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Dear [member_name_first],
Let
us help you celebrate Black History Month in your
classroom by pointing you in the direction of some
terrific learning resources on the web. Click
here to check out Reading Rockets wonderful
list of favorite children's books for Black History
Month. Find some creative craft projects
for your student's to learn about civil rights and
black history on DLTK
Crafts for Kids website. The
History
Channel website features a Black
History Month page that includes video and audio
clips of great civil rights speeches in addition
to biographies of a number of key figures in African
American history. The African
American Mosaic on the Library
of Congress Exhibitions website is a must see for
anyone interested in learning about African American
History. Finally, find over 60 resources for learning
about
Frederick Douglass, the Harlem Renaissance, the 369th
Infantry, Brown v. Board of Education, Martin Luther
King, the civil rights movement, and more on the U.S.
Department of Education website.
Assessment as a Tool for Inclusive Education
by Dr. Bob Pillay
 The
revolution in schools is but a pale reflection
of the revolution in society.
At
the dawning of the new millennium a number of social,
political and economic forces and innovations coalesced,
gathered momentum, and impacted various institutions
all over the world. Their influence was not limited
to their own narrow area of focus. Rather, they
spread into a number of other domains of human
endeavor, including the purposes of schools and
the effectiveness of teaching and learning practices.
One such realm of obvious and immediate relevance
to us as educators is that of social justice.
Social justice provided a strong rationale for the inclusion of students with disabilities in regular, neighborhood schools. The natural corollaries of the inclusion imperative were these conclusions:
• Every child has a right to an education in a regular school.
• Every child can learn and be taught.
Inclusion afforded equal opportunities for all students, whatever their age, gender, ethnicity, attainment, disability, and background. It paid particular attention to the needs of every student, no matter what the level of these needs was. Specifically, teachers, as frontline workers, had now to provide answers to concerns about the capacities, interests, and pace of learning of each student, starting from the simplest and most basic need possible and going up to the most significant complex learning task... And so in various local, state, and national educational jurisdictions, using sound evidence-based compensatory educational practices for assessing, planning, and implementing programs based on the assessment essential for all teachers. Only by using these practices could teachers provide a relevant, meaningful, and effective education for all students.
Click
here
to read the full text of this article
(word format).
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New
Course - Our Reading First Series
has been released. This is a three course series
that address
the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 that
requires the use of scientifically-based research
in remedial reading programs that receive federal
funding. The purpose of this
course series is to help improve your knowledge of
science and the scientific process,
lay the foundation for effective reading instruction,
and finally,
learning to read, reading to learn, and an introduction
to reading assessment. The knowledge provided in this
series will help you become a more informed
consumer and an even better advocate for your students.