LEARNZILLION a FREE resource for the Common Core

Transcription

1 1 LEARNZILLION a FREE resource for the Common Core As explained by Barbara Knab, MTRACT a NYS Teacher Center Director

2 2 LEARNZILLION a FREE resource for the Common Core While I was researching the Common Core Learning Standards on the EngageNY website, I found a site called LearnZillion in the math resources. I was very impressed and recommended the site to math teachers. It has since grown to include ELA as well. Eric Westendorf, founder of LearnZillion explains that he started this venture as a solution to a problem in his school. Teachers created video of lessons that were posted on a website as a resource for their students. Today the LearnZillion site has nearly 2000 lessons (and growing), that are common core aligned and created by teachers for teachers. The Gates Foundation worked with Learn Zillion over the summer in establishing The Dream Team, 123 teachers from public, private and charter schools who worked together to create the resources which include video, lesson guides, guided practice and coach s commentary. At this time, lessons are available for grades 3 8 but K-2 and secondary will be coming. In fact, Learn Zillion will be recruiting more teachers in the spring so be on the look out! Learn Zillion s Philosophy (taken directly from their website) It's hard to teach a lesson; it's harder to teach it well; and it's really hard to teach it in a way that resonates and sticks with students. Teachers not only have to understand their content, they have to know the best way to teach it. This idea of Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) - knowledge of the content and the way to make it accessible to students - is at the heart of LearnZillion. PCK has become even more important with the depth that is now required by the Common Core State Standards. Our goal is to help get you started with lessons that were designed from the ground up with PCK in mind. These lessons were built by teachers just like you. They're not perfect, but they're a great starting point. With your help, we will build upon these lessons, building more practical resources and PCK as we go. We would love for you to provide feedback or tell us how you're using our lessons! The URL: To create an account, look all the way to the right and you ll see a sign-up icon. Obviously, you will choose Teacher you may create a new password OR you can sign in your Google and password.

3 3 The Site Menu Below is a screenshot of what you ll see when you click on Explore lessons and choose Math. You can search for a particular topic in the top textbox, choose a particular grade levels by clicking on the checkbox, choose a domain and standard using the dropdown box For example, if I chose Grade 4, Number and Operations Fractions, Compare two fractions with different denominators, I would find 30 lessons (4.NF.2)

4 4 Click on the lesson and you ll be taken to the following screen: Note there is a short video explaining the concept, lesson slides that can be previewed or downloaded as a Power Point (they include extension activities and quick quiz slides), the coach s commentary which is an explanation to the teacher from the teacher who created the lesson. It begins with a narrative of what students will learn:

5 Followed by a review: 5

6 6 Common Mistakes Slides: The Core Lesson Slides And a Guided Practice slide. The student is encouraged to press pause and solve the problem then press play for the narrator to give an in-depth explanation of the problem s solution.

7 7 The bottom of the screen gives you suggestions on how you can use the lesson. Click on the quick code for the following screen: Click on take notes for a downloadable word document There is a copy of the notes document on the following page

8 8 Directions Go Go to to and and type type LZ LZ code into into the the search bar bar Watch the the lesson and and take take notes, using the the form below. Stop, rewind, and and rewatch as rewatch many times as many as you times want. as you want Complete the the guided practice video on on the the back of of this this page Turn your your notes into into your your teacher. Name: Date: What is this lesson about? Review Mistakes to Avoid Core Lesson (Write or Draw Pictures) :

9 9 Guided Practice Notes (before seeing teacher demonstrate) Guided Practice Notes (after seeing teacher demonstrate) :

