New Resource to Understand Your Students’ Growth on ACCESS

  

 

There's something you might not know about me. I'm a data nerd. My heart skips a beat at the thought of pretty charts and bar graphs. So you can imagine my excitement when I heard that WIDA was putting together some new resources to help districts and schools look at systems-level patterns in their ACCESS for ELLs data. I was even more excited when they let me take a sneak peak at the materials earlier this fall. I couldn't wait until they were released so I could tell you about them. So, here it goes. Buckle your data seatbelts!

Do You Have a Favorite Lesson to Share?

Hey, ELL Teachers! 

Win an Amazon gift certificate to purchase books or supplies for your classroom! WIDA announces the return of the Lesson Plan Share Space Contest.

The Lesson Plan Share Space is a community space where you can upload lesson plans or search for other example lessons to support your ELL students in language and content learning.

A few recent contest submissions include, "Inferring Feelings using the book The War With Grandpa" for 4th graders,  "Vincent Van Gogh: His Life and Artistic Principles in his Work," for grades 9-12, "Migration Stories" for grades 3-8, and "The Progressive Era," for the 6th grade classroom.

Upload a lesson plan and be entered into a weekly drawing to win a $25 Amazon gift card. A winner will be drawn each Friday and a final drawing for a $100 gift card will occur on December 6.

The Lesson Plan Share Space is located in the Get Involved! section of the WIDA website (www.wida.us/lessons).

Enter now, enter often! 

Welcome, Tennessee!

Last week Tennessee adopted the WIDA ELD Standards for use in their schools. We are excited to introduce the WIDA ELD Standards to Tennessee educators! 
 

There are currently three states that use the standards but not the ACCESS for ELLs test. Those states are Tennessee, Idaho and South Carolina.


If you are in Tennessee or are new to the standards, here are a few blog posts to get you started:

FREE Online Course on CCSS and ELLs

Interested in learning more about the role language plays in the Common Core State Standards?
Are you currently teaching ELLs or have access to a classroom with ELLs?
Do you have two hours to spare for the next seven weeks? 

Dr. Kathy Escamilla will be Saturday’s Keynote Speaker

The final keynote speaker for next week's conference will be Dr. Kathy Escamilla from the University of Colorado, Boulder. She will be speaking on Saturday morning, October 19, 2013 at 8:30am.

Friday’s Keynote Lineup

    

The countdown has begun to WIDA's first ever national conference. In anticipation of the event, we are taking a look at each of the keynote speakers. 

 

Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings at the National WIDA Conference on October 17, 2013

   

Somewhere along your path to becoming a teacher you have probably heard the terms culturally relevant teaching or culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP). The terms are interchangeable and refer to teachers' abilities to adapt their instruction so that it is responsive to their students' diverse cultures. For a quick refresher on CRP, I recommend watching this online video from Teaching Tolerance. It provides a quick introduction to culturally responsive pedagogy, tangible and intangible culture, the importance of CRP, and the difference between race and culture. I also recommend a second video because it talks about how culturally competent teachers approach their students. I particularly appreciated the explanation of what culturally competent teachers do and what they don't do to successfully teach their students.
Now that you have refreshed your memory on CRP, let me virtually introduce you to the woman who started it all.