2013 GradeReading.NET Summer Reading Lists

A recent research study approached the idea of scientific literacy by assuming that a limited number of vocabulary words were important for the average person to understand scientific articles. Brossard,Dominique and Shanahan, James. Do They Know What They Read? Building a Scientific Literacy Measurement Instrument Based on Science Media Coverage. (pdf) They emphasize not general knowledge, but what a person in the U.S. should know to understand general media coverage of scientific ideas. Specifically, they identify the most common science vocabulary words used in popular media.

The study assumes that science literacy is the ability to understand science as covered in mass media. A scientifically literate person, then, would be able to read and understand popular explanations of scientific and technology-related ideas.
After an explanation of their underlying assumptions, they say, “Given the above assumptions, it makes little sense to test whether people understand concepts that are not discussed frequently in the mass media.”

Using the Oxford Dictionary of Science (Isaacs, Daintith, and Martin 1999) as a source of possible scientific terms, they sampled a week’s worth of news articles and came up with a list of the most common scientific terms in the articles. Then, they tested comprehension of these common terms.

One advantage of this type testing is the ability to constantly update the list of terms, as science develops and the conversations around scientific ideas develop, extend, change, or contract. Of interest, is the Appendix A and B, which are examples of scientific literacy tests based upon the conventional idea of understanding ideas and this new idea of a targeted list of vocabulary words.

Examples:
Testing vocabulary: 1. A star that over a period of only a few days becomes 100 – 1000 times brighter than it once was, is called a [nova].
Testing knowledge: 1. All radioactivity is man-made. True False

Here are the scientific vocabulary words used in the study (in order of frequency of appearance in popular scientific articles): aluminum, satellite, solar energy, nuclear weapons, lightning, earthquake, watt, fiber optics, genetic engineering, protein, microprocessor, xrays, gram, flora, irrigation, and LSD.

How should we test scientific literacy? Vocabulary used in mass media, or knowledge of scientific concepts?

The post Scientific Literacy: 15 Vocabulary Words to Know appeared first on Making the Common Core Practical.

2013 GradeReading.NET Summer Reading Lists

The Partnership for Assessment for Readiness for College and Career (PARCC) has released a draft of Performance Level Descriptor (PLD) for each grade. Public comment is open until May 16.
I’ve linked to a few documents here that should be of particular concern; see the website for full documentation.

English Language Arts Performance Level Descriptors from PARCC

• PARCC-ELA-PLDs, April 2013 Drafts, website
• Grade 3 ELA Expanded Rubric (pdf)
• Grade 4-5 ELA Expanded Rubric (pdf)
• Grade 6-11 ELA Expanded Rubric (pdf)
• ELA Information Complexity Analysis (pdf)
• ELA Literacy Complexity Analysis

Mathematics Performance Level Descriptors from PARCC

• PARCC-Math-PLDs, April 2013 Drafts, website
• PARCC Calculator Policy (July 2012)
• Math PLDs All Grades (pdf)
• Algebra I PLDs (pdf)
• Geometry PLDs (pdf)
• Algebra II (pdf)

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2013 GradeReading.NET Summer Reading Lists

The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) has released a draft of its PARCC Accommodations Manual, “a comprehensive policy document that will support local educators in the selection, administration and evaluation of accommodations for the assessment of students with disabilities and English learners on the PARCC End-of-Year, Performance-Based and optional Mid-Year assessment components.”

It includes “includes not only proposed participation and accommodations policies for SWD and ELs, but also information about tools that will be provided through PARCC’s computer-based assessment delivery system for all students to optimize their performance on the assessments.”

Download the 69-page pdf of the draft of the PARCC Accommodations Manual here.
Public comments are open until May 13.

What type of Testing Accommodations does PARCC Allow?

Presentation accommodations include allowable changes in the method or format in which the test or test questions are provided to the student. These may include, for example,the use of braille or sign interpretation of test items.

Response accommodations include allowable changes in the method used by the student to provide responses to test questions. These may include dictating responses to a scribe or using a braille note-taker.

Timing and Scheduling accommodations include extending the duration of time allowed for testing,allowing a student to take frequent breaks,or to take the test at a certain time of day.

Setting accommodations include changes to the location or conditions in which the test is administered, including separate location or group size.


And just for fun, some bookmarks by Enokson–visual jokes about computers. Click to see the answer to the riddles on the Flickr page.

The post Common Core Tests: Students with Disabilities and English Language Learners appeared first on Making the Common Core Practical.

