- Blog Home | About the Authors
-
-
Recent Posts
- Robot Teachers and Video Games: Tech Tools for Students with Autism
- Auditory Processing Skills & Reading Disorders in Children
- Response to Intervention & Special Ed Stats: Progress Report
- The Parent Trap: Getting Your Struggling Learner to Do Homework Independently
- Why Dr. Timothy Rasinski Thinks Reading Fluency Should Be “Hot!”
- Growing Together: Join Our Annual Visionary Conference on May 17th
- Dyslexia, Auditory Processing Disorder, and the Road to College: Maria’s Story
- Reading and Riding: How Learning to Read is Like Learning to Ride a Bike
- Instilling a Love of Reading: What Every Teacher and Parent Should Know
- Squelching Curiosity: How Pre-Teaching Vocabulary Stifles Learning
-
Categories
-
Archive
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
-
Blogroll
Showing posts with tag student growth Show all posts >
Growing Together: Join Our Annual Visionary Conference on May 17th
- April 16, 2013 by Norene Wiesen
This May 17th, we will be hosting our annual Visionary Conference for Fast ForWord Providers entirely online for the very first time.
Save on travel expenses, spend less time away, and learn just as much as in years past—maybe even more.
This year’s theme is Growing Together, and we’re thrilled to announce that our esteemed Visionary Conference presenters Dr. Paula Tallal and Dr. Martha Burns will be sharing exciting new research on the brain and learning.
Dr. Tallal will be reporting on the latest research with college students who used the Fast ForWord program and saw improvements in a number of skill areas.
Dr. Burns will present research from the Human Connectome Project (a project studying the connectivity of the human brain) and research on memory and attention disorders and interventions.
Additional sessions will review the latest Fast ForWord product updates, best practices for getting the most from the products, marketing resources, and professional development opportunities to help you thrive as a Fast ForWord Provider and help more children succeed.
Because this year’s conference is online, we’re welcoming any and all attendees, whether you’re a provider or not! There is no charge for any of the sessions, so you can attend one or attend them all. If you’ve been to past conferences then you already know…It’s the highlight of the year!
Attend one of our popular webinars with thought leaders in learning. Live and pre-recorded webinars are available. Register today!
Categories: Brain Fitness, Brain Research, Fast ForWord, Reading Assistant
How a Low Performing School Achieved Double-Digit Gains on the California Standards Tests (CSTs)
- November 20, 2012 by Scott Sterling
On November 5th, Dr. Martha Burns and Mr. Charles Wilson, principal of the Korematsu Discovery Academy in the Oakland Unified School District, presented a live webinar that explained the research behind the Fast ForWord program and how it took Korematsu from NCLB Program Improvement (PI) status to achieving double-digit learning gains -- and emerging from PI status in only two school years!
Dr. Burns focused on the neurophysiology of learning, specifically the importance of several key left hemisphere pathways. Dr. Burns noted that these pathways appear to be originally founded in object naming networks but gradually expand to symbolic representation systems. She described how information is moved from perceptual/comprehension regions in the rear of the brain to the anterior regions of the frontal lobe, where the learner can utilize the information in useful ways.
This process is particularly important in reading. Reading represents one form of symbolic processing in which the visual symbol corresponds initially to speech sounds and ultimately to words and sentences. Fast ForWord is particularly designed to activate and strengthen speech perception, comprehension and production regions and those key pathways that enable processing for struggling learners by:
- Targeting key neurological centers for language, perceptual processing and sequencing
- Enhancing processing speed and accuracy through repetition and practice of brain fitness exercises
- Building executive functions (life skills) through exercises that increase students’ ability to control their attention and retain information (working memory)
The best testament to Fast ForWord’s capabilities is real-world success, which is exactly what Mr. Wilson provided in his section of the webinar. Korematsu is a heavily disadvantaged school with a 95% free lunch rate and a high percentage of ELL students. Korematsu found itself in NCLB Program Intervention status due to not meeting AYP requirements, at which point Wilson and his staff adopted Fast ForWord. In the subsequent school year, the Academy experienced double-digit gains on the CSTs and was named the Alameda County English Learner School of the Year.
