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Enter the Fortress of Solid Learning
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Dec. 2009, Vol. 9, Issue 4
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The Castle Learning Window to Credit Recovery
Do you have students who
pass the final exam or the State exam, but fail to achieve a passing grade
throughout the year to earn course credit? Some are at-risk of repeating the entire course or becoming
dropout statistics. School
administrators are asking us what they can do to prevent this  from
happening. The answer may be at
their fingertips, literally, through the best practices of using technology to
achieve success in the week-to-week classroom experience and ultimately
preparing students for passing those tough end-of-course state tests using Castle Learning Online.
Some educators have figured
out how to connect the pieces of the education puzzle by taking their current
valued use of Castle Learning Online as
a weekly Curriculum Based Measurement (CBM), which augments standard
classroom work with meaningful supplemental instruction and an ability to
monitor student progress throughout the year, and applying its versatility as
the basis for new Credit Recovery programs. Whatever form these programs take, the end game is to improve
attendance rates, prevent student dropout, and increase the chances of a
student graduating from high school.
Using Castle Learning Online allows the teacher and administrator to
create a specific standard-based initial assignment for baseline data, supply
additional assignments, with hand-selected questions that are purposely geared to
specific weaknesses, followed by a post test to see if there was improvement.
Learn more by speaking with me ProfBill@CastleLearning.com and reading my White Paper about an
experience in Presque Isle, Maine, where students, destined to dropout of
school, went through the Carleton Project. This resulted in 90% of the students graduating from high
school. It was an ideal use of Castle Learning Online, and a great way
to help end a "cycle of failure" for these students by using a technology based
solution.
From
all of us at Castle Learning, we offer our personal best to you
for a happy and
healthy holiday season!
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Recent Addition: Elementary English
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5th Grade Audio Spelling
Spelling words with audio are now available for 5th grade (Elementary English)! Students listen to a brief instruction telling them what word to spell, along with a sentence that uses the word as an example. Then they enter their responses in a short answer field that is automatically scored. Hints and reasons give good clues and explanations of common spelling rules. Students may replay the instructions as many times as needed. This is a great way for students to practice their spelling skills!
To add 5th grade spelling words with audio to an assignment in Elementary English: on the question criteria page, select the unit Spelling and the section Spelling with Audio - Grade 5. Be sure that the Advanced difficulty level is checked as well as the Listening attribute.
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.
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Recent Updates: Math & Science
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Algebra Course Updated
The Algebra course has recently been updated. This course provides a comprehensive treatment of topics in algebra with applications in coordinate geometry, probability, and statistics. Among the changes:
- Additional questions on distribution of radicals, FOIL with radicals, multiplication and division of radicals, rational inequalities, negative and fractional exponents, converting between radicals and exponents, rationalizing denominators and simplifying rational expressions, completing the square, u-substitution, solving exponential equations, and addition and subtraction of complex numbers have been added.
- A new unit called Matrices covers matrix models and matrix operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication by a constant).
- For North Carolina customers, public assignments targeted to the NC objectives for Algebra I and with a practice EOC test have been added.
- 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, and pi.
- 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.
Earth Science Update
In addition to the questions from the June 2009 NYS Regents
exam, several new questions have been added to the Earth Science course to help students understand how to work with
the revised Relationship of Transported Particle Size to Water Velocity graph in the 2010 Edition of the Reference Tables for
Physical Setting/Earth Science. These questions are located in the unit Erosional-Depositional Systems, section Running Water. The Reasons include fully
illustrated step-by-step instructions for using the new graph with the log-log
scale.
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The Mail Bag
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QUESTION:
How do I know if the password I selected for my account is secure?
ANSWER:
Since passwords can be the weakest link in the security of your Castle
Learning Online account, the Password Strength Meter mechanism was designed
to help users create a secure password. The meter will visually update
with every keystroke the user inputs, therefore acting as a means to improve
the strength of the password selected. While the indication of a strong
password means the account is more secure, a weak password may spark unwanted
consequences. Although the meter does not guarantee the creation of a perfectly
secure password, it should be used as a loose guide in determining whether or
not the password selected is more or less secure.