10 10 The downloadable word document to the parents: Parents and Guardians, Many of you have asked how you can support your student s learning at home. Here is an important way you can do that. Go to LearnZillion is a website that provides teachers and parents with video lessons showing what your student needs to learn each year. The videos include a 3-5 minute "teaching" video and a short practice video where students can see if they understand the lesson. When you get to the site, type the following lesson codes into any search bar on the site. The codes will bring you directly to the lessons for your student. Place LearnZillion Codes here (You can find the LZ Codes on each lesson page when you click on assign ). It s recommended that you include 2-3 codes for the upcoming week. Your student can watch the videos alone or with you. Have your student take notes while watching. I have provided Guided a notes Practice sheet to Notes help. (after If your seeing student teacher doesn t demonstrate) have the notes sheet with them, he/she can recreate it by taking a piece of paper and breaking the front page into the following sections: What is this lesson about? Review Mistakes to avoid The main thing to learn He/she can use the back of the paper to work on the practice problem in the guided practice video. Thank you for supporting your student s learning at home. Let me know if you have any questions. Sincerely,

11 11 And then there s the Deep Dive (PERFECT for a Collegial Circle those of you who are looking for opportunities for you 175 hours may be interested in this) Professional Learning Community Common Core Deep Dive (can be adapted to meet your team s needs) Preparation Facilitator chooses a standard for focus Facilitator prints out standard Facilitator finds the lesson set on LearnZillion.com and chooses one of the lessons for focus Facilitator completes and prints optional discussion worksheet for participants Facilitator reminds teachers to bring any student data/work related to this standard Discussion Step 1: Protocol Review (10 minutes) Facilitator sets the context; reviewing the protocol with participants Facilitator asks for a notetaker and timekeeper Faciltiator hands out a copy of the standard and worksheet Step 2: Standard Review Individual Reflection (5 min) Participants read the standard and reflect on the questions, What are the key components of this standard? What questions do you have about this standard? Participants respond independently to the questions, writing their thoughts on a piece of paper Step 3: Standard Discussion (5-10 min) Participants discuss the standard and their answers to the two questions. Participants should strive for substantive discourse. They should not engage in a round-robin discussion, but rather focus on and develop one idea at a time. Step 3b: Individual Data Reflection (if applicable) (5-10 minutes) Participants review student data/work related to the standard answer the question, What do my students understand? Where are the gaps in understanding? What components of the standard are missing? Step 4: LearnZillion Review (3 min) Facilitator introduces LearnZillion and reminds participants that this is not the answer but should be seen as a jumping off point or a way to accelerate the deep dive into the standard. The goal is to build Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) an understanding of what the standard means and what the best way to help students understand it. There is no perfect answer but a process of getting deeper and deeper PCK. Facilitator directs participants to the lesson set and lesson for focus. Facilitator poses one or two of the suggested questions for discussion (see below)

12 12 Step 5: Individual Reflection (8 minutes). The participants spend time reviewing the set and the lesson for focus. They reflect independently to the key questions, writing their thoughts and any additional reactions to the video lesson. This step helps each participant focus and have something to say during the participant discussion. Step 6: Participant Discussion (15 minutes) Participants discuss the lesson set and the lesson for focus, reflecting on the key questions posed by the facilitator. Participants should strive for substantive discourse. They should not engage in a round-robin discussion, but rather focus on and develop one idea at a time. The goal of the discussion is to arrive at next steps for planning instruction around this standard. How can participants effectively prepare to teach this standard? For example, the group may discuss and brainstorms additional learning activities, projects, and extension activities that build on the concepts in the video and reinforce the standard. Step 7: Debriefing (5 minutes) The facilitator discusses how well the protocol worked and thanks the participants for their work. Participants discuss how well they think the protocol worked and thank the facilitator for bringing the work to them to be tuned. Suggestions for questions How does the teacher in the video reinforce the concepts of the standard through visuals? Through animation, narration, or other tools? How does this lesson relate to the other lessons in the set? Given the standard(s), would you have structured this set of lessons differently? Why? Would the approach modeled in the lesson benefit some learners more than others? How so? After watching the video and the Coach s Commentary, what questions remain? What would you like to ask the teacher who created this lesson?