Those of us who have worked in a low-performing school understand the immense challenge it is to improve student achievement, especially in the midst of record budget cuts. A lot can be learned from Mr. Wilson, a man who has achieved such great success for students in one of the most challenging educational environments. With a mix of leadership, determination, innovation, and inspiration, Mr. Wilson shows us that anything is possible.
Attend one of our popular webinars with thought leaders in learning. Live and pre-recorded webinars are available. Register today!
Categories: Brain Research, Education Trends, English Language Learners, Fast ForWord, Reading & Learning
How Language Immersion Helps English Language Learners Succeed in School
- July 17, 2012 by Norene Wiesen
According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the number of school-age English Language Learners (ELLs) more than doubled between the years 1980 and 2009, rising from 4.7 million to 11.2 million. ELLs currently represent one in nine students ages 5 - 17 in US classrooms, with the majority found in the primary grades.
In a recent webinar, Dr. Virginia Mann, Professor of Cognitive Science at UC Irvine in Southern California, confronted the barriers that ELLs face, and outlined the pathway to success for these students. In order to develop into fluent readers, she explained, ELLs rely on a couple of basics:
- Vocabulary and early language skills
- Phonemic awareness
The good news is that building these skills in a learner’s first language can help build skills in English, as phonemic awareness generalizes across languages and it’s a short hop to understand new English words that sound similar in both languages. The bad news is that many ELLs also grow up in poverty and research shows that young children living in poverty often do not get enough early language experience and exposure to develop strong early language skills.
Because early language skills are so critical for ELLs, if parents take the time to "become teachers" for their children and immerse their children in language by having conversations with them and working with them on listening and speaking activities, learners can make significant gains.
Students whose first language uses an alphabet system have some advantages over those whose first language use an orthographic system, but the bottom line is that when students engage frequently in language-oriented activities and build oral skills, vocabulary, and phonemic understanding in any language, they are on the pathway to successful English language learning.
Mann is quick to note that while parent involvement is crucial, one-shot programs are not sufficient. Parents of ELLs need coaching and support, not just instruction. Dr. Mann references numerous studies and gives examples of the enduring programs that she has created and implemented to support parents in helping their children succeed.
To learn more about why early immersion in any language is so crucial to future academic success, view Dr. Mann's webinar here.
Related Reading:
Why You Should Read With Your Child
Toddler Vocabulary Development: Shopping With Your Child
Attend one of our popular webinars with thought leaders in learning. Live and pre-recorded webinars are available. Register today!
Categories: English Language Learners, Family Focus, Reading & Learning
Teaching Metacognition: The Value of Thinking About Thinking
- July 10, 2012 by Bill Jenkins, Ph.D.
Research performed in the past few decades has demonstrated that we can improve reading skills by teaching students “metacognitive strategies.” By metacognition, we refer to enhancing one’s awareness of “what one believes and how one knows.” (Kuhn, 2000). In other words, the more we can teach students to be actively thinking about thinking as they learn, the more effective their learning will be.
In fact, we can teach students to become what Marcia Lovett of Carnegie Mellon University calls “expert learners.” According to Lovett (2008), teaching metacognition involves three specific processes:
- Teaching students that their ability to learn not only changes, but that they can affect how that ability develops,
- Teaching them how to plan for success and set goals, and
- Giving them lots of opportunities to monitor their learning and adapt their own learning strategies
According to Lovett’s research, an experimental group of students who used metacognitive strategies more strongly believed themselves to be effective learners, demonstrated greater motivation to learn, and achieved better academic performance than the control group. (2008)
What exactly do such metacognitive learning strategies look like in the classroom? Diane Dahl, in her blog post at The Educator’s PLN, shows how these ideas can be implemented in any number of ways, many times by simply tweaking existing instructional strategies. Here are a few recommendations based on her list.
- Give goals. Before a lesson begins, give clear goals for what they will be expected to learn from the experience.
