April is National Poetry Month!

This April marks the 20th anniversary of National Poetry Month, which was inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets in 1996. Over the years, National Poetry Month has become the largest literary celebration in the world with schools, publishers, libraries, booksellers, and poets celebrating poetry’s vital place in our culture.

The Academy of American Poets offers some great suggestions for helping teachers and individuals get involved with celebrating National Poetry Month.

30 ways to celebrate national poetry month

1. Order a free National Poetry Month poster and display it at work or school.
2. Sign up for Poem-a-Day and read a poem each morning.
3. Sign up for Teach This Poem, a weekly series for teachers.
4. Memorize a poem.
5. Create an anthology of your favorite poems on Poets.org.
6. Encourage a young person to participate in the Dear Poet project.
7. Buy a book of poetry from your local bookstore.
8. Review these concrete examples of how poetry matters in the United States today.
9. Learn more about poets and poetry events in your state.
10. Ask your governor or mayor for a proclamation in support of National Poetry Month.
11. Attend a poetry reading at a local university, bookstore, cafe, or library.
12. Read a poem at an open mic. It’s a great way to meet other writers in your area and find out about your local poetry writing community.
13. Start a poetry reading group.
14. Write an exquisite corpse poem with friends.
15. Chalk a poem on the sidewalk.
16. Deepen your daily experience by reading Edward Hirsch’s essay “How to Read a Poem.”
17. Ask the United States Post Office to issue more stamps celebrating poets.
18. Recreate a poet’s favorite food or drink by following his or her recipe.
19. Read about different poetic forms.
20. Read about poems titled “poem.”
21. Celebrate National Poem in Your Pocket Day on April 21, 2016. The idea is simple: select a poem you love, carry it with you, then share it with coworkers, family, and friends.
22. Subscribe to American Poets magazine or a small press poetry journal.
23. Watch Rachel Eliza Griffiths’s P.O.P (Poets on Poetry) videos.
24. Watch or read Carolyn Forche’s talk “Not Persuasion, But Transport: The Poetry of Witness.”
25. Read or listen to Mark Doty’s talk “Tide of Voices: Why Poetry Matters Now.”
26. Read Allen Ginsberg’s classic essay about Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass.”
27. Watch a poetry movie.
28. Sign up for a poetry class or workshop.
29. Get ready for Mother’s Day by making a card featuring a line of poetry.
30. Read the first chapter of Muriel Rukeyer’s inspiring book The Life of Poetry.

Be sure to visit the Pepper Resource Center to find great ideas and resources on poetry! As a teacher, think about how you can incorporate poetry into your classroom in April. We would love to hear some of your ideas.

Learning about Literature Circles

Literature Circles are a great way to get your students engaged and excited about what they are reading. Literature Circles for text discussion is a teaching tool that is used with small groups of students to engage them in discussing literature that all of the participating students have read. After reading the selected text, students guide their own discussion by responding to what they have read. Students may discuss characters, events, writing style, or personal experiences related to the story. Education World highlights the use of Literature Circles by getting insights and advice from two experts about using this instructional strategy.

Katherine L. Schlick Noe, Ph.D., associate professor at the School of Education at Seattle University, told Education World why this teaching approach is so effective: "Literature circles offer students a chance to be readers and writers, to apply the literacy skills that they are learning."

Education World also shares that according to Harvey Daniels, author of the book Literature Circles: Voice and Choice in the Student-Centered Classroom (Stenhouse Publishers, 1994), literature circles are small, temporary discussion groups of students who have chosen to read the same work of literature. Each member agrees to take specific responsibilities during discussion sessions. The circles meet regularly, and the discussion roles change at each meeting. When the circle finishes a book, the members decide on a way to showcase their literary work for the rest of the class.

Daniels likes the idea of assigning students individual roles within the Literature Circle. The use of roles allow student to see how what they do affects work within a group. The use of roles is very helpful, especially in the beginning, in giving students a sense of responsibility and ownership. However, once students are comfortable with engaging in the Literature Circle, teachers may choose to discontinue assigning student roles. This allows for more freedom of discussion.

The use of Literature Circles in the classroom provides a way for students to think critically about what they have read. Collaboration is essential to the implementation of Literature Circles as students learn to listen to other students' thoughts and opinions and learn from them - even if they don't agree. Literature Circles allow students to develop a deeper understanding of what they read through structured discussion and response opportunities.

Pepper has released a new workshop focused on Literature Circles as part of its new Pepper Online Workshop (POW!) content. This workshop is provided in two sections - one focused for elementary and a second for middle and high school. You can check all of our new POW content by visiting the Courses and Workshops section on your dashboard.

Introducing Pepper Online Workshops (POW!)

POW! Are you ready to add some Pepper into your personalized, online learning plans?

PCG Education is introducing a new series of content collections - Pepper Online Workshops (POW!) – focusing on the hottest topics that educators are dealing with across the country. Our new workshop series is based on WestEd’s powerful collection of resources from their Doing What Works project featuring amazing videos, interactive planning tools, and other research-based materials.

