Editing and Revising with Youtube Transcripts

     I’m working on transcripts for a discussion PD2Teach filmed with teachers discussing the new TEKS. At first, I played the video from the raw feed, stopping every few moments to type out all the words. Then, I accidentally turned on the closed caption function. The words were already there. I youtubed to find out how to download the transcript into Word and came up with a transcript. I realized that the transcription service had some flaws:

• 1.    It didn’t distinguish between speakers. The text reads more like a constant flow of oration rather than the discussion it really represented.
• 2.    There were no divisions between sentences, no punctuation, and all the wonky stuff we do when we talk…I wasn’t sure how to even punctuate that stuff.
• 3.    Sometimes, the text was correct, but didn’t represent the intonation and interruptions and restarts that we could follow with the audio/visual, but were impossible to interpret without punctuation or further exposition of what was left unsaid. The words couldn’t carry all the intended meaning. There were gaps.
• 4.    Even when I did have the sentences put into order and punctuated in some semblance of sense, the text still broke the rules. There were still areas that needed explanation or refinement to meet grammatical and genre and audience standards.

But here’s the kicker. It is THE most authentic experience I have had in editing a text for clarity. It is THE most authentic experience in revising a text to make sure the message is clear. It strikes me that THIS is the experience we need kids to have. See what you can make of the transcript, compare it with the audio feed (when I figure out how to load that), and compare it with my edits and revisions.

I’m wondering: what if we have kids have a conversation or speak what they are about to write? We video that and upload it to youtube and have the technology transcribe the conversation. Then the kids can go back and make the edits – because they’ll see immediately where meaning must be clarified with punctuation. Then we have the kids talk and evaluate whether or not the words need clarification, elaboration, or refinement.  

The transcript is long, so you'll probably just want to skip or skim that. But hang in there with me to the end. I think you'll see something powerful for helping your students. 

Context – Kelly Tumy of Harris County Department of Education is speaking about the Response Strand for the New ELAR TEKS. She’s pointing out a contrast to how we have been teaching to what the new standards promote. What she said made total sense based on what was before and the verbal and nonverbal cues as she spoke. The transcript...not so much sense going on there. Check it out: 

Transcript from youtube:

so I look at

30:12

this strand and my goal as a teacher was

30:16

always to raise good thinkers and I

30:20

wanted you to walk out of my classroom

30:22

yes being a good reader in a good writer

30:24

but overall I wanted you to be able to

30:26

make your own decisions and the response

30:30

skill strand I wrote down as everybody

30:33

was talking it's it's not English

30:35

language arts it's academic discourse

30:37

it's anything anybody puts in front of

30:40

you whether it's a dance move whether

30:44

it's a song whether it's a poem whether

30:47

it's an advertisement that I can talk

30:50

about that and I can look at claims and

30:52

I can look at warrants and I can look at

30:53

bias or I can look at the colors and I

30:56

can talk about what I see and how it

30:59

makes me feel and in really gone are the

31:03

days of of silo teaching of here is pick

31:09

on Romeo and Juliet but here's Romeo and

31:12

Juliet and this is what I've done but

31:14

instead what is in the news today about

31:18

difficult relationships there are

31:20

different difficult relationships and

31:22

politics there are difficult

31:23

relationships in business and if you can

31:26

hold a conversation about that you know

31:29

that we no longer have college and

31:32

career readiness standards we have

31:34

college career and military readiness

31:36

standards so those standards have now

31:38

changed in the state of Texas and look

31:41

at this strand what kind of skills are

31:45

we asking kids to develop that meet

31:48

industry standards if I'm going to work

31:51

for a chemical company is there

31:53

something here that I'm going to have to

31:55

do to be successful at a chemical

31:57

company is there something here that is

32:00

going to make me a successful realtor is

32:02

there something here that's going to

32:03

make me a success 'full my challenge is

32:07

yes that these are not language arts

32:10

skills but they're this academic

32:12

Discourse

Your Edits: Try it out. Don’t look at mine yet. See where you make the divisions and why.

