Resources to Support the Iowa Core

As we enter the month of February, we are getting the blog up and running again.  Everyone is working hard to implement the new standards, so we want to devote the blog to resources to support your work.  Feel free to post any of your favorite Iowa Core resources!


Common Core Practice Task: Argumentative Writing

Sports: “In Year Away From Harvard, Work With Foundation Offers Relief”

Common Core Standards: RI1, RI10, W1, W4, RH5

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Last summer, over 100 students at Harvard University were implicated in a cheating scandal involving a take-home final. Facing the possibility of a one-year suspension, Kyle Casey and Brandyn Curry, members of Harvard’s men’s basketball team, voluntarily withdrew from the university while the investigation was still ongoing, in order to preserve their N.C.A.A. eligibility.

They are both currently in their hometowns, and Kyle Casey is working for a nonprofit foundation that conducts after-school programs for children in third, fourth and fifth grade.

Your Task: Both men in the article took voluntary leaves from Harvard in order to preserve their N.C.A.A. eligibility. Should they be permitted to play basketball for Harvard next season, despite being implicated in the cheating scandal? Using ideas and inferences gleaned from this article, explain your answer in a paragraph.

Before you do the task, you might…

Skim this article to gain background knowledge about the cheating scandal at Harvard.

Make a list of reasons listing why the student-athletes should or should not be permitted to play next year.

Looking for some Reader's Theatre scripts?  Check out this 2nd grade web page.

http://www.thebestclass.org/rtscripts.html

Do your 3rd grade students need more practice with elapsed time word problems?  Check out the link below!

Grade 3 Elapsed Time Word Problems

SEE IT IN ACTION!

Think-Pair-Share to Practice Simplifying Expressions

Common Core Standards: Math.7.EE.1

The Teaching Channel-Grade 7 Math Distribution

Education Week's Vander Ark and Cargill Identify Open Educational Resources (OER) for High Schools 

Are you looking for high-quality open educational resources (OER) for your high schoolers?  Check out these digital resources identified by Tom Vander Ark and Sarah Cargill ofEducation Week:

Science and Mathematics

1. CK12.org is a pioneer in open resources providing secondary math and science Flexbooks includingFlexmath content originally developed at Leadership Public Schools.
2. National Repository of Online Courses (NROC)provides an online library of OER high school and AP courses at  HippoCampus.org. You'll find solid courseware available in modules with voice over text. It is easy to create media playlists, find track high-trending learning materials, and share learning content with students. You can find their next gen content at NROCmath.org including a great Hewlett Foundation-funded open Algebra 1 course and a developmental math sequence.
3. Educurious is Gates-funded OER and project-based learning (PBL) curriculum designed to align with Common Core State Standards and reduce high school dropout.
4. Khan Academy has a library of more than 3,000 math, science, history lesson delivered in easy-to-understand videos.

Comprehensive Modular Resources

5.  The Gateway to 21st Century Skills is one of the oldest repositories of education resources online, providing a variety of activities, lessons plans, projects, and assessments.
6. Curriki.org is a big library of shared courses and content.
7. OERcommons.org offers free-to-use teaching and learning content and a long list of content providers .

Grade-Level Collections

8. Gooru Learning curates the Web's best resources, compiling them into collections and attaching quizzes.
9. Power My Learning provides math, Language Arts, science, social studies, art/music, computer programing, and more educational activities for parents and teachers.

History

10. Big History Project is a Gates-funded thematic interdisciplinary project.
11. Muzzylane transforms history into a game - Making History. They also have resources for science, language-learning, health education, business, and urban planning  

Mostly Higher Education

12. Connexions provides a platform for learning modules and content creation that can be compiled into courses, books, reports, and more.
13. Open Courseware Consortium provides free and open college- and university-level educational materials online, anytime.
14. The Saylor Foundation provides free and open college-level courses to students without registrations or fees. Several districts are using Saylor.org courses in high school. Watch for more Common Core aligned resources.

Additional Free Resources

15. Google in Education and Google Course Builderprovide great professional dvelopment and learning resources for educators to create and collaborate in the classroom.
16. iTunesU has tons of mostly post-secondary content.
17. YouTube EDU has more than 1,000 educational channels. 
18. PBS LearningMedia provides tens of thousands of digital resources for educators and is especially valuable to the flipped classroom.
19. National Geographic has a longstanding reputation of supporting learning with valuable multimedia resources for any classroom.

Looking Ahead.....

February 15-District Professional Development Day
Focus: Technology to Support the Curriculum

February 18-Teacher Quality Professional Development Day
Focus: Collaboration and Data Analysis

February 19-Grading and Reporting Committee 3:30-5:00

February 20-District Grade Level Collaboration--Grades 2 and 3 (during early release)