Kathie Nunley's Educator's Newsletter
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Dr Kathie Nunley's Educator's Newsletter
---mid-February '10 Edition--- (current subscribers: 21,525)
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News and updates to Kathie Nunley's Layered Curriculum® Sites for Educators:
http://Help4Teachers.com
http://brains.org
You can subscribe to this newsletter at:
http://help4teachers.com/
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--------SECTION ONE: TEACHING TIPS ------
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Teacher Tip # 1: Pair up with a teacher at your local college and let
your students present their research and projects to their college classes.
Workshop participant, Burley, ID
Teacher Tip # 2: To help all members of our community see our high school
as an asset, even if they don't have children in the system, we post our
"help hotline" phone number in the newspaper. Anyone needing help can call
and we pair them up with one of our students needing community service hours.
R. Wilson, Skowhegan, ME.
Send your favorite teaching tip to me at Kathie@brains.org
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------SECTION TWO: HOT TOPICS in Neuro & Educational Psychology------
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HOT TOPIC # 1: If you have poor readers in your elementary classrooms,
you may interested in new research out this month. Traditionally we've thought
that it is best to improve reading by having students read text that was very
easy for them. This new research shows that in 2nd - 4th grade, poor readers
can improve reading rates by reading either at their independent reading level
(92-100% accuracy) or even slightly difficult text (80 - 90% accuracy). However,
be warned that practice reading alone, in elementary grades, did not make any
improvements in students' ability to decipher unknown words or on passage
comprehension. Thus poor readers still need well-rounded reading interventions.
O"Connor, R., et al (2010). Improvement in reading rate under independent and
difficult text levels: Influences on word and comprehension skills. Journal of
Educational Psychology, Vol 102(1), 1-19.
HOT TOPIC #2: As students transition through middle school, they may be
greatly influenced by what until recently has not been studied - the older sibling.
Can an older brother or sister have a strong positive effect on a middle schooler?
Absolutely, says new research in this month's J or Ed Psych. But the influence is
complex. If the sibling is of the same gender, then a high achieving older sibling
is a strong positive role model. However, with mixed gender siblings, a
high achieving older sibling may be a negative role model as the younger
sibling tries to be "not like" their older brother or sister. The research
suggests schools may want to gather information on siblings in making
a complete picture of the middle school student. Bouchey, H., et al (2010).
Longitudinal links between older sibling features and younger siblings'
academic adjustment during early adolescence. Journal of Educational
Psychology, 102(1), 197-211.
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---SECTION THREE: WEB UPDATES at HELP4TEACHERS.COM and
BRAINS.ORG and YouTube Videos, FB, & Twitter
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====WEBSITE UPDATES====
New Layered Curriculum Units:
**Stephanie Ritter in Wisconsin revised her unit previously posted for
"The Outsiders"....she said she has "revamped the A layer and added
oral defense slips which have been lifesavers."
You can view everyone's sample units at: http://help4teachers.com/
New videos with teaching tips and Layered Curriculum tips:
#26: True Differentiated Instruction as Opposed to "Internal Tracking"
http://www.youtube.com/
#25 Alternatives to Oral Defense:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
====TWITTER====
You can also get daily Teaching tips from me at: http://twitter.com/
Join our discussion or ask question at our facebook page:
http://facebook.com/layered.
Curriculum TEXT and Workbook, A Student's Brain, as well as a A DVD
slide presentation personally narrated. An entire Layered Curriculum®
self-study kit for only $89.00 Shop for all our aids at: http://www.brains.org/store
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------SECTION FOUR: KATHIE'S EMAIL-----
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Kathie -
I am a middle school teacher at McLoughlin in Medford, Oregon. I went
to a Layered Curriculum presentation at a Science conference in 2008.
On the way home I told my science department how captivated I was.
We discussed it and purchased the book and work book for the whole team.
It has taken more than a year, but now the entire Science department has
implemented LC into our classrooms. While we are still struggling to work
out some kinks, the progress our students have made is measurable.
Some of the “A” layer projects have been amazing, from a working
seismogram to letters to our congressmen about water pollution. Our
students are reaching farther than they ever have.
Our principal loves what we are doing, and during a meeting joked about
what “layer” attending meetings was. I took it a step further and wrote a
Layered Curriculum unit for “Being a Teacher”, which has brought a laugh
to the whole staff.
Thanks so much for all the help through your websites and books, it really
has changed my teaching to be student centered, front loaded, differentiated,
and all the other stuff I never got to before! :o)
-- Rigel Chidester, Science Teacher at McLoughlin Middle School
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Rigel - Thanks so much for sharing your story. I hope your department will
share of their units with us too! Keep me posted on how the year goes. -Kathie
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------SECTION FIVE: WORKSHOPS / SCHEDULE / MISC CHAT------
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Greetings from a snow day in New England. Snow has certainly been
the theme around here this month. Fortunately I was able to get out
of the east coast last week for our Layered Curriculum workshop in
Burley, Idaho. It was a fantastic day in their gorgeous King Fine Arts Center.
We have a few new workshops in the making for Ohio, Illinois and Ontario.
I'll keep you posted on my calendar:
http://help4teachers.com/
workshop date open in June and my fall calendar has several openings,
visit: http://help4teachers.com/
information.
As always, my best to yours,
Kathie
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Workshop information is available at the website
http://help4teachers.com/
Email: kathie@brains.org
Brains.org and Help4Teachers is located at:
54 Ponemah Road
Amherst, NH 03031
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to Dr. Kathie F Nunley. Usage information available at:
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