Academic Passion Planner - 1/2 Price Today!

We live in a very technology-driven world, and I will readily admit that I am a digital girl, which led me to switch exclusively to a digital calendar four or five years ago. At the time, the transition was very painful. I loved my paper high school planner so much that I searched for it online and diligently ordered it each fall to use during college, grad school, and my first few years of teaching. But I made the switch. And I was happy. Or at least, happy-ish.

Recently, however, I have begun to miss that old paper planner.

I miss using my colorful, ultra-thin pens to color-code my schedule, even though I have been able to do a variation of this with my digital calendar. It just isn't the same.

I miss being able to flip through the weeks to glance back at the events that have passed.

I miss writing down my to-do list and the satisfaction that came with physically crossing-off a task. (I have been known to add a task after it has been completed, just so I could cross it off. Paper planner people...you with me on this one?)

And my bookshelf misses those volumes that were lost to the digital world. In many regards, my old, paper planners act as a journal for my years. And I miss that.

Enter the Passion Planner!

Today, I am going back to paper, and I'm ordering a Passion Planner! Why today? Because I've been waiting for them to go on sale, and for today only, the 2015-16 academic Passion Planners are 1/2 price. (Just FYI in case you want one or you know someone who might want one.​..)

Here are a few reasons why I'm giving Passion Planner a try as I switch back to paper:

1. Size: I can get either a full size or a compact size, and while I haven't quite decided which one I want, it looks like either choice will give me the room I need to record everything that I want to write.

2. Time Slots: The days have time slots. I like to have the hourly lay-out as opposed to a blank space for the day.

3. Hours: The hours start earlier and end later than other planners I have seen.

4. Daily Focus: The top of each day has a spot specifically reserved for the day's focus.

5. Weekly Focus: Each weekly spread has a weekly focus spot, too.

6. Celebrations: There is a special block of space to record the good things that happened that week. We can never celebrate the good stuff too much.

7. To-Do Lists: Yes. Lists. There are TWO weekly to-do lists: one for work and one for personal.

8. Me space: The bottom of the right-hand page of each week is empty. I can utilize it however I want.

9. Appearance: The binding and cover are much more professional looking than my old spiral-bound planner.

10. Smashability: I don't think that is a real word, but I'm going with it. I have seen many people use these planners as smash books. Check them out on the Passion Planner blog.

Lastly, they have a referral program. If you refer three people, you get a free one. As I am already purchasing one for myself, I'm looking to earn one (or two!) to give to a new teacher! I'd love to be able to gift a planner or two to a colleague. If you happen to purchase a Passion Planner after reading this post, I would be very grateful if you would please list me as your reference at check out. Please use this email address: margaret.dalton@k12.sd.us

Many thanks!

John Green CrashCourse YouTube Videos

John Green, popular YA author of The Fault in Our Stars and Looking for Alaska, has a secret YouTube vlogging persona on the Crash Course YouTube channel!

Did you find him? I hope so because it really wasn't that secret...perhaps just relatively unknown, at least around here. (He has over 3.5 million followers!)

If you took a moment to visit his YouTube channel, you saw a sampling of Crash Course's almost 450 educational videos. Started by John and his brother Hank, the Crash Course channel offers free (and might I add, entertaining) 10-15 minute videos covering all sorts of content. Currently, 24 of those videos are specifically connected to commonly taught high school literature. The literature playlist starts with:

And then it moves on to:
Of Pentameter & Bear Baiting - R&J Part 1
Love or Lust? - R&J Part 2
Like Pale Gold - The Great Gatsby Part 1
Was Gatsby Great - The Great Gatsby Part 2
Language, Voice, and Holden Caulfield - The Catcher in the Rye Part 1
Holden, JD, and the Red Cap - The Catcher in the Rye Part 2
Before I Got My Eye Put Out - The Poetry of Emily Dickinson
A Long and Difficult Journey, or The Odyssey
Fate, Family, and Oedipus Rex
Ghosts, Murder, and More Murder - Hamlet Part 1
Ophelia, Gertrude, and Regicide - Hamlet Part 2
Don't Reanimate Corpses! - Frankenstein Part 1
Frankenstein Part 2
Reader, it's Jane Eyre
If One Finger Brought Oil - Things Fall Apart Part 1
Things Fall Apart Part 2
To Kill a Mockingbird Part 1
Race, Class, and Gender in To Kill a Mockingbird Part 2
Aliens, Time Travel, and Dresden - Slaughterhouse Five Part 1
PTSD and Alien Abduction - Slaughterhouse Five Part 2
Slavery, Ghosts, and Beloved
Langston Hughes & the Harlem Renaissance
The Poetry of Sylvia Plath

Beyond the literature playlist, however, are many other videos that could be connected to the literature in our classrooms. For example, the US History Playlist contains 48 videos that could help set the stage for texts studied in American Lit. There are also Psychology and World History Playlists that could connect. View all of the Crash Course playlists here.

While these videos were not originally intended for the classroom, the Green brothers are very encouraging of teachers using the videos. I could see the videos working in many classrooms, or as part of a Blendspace activity, or as an informational text/video to be analyzed, or...

