The Maine Department of Education is pleased to announce registration is now open for the 2016 Summer Literacy Institute: High Impact Instructional Routines and Strategies. The one-day institute will provide a foundation for ongoing professional development throughout the 2016-17 school year.
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The Maine Department of Education hosted the 18th annual Comprehensive School Health Education Spring Conference: Health Education Curriculum Training Options on March 31 at The Green Ladle.
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In an effort to provide timely-prudent training, the Maine Department of Education’s data team has put together a short survey to determine what trainings are desired by the field. This seven question survey should take less than five minutes to complete and will help direct the data team in creating the training sessions for the summer of 2016.
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Safety is priority one in school transportation. This commitment to safety is why Maine school transportation traditionally has one of the best safety records in the nation. Annual training is the foundation of safety. Each spring school transportation teams participate in six statewide regional school transportation safety conferences.
The Maine Department of Education is pleased to conclude the 2015-16 “Content Corner” collection with this third release of instructionally-focused articles for Maine educators. The third collection of articles completes this year’s focus on effective practices that support student learning in the content areas.
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For students to have adequate opportunity to acquire language and develop proficiency in a language other than English, maximum use of the target language in the classroom by teachers and students is critical. While the research-based recommendation is that target language use represents 90% of teacher and student discourse in the classroom, many teachers struggle to maximize the use of L2 (world language that the student is working to learn during instruction).
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This is the third in a series of instructional articles to support teachers in implementing the 8 Effective Teaching Practices outlined in the book Principles to Actions: Ensuring Mathematical Success for All. This article discusses teaching practice 5: Pose Purposeful Questions.
Making meaning of a complex text is itself a complex process. When students flex their literacy muscles to read something that is challenging for them, they grow as readers, as thinkers, and as writers. Helping students develop stamina and supporting a productive struggle with challenging texts through routine practices provides the foundation for strong writing skills.
Continue reading “Close reading with text-dependent questions: conducting a text investigation”
You can’t enter a school in Maine today without hearing conversations about proficiency-based diplomas and standards-based grading. Given this focus, arts educators have an interest in ensuring that they are using standards-based assessments to evaluate a student’s growth and development. The information gathered through assessment should be used to determine whether or not students understand and can apply content, and this process is perhaps the most critical aspect of the learning process for teachers. However, arts teachers nation-wide tend to lean towards assessing non-achievement criteria such as behavior, effort, participation, and attendance.
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Maine educators shared their stories about personalizing learning at the New England Secondary Schools Consortium conference in March. The recording of this presentation is available for Maine educators interested in listening to these powerful accounts.
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