January+2010

About It's a Classic
It's a Classic is a password protected, moderated environment for middle school and high school students. Through collaborative online and classroom learning activities, students explore the essential questions, "Why read classics? What purpose does it serve? Why not just read the books that are popular today?" The culminating project requires students to respond to the essential questions through a medium of their choice. The resulting product becomes this wiki containing a rich collection of multimedia resources anyone can use as they learn about the classics.

[|Classic Book Wiki]

Some Resources for SRBI
 [|The Florida Center for Reading Research] "was establishe d in January, 2002. It is jointly administered at Florida State University by the Learning Systems Institute and the **//College of Arts and Sciences. The Center’s Four Part Mission: //**
 * To conduct basic research on reading, reading growth, reading assessment, and reading instruction that will contribute to the scientific knowledge of reading and benefit students in Florida and throughout the nation.To disseminate information about research-based practices related to literacy instruction and assessment for children in pre-school through 12th grade.
 * To conduct applied research that will have an immediate impact on policy and practices related to literacy instruction in Florida.
 * To provide technical assistance to Florida’s schools and to the State Department of Education for the improvement of literacy outcomes in students from pre-K through 12th grade."

[|Intervention Central] **" **is committed to the goal of making quality Response-to-Intervention resources available to educators at no cost-- //especially //  in these times of tight school budgets. The site was created in 2000 by Jim Wright , a school psychologist and school administrator from Central New York. Visit to check out newly posted academic and behavioral intervention strategies, download publications on effective teaching practices, and use tools that streamline classroom assessment and intervention." 

[|Teach 21] "The Teach 21 Strategy Bank is designed to be a dynamic resource for educators. It contains a multitude of research-based strategies teachers can use to make their classroom instruction more effective, and to address the needs of their diverse students. These strategies have been collected from a variety of sources, including the standards-based units available on Teach 21....The Teach 21 Strategy Bank is intended to be a living resource, growing and changing to support teachers in their delivery of West Virginia's 21st century content."

Cafe Conversations
[|World Café] is a //conversational process// based on a set of //integrated design principles// that reveal a deeper //living network pattern// through which we co-evolve our collective future. PowerPoint -- January 8, 2010

Appetizer: **A New Dialogue for Our Children’s Future**, an excerpt from //The Global Achievement Gap// by Tony Wagner
 * Today's Menu -- January 8, 2010 **

Main Course: ** Questions for Conversation **

 * ====== What effective Tier 1 instructional strategies have you used/implemented/discovered in your classroom this year? (What’s working for Tier 1 in your classroom or school?) ======
 * ======<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;"> How has the student work/data analyzed by your Data Teams (grade-level teams or interdisciplinary teams) informed/changed your Tier 1 instruction this year? ======
 * ======<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;"> What systems have been or need to be established for collaboration and communication about instruction across the Tiers (to ensure that Tier 2 and 3 interventions are aligned to Tier 1 instruction)? ======