My Edits:

30:11: Kelly: So I look at this strand, and my goal as a teacher was to always raise good thinkers. And I wanted you to walk out of my classroom -yes being a good reader and a good writer - but overall, I wanted you to be able to make your own decisions. And the response skill strand - I wrote down as everybody was talking -  it's it's not English Language Arts.  It's academic discourse. It's anything anybody puts in front of you whether it's a dance move, whether it's a song, whether it's a poem, whether it's an advertisement, that I can talk about that. And I can look at claims. And I can look at warrants, and I can look at bias, or I can look at the colors. And I can talk about what I see and how it makes me feel.

And really, gone are the days of of silo teaching of here is... - I don’t want to pick on Romeo and Juliet -  but here's Romeo and Juliet. And this is what I've done. But instead: what is in the news today about difficult relationships? There are different difficult relationships and politics. There are difficult relationships in business. And if you can hold a conversation about that...

You know that we no longer have college and career readiness standards? We have college, career, and military readiness standards. So those standards have now changed in the state of Texas. And look at this strand. What kind of skills are we asking kids to develop that meet industry standards? If I'm going to work for a chemical company, is there something here that I'm going to have to do to be successful at a chemical company? Is there something here that is going to make me a successful realtor?  Is there something here that's going to make me a successful... my challenge is: yes! That these are not language arts skills but they're this academic discourse.

Your Revisions: What’s not clear? What needs work? Highlight areas where you are confused or unclear about what we are talking about here.

Shona’s Revisions:

30:11: Kelly: I look at this strand, and I think about my goal as a teacher. I wanted raise good thinkers. I wanted students to walk out of my classroom as good readers and good writers. But most important, I wanted students to be able to make thier own decisions. As I look at the Response strand and the student expectation, I realize that the focus is not English Language Arts:  It's academic discourse. The focus is about developing critical discernment to analyze and interpret anything anybody asks me to consider: whether it's a dance move, whether it's a song, whether it's a poem, whether it's an advertisement. After exposure and time to think, can I have an intelligent conversation about that topic? I can look at claims, and I can look at warrants; and I can look at bias, or I can look at the colors. And I can talk about what I see and how it makes me feel.

Gone are the days of silo teaching where we focused on the content of specific texts. I don’t want to pick on Romeo and Juliet - but here's Romeo and Juliet and how we have traditionally taught this text. Instead, the Response Strand asks us to examine something deeper: what is in the news today about difficult relationships? There are different difficult relationships and politics. There are difficult relationships in business. And if you can hold a conversation about how you can use Romeo and Juliet as a model or example for your thinking and communicate that to others in classes other than Language Arts? That kind of response with academic discourse empowers learners.

Some might be surprised, but we no longer have college and career readiness standards. We have college, career, and military readiness standards. These standards have now changed in the state of Texas. Look at this strand and how it asks us to reconsider the Language Arts classroom. What kind of skills are we asking kids to develop that meet industry standards? If I'm going to work for a chemical company, is there something in Romeo and Juliet and how we approach the text that informs and empowers success at a chemical company? Is there something about the way we do our work in the English Language Arts classroom that is relevant to success as a realtor?  Is there something here that's going to lead to success regardless of what path the student takes?  My challenge to teachers is: Yes! And we must. Our standards are not simply language arts skills. The Response Strand represents and leads to useful and relevant academic discourse.

Pulling Weeds after a Rain

Grasping it by the stem, firmly, at the base
pinching at the knot of it just above the dirt
Slowly pulling, intuitively, matching the force needed
to the sense the roots dislodging but not breaking
from the soil beneath.
Feeling the runners unthread themselves
From the nearby grass.
Surprised at how far they'd reached
pulling upward and sideways to unfetter
the tangles that choked green and growth.
Sending light and air and aerated loam
to the starving cool carpet of emerald hairs.
Ants and crickets, beetles and cutworms, creatures of decay
scurry from their floating home and scramble
between the cracks in the sidewalk back to hell.
Cupping the torn carcass in my palm, like an umbrella from seeds like hail
cautiously placing the remains into a black bag,
covering the bald spot with mulch, a bandage for the earth
to smother the tare seeds and stall further assault.
Reaching for another and another until:
Surprised at the extent of scars left behind, confident the panhandle
summer heat and Bermuda runners will stretch over and heal
the abused land until you'd never know the battle I'd just fought.