Lexile Measures of Frequently Taught Classics

Lexile Measures of Frequently Taught Classics
Just for consideration and reference...

1984 – 1090

Book Thief - 730

Crime and Punishment - 850

Enrique’s Journey - 770

Fahrenheit 451 - 890

Fallen Angels – 650

Glass Castle - 1010

Grapes of Wrath - 680

Great Expectations – 880

Heart of Darkness - 1050

Hobbit - 1000

Jane Eyre - 610

The Kite Runner – 840

Lord of the Flies – 770

Metamorphosis - 1340

Night – 570

The Poisonwood Bible - 960

Pride and Prejudice – 1090

The Road - 670

To Kill a Mockingbird - 870

Measuring Text Complexity

Since the adoption of the CCSS, we have heard the term text complexity many times. The concept has also emerged through questions bubbling up as we embark upon our English curriculum revision.

How do we ensure that we are placing adequately challenging texts within the grade level curriculum guides?

As we seek to diversify our literature options, how do we know that we are adding options that are of high quality?

These questions are undoubtedly important for us to examine during our study because we need to be intentionally including both accessible texts and texts that stretch our students; these questions, however, go beyond the diverse literature element we recently started exploring. As we review the texts currently in our curriculum and as we study potential new texts to add, I challenge us to turn to this question:

What does it mean for a text to be challenging or of high quality?

Often, the first measure to come to mind is a text's Lexile score, which can be a very good place to start. When thinking about Lexile in a post-CCSS-adoption world, however, it can get a bit tricky. The Lexile Band has changed for each grade band due to the fact that over the past 50 years, the gap between most secondary texts and most college texts has widened. In order to move students closer to the College and Career Ready Lexile level, a new "Stretch" Lexile Band has been adopted by The Lexile Framework for Reading. (But this is a whole other topic...Click here to read more from the Lexile Framework group.)

So should Lexile be our go-to for determining a text's complexity? 

Does a Lexile number really inform us if a text will be challenging for our students or if it is of high quality?

While the Ledile measure can be a starting point, the CCSS promotes a three-pronged approach when determining a text's complexity, and many educators with whom I have spoken agree that the following three elements are all important when considering a text: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Reader & Task.

One of the three prongs is, of course, the quantitative measures, which includes Lexile measures. Algorithms are used to analyze the word length, word frequency, sentence length, and cohesiveness of the text. This is helpful, but it is not the only factor to consider.

The qualitative measurements, on the other hand, are evaluated by a human. An actual, living, breathing person has read the text. This pulse-maker considers aspects of the text like levels of meaning, the clarity and conventions of the language used, the knowledge demands, the format and structure, and the complexity of the visual materials. These factors place different requirements on the reader than a Lexile score.

The third prong is the reader and task combination. Within this sphere, reader pieces such as motivation, background knowledge, and previous experience are considered. The other element of this portion is ensuring that the text fits the purpose and the complexity of the task at hand.

Each one of these prongs fails to paint a full picture of the text by itself. Together, however, they create a fairly sturdy stool on which the reader can sit.

As we move forward with our Curriculum Study, it is my hope that we can keep this stool with us. What does it mean for a text to be challenging or of high quality? To start, it means that the stool is just the right size for the reader to grow.

Professional Travel Opportunities

Save the date(s)! If you are interested in attending a conference this year, here are a few worth considering. They are listed in chronological order, and I've noted the deadlines for applications to the Professional Travel Committee. Now is a great time to apply since we are beginning our curriculum study. To view the applicant criteria and access the application, please visit the District Professional Travel page.

*UPDATE 1/18/16 I moved the conferences that have passed to the bottom of the post since I am also updating the post with new information.

ASCD Annual Conference

April 2-4, 2016 in Atlanta, GA

Presented by ASCD

Featured Speakers: Manny Scott; Mike Schmoker; Carol S. Dweck, PhD

Application due to the Professional Travel Committee by NOON on Friday, February 5, 2016.

The Science of Imagination: Cultivating Curiosity and Creativity in our Schools

April 7-9, 2016 in Orlando, FL

Presented by Learning and the Brain Conference

Featured Speaker: Sir Ken Robinson

Application due to the Professional Travel Committee by NOON on Friday, February 5, 2016.

Conference on Teaching Excellence

July 8-10, 2016 in New Orleans, LA

Presented by ASCD

Application due to the Professional Travel Committee by NOON on Friday, April 8, 2016.

SD CTE State Conference

September 9-10, 2016 in Watertown, SD

Presented by SDCTE

Application due to the Professional Travel Committee by NOON on Friday, June 3, 2016.

Faces of Advocacy

November 17-20, 2016 in Atlanta, GA

Presented by NCTE

Features Speakers:TBA

Application due to the Professional Travel Committee by NOON on Friday, June 3, 2016.

***The following conferences have either already occurred or the deadline to apply to the Professional Travel Committee has passed.***

Responsibility, Creativity, and the Arts of Language

November 19-22, 2015 in Minneapolis, MN

Presented by NCTE

Featured Speakers: Chelsea Clinton, Alison Bechdel, Dave Eggers

The deadline to apply to the Professional Travel Committee has passed, but check in-building.

