Problem of the week: Tetrahedron Puzzle

I was reading through Martin Gardener's book Origami, Eleusis, and the Soma Cube where he described a plastic math puzzle consisting of two pieces that you have to put together to form a tetrahedron and thought it sounded like fun.  He kindly gives a pattern so one may be cut out of paper:

Your challenge is to print out two of these patterns on thick paper, make the pieces and put them together to make a tetrahedron.  

A pdf of the pattern is available here.

By Jim Town - Mathematics Specialist at ACOE Core Learning

Common Core English Language Arts Standards: Tips for Parents

Schools throughout the country are working to improve teaching and learning so all children will graduate high school with the 21st century skills they need to be successful in college, their careers and beyond! In English Language Arts (ELA), there are several changes that parents should be aware of. Students will, in addition to stories and literature, be required to read more non-fiction to learn important facts and background knowledge in subjects like history, art and science. They will need to read more challenging texts more closely and will be asked the kinds of questions where they will need to go back to the text to find answers. Students will need to learn how to make strong arguments and support their views using evidence from diverse viewpoints.

These changes outlined in the ELA Common Core Standards aim to prepare students for college and careers by:

• Increasing the quality and amount of reading and writing students are doing on a wide range of subjects – you should see your student reading more closely about current events in news articles for example in addition to text books and novels and writing more frequently
• Teaching students to work in teams to collaborate on tasks by listening to each other – you could see your student participating in teams tackling word games or preparing debates
• Teaching students to make strong arguments both in writing and while speaking – you will see your student back up what they say with lots of evidence from text and not just from their opinion.
• Teaching students to be independent readers and writers – you will see your student learn how to tackle difficult text and write clearly by themselves

Strategies parents can do to support ELA Common Core success: 

1.  Talk to your child's teacher about how you can best support your child during the transition to the ELA Common Core.
2. Get to know your child’s interests and choose books and magazines about those topics. Don’t worry if all they want to read about is cats for a couple of months or if they tire of a subject and move on. Find the zone that’s right for your child. Reading should not be a chore.
3. Read to your child often – even just the sports section or in a language other than English. 
4. Answer questions by asking more questions whenever possible. Ask your child what they think the answer could be. Help them give reasons for their choices. 
5. For the reluctant reader, ask them to replace the name of an animal or character in a story with a familiar name from your child’s life, a pet or friend will do. 
6. Encourage your child to write letters or emails to relatives and friends describing their day or a recent celebration or event. 
7. For older children, talk about the news together. Pick one story in the news, read it together, and discuss with your child what it means. 
8. Visit the campus of a local college with your teen. Have them write about what he or she expects from college. 
9. Visit a local museum together. Take time to closely observe the details of the paintings or exhibits and talk about what you see there. Have your child draw and write about what you saw and experienced.

For more information for parents on Common Core for each grade level visit: 
PTA Parent Guides to Common Core

The ELA/ELD Framework

Today, we had the chance to present information on California's new ELA/ELD Framework to our Curriculum Council--educational leaders from around the county.

(Click either on the image to the left, or here, to view the presentation.  Navigate to our website, tinyurl.com/corelearning, and scroll down to Curriculum Council to view and print out all handouts.)

Unlike the California ELD standards, California's ELA/ELD Framework is a useful tool that is aimed at providing guidance on how to implement the ELA/Literacy standards and the ELD standards in tandem.

The Framework is built upon the premise that there exist five themes that run throughout both the ELA/Literacy and the ELD standards; these five themes are Meaning Making, Language Development, Effective Expression, Content Knowledge, and Foundational Skills.  Chapters 3-7 of the Framework focus on specific grade level spans, and provides specific suggestions for the implementation of these themes.  Most importantly, these chapters provide snapshots and longer vignettes, which provide examples of lessons and units that implement all five of the key themes.

The Framework, then, is a chance for teachers to see what the ELA/Literacy and ELD standards, working in tandem, look like.  And what it boils down to, frankly, is really great instruction that is rooted in scaffolding learning for all students, including ELD students (but also any struggling readers).

