Gamification Card Drafting Mechanic

Mrs. Lee creates five decks of cards to structure her assessment—each deck has two cards more than the total number of students (to increase variability). The cards in Deck 1 have the name of a 20th century poet who was not the subject of an in-class discussion. The cards in Deck 2 each feature a poetic theme (e.g., love, death). The cards in Deck 3 stipulate a poetic technique (e.g., assonance, metaphor). The cards in Deck 4 feature a form of creative expression (e.g., write a song, write ...

 Don't Neglect Your Future You

There is one person whose wants and needs you routinely ignore, opting instead to tend to your own immediate desires, and that person is future you. When it comes to making decisions that will have some effect on your long-term health or happiness — for example, whether or not to go to the gym today, in keeping with your New Year’s resolution — current you is always finding a new way to steal from future you. It’s time the two yous got better acquainted. This concept in itself may n...

 Mastery-Based Learning

Also known as mastery learning, competency-based learning is a growing focus of education conversations. The premise is that students learn best by mastering a particular learning goal before moving on to new material that builds on that goal. Instead of a group of students all moving from one topic to the next with varying degrees of understanding, each student continues to work on a topic until he or she has mastered the content. Because students of the same age advance through the curricul...

 Use Cards to Call on Students

When I realized that I was unintentionally disengaging from some students, I developed a classroom management practice that ensures equal participation and on-the-fly formative assessments. I use a deck of playing cards, each of which is marked with a student's name, to determine who will answer the next question. The deck randomizes participation and shows my students that I am not subjectively skipping them or "picking on" someone. The deck is the arbiter and it contributes to an engaged cl...

 Forms of Similtude

First of all, convenientia. This word really denotes the adjacency of places more strongly than it does similitude. Those things are 'convenient' which come sufficiently close to one another to be in juxtaposition; their edges touch, their fringes intermingle, the extremity of the one also de­notes the beginning of the other. In this way, movement, influences, passions, and properties too, are communicated. So that in this hinge between two things a resemblance appears. A resemblance that b...

 Phoneme Exercises

Start simple, recommends Karen Tankersley in her ASCD book The Threads of Reading: Strategies for Literacy Development (2003): Introduce beginning sounds first. Add medial and final sounds after the child has mastered the beginning sounds. Select one-syllable words that isolate the initial letter. This method lets children clearly hear the individual sound being made. As you speak the word (e.g., pat), draw out the sound of the initial letter so students can clearly hear the sound as it i...

 Chris Allen Secular Invocation

Let us give thanks for all that we have, cherish and possess–especially for the capacity to care and love, to improve ourselves, our families and community. Whatever one’s viewpoint, either derived from faith or from reason informed by science, having the capacity to appreciate and thank others is ingrained in the DNA of The Human Condition. We give thanks to the volunteers, the heart and soul of our community, who donate their time and talents to help the less fortunate. And, in this ...

 "Susicion of Authority" is Also Propaganda

While individuals get our empathy and sympathy, institutions seldom do. The "we're in this together" spirit of films from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s later gave way to a reflex shared by left and right, that villainy is associated with organization. Even when they aren't portrayed as evil, bureaucrats are stupid and public officials short-sighted. Only the clever bravado of a solitary hero (or at most a small team) will make a difference in resolving the grand crisis at hand. This rule of con...

 Card Sorting Games for Young Children

Dimensional Change Card Sorting Task In the Dimensional Change Card Sorting Task (DCCS), children are initially asked to sort cards by a single dimension (such as color), and are subsequently required to alter their strategy to sort cards based on a second dimension (such as shape).[18] Typically, three-year-old children are able to sort cards based on a single dimension, but are unable to switch to sort the cards based on a second dimension. However, five-year-old children are able to sort ...

 The 12-Note Octave is Too Good to be True

[Playing notes on a piano] One... Two... Three... Four... Five... Six... Seven... Eight... Nine... Ten... Eleven... Twelve... 12 different pitches, and then back to where we began. Incredible! Fantastic! The mystical number 12. There are 12 hours in the A.M. and 12 hours in the P.M. The new day begins at 12 midnight. There are 12 months in a year. Both the Western and Chinese Zodiac have 12 signs. Further, the Chinese use a 12-year cycle for reckoning time. There are 12 eggs in a dozen. 12 d...