I’ve been working on collecting ideas for content-area literacy. I began with the reading standards for science, grades 9-10 from the Common Core State Standards.
Download a pdf version of the 28-page document and see if there’s an idea or two you can use.
Informational Literacy Standards for Science – FRESH LINK, Updated September 27, 2011.
Informational Literacy Standards for Science, Updated 09.19.2011
Motor Mouth is simply an engaging strategy for students to review important vocabulary. This can be used in any class at any grade level. Did I mention that this is also fun?
I’ve included the PowerPoint with directions and a template that is ready to modify for your own use.
Writing is a tool for thinking and learning. It doesn’t matter what content area you teach, you’ll find many opportunities to help students think through writing.
This quick overview gives a couple of ideas for having students write about data from a line graph.
Download the overview sheet and examples of having elementary students write about data.
In this pdf, I’ve included examples of analysis questions for two different line graphs. Both of these are for the elementary level. For each set of questions, I’ve also included a large size of the graph that you can project and/or give students as they work to answer these questions.
Download the pdf of the Analysis Questions for a Line Graph.
Remember the Success Sequence: Draw, Talk, Write. Have the students use the visual and talk about the answers – preferably in a structured way as you call out the question. Then have students write about the graph.
One of the simplest things you can do to help students think deeply about visual material is to write analysis questions for the different types of visuals you use with students. This example is for bar graphs – and I’ve included two examples to give you an idea of how these questions might look. (I’ll be adding a whole series of analysis questions for different types of visuals, so be sure to check back often and/or subscribe to this blog.)
Overview Sheet – Analysis Questions, Bar Graphs
Analysis Questions, Bar Graph, Band Instrument Choices
Analysis Questions, Bar Graph, 3D Movies
After students talk about the information in the graphs, based on the guiding questions you provide, have them write a summary of what the graph says. You can make this a short and sweet summary that uses bullet statements or you can have students write a full paragraph. When you give students a chance to talk about the questions BEFORE having them write, they’ll do a much better job with the summary.
Use the graphs. Get students talking about the information in the graphs. Watch them develop deeper understanding because you guided them through deeper thinking of the material. And as always, don’t forget to add your own good questions. You may even want to add some here!
This is a response technique to give students practice in answering recall and some critical thinking types of questions. Rapid Response Cards are any type of response cards you use with your students. They are called Rapid Response Cards because they are a quick way to obtain responses from all of the students in your class at one time. You can ask a question and have everyone hold up an answer. This is a terrific way to assess students on the questions you ask. This is a quick and effective technique to use when you want to check for understanding. Prepare a master set of response cards – use black ink on bright yellow cardstock for cards that are easy to see. (You may even want to laminate the response cards so that they will “wear” well.)
Download theses pdfs: Overview sheet, black and white template, yellow template.
This content card is designed for elementary school students. If you like this one, just let me know and I’ll add to the content for middle and high school students.
If you write paper-and-pencil assessments, you’re going to love these sheets that I call Stem Starters. Stem Starters are ideas of ways to write item stems for test items. Think of these as handy reference sheets for those times when you are writing item stems – the question part of a test item.
I’ve designed Stem Starters for each of the four core content areas including Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies. If you teach any other content area, just look at all of the sheets for ideas.
Stem Starters – SOCIAL STUDIES
By the way, these are also good for asking oral questions in the classroom. Download these NOW and use them often. I’m pleased to share these with you.
I’ve been working with a few different ways to unpack standards so that they are easily accessbile to teachers. This is a grade-four standard for measurement. Actually, this is PART of the standard for measurement. For this part of the “test”, I’ve focused on just the measurement of length in U.S. customary units. (The part of the standard dealing with the measurement of length in the metric system will be a different post.)
Download a copy of the entire document, which includes links to other documents I’ve created or found for this part of the standard.
Here’s what you’ll find: (1) The first “cut” of unpacking the measurement standard, (2) a link to the content card I designed for this part of the standard, (3) a link to analysis questions for the content card, (4) links to downloadable rulers, (5) links to sample released test items for parts of the standard where they exist, (6) a link to a foldable for that can be started with this part of the standard, and (7) a link to a record-keeping sheet entitled, Estimate Then Measure, that I created for one of the objectives in the unpacked standard.
You’ll find my unpacking results (which I’ll continue to tweak), a set of beginning ideas for instructional strategies and assessments, and a vocabulary list with definitions/descriptions. When you look at the vocabulary list you’ll notice that I’ve included the core terms for the whole standard – and not just what is represented in this part of the unpacked standard. So while this document deals with U.S. customary units, I’ve included vocabulary for the metric unit as well. My reasoning for doing this is to provide the core vocabulary in one place.
So I’ve got the idea started. What would you suggest to improve this? Anything goes!
If you’ve ever worked with me, you know the importance I place on the content that students learn. Of course we want students to think deeply, but we want them to think deeply about something – the content we want them to learn. Here’s another example of a content card – this one for fourth-grade mathematics. This one is for measuring length in U.S. customary units. A content card for measuring length in metric units will be next. Don’t forget to subscribe to my blog and you’ll automatically be notified when I make any posts.
Download a pdf copy of the content card.
I’ve also included a list of analysis questions for this content card. Remember that the purpose of the analysis questions is to help students learn to work with the information on the card. There are two pages to the following download.
Download a pdf of the Analysis Questions for the Content 
Card, Measuring Length.
