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Enter the Fortress of Solid Learning
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Nov. 2009, Vol. 9, Issue 3
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Response
to Intervention, Castle Learning Style
A recent news clip described how NY City has
praised schools for "identifying struggling students and giving them extra help
so they don't need to repeat grades," according to a RAND Corporation study.
They referenced Mayor Michael Bloomberg's announcement for 2003-04 that the
premise for improving student performance should include giving students
"multiple chances to bring their performance up instead of just flunking them."
The educators I have
met say there is no way students can fall into a "cycle of failure" when
technology like Castle Learning Online
is used correctly. With weekly
assignments, educators have discovered this unique tool is a perfect Curriculum
Based Measurement (CBM) used to evaluate all students and identify those who
are struggling. Teachers then
immediately adjust their teaching and provide additional assistance to a few
that need extra help.
Can a practical weekly
application of Castle Learning, as a classroom teacher's CBM, help the school- or
district- administrator or team of teachers within a school? Sure! They create a Universal Screening instrument that can supply
the information about who is falling beneath expected minimum standards. They can re-test students at various intervals
(Student Progress Monitoring), just like the classroom teacher has done using Castle
Learning as a CBM. The results-a planned
Response to Intervention (RtI) that can help improve student performance and
prevent failure. Our team is with
you every step of the way!
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New Feature
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Hemingway Joins English Line-Up
A new unit has been added to the English course. "Literature: The Sun Also Rises"
is based Ernest Hemingway's novel of the shattered lives of the "Lost Generation"
in the aftermath of World War I. This is the thirteenth set in a series of
literature short answer questions. The unit contains 19 sections, corresponding
to the 19 chapters of the book. General end-of-novel questions are also
included. Questions focus on the plot, themes, vocabulary, foreshadowing, irony,
and symbolism employed in this complex novel.
To add these questions into an assignment, go to the Add Question page, select
the unit named "Literature: The
Sun Also Rises," choose a section for the desired chapter, and then
use the Browse and Select option to select the questions that you would
like to include in your assignment. The order of the literature questions for a
particular chapter parallels the narrative sequence of the novel. Thus, the use
of randomization is not recommended in assignments with literature questions.
Author Ernest Hemingway, wife Hadley and son Jack photographed in Austria in 1926, the same year The Sun Also Rises was first published.
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Recent Updates: Math & Science
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Geometry Course Updated
These updates have been made to the Geometry course:
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Additional questions on horizontal and vertical
shifts have been added to the section Rotations,
Reflections, Dilations, Translations (Shifts), and Symmetry in the unit Transformations.
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A new section called Geometry Probability has been added to the unit Angles, Triangles, and Other Polygons.
Questions in this section apply probability to selecting points at random on
number lines and on targets of various shapes.
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For New York customers, a public assignment for the June
2009 Regents exam has been added.
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For North Carolina customers, public assignments targeted to
the North Carolina objectives for Geometry along with a practice EOC test have been added.
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Certain math symbols that previously may have
displayed incorrectly in some browsers should now display correctly. These
include: less-than-or-equal-to, greater-than-or-equal-to, not-equal-to,
approximately-equal-to, angle, triangle, congruence, pi, and theta.
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Some questions involving calculations using an
approximation of 3.14 for pi have been updated to incorporate the more accurate
approximation provided by the pi key on scientific calculators.
Science Update for North Carolina
Public assignments targeted to the North Carolina science
objectives have been added to the following courses: Goals 2-5 for Biology, Goals 2-8 for Physics, and Goals 2-6 for Physical Science.
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Meet us at these
CONFERENCES
NOVEMBER
NYS Science
Teachers Assn
Rochester, NY
Nov. 1-3,
2009
PA Council
of Teachers
of Math
Pittsburgh,
PA
Nov. 4-6,
2009
SAANYS
Annual Conference
Saratoga
Springs, NY
Nov. 8-9,
2009
NC Catholic Schools Fall
Education Convention
Raleigh, NC
Nov. 9-10,
2009
SCOPE
Education Services
Islandia, NY
Nov. 9, 2009
Texas State Reading Assn www.tsra.us
Arlington,
TX
Nov. 12-14,
2009
NYS Assn of Math Teachers
Buffalo, NY
Nov. 13-14,
2009
NYC Assn of Math Teachers
New York, NY
Nov. 13-14,
2009
NC Science Teachers Assn
www.ncsta.com
Greensboro,
NC
Nov. 19,
2009
NYS
Assn of
Technology Educators
Rochester,
NY
Nov. 22-24,
2009
PA
Assn for Supervisors
& Curriculum Development
Hershey, PA
Nov. 23-25,
2009
FEBRUARY
PA
Educational
Technology Conference
Hershey, PA
Feb 21-24, 2010
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Recent Additions: English
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Additional Critical Listening Passages in Intermediate English
Fifteen more Critical Listening Selections have been added to
the Intermediate English course,
bringing the total up to 30. Passages
are linked both to multiple-choice questions and constructed or extended
response questions.
To add Listening Selections to a Short Answer assignment in Intermediate English: on the question
criteria page, select the Critical Listening Selections unit and then choose a
desired section (genre). Make sure the Listening attribute is checked. To add Listening Selections to a
Constructed Response assignment: on the Add Questions page, select the unit
Critical Listening Selections. Then use Browse and Select to add the desired
questions.
All questions are clearly labeled with the name of the
accompanying passage. Teachers can see the text of the passages when creating
and editing assignments, but students do not see the text. Teachers can also
click the audio link to hear the selection read aloud.
Note: This feature requires audio software capable of playing MP3
files as well as speakers or headphones. Check your browser software for
compatibility. In a computer laboratory setting, the use of headphones is
advisable. The audio files are also considerably large (500 K or more). Check
with your network technician to make sure your network can download files of
this size.