In the spirit of keeping with Pepper’s core values, these online workshops – although much shorter – will remain true to our vision – to provide K-12 educators with high-quality, interactive, engaging, research-based and applicable to your school environment.  

Currently, users can find workshops focused on Universal Design for Learning (UDL) for Math, Science, and Language Arts. You can learn more about UDL by checking out a previous blog post, Making Learning Accessible for All: Universal Design for Learning.

Look for our new workshops this week focused on using Literature Circles in the classroom.

PCG Education will be releasing new POW content collections every week. To find these new workshops, visit your Pepper dashboard and click on the updated "Courses and Workshops" link.

Then, find the tile labeled "keep learning" to access our new Pepper Online Workshops.

Please visit us at PepperPD.com/courses to review the new online workshop series and sign-up today.

Blended Learning: The Teacher as Learner

Blended Learning combines traditional face-to-face classroom instruction with online learning. The mix of technology and traditional provides a great approach that appeals to many different types of learners.

The significant increase of online and blended learning across educational environments requires providing high-quality professional development to prepare teachers and administrators so they may be prepared to meet the needs of their students. “We live in a moment of unprecedented change, and our conceptions of schooling and education are being challenged in fundamental ways.” (Educating Modern Learners) So, what does all this change mean for teachers and students? Students have access to technology at an earlier age than ever before and tend to see it as a fundamental tool to their everyday lives. Teachers are being encouraged to use technology as a tool for teaching and for their own learning. Educators need to understand new approaches and digital tools that allow for teaching in a blended environment. School leaders need to guide and direct these new initiatives to enable their teachers to be successful and for their students to learn.

Forbes recently published an article titled, The Teacher as the Learner: Professional Development for Online and Blended Learning. Author Barbara Kurshan states, “Some educators erroneously believe that blended learning is merely traditional, face-to-face learning that incorporates digital resources.  Similarly, many educators mistakenly assume that online learning should mirror classroom learning.  These misconceptions do not allow teachers to leverage the benefits of technology for more effective, engaged learning. Since teachers will continue to be expected to develop technology-based approaches for instructional delivery and assessment, the prevalence of these misconceptions makes it essential to offer professional development for teachers to learn how to teach in virtual environments.”

Pepper provides online learning environments for teachers that allow them to gain exposure to digital learning in ways that will help them teach their students - both online and face-to-face. Additionally, Pepper does offer blended learning opportunities. One such opportunity is taking place for Connecticut educators. This cohort of teachers will meet over 4 weeks for Designing Powerful Instructional Units: ELA & Literacy. The face-to-face portion will be facilitated with an additional 3-4 hours/week of online work.  This is a practical module that will allow participants to design - or refine - a curriculum unit that they can use in their classroom or share online.

Kurshan continues to share that professional learning networks, such as your Pepper Learning Community, have become a popular means of educator collaboration. As learners interact with fellow educators from around the country exposure to digital literacies can inform teaching and learning in powerful ways. Digital technologies and online tools have the potential to create powerful learning experiences for all types of learners - both professional teachers and students.

The Teaching of Writing

The teaching of writing has changed over the years, partly due to the vast advancements in technology. We have moved from quill and parchment to blogs and texting. These changes definitely impact how teachers address the teaching of writing in the classroom. NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) has published their Beliefs about the Teaching of Writing as a guideline for educators. These beliefs include the following position statements:

• Everyone has the capacity to write, writing can be taught, and teachers can help students become better writers. 
• People learn to write by writing.
• Writing is a process.
• Writing is a tool for thinking.
• Writing grows out of many different purposes.
• Conventions of finished and edited texts are important to readers and therefore to writers.
• Writing and reading are related.
• Writing has a complex relationship to talk.
• Literate practices are embedded in complicated social relationships.
• Composing occurs in different modalities and technologies.
• Assessment of writing involves complex, informed, human judgement. 

You can read more about each of these position statements by visiting the NCTE Beliefs about the Teaching of Writing.

Teaching Writing can be challenging to teachers as they try to help students understand the above statements. Pepper has one Writing Course available now, Argument Writing for Middle School, and 3 new Writing Courses available beginning August 3. These courses focus on teaching narrative writing for K-5. You can read a more detailed description of each course in the Pepper Course Catalog.  We will look at each of these courses in future blogs. Be sure to check out all of our Pepper Courses!

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NEW PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT COURSE Just released!

ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS

Text Based Discussions in High School*

Explore the research-based strategy of facilitating text discussions that support the close reading, speaking, and listening skills called for in the English Language Arts/Literacy Common Core State Standards for grades 9-12.

Learn More!

*We suggest “ELA101H/Literacy Shifts in High School” as a reference for this course. To enroll in the ELA101H course CLICK HERE. You have full access to all courses in Pepper through the course directory.  There is always something new to learn in Pepper!

