are designed for use with example lessons from the Basal Alignment Project (BAP).

Since we ran out of time and were unable to answer all the questions from our audience, Joey kindly agreed to share her thoughts on a few more, below:

Additional Questions

1. What are some of the best professional books to study for writing in the classroom?  Writing for children?

Joey: The book by the Vermont Writing Collaborative, Writing for Understanding: Using Backward Design to Help All Students Write Effectively is the book we wrote to give teachers a good overall sense of how to design Common Core writing instruction, at all grade levels. Another book I think is wonderful is Curriculum As Conversation by Applebee (written for college teachers, but deeply relevant to all teachers in the age of the Common Core)

2. Do you have any resources for helping kids elaborate more in their writing?

Joey: Struggling writers tend to be vague…even though we spend so much time with models, better answer formula, etc. The book above, Writing for Understanding, talks about this. As the question notes, models are very important, and so is cuing like  the “better answer” material. In addition, it’s helpful when teachers spend more time with students on making sure they have depth of understanding of what they’re writing – in our experience, the single biggest impediment to thoughtful, elaborated writing is a superficial understanding of the topic. For many / most kids, they also need built-in time for “oral processing” and even what we might call “oral rehearsal” of their thinking before they write. This really means that every student needs to “speak their ideas” before they write – the more challenging the thinking, the greater the need for this. All of this slows down the instruction time, making it take longer – on the other hand, the writing is much more likely to be strong and thoughtful as a result!

3. We’re making the shift to mini-research investigation and then writing a response and making a connection to the reading passage (story, novel, etc) we are currently reading.  Can you explain more about what “mini-research” should look like?  How often should this occur? 

Joey: Mini-research can look many ways. At the most fundamental level, kids are given a focusing question about a text or texts, and then guided to search for evidence in that text or texts that help develop the answer to the question. This “evidence hunting and gathering” is at the heart of writing about text – it involves re-reading, focused note-taking, careful selection, conversation  – and then ultimately, explaining that evidence. How often?  All the time. A week should not go by where kids aren’t doing this somewhere – not necessarily in every subject, but somewhere!

—

Joey: Overall, we find it’s most helpful for teachers to think in terms of “what important understanding do I want kids to get from this text? What could it look like in writing?” Then, try it yourself – what did it take YOU to write what you hope kids will write? Plan backward for that – how will I help kids read this text so they understand this? How will I help them gather evidence? How will I make sure they know how to build /structure the writing?

Important tip here: giving kids “choice” about that they write is sometimes a good idea, BUT when teachers and kids are learning how to do all of this super important work, student choice makes the task (for both teacher and kids) much harder, and makes opportunities for real oral processing (see above) almost impossible. Choose a (relatively short) and rich text that matters, and work with the class.

 

Like what you’ve seen? Check out these other useful resources:

• (Webinar) Literacy Office Hours with David Liben pt 1

• (Webinar) Literacy Office Hours with David Liben pt 2

• (Blog Post) 4 Tips for Aligning Your ELA Lessons to the Common Core