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The Mail Bag
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Urgent Reminder to Technical Administrators
The 2009-10 school year is well underway. Thanks to all of you who have
submitted your student enrollment data! However, if your school or school
district has not yet sent in the student enrollment list for 2009-10, please do
so immediately. The sooner the uploading process is completed, the sooner
teachers and students can begin using Castle Learning. For instructions go to the Information Center and see the notice "Enrolling Students for 2009-2010 dated 8-27-09. If you have any
questions, please call 800-345-7606 or email support@CastleLearning.com.
QUESTION:
I use teacher self-assigned sessions to go through assignments in class
with my students. How can I clear the previous results from my view on the
student pages so I can start from the beginning of the assignment with every
class?
ANSWER: The Self-Assign feature is very useful for teachers who project an
assignment onto a screen or Smart Board so it can be worked on and reviewed by
the entire class. Teachers do this by creating an assignment, using the Self Assign assign-to option, clicking
the Student Home Page link from the Teacher
Home Page, and then accessing the assignment as a student would.
This activity is a little easier
to manage with the addition of a new reset link on the student assignment page, which is only available for teachers. This
allows teachers to easily clear out all answers that were entered during the
class so that the assignment can be used again in the next class.The new
reset link appears in the SCORE column of the student Assignments
page. To locate this link, follow these simple steps:-
From the Teacher Home
page, click the Student Home page link.
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Click your class name.
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Locate the course that the
assignment was assigned under and click the activity link that corresponds to that course.
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In the SCORE column, to
the right of the assignment score or the word INCOMPLETE, is the reset link. Once this link is clicked,
a confirmation window will appear requesting permission to clear all previous
answers in the assignment. If you click OK,
the assignment will be reset.
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By resetting the
assignment, you will be able to easily use this same assignment again as if it
were assigned for the first time.
QUESTION: I am
working on an older computer at home and notice that I experience difficulties
from time to time when trying to access Castle Learning Online. I do not
experience these same difficulties when working on my computer at school. What
could the problem be?
ANSWER: If you are
using a computer that does not meet the minimum system requirements, certain
features may not operate correctly. The minimum system requirements are as
follows:
Any computer (PC or Mac)
connected to the Internet, using one of the following web browsers:-
Microsoft Internet Explorer
version 7.0 or higher
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Safari version 4.0 or higher
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Firefox version 3.5 or higher
The
audio used by some questions requires the Adobe Flash Player browser plug-in to
play the audio files. Your browser may prompt you to install this the first
time you access a question that includes audio.
YOUR QUESTIONS: How can we help you? Email your own questions to Castle Learning OnlineTechnical Support at support@CastleLearning.com or call 800-345-7606.
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Castle Learning Online White Paper
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Response to Intervention, Universal Screening, Student Progress Monitoring
& Castle Learning Online
Prepared by Bill Ingui
President and Retired Educator
Educators have known for a long time that by
identifying children who are struggling learners early, before the child is so
far behind that a referral to special education services is warranted, they can
help prevent a child from falling behind, thus reversing a "cycle of failure."
Children can be given a chance to grow into successful students. The fact of the matter is that Federal
laws have directed schools to focus more on helping all children learn by
addressing problems at an earlier age. These include the No Child Left
Behind Act of 2001 and the Individuals
With Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) of 2004. Both laws
underscore the importance of providing high quality, scientifically-based
instruction and interventions and hold schools accountable for the progress of
all students in terms of meeting grade level standards.
In order to identify these students, educators have
turned to the tools of Response to Intervention (RtI), Universal Screening,
and Student Progress Monitoring.
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RtI is an
array of procedures that can be used to determine if and how students respond
to specific changes in instruction. It provides an improved process and structure of identifying students
in need for school teams in designing, implementing, and evaluating educational
interventions.
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Universal
Screening is a procedure of
administering an academic screening test early in the school year to determine
which students are "at risk" for not meeting grade level standards. Students whose test scores fall below a
certain cut-off are identified as needing more specialized academic
interventions.
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Student Progress Monitoring is the activity after Universal Screening has been completed, where the
district frequently assesses students' academic performances throughout the
year.
Castle
Learning Online allows
educators, parents and even the student to monitor the student's success in
learning course content. Castle Learning provides an array of
reports that can reveal how well a student understands a unit concept, whether
he or she has the skills to complete a math assignment, or the grammatical
tools to write. By using Castle
Learning weekly, teachers can easily monitor student progress. By using this source at several key
intervals during the year, they can evaluate a student, change the structure
and process of delivering content, and help prevent a student from falling
behind and spiraling down into a life of always being "at risk."
Educators using Castle Learning Online, told me that screening and monitoring
students has made a difference:
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A North Carolina educator, who uses eight content
areas in developing assignments for her students, remarked that Castle Learning
acts as a "diagnostic tool, targeting the weaknesses
of students who must prepare for EOC (End-of-Course) and EOG (End-of-Grade)
exams."
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Another explained
that more than 70 percent of her Algebra students passed the EOC in 2007-08,
which she attributes to "instantaneous feedback, which
opens up a dialogue with teachers for students to improve."
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One educator
stated that achievement levels of students improve after using Castle Learning
and the result was that "100 percent of my students
passed the Civics and Economics EOC."
We
educators are like sponges, absorbing the best that educational technology can
offer to turn a corner and assure
that every student can be successful.
If it means adjusting our teaching styles based on solid data driven by key
reports from Castle Learning Online,
then we do so for the benefit of our students.
Note: This white paper is one is a series that we hope you'll find valuable. Visit the our website for MORE WHITE PAPERS.
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Contact Information
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Castle Software, Inc., 626 Layport Dr., Ste. 100, Sebastian, FL 32958
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