Assessment Common Core Critical Thinking Cross-Content Questioning

Susan Van Zant

One of the things that I love most about working at my school is that we have a Principal who is committed to providing incredible, frequent training opportunities to our teachers. Sometimes, I have a difficult time figuring out how to apply the material to my Spanish, Elective classroom, but more often than not, I…

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Common Core Course Structure

Student Self-Reflection Form

The middle schools in my district do “Student Led Conferences” instead of “Parent-Teacher Conferences”. Students spend time creating portfolios of their work in each class and reflecting on it. At the conference, they present the portfolios to their parents before the teacher checks in to see if the parent has any questions or concerns (or…

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QAR is a reading strategy created by Taffy Raphael to help students understand the text better by becoming strategic readers. Learn about the four QAR types and how to teach them to your students and use them in your planning.
Activities for Stories Assessment Common Core Critical Thinking Cross-Content Partner Activities Questioning Reading activities

QAR

Note: I first heard about QAR in a workshop with Carol Gaab during our 2011 AFLA Conference. I began to dig into it and published this post soon thereafter. Imagine my surprise when my principal brought in consultant Susan Van Zant just two weeks after I published it, announcing to the staff that this would…

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Activities for Stories Common Core Cross-Content Listening Reading activities Vocabulary Activities Writing

Cornell Notes

Developed “far above Cayuga’s waters“, Cornell Notes are an effective note-taking strategy that can be used across grade levels and content areas. I was first introduced to Cornell Notes by my administrator in a 6-8 public school in Anchorage, Alaska. She didn’t have to sell me on it too hard since my grandfather, my parents,…

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Image description: Photo of three students taking written tests in the background. White text on blue background reads "Binary CLOZE reading assessment" by The Comprehensible Classroom
Assessment Common Core Cross-Content

Binary CLOZE Reading Comprehension Assessment

A binary CLOZE reading comprehension assessment is an easy way to measure student comprehension of a text. It is used across content areas, and it gives the teacher a different view of students’ reading comprehension than they would receive by asking comprehension questions. What a Binary CLOZE assessment looks like In a Binary CLOZE assessment,…

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