2013 GradeReading.NET Summer Reading Lists

With Microsoft ending support of Windows XP, and PARCC supporting Windows 7 or 8, schools must upgrade equipment before the 2014 testing under Common Core standards.

Microsoft has announced that it will end support of WindowsXP on April 8, 2014. This is in spite of the fact that over half of users still use XP and don’t want to upgrade to Windows 7 or 8. Combine that with PARCC’s technology requirements for online testing, which recommends at least Windows7, but preferences Windows8 (or iOS6). A February, 2013 update specifies what tablets, wi-fi or bluetooth keyboards, required screen size and other equipment specifications will be required.

In a recent conversation, one principal bragged that she had a fully functional computer lab and testing should be easy. But on further questioning, she realized that her machines are operating on WindowsXP. This will be a big blow to her school budget. Compound that by thousands of schools who must upgrade equipment and bandwidth in order to be ready for testing, and the outlay in 2014 for education computer equipment will be in the billions: One report, Controlling Education from the Top (p. 17), puts the estimate at $6.9 billion, and warns that cost could go up substantially if any conditions change (such as Microsoft discontinuing support for WindowsXP). Don’t expect pay raises, fully-funded programs, extra programming or anything else this year: 2013 is the year of education computer upgrades.

The post Schools Must Upgrade Computers: XP Support Ends April 8, 2014 appeared first on Making the Common Core Practical.

2013 GradeReading.NET Summer Reading Lists

What are kids reading today? Let’s find out.

The Common Core is in the process of setting up a PII-P20 database to monitor everything that we do in education. PII is data that includes Personally Identifiable Information; P20 refers to a database that monitors students from preschool through college and into the workforce. The purpose of the PII-P20 database is longitudinal studies, or studies that will compare what works and what doesn’t work over a long period of time, with the hopes of continual improvement. We agree that hard data helps, it’s just the use of PII that is disturbing.

Renaissance Learning, the folks who do the Accelerated Reader program and testing, has just issued the 2013 report, “What Kids are Reading: The Book-Reading Habits of Students in American Schools.” It uses the data collected from thousands of AR-reading tests to report on what kids have actually read this year. Of course, the caveat is that these are also books they tested on, and therefore may not give the clearest picture of leisure reading. An AR-test must exist and a school must have it available for a student to test on the book; students often read books that they don’t test on.

Still, this is a fascinating, useful crunching of numbers–done without the PII information. “The Accelerated Reader Real Time database includes book-reading records for more than 8.6 million students from 27,240 schools nationwide who read more than 283 million books during the 2011-2012 school year.”

Overall, books that receive national exposure by being made into a movie were hits: The Lorax by Dr. Seuss, rising from #210th most popular to #28 this year for third graders; The Help by Kathryn Stockett, from #1273 last year to #24 among high schoolers; and, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, which had done well in high school and middle school in previous years, but this year jumped from #1478 to #24 in fourth grade and from #92 to #4 in fifth grade.

Text complexity in early 20th century for required reading in high school was about 9.0 ATOS, but has dropped to about 6.0 ATOS.

CCSS Exemplar texts were popular. The report states “. . .examining the popularity of the CCSS exemplars revealed that, although not intended to be used as a curriculum, almost all of the Informational Texts and Stories Exemplars were read by a slightly greater proportion of students in 2011-12 than the prior school year, suggesting the new standards may be influencing both curricular choices and less formal recommendations.”

These are fascinating pieces of data. The information is broken into favorites by grade and gender. You can also download these reports:

• Top 100 Nonfiction Books Read by ATOS Book Level Range, Grades 1-12
• Top 100 Fiction Books Read by ATOS Book Level Range, Grades 1-12
• Top 25 Spanish Books Read, Grades 1-12

Here’s an infographic from RenLearing.

Click to see full size. R-Click to save.

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2013 GradeReading.NET Summer Reading Lists

States will begin testing students under the Common Core State Standards in 2014. PARCC and SABC are the testing consortiums developing online or computerized tests.

Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium or SBAC. At $31/student, SABC provides testing services to thirty-one member states (links are to state departments of education): California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, U.S. Virgin Islands, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming.

Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers or PARCC is a 22-state consortium, including these states: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey (Math, ELA) , New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Tennessee.
Read more about PARCC assessments and the technology guidelines for the computerized testing required.

And recently, at least one person thinks that the PARCC and SBAC will be replaced by ACT-Aspire tests.