The Framework emphasizes a need for collaboration (between elementary teachers, and between secondary content area teachers and ELD teachers) in order to curtail the problem of LTELs (long-term English learners)--students who stay in the ELD classes, not progressing towards College and Career Readiness.

With the right structures in place, and support from administrators, teachers could begin to implement this important work, and see the resulting success in students who have bridged the achievement gap.

By Maria Vlahiotis, Literacy Specialist

Find, Organize, Create and Share Informational Resources Easily!

Common Core Videos, Games and Assessments 

Use the OpenEd website to search for Common Core Language Arts and Math videos, games and assessments by subject directory or standard with no signup required. You can sign up for free, and create playlists of Science, Language Arts and Math video lessons and games to share with students or other teachers. Or, you can create courses to share with students. OpenEd even recommends resources for each topic. 

They also have a great app for tablets called Common Core Quest.  With this app, students can take quizzes to demonstrate mastery of Common Core Math and ELA skills. When they don't achieve mastery, students can play videos and games to learn--all with no ads.

Actually helping Jack with his subtraction problem.

You may have seen this purported parent response to a homework question on Facebook or even the Colbert Report.

I thought it was time to help Jack and explain what the teacher was probably thinking when he or she assigned this problem.

Dear Jack,

You did a great job using the number line to figure out this subtraction problem.  It looks to me like you forgot about the tens jump.  Remember 316 means 3 hundreds, 1 ten,  and 6 ones.  I see you took away 3 hundreds jumps and 6 jumps of one, but missed the 1 jump of ten.  

I hope this helps.

Sincerely,
A Math Teacher

The Frustrated Parent is exactly right about this being an inefficient method of subtracting.  Procedural fluency is an important part of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), so the teacher wants the student to be able subtract those two numbers quickly and efficiently.  However, another important part of the CCSS is building conceptual understanding.   One of the reasons we need the Common Core State Standards is because for many years students were only taught procedural fluency without any understanding of the concept behind it.  That is to say, the trouble Frustrated Parent had figuring out the problem is exactly the reason it was assigned.  The math teacher wanted the student to understand what subtraction and place value mean so that they can do the problem and understand the problem.  This new shift will require parents and teachers to relearn many of the mathematics they thought they knew.
Another aspect of the Common Core this teacher was working towards was Mathematical Practice 4: Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.  Whether or not you agree with Jack's method, being able look at someone else's work, figure it out, and help them fix the errors, is an important skill.
While many of us are not familiar with the particular models that are being used to develop students' conceptual understanding, those of us who have seen the shift in student comprehension of mathematics agree that these models can serve as a very important bridge between just "doing" math and actually understanding it.

Need more Common Core Math help?  Visit our Common Core Math Help page and get your answers today! 

By Jim Town - Mathematics Specialist at ACOE Core Learning

Interactive Video? Isn't That an Oxymoron??

Do you use videos in blended or flipped classroom environment? Want to increase student engagement and accountability while gleaning information about what students are actually getting out of your video lesson? Then check Out Educanon

     Educanon allows teachers to start with any video content, yes any (YouTube, Vimeo, your own, etc) and turn it into an interactive 'lesson'. You can embed questions of various style, multiple choice, true false even free response, at any point during the video.  Then when students watch yuor video lesson, the video stops, at the exact spot you inserted the question, and asks the question and requires the student to answer before the video resumes playing. 

     It even prevents students from fast forwarding through the video until after they have watched the entire piece at least once and answered your embedded questions.This creates smaller digestible components and keeps students' attention, as well as allows teachers to monitor responses and use the information to adjust their instruction.

Educanon allows teachers to:

"Customize existing online content to the needs of your students in a medium that is designed for learning."

eduCanon is a webapp. eduCanon works on all major browsers, the best experience comes from Google Chrome and Safari. It works on Macs, PCs, and is even responsive to iPads. You can even embed it into your website or blog!