The Writing Process Wheel: It's not a Wheel

Have you seen this book? 

I used to teach the writing process like this: 

Sure. I tell people it's a recursive process, but...in practice, this means that writing is more like how Doctor Who defines time: "People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint – it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly...time-y wimey...stuff." Writing is not a strict progression of one thing to another. It's recursive, messy, and quite complex.

I was playing around with this idea on a poster. Writing and the teaching of writing is NOT a linear process. And I also think that we are not fleshing out what prewriting really means in terms of classroom practice and how people actually write.

The other big struggle I'm wrestling with is Prewriting. I think we need to tease out some nuances in how prewriting differs across time, genre, and place in the writing process (drafting, revising, etc.) and how it is directed by the writer's purpose. For most of us, prewriting has absolutely nothing to do with a web, a graphic organizer, or anything really. For most of us, prewriting begins with a purpose. A reason.

Prewriting actually begins with COLLECTING. This is where you find a place to keep your ideas that could turn into something later. It's like a trigger for your memory. A storage chest or pantry. A bookmark. A treasure chest. A google drive of memories and ideas.

I'm a dumpster diver. (I know you think that I've lost my mind and that this sentence doesn't belong. Stick with me. ) I find stuff that I can combine with other pieces, things I can repair, and so on. Besides the trash, there are some pretty interesting plants in the alleys too. About this time of year, things in the alley are putting on seeds. I figure that if something has pretty flowers and can grow in the alley during a Panhandle summer, I probably can't kill it. So I reach out and strip some of those seeds into my dirty, sweaty palm and put them in my pocket. If I forget about them, they end up making a mess in the washer and dryer. Sometimes, I just cast the seeds randomly into my flower beds and wonder what might come up in the spring. Other times, I put those suckers in an envelope from the junk mail and leave it in the garage on the shelf with the Miracle Grow until spring.

That's what we should be doing with writing. We need structures and strategies (and notebooks and digital portfolios) where kids can keep this kind of stuff so it doesn't end up wasted and in the lint catcher or trash of the mind. Students need to realize that they DO have things to say. These ideas become their OWN prompts - ones they CAN and CARE to write about. These ideas are seeds they can use to help develop writing for prompts that come from someone else. Students can return to these ideas over and over to activate their schema, trigger memories, add experiences and ideas.

Like the envelopes in my garage, I've started a collection of strategies that help student collect their own seeds for writing that could sprout into something interesting on a piece of paper later. I suggest starting out with Introductions, Blueprinting, Quicklists, Writing Pocket, Heart Maps, and Reading/Writing connections. Try to do 3-4 of these at the beginning of the year to get kids empowered that they really do have a richness of living and knowing that is valued and worth exploring in your class.

Once a student has some seed ideas, there's another element of prewriting that we never talk about: PRIORITIZING and SELECTING. Honestly, I'm not sure how we missed pointing out this intensely human element of writing. How do you decide what to write about? That's actually guided by some pretty important considerations that we should make explicitly clear to our students.

• Interest: Looking over the seed idea activity, have students consider: What ideas "call" to you? These could be new ideas, something recent, something you really dig, something relevant and timely for you right now. What ideas seem boring right now? Maybe you've written about this before and you're sick of it. Maybe it just doesn't float your boat right now.
• Mood: Let's be honest. Sometimes, we are just not in the mood to write about some things. Sometimes, the stuff is too emotional or just makes you say, "meh." Give yourself permission to notice and go with what you are in the mood to tackle.
• Energy: Some ideas and topics take more energy. Do you have enough for that today? If you do, then be patient with yourself as you draft and organize. What ideas on the seed idea activities seem to energize you and motivate you to tackle them with ease?
• Audience: Seriously. Who wants and needs to hear what you have to say? Write for them. And if you have a specific audience, what do they need and like to hear? Which ideas on your seed ideas would resonate with them?
• Time Available: How much time do you have or not have? When's it due? How much of it can be done in class? How busy are you right now after school?
• Level of Knowledge: What do you know about this topic? Are you going to need to do some thinking and research, or can you just start writing?
• Requirements of the Assignment: Look at your seed ideas. What seems to fit? How can you shift the ideas to meet the requirements?
• Safety: Sometimes, kids are not comfortable in sharing their ideas with just everyone in the class. They need to think about who will be reading it and what that might cost them socially. This is why the community in the classroom is so important. We can help them with that.
• Purpose: Why are you writing this? What do you want to say? What are you going to do with it? Most of the time, we probably don't know that when we are beginning...but it's a good idea to have the purpose working in the back of our minds as we shape our thinking and begin the draft.