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2013 GradeReading.NET Summer Reading Lists

What is Common Core Math? It is math instruction written from a Constructivist Theory.

Every time educators sit down to write a curriculum, they must have a controlling set of ideas, a theory of teaching, that helps them decide what to include or exclude.
For the Common Core Mathematics, that education theory is called Constructivist Math.

Constructivism means that students are expected to work out a problem for themselves, to construct meaning on his/her own.

Mathforum.org says, “Students need to construct their own understanding of each mathematical concept, so that the primary role of teaching is not to lecture, explain, or otherwise attempt to ‘transfer’ mathematical knowledge, but to create situations for students that will foster their making the necessary mental constructions.”

It’s a theory that is largely supported by mathematicians, but is controversial in its adoption, partly because parents don’t support the changes in instruction.

Traditionally, students were taught toe memorize basic arithmetic facts and times tables. Under constructivism, students are asked to work out the problems for themselves.
This video demonstrates the differences in the approaches; it’s definitely slanted against constructivism, but it still demonstrates much of what needs to be understood.

If you can’t see this video, click here.

Here’s a pro-constructivism comparison, though, of what a lesson plan would look like for a behaviorist math class versus a constructivist math class. It emphasizes the boring nature of rote memory and the imperative for students to understand underlying concepts.

The emphasis on student-discovery, though, means that there is no place in a constructivist math classroom for students to learn basic facts or learn times tables. Parent’s complain that sixth graders can’t make change for a $20 bill. Second grade students are still doing addition and subtraction on their fingers; when they run out of fingers, they are frustrated and don’t know what to do. A sixth grade students knows how to figure out a multiplication problem, she just counts by fours 23 times, a laborious time-consuming process; she gets it right, but at the cost of speed.

In other words, for basic arithmetic, parents and critics say that constructivism math takes the long way round to solve problems that could easily be solved if basic arithmetic facts and times tables were memorized. To put it in mathematic terms, basic algorithms, or ways of approaching a math problem, speeds up the process and increases accuracy; letting kids work out their own algoriths, or using process-oriented math solving does eventually wind up with the right answer, but it’s often slower, more cumbersome and unreliable. The multiple steps involved also mean an extra layer of complexity that may or may not work for an individual student. But in the long-run, process means better understanding of deeper math concepts.

There are fewer criticisms for constructivism math as the math becomes more complex, for example, in algebra and geometry, and most center on the frustrations that students’ experience when forced to “try to figure it out. Some students like the experimentation, but many don’t.

While many math teachers have conservations about the advantages and disadvantages of constructivism math, most are just concerned about teaching the next day’s lesson. As one teacher said, “It doesn’t matter what the theory behind the Common Core is, I still have to teach it, like it or not.”

Likewise, I’m not trying to convince you of the effectiveness of the constructivist approach to math education; I am just pointing out what isn’t necessarily obvious at first glance: Common Core math is based on constructivism theories of math education.

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2013 GradeReading.NET Summer Reading Lists

What is Common Core Science? In a press release on April 9, the NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards), it was announced that the final version of the new science standards are now available. Here some answers to questions being raised about the standards, a FAQ.

Will the NGSS become the Common Core Science Standards?

The NGSS have been developed with the idea that they will complement and coordinate with the Common Core standards. However, the adoption of the Common Core State Standards has been on a state-by-state basis. The CCSS is not a nationally mandated set of standards and neither will the NGSS be federally mandated. Instead, each state will consider the standards and decide whether to adopt them or not.

What is different about the NGSS

The NGSS standards describe three dimensions across four domains. The four domains include physical science, life science, the earth and space sciences, and engineering, technology and application of science.

Within and across the four domains are the three dimensions:

1. Practices:
   

   “The practices describe behaviors that scientists engage in as they investigate and build models and theories about the natural world and the key set of engineering practices that engineers use as they design and build models and systems.”

2. Crosscutting Concepts:
   

   Crosscutting concepts have application across all domains of science. As such, they are a way of linking the different domains of science. They include: Patterns, similarity, and diversity; Cause and effect; Scale, proportion and quantity; Systems and system models; Energy and matter; Structure and function; Stability and change.

3. Disciplinary Core Ideas meet at least two of the four criteria:
   

   • Have broad importance across multiple sciences or engineering disciplines or be a key organizing concept of a single discipline;
   • Provide a key tool for understanding or investigating more complex ideas and solving problems;
   • Relate to the interests and life experiences of students or be connected to societal or personal concerns that require scientific or technological knowledge;
   • Be teachable and learnable over multiple grades at increasing levels of depth and sophistication.