13 13 And now for ELA You can search for lessons by topic: Grammar and Idioms Phonics Reading Writing

14 14 OR you may choose to search by Strand and Standard The lesson that we ll look at is 4 th grade, Reading Informational Text, Determine the main idea of a text and explain how it is supported by key details; summarize the text. (RI.4.2) The strategy

15 15 Review Slides Common Mistake Slides

16 16 The narrator reads the section of the article and then chooses the key details: Now the narrator starts to pull the main idea

17 17 Narrator reviews the steps from the previous slide The summary of the lesson

18 18 The How Do I use this lesson is the same as math so take a look at page 7 for details Coach s commentary The teacher explains her rationale for creating the lesson as well as the use of the finger and palm strategy. In the video, she uses a post-it but could have students use their fingers for the key details down to the palm which is the main idea. Resources You ll find resources along the right side of the screen. As you can see, there are options for students to have the text read aloud, pdfs of the anchor text (the article used for the lesson), text for practice and text for assessment (these are articles you can use to extend the lesson). Note that in the ELA section, links to resources are duplicated in the bottom half of the screen. I don t know why just wanted you to be aware.

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20 20 Click on Common Core to find out what students need to know by domain and grade level Click on the grade band then you can click on a particular standard to see the full narrative or on the folder for lessons that address that particular standard.

21 21 ELA Common Core screens are a little different than the math screens Click on the grade band and you will see folders with lessons at the top Scroll down for the standards Note that I clicked on the plus sign for RI.4.2 for Key Idea and Details

22 22 The dashboard allows you to create classes, assign lessons to your students and track their progress. Click on New Class The Create a Class interface will display. Enter the class name as well as your students names separated by commas

23 Once you create your class, the following screen displays with all student names as well as their enrollment codes that will be used to create their accounts. There are options to add students as well as print enrollment codes here. 23 Create a playlist to assign lessons to students

24 When you click on Assign to Students, you will be presented with the following screen. Assign a due date, check if you have chosen to make the lesson required (It is optional by default) and assign to students. If your students have not yet created accounts, you will only have an option to assign to all students. Once your students create their accounts you may choose them individually (talk about differentiation!) 24 After entering the name of the playlist, the due date and the selection of students, click on Assign Playlist and you will be directed to the screen on the next page.

25 Doesn t look like much? Well, that s because there are no students in my class as yet. Why did I include it? I wanted you to see what will be visible when you first begin so you understand what s going on. 25 Once again, since my students have not yet registered, no students are displayed. If you click on Download CSV, it will open an Excel file see below. Right now it s not showing much but once your students work on the lesson, the spreadsheet will automatically populate.

26 26 Can we talk differentiation? What do YOU think? Forgot to assign to a student? Go to your dashboard, click on the lesson and click on Manage Lessons Any lessons that you marked as a Favorite by clicking on the STAR will appear here

27 27 Clicking on Calendar displays any assignments with a color bar from the start date to the due date And then, of course, what would we do without

28 28 I have never been so impressed by a FREE set of resources for teachers. Be sure to follow on Twitter, join on Facebook and follow the LearnZillion blog. So now, to finish up, let s look at the student side. We ll start with the student registration. Remember to give your student the invitation code provided to you and then they can choose their own username and password. You may want to give them a username so you don t need to look up the code. In other words, if my student chose skywalker as a username would I know that this student was Nancy Mazzella?

29 Once a student creates his/her account, a welcome screen will be displayed. Notice that Stu Two has an assignment already posted and Stu know that this assignment is optional. Remember to check Required when assigning as Optional is the default! Stu Two also knows that he/she has 3 days to complete the assignment. 29 Your student can click on the lesson right from here and will be brought directly to the student screen: Note that the student doesn t have that area on the right with resources. What they do have is a lesson tab and a practice tab.

30 30 And finally Once the student submits their responses they will be greeted with one of two screens.

31 31 OR Note that the student is given the correct answer and an opportunity to go back to the lesson, guide practice or more assessment questions

32 32 What the teacher sees in their dashboard after the student completes assignments: Note the visual I immediately know that Stu Three was not successful because his bar is red and Stu Two was successful because her bar is green Results have automatically populated the CSV file that opens in a spreadsheet. When I started to write an informational sheet for you, I had no idea it would take 32 pages to complete but as you can see, there is SO much in LearnZillion I just had to keep writing. I believe that LearnZillion will help to lighten your load. I know it keeps getting heavier and, of course, the fact that it s FREE, how could I not keep going. Go to create an account and explore.