All of these ideas are used by the thinking writer to select what they are going to write about. I usually have kids scan the seed prewriting activity and ask a few of these questions to get them thinking about what they would like to write about. I have them star three or four ideas. I show them how I decide with mine and think aloud about my decisions. Then I have them number the ideas from 1-3, prioritizing which ones seem to work for what we are learning and doing at the time. I tell them who will be reading it and how much time we will have. I show them how I am making those same decisions by numbering my ideas on the page and thinking aloud about why I made those choices. I pick the idea I want to start with, knowing that if that isn't working for me during writing time, that I have 2 or 3 other ideas that I can mess with too.

Then, we're ready for the magic. I put up my writing under the doc camera and start a freewrite. Sacred writing time and all. "I'm writing," I say, "won't you join me?"

Once we have a draft, we've planted a seed. Now it's time to let it grow. Put it in the greenhouse and water it. More on that next time. The writing process is definitely not a wheel. Or a box. It's a garden.

My department head wants me to teach...

Dear New Teacher,

I am SO impressed with the wisdom inherent in your question. "What books should I use? My department head wants me to teach To Kill a Mockingbird, but I don't like that book."

It is wise to reject a classic text because it does not resonate with you. You do not have to teach TKM. You are wise to make decisions about your own engagement and interest instead of relying on tradition. If you are excited about a text, your students will know. As a matter of fact, one of my practicing literary heroes, Kelly Gallagher, has stated that he will probably never teach TKM again. He reasons that  are so many other texts that achieve the same goals and appeal more widely today's readers and thinkers.

You are also wise because our work is not really about a book. When our questions and discussion become centered around comprehension and making inferences regarding TKM, then we are no longer teaching our standards. We are no longer teaching English Language Arts. We are teaching the book as a piece of content to be understood and to regurgitate the plot as a summary.

Instead, our work in the Arts of English is about teaching students to read, think, discuss the any text. Our work is about using those texts as vehicles for understanding life and guiding what we are inspired to do because of that understanding.

When you are selecting books for your classroom, here are some guidelines.

1. First, pick a sophisticated, rich text to share with students as a read aloud. Use that text as a place to model your thinking and application of your English Language Arts standards.

2. Curate a set of texts for students to read in small, collaborative groups. Allow them to choose the texts that resonate with them.

3. Allow students the freedom to choose books to read independently because they want to and not because the books match some arbitrary "level."

All three texts provide rich opportunities for students to provide you with authentic evidence of their ongoing mastery of the standards for your course. These texts provide multiple avenues of evidence that your students are learning a transferable skill rather than answers to questions about a single text. The conversation and evidence become more about using the answers to make decisions about their own lives and thinking resources. These texts become mentors and models for communication and creation that can transform their lives and the lives of others.

Your question inspires me and encourages me about what you will accomplish next. I'd be honored to support you along the way. I'll await your invitation.

Sincerely,

Shona Rose

Baking Cakes with Rotten Eggs: STAAR Data Analysis

We have the results. The tests will be released soon. Let's DO something with the data before we start collecting more. It is important that the data analysis points to solutions for instruction and not just point out the percentage of students/classrooms that are doing well and those that are not.

A common practice is to pull groups of kids who failed a TEK/Question for RTI or tutoring. That approach makes about as much sense as baking a cake without sugar or eggs and trying to add them in after it's already cooked. It makes about as much sense as baking a cake with rotten eggs and trying to take them out after the frosting is spread and the slices are on the plate. Let me be blunt: Waste. Of. Time. That will do NO ONE any good if we don't have a high view of what caused the problem in the first place.