(Or mark your calendar for next year: November 17-20, 2016, in Atlanta, GA.)

Shaping Student Mindsets: Promoting Academic Attitudes, Persistence and Performance

February 11-13, 2016 in San Francisco, CA

Presented by Learning and the Brain Conference

Featured Speaker: Carol S. Dweck, PhD

Application due to the Professional Travel Committee by NOON on Friday, November 6, 2015.

A Collection of Parent-Teacher Conference Tips

Parent-Teacher conferences are upon us this week! Here are a few resources that might be useful as you think ahead to the upcoming conversations.

Cliff Notes Version: Be prepared! Be positive! Be solution oriented!

Pre-Conference Tools and Tips

• Parent-Teacher Conference Form: This Google Doc is one example of a form to have students complete BEFORE conferences. Use this form (or one like this) to gather personalized talking points for each student. It can also help make the conversation more student led. Just make sure to collect these from the students before conferences and to bring them to conferences.
• Tips for New Teachers: While this document specifies new teachers in the title, like all good resources, the information can be applied no matter where you are in your teaching career. The beginning of the article does talk about 30-minute conferences; just ignore that part! The rest can be applied to any parent-teacher conference format.
• Harvard's Parent-Teacher Conference Tip Sheets: The Harvard Family Research Project published this document in 2010; it includes tips for principals, teachers, and parents. Pages 5 and 6 are specific to teachers, but the whole document is a quick read.
• 5 Quick "Tips for Parent-Teacher Conferencing": As both an educator and a mom, Edutopia blogger Elena Aguilar shares her top-five tips for parent-teacher conferences.

Hope your conversations are productive and fruitful!

Bringing Mirrors and Windows into the Classroom

The following excerpts come from "Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors" by Rudine Sims Bishop, and were referenced in our Curriculum Writing Meeting as we discussed diversifying the literature options in our curriculum.

“Books are sometimes windows, offering views of worlds that may be real or imagined, familiar or strange...When lighting conditions are just right, however, a window can also be a mirror. Literature transforms human experience and reflects it back to us, and in that reflection we can see our own lives and experiences as part of the larger human experience. Reading, then, becomes a means of self-affirmation, and readers often seek their mirrors in books...

When children cannot find themselves reflected in the books they read, or when the images they see are distorted, negative, or laughable, they learn a powerful lesson about how they are devalued in the society of which they are a part. Our classrooms need to be places where all the children from all the cultures that make up the salad bowl of American society can find their mirrors...

Children from dominant social groups have always found their mirrors in books, but they, too, have suffered from the lack of availability of books about others. They need the books as windows onto reality, not just on imaginary worlds. They need books that will help them understand the multicultural nature of the world they live in, and their place as a member of just one group, as well as their connections to all other humans."

Think on it.

Diversifying the Literature in our Curriculum - Starting the Conversation

Thank you to the Curriculum Writing Teams for the thoughts, ideas, questions, and concerns expressed last night at our curriculum writing meeting! For those of you not on a CWT this round, we started a conversation about diversifying the literature options in our curriculum. Maybe it would be better described as barely started, as it is a rather lengthy conversation to have!

Please remember that this conversation is NOT a cry to throw out all of the classic literature. It is, rather, a conversation to help us make choices regarding literature options that will best benefit student learning.

The "Challenge Yourself" image above came from the website The Educators' Spin on It, and one of their posts includes a tip about how to diversify the literature in your classroom with classics in mind:

"Do you have any books featuring diverse characters that are not primarily about race or prejudice? Consider your classic books, both fiction and nonfiction. Do any contain hurtful racial or ethnic stereotypes, or images? If so, how will you address those stereotypes with students? Have you included another book that provides a more accurate depiction of the same culture?"

When we look at the texts we want to teach, keep, or add as options, we need to be aware of the stereotypes involved. One small change we can make is to look at supplemental materials to pair with classics and Shakespearean plays. There are many ways to bring in the missing voices through background-building informational texts (like those found at KidsInBirmingham1963, for example) or a version of Romeo and Juliet from another culture.

We are all coming to this conversation from our individualized backgrounds, so the road ahead may not be an easy one. It is, however, an important journey as we look at what is best for our student population. Our students who are use to finding mirrors in literature need windows just as much as our students who are use to finding windows in literature need mirrors.

I'm looking forward to continuing this conversation as we revise our curriculum options!

Autism Overview Training This Wednesday

What's better than free PD?

PD that pays you to attend!

See the details below regarding the Autism training this week.

An invitation is extended to any Sioux Falls School District staff to a training titled “Autism Overview.”  This training is an introductory workshop for staff new to working with a student with autism.  The training will include sections explaining Autism Spectrum Disorders and their characteristics, unique language needs of students with Autism, and classroom strategies that should be used and are research based. This includes both general education staff and special education staff – both professional and support staff. If you choose to attend, you will be paid hourly for time outside your work day.

**If you have attended this training in the past, you will not want to attend as it is the same training that was offered in past years and is intended as an introduction to autism.**

Axtell Park Auditorium

Wednesday, October 14th

4:00-6:30 p.m.