When selecting a password, here
are a few tips that will promote the creation of a secure password:
- Use an alpha-numeric
pattern. (Include a mix of numbers and
letters.)
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Use a password that is at
least 6 characters in length. The longer the password, the more secure.
- A secure password should
appear to be a random string of characters and should not include the
following:
- A password that matches or resembles the Login ID
- Personal Information such as First, Middle or Last name
- Phone number
- Date of birth
- Email address
- The word "password"
- Any of the above preceded or followed by a digit (ex. Mike1) - When typing your password,
make sure no one is watching you type. Ask anyone around you to kindly look
away.
QUESTION: I self assigned an
assignment, however, I no longer want it to display on my student page. Is
there a way to delete it?
ANSWER: If you want to remove the
assignment from your student page so that it no longer displays, you will need
to UNASSIGN the self assigned assignment. At that point, if you wish to delete
the assignment entirely, you may delete it from the list of assignments you
have created on your teacher page.
Here is how to
unassigned a self assigned assignment:
- From your teacher home page,
click the ASSIGNMENTS link.
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Be sure that the course that
displays in the COURSE dropdown, is the course that your assignment was created
in.
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Locate your assignment from the
list of assignments you have previously created.
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Click the Assign/Monitor
Student icon. This icon looks like a piece of paper with a magnifying glass
floating over it.
- Next, click the SELF ASSIGN
tab.
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Since you have already assigned
the assignment to yourself, you will only have the option to REASSIGN or
UNASSIGN the assignment. Click the UNASSIGN FROM MYSELF link.
- A window will pop up, asking
you to authorize the action. Click OK to unassign the assignment from yourself
or CANCEL to abort.
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If you wish to delete the
assignment entirely at this point, click the BACK link in the upper right hand
corner of the page.
- Locate the assignment you wish
to delete and click the DELETE icon that corresponds with that assignment. This
icon looks like a garbage can.
- Once again, a window will pop
up, asking you to authorize the action. Click OK to delete the assignment or
CANCEL to abort.
QUESTION: I recently
assigned an assignment to my students. A new student, who was added into my
class after I assigned the assignment, can log in and sees my name, but cannot
see the assignment?
ANSWER: Adding a new student into your class does not automatically assign that
student work that was previoiusly assigned to everyone else. This is a very common misconception. In order for the new student to
receive a copy of previous assignments, you
must assign the desired assignments to the new student individually. Once the
student has been added into your class, he or she should receive all assignments from that point forward, unless you specifically elect not to
assign work to this student.
Here is
how to assign an assignment to a student who is newly added to your class:
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From the Teacher Home
Page, click the ASSIGNMENTS link.
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Be sure that the course that displays in the COURSE
dropdown, is the course that your assignment was created in.
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Locate your assignment from the list of assignments
you have previously created.
- Click the Assign/Monitor Student icon. This icon
looks like a piece of paper with a magnifying glass floating over it.
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Be sure to select the
appropriate class that houses the student you wish to assign the assignment to
by using the CLASS drop down menu.
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Click the ASSIGN TO
STUDENTS tab. The name of any student in this class who was not assigned this assignment,will appear on this page including the student who was newly added into the
class.
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Click the box to the left
of the student's last name. A check mark will appear.
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Click the box to the left
of the word RANDOMIZE, if a randomization is desired.
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Select the appropriate
assignment mode from the ASSIGNMENT MODE dropdown.
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Click the ASSIGN link.
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The student's name will
disappear from the list. If you click the ASSIGNMENT RESULTS tab, you will see
that the new student appears on the list.
NOTE: The assignment date will reflect the date it was actually assigned
to the new student, which should be different from the date that the assignment
was assigned to the rest of the students in this class.