 New Course for Elementary Mathematics Coming Soon!

Click Here to view all courses in Pepper.  Simply Select “Sign up & Start Course” on any new course you would like to add to your dashboard!

Remember to take the PEP101 User’sGuide to Pepper Course to become familiar with Pepper and to help you be even more successful in your learning journey.

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Choosing Texts for ELA CCSS

The Common Core State Standards for ELA are in part designed to help students become engaged, critical, interactive readers and interpreters of texts and information. As students grow into more capable readers and learn new strategies for engaging with texts and resource materials, educators can select texts with increasing levels of complexity to challenge their students and motivate them to move forward. Many teachers have questions about how to make these text selections, and how to find texts that are aligned
with the CCSS.

Achievethecore.org has a toolbox of resources for teachers to help them better understand what goes into text selection, and how to choose texts and reading materials that align with the expectations for text complexity set by the CCSS for each grade level.

CHECK OUT THEIR TEXT COMPLEXITY PAGE to find resources for measuring text complexity, finding texts, lesson planning from text complexity, and more.

Over 300,000 Teacher-Created, Teacher-Vetted Resources--FREE!

Sharemylesson.com is a website that brings educators together to share their winning classroom and professional development resources with each other.

Intended to inspire and facilitate collaboration among teachers, this site includes an enormous number of Common Core-aligned lesson plans and resources, all of which you can access for free.

Searching can be a little bit of a challenge, but there are a few short, easy-to-follow tutorial videos on the homepage that will help you learn to navigate the site. And it's worth it! The site includes a Common Core hub, with news, information, updates, and forums to help you as prepare for the move to CCSS.

CHECK IT OUT HERE!

Digital Learning Activities and Educational Games -- Free!

As every teacher knows, not all educational games are created equal! Some have genuine value and can serve as wonderful reinforcements for student learning, or can expand student learning beyond the classroom. Yet how do you find educational games and digital learning activities that have been vetted and curated without spending hours of your own time testing them, or paying for memberships?

Check out this fantastic website: Powermylearning.org! It's a free digital learning platform with resources for teachers, students, and parents alike, and was developed by the well-respected national education nonprofit CFY. If you're looking for games, videos, interactives, and other digital resources to incorporate into your Common Core lesson plans for the classroom, then this is the website for you.

Each resource in Math and ELA is aligned directly to a Common Core standard. Plus, there are countless resources for science, social studies, the arts, technology and more. You'll need to create an account to access all the material on the site, but once you do, you'll be able to tap into hundreds of carefully-vetted, free digital resources.

Unpacking Common Core State Standards: ELA

Without a doubt, if you're a teacher in a Common Core state, you're already aligning your instruction to the Common Core, and have been thinking about ways to implement new lesson plans, formative assessments, and other fantastic strategies for meeting your students' needs.

But sometimes it can be helpful to get back to the basics before you start the new school year, and reinforce your understanding of the standards in your area. This free resource from LearnZillion shows you three simple steps to understanding Common Core ELA standards. It also includes links to other helpful resources, and can serve as an introduction to the standards for those who may not have worked with them yet, or as a refresher for teachers who are planning for the next year.

CLICK HERE to check out the website. And by the way--if you create a user profile with LearnZillion, you can access a list of webinars, lesson plans, and other great, free, resources!

ELA/Literacy Lessons Aligned to Common Core—Created For Teachers, By Teachers!

It’s always helpful to see what other teachers are doing in their classrooms. Taking a look at lessons developed by other educators can inspire, inform, and challenge you, as well as provide great, concrete ideas for adapting and developing your own lessons that will meet your students' needs.

This lesson bank, from the CCSS-focused non-profit group Student Achievement Partners, offers a collection of nearly 300 free Common Core-aligned ELA/literacy lessons for grades 3-10. The lessons were collaboratively authored, edited, and reviewed by teams of educators with support from Student Achievement Partners. Click HERE to check it out!

Not an ELA instructor? Check out the rest of the website—here’s where to find the homepage—to find resources and ideas for school leaders and math educators as well.

Assessment Literacy -- FREE WestEd Webinar

If you're a middle school or high school educator, this webinar is for you! We all know that assessment is a critically important part of instruction. Recently, there has been increasing emphasis on the ways that formative assessment in particular can help you meet your students' needs.

This free webinar from the experts at WestEd helps clarify the different kinds of assessments and how you can make the best use of them. Plus, it takes a closer look at aligning ELA assessments with Common Core State Standards. Click here to check it out!

Webinar: Assessment Literacy for ELA

Are you wondering how assessments will change as Common Core State Standards (CCSS) become part of teaching and learning? Got questions about how to work with new assessments (and who doesn't)?

This webinar will provide an overview of the components of a balanced assessment system that are aligned to the CCSS for middle and high school English language arts/literacy (ELA/Literacy).

Click here to check out this FREE WestEd webinar.