- Pose questions. Posing questions before, during and after reading or instruction will help students to focus on the key points they should be learning.
- Offer opportunities to summarize and retell. Have students summarize or retell what they have read or heard. As they do this more and more, they will learn how to more effectively identify central ideas.
- Give self-monitoring strategies. Give students strategies for being aware of their own learning. For example, practice having students make a quiet “a HA” sound when they understand an idea or a “hmmm” sound when they don’t. This will help both teacher and students to know when a topic needs more attention.
- Engage the five senses. As students experience a text – whether they are reading it silently or out loud or it is being read to them – have them imagine using all five of their senses to experience the text. In their mind, what do they see, hear or smell? What does it feel like on their skin?
While it might be easiest to imagine implementing these kinds of strategies in reading instruction, they can be adapted for teaching any subject. The idea is simply to get students to be consciously aware of, and take charge of, their own learning. The more we can do that, the more effective we will be as teachers.
References:
Metacognitive Strategies for Reading Comprehension
Related Reading:
Deliberate Practice: How to Develop Expertise
The Question Formulation Technique: 6 Steps to Help Students Ask Better Questions
Attend one of our popular webinars with thought leaders in learning. Live and pre-recorded webinars are available. Register today!
Categories: Education Trends, Reading & Learning
Preventing Summer Brain Drain with Dr. Martha S. Burns
- May 29, 2012 by Carrie Gajowski
One of my favorite webinar presenters here at Scientific Learning, Dr. Martha Burns, recently gave a webinar called “BrainPro: Preventing Summer Brain Drain.”
Dr. Burns covered a number of points related to learning and retaining information
- How learners can benefit from current research in 3 areas:
- Psychology – the benefits of teaching to a child’s style of learning
- Neuroscience and Technology – using neuroscience-based technology to individualize instruction to meet the needs of each individual student
- Education – providing standardized content to learners across the US
- The science of how the brain learns. The human brain has thousands of networks that work together and help us to do a lot of different things. Pathways in the brain get stronger and stronger with use. The more we do something, the better we get at that activity. The stronger the pathways in the brain, the easier it becomes for the child to learn and retain information.
- Early difficulties in reading. If a child is struggling with phonological awareness, memory, vocabulary or comprehension, it may indicate a learning difficulty. The cognitive abilities of memory, attention, processing, and sequencing that are foundational to language can be exercised with the BrainPro program.
Following Dr. Burns, we heard from Jenny, a parent from Florida who had her teenage daughter use the BrainPro program to help her pass the FCAT (the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test). Her daughter has a very high GPA and takes AP and Honors classes, but had difficulty in passing the FCAT reading test two years in a row. After she went through the BrainPro program, she took the FCAT for the 3rd time and passed with a near perfect score on the test.
View the webinar to for more detail and visuals about how the brain learns, and find out how the BrainPro program can help learners stay sharp over the summer break.
Related Reading:
Antidotes to Summer Brain Drain (Part 2): 5 Ways to Pull the Plug on Learning Loss
Leigh Ann’s Story: Making a Difference in Children’s Lives
Attend one of our popular webinars with thought leaders in learning. Live and pre-recorded webinars are available. Register today!
Categories: Brain Fitness, Brain Research, Reading & Learning
18 Ways to Encourage Students to Read This Summer
- May 24, 2012 by Norene Wiesen
It’s that time again. The end of the school year is rapidly approaching, and everyone is thinking about summer—especially students. It can be hard enough to get students to read within the structure of the academic year, so how can you encourage your students to read during the summer break? Here are some things to try:
- Let students know that all kinds of reading count – graphic novels, magazine articles, websites, and ebooks on mobile devices – and that they should read what they enjoy.
- Talk about a book that you absolutely loved or that changed your life in some way.
- Ask students to bring books they liked into class, along with a note card explaining why. Display the books and cards around the classroom so students can browse.
- Sponsor a class-wide or school-wide book swap.
- Provide URLs to online reading lists at websites like www.readkiddoread.com and guysread.com.
- Have each student put together a personal reading list of four or five titles to complete over the summer.