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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Feature
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Castle Learning Staff Development Training:
Offered in a variety of
formats to meet your needs
Castle
Learning offers a variety of training options which provide flexibility for
each school's individual needs. Castle
Learning staff development options include:
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Planning periods (two days can be used to cover each level)
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After school
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Release time (rotating teachers in small groups 90-120
minutes -
same subs rotate to the next group) -
Staff Development/Superintendent Conference Days
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BOCES or Teacher Centers
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In-house/Mentor Trainer - Certified Castle Learning Trainer
Program
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Online webinars (currently being developed)
The
learning curve is short; therefore, training can be completed in two
sessions. Castle Learning is applicable
for all grades 3-12 offering content in English, Math, Science, Social
Studies, Spanish and French.
Level One Session: Teachers will learn to create classes and assignments in an introductory 90-120 minute session. Teachers can
build content-related review (homework) assignments, tests, and formative assessments
(pre & post) utilizing a database of over 70,000 field-tested questions.
Level Two Session: Once
teachers have started their students on assignments, their instruction can be differentiated
using the data-driven reports that detail weaknesses and strengths. A Level Two session of 90 minutes will
show teachers how to utilize reports to identify the needs of their students
throughout the entire year. It
also covers how teachers create their own personal content questions, share tests,
and organize their assignments into folders.
"Who dares to teach must never cease to learn." -John Cotton Dana
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Castle Learning Online White Paper
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Credit Recovery & Castle Learning Online
Prepared by Bill Ingui
President and Retired Educator
Students who are at risk of
failing or of becoming a dropout statistic can seem an insurmountable challenge
for schools. The former Secretary
of Education, Margaret Spelling suggested in a May 10, 2007, Washington Post interview that "the data show that half
of the nation's dropouts come from a small group of largely urban 'dropout
factories' where graduation is a 50-50 shot or worse." In her effort to
deal with the problem she explained, "It's hard to believe such a pervasive
problem has remained in the shadows for so long."
Credit recovery programs are being viewed by schools
as one approach to these co-related problems of at-risk students and dropout
rates. Students are given an
opportunity to recover course credits from classes they have missed or failed. The goal of credit recovery is to
improve attendance rates, prevent student dropout, and increase the chances of a
student graduating from high school.
These programs are scheduled during the school day, after
school during twilight schools (evenings) or during the summer. Some programs meet at schools within the
district and others have their own locations. Students are typically in high school.
The means to achieving these goals often centers
around computer learning systems, and web-based online systems
for delivering curriculum or augmenting direct teacher instruction are common. While some are offered only onsite
during regular program hours, others can be accessed anywhere/anytime. Castle Learning Online provides schools with a full range of
course content for grades 3-12 covering core areas of mathematics, science,
social studies and English. An
array of instantaneous reports can help educators gain insight into the
weaknesses of students, helping them change their approach to teaching in order
to improve and address weaknesses.
Our Castle
Learning Online team has prepared a plan for educators to use when they
participate in Credit Recovery. The plan calls for the following:
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A teacher or a "credit recovery committee"
to review the academic achievement of students. This can be drawn from current
weekly use of Castle Learning Online and
reports that show weaknesses and strengths.
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A "pre-recovery" test is given after
which the results are reviewed to screen the students. This allows a remedial
program to be designed for one student to work on alone or with other students facing
similar problems.
- "Planned exercises" or assignments guided
by focal-point weaknesses and drawn on questions from specific content within
units. These questions can
emphasize a skill or understanding that needs further study. Students also have access to hints,
reasons, defined vocabulary with Castle
Learning.
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A "post-recovery" test to determine
whether students have met a new level of achievement.
This is exactly what is being done at the Carleton Project at three locations including the University of Maine campus at Presque Isle.
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Students who attend the program are either
dropouts or are moving in that direction.
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Founder Alan Morris says the Carleton
Project takes a more innovative approach to alternative education because it
isn't part of a school system.
Students like Castle Learning
Online because it allows them not only to do the work assigned by a
teacher, but also to set up their own assignments and complete them at a pace that
is comfortable and rewarding.
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The results have been outstanding. Ninety percent of
the students going through his program have graduated high school. Morris
firmly believes that this success can be attributed to good teachers and heavy use of Castle Learning Online as a supplement
to the classroom teacher's work. This is credit
recovery "at its best."
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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