Our data analysis should first pinpoint WHY students did not do well and direct us to models of instruction that are the beginning places for TIER ONE instruction so these results don't happen again.  The data must inform the content and instructional expertise of the teacher. 

Most teachers hate data meetings because they don't walk away with lessons, just more groups and more needs and more work and more failures. They don't like the meetings because the data analysis doesn't help them when they are face to face with students. Teachers know data meetings are a debilitating waste of time that sucks the energy and joy out of their lives. They grit their teeth, endure the humiliation, and wait until they can get back to TPT or Pinterest to copy some workshits for the tutorial groups they know they are going to have heaped on top of their already long list of duties. 

Why can't our data analysis should tell teachers what they need to know and do about the results? As a curriculum leader, there are some things that you can do to help teacher interpret the data and prepare materials that can lead to a more productive struggle.

_________________________________________________________________________________

1. After you receive your STAAR data, run an item analysis for the entire grade level.
2. Print it out on poster paper, or tape it all together so that you can see all the data at once.
3. Visually scan the document. DMAC and Eduphoria will "color" the cells to indicate areas of concern.
1. Look at the rows that have 10 or more students
1. Do you see any rows that have more or less red than the other rows? More red means this subpopulation struggles to make distinctions between good answers and best answers?
2. More or less gray? More gray means that this subpopulaton is doing a better job at eliminating distractors.

