Magnet Schools of America and Content Area Literacy
Candice represented her school, Environmental Sciences Magnet School, at the 2014 Magnet Schools of America Conference by presenting Content Area Literacy. The resources and activities found in this presentation are available here on this site and cited to their original sources. A perspective reading like that shared in the presentation, "The House",can be found here. It is important to note that the objective is to read with and without a focus. You can follow the directions in the Google Document , or provide readers with time to struggle first. Ask readers, "What is the most important part of the story?" without a focus. You can engage in a lively discussion about various perspectives. Now narrow down the focus and give readers a purpose and a point of view. Explain that they are reading from the perspective of a burglar. Does that change the answer to the initial question? How about if we asked the same question from the perspective of a home buyer or a real estate agent?
Increasing Student Discourse in Mathematics
Erin has been working on a series of professional development workshops in the areas of math inquiry and increasing student discourse in mathematics. Throughout these interactive workshops, teachers take on the role as learners and participate in a series of interactive lessons and investigations. This powerpoint was derived from the text Intentional Talk: How to Structure and Lead Productive Mathematical Discussions by Elham Kazemi.
Guided Reading: The Romance and the Reality
Erin has been working along with Dr. Abodeeb from the University of Hartford to increase best practices in guided reading. We facilitated this professional development using the text Guided Reading: The Romance and the Reality by Fountas and Pinnell. This article describes how to facilitate and implement guided reading groups to meet the needs of a diverse learning community.