Craft Category: Artifacts

Teacher Marla Earnest explains how she uses whole group instruction to create efficiency when all students need support in a single are, like content review.

Transcript: Marla Earnest: This time of year we’re doing a lot of review, so our whole group, for example today, is going to be a Jeopardy! game that we’re playing in review and kids are going to be in teams. So that whole group lesson’s really fun and interactive. We usually spend 15 to 20 minutes in whole group. On a normal day if it’s like the middle of the year, beginning of the year those are strategies that we’re doing. It’s not like we’re just learning this one learning target. It’s a strategy. We might be doing a reading strategy or an analysis strategy or a writing strategy that day. But it’s all strategy so that they’re learning for all their classes, not just that one class.

Marco Lopez, a Lindsay student, explains how he can work beyond grade level in literacy.

Transcript: Marco Lopez: At the beginning of the school year we took a benchmark test kind of and it put us in a position where we could read. And then slowly, once you read a certain story at your level it gives you an option to make your pace go faster. And it also gives you this option for vocabulary to learn more vocabulary. As you progress it gives your harder — it’s like measured in letters– like “A”, “B”, “C” and “D”. For content level 9, you’re supposed to be at, I think, “I” and then I tested on to “J” which is tenth grade. So I’m still on J and am close to finishing and then I’ll move on to K, which is 11th grade.