2. Look at the columns (questions/items)
1. Do you see columns that have more or less grey than the other columns? More grey means that this item is probably not your biggest concern. Students are doing well on items like this.
2. Examine each question for the whole group population. This will help you find out what’s going wrong with the questions. Each type requires a different instructional approach.
1. Students choose the wrong answer more frequently than the right one.
1. The TEK has not been taught.
2. The TEK has not been taught correctly.
3. Teachers do not understand the TEK.
4. The instructional materials do not match the rigor of the test.
5. The academic language of questioning during instruction does not match how the item was phrased.
2. There are distractors over 18. Student have a misconception about this TEK (paired with this genre for ELAR). There are four types
1. When the percentages spread pretty evenly over all four answer choices: 25/25/25/25, students are guessing. They are reading and considering all of the answers like we ask them to, but they honestly don’t know how to figure out the answer.
2. When one of the answer choices is close to 0 and the rest are spread evenly over the remaining three choices: 0/33/33/33, students can eliminate the wrong answer, but they are having trouble discerning the differences between the remaining items.
3. When most student get the answer correct, but a large group picks the same alternate answer: 71/10/19/0, you have a true distractor Students have a legitimate pseudoconcept or misunderstanding that needs to be directly addressed in whole group and small group instruction.
4. When two answers, including the right answer have about the same percentage: 46/4/46/4, students can eliminate the worst answers, but struggle in selecting between the good/probable answer and the best/correct answer.
3. Examine the subpops below the whole group percentages for each item. Do not consider subpops with less than 10 students.
1. Do any subpops score 10% above the whole group percentages?
2. Do any subpops score 10% below the whole group percentages?
3. Consider this example: It’s not the SPED kids that are causing this score to be low. It’s not the females either. Perhaps there is some kind of gender-based, cultural/linguistic issue here with the Hispanic males in this group. It might be a good idea for the Hispanic females to work in pairs with Hispanic males in a small group intervention to explain how they think through this question.
1. ALL: 76.32
2. AA: 78.95
3. Hisp: 58.33
4. Female: 93.33
5. Male: 65.22
6. SPED: 72.73
4. Analyze the data patterns to determine the implications for evaluating your instructional program a whole, how reteaching and regrouping students should occur, and what staff development needs to be provided.
1. 81-100% Enrichment: Students need enrichment and sensory experiences to extend their learning
2. 71-80% Quadrant 3 and 4: Students need more collaborative and independent practice. Make sure to bring kids back to whole group to debrief the processes they used, how they solved problems when they ran into difficulty, etc.
3. 61-70%: Transfer: Students need practice with novel and engaging items and experiences. They know how to do the skill as it was taught, but not when it looks different or is paired with a different genre/stimulus.
4. 51-60% Quadrant One and Two: Students need to see more models of proficient thinking and success criteria. Students need more shared (teacher focuses on leading the content and evaluating the answers given by the group) and interactive practice (where the teacher moves to asking questions about how kids decide what to do and when, how kids know if they are right, etc) with the whole group on grade level concepts.
5. 31-50% Curriculum Target: There is something going on with how we understand and apply the curriculum in the grade level. There also might be something taught in a previous grade level that interferes with how the TEK grows in complexity in the next grades. There also might be a testing strategy that we are using that is ineffective. Plugging in vocabulary words on multiple choice items comes to mind.
6. 0-30% Drawingboard Target: Something very significant is happening with how everyone understands the TEK, the instructional methods, and the instructional materials, and perhaps even the scope and sequence.
5. Prioritize
1. Mark all of your Readiness TEKS
2. Mark all TEKS that are assessed more than once. (Lead4Ward frequency distribution tables can help you with this as well.)
3. I do NOT recommend using the Summary Tables that combine the percentages for each TEK. These percentages can hide conceptual and instructional considerations that are behind the low scores.
4. Using all the considerations in the data analysis above, pick three TEKS that you feel will make the most difference in raising scores.
6. Prepare Materials for the PLC
1. Pull the IQ from Lead4Ward
2. Record your campus data for each answer choice.
3. Create a document for each cluster of prioritized TEKS from step 7
4. Copy and paste the questions from the IQ onto the document.
5. Create an Item Narrative that turns the data you analyzed into sentences. Here is an example: Item Narrative: 95% of the students can eliminate the worst answer so we know that they are trying. 47% of the kids get the answer correct, but 28% of them land on D as an answer choice. This means that there is something significantly disconnected with student understanding/or instruction that is causing the problem. By examining what caused student to pick answer choice D, we can address this misconception with reteaching. The data also suggest that we need to look back at what this TEK means in light of both the KS and SE. We must also look at the genre. Notice that this was a paired passage. We might need to look and see if students were getting confused between the two selections. The data indicate that we have a problem with understanding the TEK and need to ask the following questions:
7. Create a model analysis for the first question. (Look at the text evidence if there is a passage. Find support for the right answer in the text and evidence to refute the wrong answers.) Name the logical fallacies, flawed thinking processes, and text taking/content procedural errors. Here is an example: Overarching Comments: Kids have problems with these kinds of items because we are teaching the student expectations without consideration for the knowledge and skills statements. In this question, kids must use summarization as a comprehension strategy to identify the main idea of a portion of the text that spans only two paragraphs. If we are only teaching kids how to summarize so they can write or identify a summary, that’s not going to work. If we are only teaching kids how to identify a main idea of one paragraph, that is not going to work. If we are only teaching kids to identify main ideas, that isn’t going to work either. We have to teach kids to use main ideas across several paragraphs to make inferences about the author’s message and purpose.

1. Encourage people to become pet owners: When you understand the point of the whole passage, you know that the author isn’t writing about Barkitecture events to convince people that they need to get a pet. First, kids have to find the section(s) of the text that talk specifically about Barkitecture events. Which is only TWO paragraphs. Then they need to scan an mark the text for evidence that the author is trying to show us that Barkitecture events make people want to get a pet. There is nothing in there about people wanting pets - only those who want the doghouses. That makes me think (infer) that the people already have a pet or they have already decided to get one. Implications for teaching: Teach kids to identify and summarize sections of texts, not just whole texts. Teach kids to summarize expository text too. Teach kids how to use summaries to help comprehend. Teach kids to use summaries and main ideas to make inferences that help the reader reject wrong ideas.
2. Raise money to help animals: Kids need to identify the specific sections of the text the question references. They need to realize that it’s not asking about the whole passage. Then they need to annotate the text to find all the evidence that supports this idea. Look at all the repetitive language and synonyms about the topic of money! Text evidence across multiple sections of text support this as the one true answer.
3. Identify animals that need shelter: The distinction here is in the verb, /identify/. Conceptually, the passage does have specific language that shows that animals need shelter.