What Science Topics are Covered in What Grades?

For a full look at the topics, download the NGSS by topics pdf. Here is a general overview.

Kindergarten Science Topics:

• Forces and Interactions: Pushes and Pulls
• Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems: Animals, Plants, and Their Environment
• Weather and Climate
• Engineering Design

1st Grade Science Topics:

• Waves: Light and Sound
• Structure, Function, and Information Processing
• Space Systems: Patterns and Cycles
• Engineering Design

2nd Grade Science Topics:

• Structure and Properties of Matter
• Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems
• Earth’s Systems: Processes that Shape the Earth
• Engineering Design

3rd Grade Topics:

• Forces and Interactions
• Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems
• Inheritance and Variation of Traits: Life Cycles and Traits
• Weather and Climate
• Engineering Design

4th Grade Science Topics:

• Energy
• Waves: Waves and Information
• Structure, Function, and Information Processing
• Earth’s Systems: Processes that Shape the Earth
• Engineering Design

5th Grade Science Topics:

• Structure and Properties of Matter
• Matter and Energy in Organisms and Ecosystems
• Earth’s Systems
• Space Systems: Stars and the Solar System
• Engineering Design

Middle School, 6th grade, 7th grade, 8th grade Science Topics:

• Structure and Properties of Matter
• Chemical Reactions
• Forces and Interactions
• Energy
• Waves and Electromagnetic Radiation
• Matter and Energy in Organisms and Ecosystems
• Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems
• Growth, Development, and Reproduction of Organisms
• Natural Selection and Adaptations
• Space Systems
• History of Earth
• Earth’s Systems
• Weather and Climate
• Human Impacts
• Engineering Design

High school, 9th grade, 10th grade, 11th grade, 12 grade Science Topics:

• Structure and Properties of Matter
• Chemical Reactions
• Forces and Interactions
• Energy
• Waves and Electromagnetic Radiation
• Structure and Function
• Matter and Energy in Organisms and Ecosystems
• Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems
• Inheritance and Variation of Traits
• Natural Selection and Evolution
• Space Systems
• History of Earth
• Earth’s Systems
• Weather and Climate
• Human Impacts
• Engineering Design

For full details, download the NGSS Standards.

The post Next Gen Science Standards: What Topic at What Grade? appeared first on Making the Common Core Practical.

2013 GradeReading.NET Summer Reading Lists

My friend, Rich Davis, is an extraordinary illustrator who has created the Pick and Draw (PAD) card game to encourage kids to draw with more creativity. It’s such a simple card game that it has been adapted to many activities. My favorite activity is using it to help kids create a character that they care about and write a creative narrative–in under an hour. Last Friday, I taught PAD-Writing at a local school. The most reluctant writer in the school was in the session and in just an hour, he wrote a story that he was so proud of, he volunteered to read it aloud. Leaving the session, another reluctant writer said, “I thought writing was hard, but it’s fun.” That’s the power of the PAD. And it works for any grade level.

NOTE: I helped Rich edit the accompanying book, The Big PAD Resource book, and contributed this chapter. Some links here are affiliate links.

The One Hour Story by Darcy Pattison

Overview

When students create stories, they face difficulties with characters, plot and first drafts. This activity quickly creates individual characters, encourages students to become invested their character, rehearses a plot and gets a first draft down on paper. It can typically be completed in an hour. It uses the Pick and Draw card game to combine several prewriting activities into an hour of intense, but fun, productive work.

Background

First students will draw a character in five distinct steps using Pick and Draw. They start with a basic face shape, then add facial features one at at time. After each feature is added, they also add to a growing description of the character. At several points, they stop and tell a story about the character to a partner, doing an oral rehearsal of the story. After this rich prewriting that explores character and story, they are ready to write a first draft.

One reason this works is because the step-by-step progression creates a growing excitement and commitment to the character and story. Classic sales technique asks people to make a series of small decisions and commitments. When they do this, it’s easier for them to make the ultimate decision to buy. For example, encyclopedia salesmen used to ask people questions like this: what color set would you want? Where would you put the bookshelf to hold the series of books?

When we ask student writers to give the character a specific name, with a beginning, middle and last name, it’s a similar commitment. It makes it easier for them to be committed to telling this story.