Click on the image below for a short introductory video, super eazy to use and FREE!

Support All Students' Literacy Skills with the New York Times

The New York Times' education blog, The Learning Network, is a valuable resource that supports the literacy needs of all students.

Many districts are specifically focusing on writing across content areas this year.  The Learning Network provides a post on "200 Prompts for Argument Writing"; topics include technology, art, gender, athletics, the legal system, health, and science, among others.  The prompts are coupled with articles that students can read, analyze, and use as evidence in order to support their claims.

In "10 Ways to Support English Language Learning with the New York Times," The Learning Network outlines website features that would be helpful to ELLs.  Features include a dictionary function that enables students to look up any word in a New York Times article, graphic organizers and games to scaffold understanding, photo collections to promote digital literacy, and information about students' home countries.

All of the resources on this blog are based in quality non-fiction texts that will aid students in an understanding of global issues.  And best of all, the resources are hot off the presses!

By Maria Vlahiotis, Literacy Specialist

Current Events at Various Lexile levels!

If you haven't seen NEWSELA you absolutely should!

"Newsela is an innovative way to build reading comprehension with nonfiction that's always relevant: daily news. Newsela makes it easy for an entire class to read the same content, but at a level that’s just right for each student."

They have high-interest current events, and they post new articles daily, all at 5 different lexiles, aligned to the Common Core-aligned standards.  Many even have quizzes already created! Articles are arranged into 8 categories for ease of use. It's completely free. You can upgrade to the Pro version and add features like class tracking, annotation capability, and many others.

Either way, give it a look, you won't be disappointed! Click here or on the image above to see for yourself! And happy close reading!

Boost Your ELL and Struggling Readers' Reading Comprehension with Lingro

Lingro is a website that makes other websites "clickable" so that students can see definitions of words on the page.  This is an ideal resource to use with struggling readers whose first language is English; however, this is a fantastic tool for ELLs as well.

Here's how to use it:

1. Navigate to lingro.com.
2. Type or paste in a website that you would like to make clickable.
3. Then, choose the dictionary you would like to use.  (The "English" dictionary translates the words into English; native speakers of other languages can use multiple other dictionaries, including: Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, Swedish, Russian, Dutch, and Chinese.)
4. Click on the arrow.
5. You will now navigate to the site you want to read.
6. Click on any piece of text to see the definition!

This tool, and others like it, can be found on our teacher resource page, tinyurl.com/corelearning.

By Maria Vlahiotis, Literacy Specialist

ELA ELD Materials Fair: Face the Conundrum!

Hard to believe it but we are already half-way through September! So much is happening for everyone in education these days. One of the things that many schools and districts are wrestling with now is finding appropriate Common Core-aligned materials. This is the case whether looking for complete curriculum programs, supplemental resources, or technological enhancements for the materials already in use in our classrooms.

This really is a conundrum right now: should we adopt the first round of Common Core-aligned curriculum programs at great cost, or continue to use the programs already in place, and instead design units or lessons with supplemental materials? There is no correct answer and there's no one right way.

To help you make your decision, we are holding an ELA and ELD Materials Fair this October 3rd at the Alameda County Office of Education. There will be some Board-approved curriculum programs presented, as well as a large selection of supplemental materials and technological programs for you to peruse and even try. We hope you can come and take advantage of this free opportunity to explore and engage with a wide variety of materials and programs to support ELA and ELD teachers and students. No registration is required--just click on the image of the flyer above to download the full-sized flyer with all the details!

Welcome

Welcome to the ACOE Core Learning blog! Core Learning is the division of the Alameda County Office of Education whose mission it is to support and inspire schools and districts as they work to incorporate the shifts embodied in the new Common Core State Standards, NGSS, ELD, and 21st century skills.

In addition to our blog, you can find information and resources on our resources (symbaloo) website and Twitter feed.

Check back often as we highlight the best literacy, math, and educational technology resources, as well as the work that we are doing in our districts.