The language in the evidence here is repeated, just like in answer choice B. There is additional evidence to specify the types of need that the animals need. Students have to be using the summary to make the inference here. They have to think about the purpose this part of the text serves - which it to explain what happens at a Barkitecture event. They have to think about how this section of the text fits into the meaning of the whole text as well. Nowhere, in this section or the text as a whole, does the author even mention finding animals in need. Students may be just matching language in the text and in the passage. Reading is never a matching or seek and find game. You also have to THINK and REASON. Sure, there is direct evidence of “animals in need”, but the savy test taker pays attention to every word in the answer choice and thinks about the purpose of what the author is telling you. In this case, they aren’t telling you that animals are in need so that you can identify the animals that are in need. The purpose of mentioning animals in need in this text is to help the reader understand that animals in need are the beneficiaries of the doghouses sold at Barkitecture events.

4. Create interest in building doghouses: Sometimes students get caught up in their own opinions and interests and schema. STAAR writers don’t care what kids are interested in. They care about whether or not students understand the text in front of them and why the authors made the choices they did. Instruction often focuses on kids making Text-to-Self connections. That is a comprehension strategy, not a strategy that helps you pick a right answer on a multiple choice exam. And, like the rationale mentioned for item C, students must think about ALL the language in the sentence stem and connect it to the evidence about the author’s reason for including that evidence. The author in this passage is not mentioning Barkitecture events to get people interested in building doghouses. And in the specific passages that mention Barkitecture events are focused on explaining how these events work and why someone might want to attend the event as opposed to someone wanting to start building doghouses. That might be a reasonable thought and response of a person who attends one of those events, but that’s not what the author put those paragraphs in there for.

10. Create model solutions for this question. Here is an example: Sample Solution for Math:

A: Show what 6.1 looks like with concrete models, with fractions. Show 0.6 as a fraction and with models. Discuss reasonableness.

Steps in thinking: 6/10 - When I see a fraction, I need to remember that it is only PART of something. That means that this answer will only have stuff on the right side of the decimal.

Decimals and fractions are like “No Boys Allowed signs. NO whole collections are allowed on the right side of the decimal.

B Show what 6.01 looks like with concrete models, with fractions. Show 0.6 as a fraction and with models. Discuss reasonableness.

Steps in thinking: 6/10 - When I see a fraction, I need to remember that it is only PART of something. That means that this answer will only have stuff on the right side of the decimal. I also need to understand the place value that is located to the right of the decimal.  Could relate to money to understand the difference between the value of the 10ths and 100ths value.

C Show what 0.6 looks like with concrete models, with fractions.. Discuss reasonableness.

Steps in thinking: When I see the fraction 6/10 I know that it is PART of a collection so I know as a fraction that there will not be a number located in front of the decimal.  I will only have numbers located to the right of the decimal.

The ones place is the mirror.  Everything reflects or bounces from this place to begin the mirrored image of the place value.  There is only 1 “ones” place and not “oneths” place.

D Show what 0.06 looks like with concrete models, with fractions.Show 0.6 as a fraction and with models. Discuss reasonableness.

Steps in thinking:  When I see the fraction 6/10 I know that it is PART of a collection so I know as a fraction that there will not be a number located in front of the decimal.  I will only have numbers located to the right of the decimal. I also need to know the difference between the 10ths and 100ths place and where they are located.  Refer back to money and mirror image.

11. Now you are ready for the PLC.

Babble, blather, talk and trouble: APA Citations

Babble, blather, talk and trouble; 
First you put a capital letter and Author's Surname
Then a period and capital first and middle initial,
Follow with a comma, then open a parenthesis
Type the four numbers for the year of our Lord;
Close the parenthesis.
Don't forget the period. It ends the beginning.
Type the title capitalizing only the first word,
but add another capital after a colon or dash.
Add a period. Italicize. Capitalize
like you have learned for the name of the journal
Keep the italics for the volume
Open a parenthesis and type the issue number
Close the parenthesis and add a comma
Type the page numbers with no p. and use a dash between
End with a period. Oh, I forgot the spacing,
Let's begin again.

Babble, blather, talk and trouble;
Read me thirty slides like these,
Cool it with monotone at 4:30 pm,
Then the subject's bored and dead:
There's no magic here.