Because the activity is fast-paced, it also circumvents the internal editor, that sneaky voice that tells you, “This is a dumb story.” Instead, the fast-pace and the excitement of the art keeps students working. The excitement and growing success of their efforts pulls them forward.

Getting Started

Materials List:
A Pick and Draw Game
For each student: pencil, several sheets of paper.
Extra paper and sharpened pencils
Stop watch, kitchen timer or clock with a second hand.

For large classes, divide the class into groups of even numbers, to allow partners for storytelling. If there’s an odd number, one group will need three people and you’ll have to allow an extra timed period for the third storyteller in the group.

Discussion

This PAD lesson plan is just one of many in the PAD resource book. Find lesson plans for using PAD with autistic students, grieving students and many more writing lesson plans. A foreword discusses using PAD within the CCSS classroom.

Students should write for the entire writing time and not stop until time is called. You must tell them this ahead of time. Often, a student will finish quickly, then using the remaining blank space at the end of a page to write a giant, THE END. Warn them ahead, that this is not acceptable! They must move the pencils across the page and not stop until time is called.

Decide ahead if you will direct the writing in a particular way. For example, if you are studying folk and fairy tales, you may want the characters to fit into that genre: trolls, kings, princesses, dwarfs, ogres, dragons, etc.

The oral storytelling is an effective prewriting tool. Often, students are asked to repeat a storytelling, but tell the story “a different way.” This retelling sets up a mindset of revision: stories are fluid and can be revised to be better stories. Building in revision into the oral storytelling step means students have a chance to rehearse the story several ways and decide on the best way to tell the story.

During the writing time, it’s helpful to have extra paper and sharpened pencils available. Ask students to raise their hands quietly if they need one of these.

Watch Illustrator Rich Davis Demonstrate the PAD cards

If you can’t see this video, click here.

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Divide students into groups of even numbers, with no more than eight groups.
2. NAME IT. Pass out the Face card, one to each group. Students should draw the face shape large enough to fill up at least half the page; it should not be a small face. As soon as they have drawn the face shape, ask students to name their character. They must have a first name, middle name, last name. (Note: After each card, circulate among the students’ desks and as soon as most have named the character, move to the next step: keep a fast-pace.)
3. HATE IT. Pass out the Nose cards, one to each group. (We have suggested an order to the feature cards, but vary this as needed.) Students add the feature to their drawing. (Note: It doesn’t matter what order you give them the features, do what you like here.) After the feature is added to the face, ask them to number 1, 2, 3 and write three things the character hates or fears. For example, they may hate to eat broccoli, be scared of full moons, and dislike wearing sandals.
4. LOVE IT. Pass out the Eye cards, one to each group students add the feature to their drawing. Now, students will number 1, 2, 3 and write three things the character loves. They will also do the first oral storytelling: the purpose of this storytelling is to tell something about the character’s job or family.
5. TELL IT: Oral Storytelling
   • Each student should have a partner and each group should decide which partner will talk first. Ask the students going first to hold up their hands and make sure each group knows who will start.
   • Instructions to students: You will be telling a story to your partner about your character. You will have one minute to tell the story and must talk for the entire minute. Partners, if the storyteller stops before I call time, ask questions to help them keep talking about the story. (Answer any questions that students have.)
   • Set the timer to one minute, start it and tell the students, “Go!” At 30 seconds, tell them, “Half the time is gone.” At the end of one minute, call, “Stop!” Repeat, so the second partner can tell his/her story.
6. DARN IT. Pass out the Mouth cards, one to each group students add the feature to their drawing. Now the students will start thinking about the plot. Ask students to write down a problem that faces the character. For example, s/he may need to rescue a princess in distress, win a soccer game, or convince Mom to let a friend spend the night.
7. TRY IT. Pass out the Hair cards, one to each group; students add the feature to their drawing. Number 1, 2, 3: students will think of two ways a character might try to solve the problem, but will fail. After they do this, they can add a third attempt that will work. This is the basic plot, two things fail and a third thing works.
   • Oral Storytelling: this time, students will tell the story using the plot they just thought of.
   • Second Storytelling: repeat the exercise, but this time, students must tell the story a different way. They can start at a different place, include new or different details, omit details, or end at a different place.
   • Third Storytelling: If time allows and students aren’t too restless, you can repeat a third
     time, asking students again to “tell it a different way.”
8. WRITE IT. Ask students to take out a clean sheet of paper for a first draft. They will write for an extended length of time: for younger students, 15 minutes; for older students, up to 30 minutes. They must “move the pencil across the page” for the entire time. They can not end early and write THE END, they must keep moving the pencils until time is called. No talking allowed during this time. Set the timer and start it. Give regular updates. For example: 20 minutes left; half your writing time is gone so you should be about halfway finished writing; five minutes left so you should be on your last paragraph.
9. CELEBRATE IT! After an intense prewriting and drafting session like this, celebrate the progress the students have made on their stories! Plan to take time in the next session to revise.

Pick and Draw and Kids

If you can’t see this video, click here.

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2013 GradeReading.NET Summer Reading Lists

“Tomorrow we will have a guest speaker.” Surely this statement must always be followed by the announcement of a guest lecture in History, an actor or singer for the Drama class, a local park ranger or chemical engineer for the Sciences, or a published author to speak to the Language Arts classes.

“Our guest will be a local Kirby salesman. He will give you a demonstration of the vacuums he sells and allow you to ask questions about the product. He will then discuss with us the many ways he uses the calculation of percentage in his line of work. You will recognize some of the ideas we have been exploring in class, such as discount, sales tax, commission, and fees.”

This was the conversation I had with my 7th grade Mathematics students several months ago. We were all a bit unsure about how it would go, but our salesman (who had no teaching experience whatsoever) rose to the occasion and the students developed greater understanding of the importance of percentage calculations in everyday life and work. We completed an assignment (written by the guest and I) that placed each of us in the salesperson role and required us to perform complex calculations to make a sale or find our weekly income.

The stated purpose of the Common Core State Standards is to prepare students for college and career. In addition to the college-educated workforce, we will always need the building trades, the culinary arts, and the professional salesperson. These careers are increasing in prestige and salary even as their numbers decline. Therefore, one way to meet the challenge of the CCSS for unmotivated or struggling students is to help them see how the grade-level content they are studying can be used in their future efforts to make money and pursue their dreams. Whether the guest speaker has a college education or not, the students will have a confirmation that a good education is absolutely necessary.

How about having a contractor arrive with blueprints to analyze the perimeter and area of the rooms and make cost estimates for paint, trim, brick, or even the volume of the foundation?

You could ask an accountant or researcher to demonstrate statistical methods and cost/benefit analysis.

An IT professional could communicate the importance of measurement systems and conversions with amps, watts, volts, bandwidth, and more.

A guest speaker in Mathematics can break up the routine, add some entertainment value, and make authentic connections to careers in the real world.

I have wanted to introduce guest speakers in my Math classes for years, and finally succeeded. The following are a few tips I have discovered to help make the experience successful.

1.  Plan ahead. It should go without saying, but make sure to plan a specific purpose for your guest. Will your visitor introduce new material or expand on the learning you have already done in class? Will there be a video, visual display, or technology usage? Will there be an assignment or assessment related to the presentation?

2.  Schedule meetings with your guest. Meet at least twice with your guest in person or by phone. First, to arrange the classroom visit and discuss your goals and expectations. In the second meeting, finalize plans and do a “talk-through” of how the session will go, what established procedures you will use with your students, and what role you each will play during discussions or work time.

3.  Create materials collaboratively. It may be a learning experience for you and your guest to write handouts or assignments together in preparation for the visit. The two perspectives of the visiting professional and the classroom teacher may be completely different and many of the “kinks” can be worked out in the process. For many professionals who are very willing and capable of delivering an effective presentation, your guidance will ease their anxiety about how their material will fit into the classroom environment and course of study.

4.  Consider inviting other classes and staff. When a member of the community volunteers their time and energy for a whole hour or whole day, maximize the impact! Find out if other teachers are interested in joining you, look for a larger meeting space to accommodate other classes, and make sure administration and staff are invited to stop by.

5. Give your guest some pointers. Most visitors to a public school feel a bit uncertain about how they should relate to the students. Give your guest some brief advice about how to respond to disruptions, overly personal questions, or idiosyncrasies of your school or students. Give your visitor the opportunity to ask questions as you talk through the presentation.

6. Publicize and thank. Get the word out! Make your guest positively famous! Publicize your guest speaker session in the school newsletter, blog or website, maybe even the local papers. Include pictures when you can. Send a thank you note to your guest and make it as student-generated as possible.

Have you planned or participated in a great guest presentation in Mathematics? I would love to hear about it. Leave a comment below or follow me on Twitter @abfosEd.

The post CCSS Career Connections: Guest Speaker in Mathematics? appeared first on Making the Common Core Practical.