- Find something good to say about any book on a student’s reading list. Never say a book is bad, wrong, too hard or too easy.
- Have students compile their individual reading lists into a class reading list and post to the school website.
- Create your own summer reading list and post it for your students to see.
- Talk to your class about why people read – e.g., acquiring historical knowledge, entertainment, learning about other people’s experiences and perspectives. Ask them what they like about reading.
- If you have a classroom blog or wiki, post thought-provoking passages from books along with the book title and author.
- Keep your class blog or wiki available to students over the summer so they can share their reactions to books they’re reading. Don’t forget to add updates about your own reading.
- Show students how to keep a reading journal, and discuss how keeping one might help students decide what to read next.
- Communicate with parents about the importance of setting expectations for reading every day.
- Encourage every family to get and use a library card.
- Let students know what your local public library has planned for summer.
- Give students access to the online Reading Assistant program at school or home for extra guided oral reading practice to help build fluency.
- Let students know that reading will actually make their brains work better.
Related Reading:
Antidotes to Summer Brain Drain (Part 1): Tips and Tools for Fun Math Skills Practice
Antidotes to Summer Brain Drain (Part 2): 5 Ways to Pull the Plug on Learning Loss
Attend one of our popular webinars with thought leaders in learning. Live and pre-recorded webinars are available. Register today!
Categories: Reading & Learning
Free Webinars on Brain Health and the Science of Learning – Register Today!
- May 17, 2012 by Carrie Gajowski
I’m pleased to announce two upcoming live webinars on learning and brain health. As usual, there is no charge for these webinars, so please register today and join us to get the latest from the brain experts!
Brain Health Across the Lifespan
On June 6, you’re invited to learn about “Brain Health Across the Lifespan” with our returning guest, Dr. Paul Nussbaum. While years of science maintained that neurogenesis does not occur in adult humans, current research indicates otherwise. If the human brain can generate new brain cells in adulthood, an entire new frontier of discovery and opportunity emerges. This webinar is at 10am PT (1pm ET).
Dr. Nussbaum is a board-certified clinical psychologist specializing in neuropsychology and a Fellow of the National Academy of Neuropsychology and American Academy of Clinical Psychology.
The Science of Learning
On June 18, Dr. Burns will be back with “The Science of Learning,” a webinar about the potential of neuroscience to profoundly impact education. Educators are just beginning to discover how differences in brain organization underlie different learning capacities, and how altering the organization of the brain can dramatically increase the ability to learn. The science of learning has guided the development of targeted neuroscience-based learning technologies to enhance underlying memory, attention, processing and sequencing abilities and proven to quickly and efficiently accelerate learning in many student populations at all grade levels. This webinar is at 9am PT (12pm ET).
Dr. Burns is a neuroscientist who specializes in the development of language and the brain, current research on how the brain learns and factors affecting learning, and how understanding the science of learning can change our perceptions of what goes on in the classroom. She is Adjunct Associate Professor at Northwestern University and a Fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
Related Reading:
Modeling Healthy Choices: Three Habits for Optimal Brain Health
The Reading Brain: How Your Brain Helps You Read, and Why it Matters
Attend one of our popular webinars with thought leaders in learning. Live and pre-recorded webinars are available. Register today!
Categories: Brain Fitness, Brain Research, Reading & Learning
Creating a New Culture of Teaching and Learning with Alan November
- May 10, 2012 by PC Munoz
"Creating a New Culture of Teaching and Learning" is a Scientific Learning webinar presented by Alan November, proposing that educators make the most of today's "small world" by turning classrooms into global communication centers and collaborating with fellow teachers and students from all over the world.
November's ideas about a new culture of teaching and learning are plentiful, as are his suggestions for further research. In this webinar, November proposes a pathway to a 21st century educational paradigm that is centered around information, collaboration, and empathy. Here are just a few of his thoughts on the subject:
Information
Schools ought to abolish their "technology planning committees," which focus on "stuff" (wires, boxes, hardware). Alternatively, educational institutions should simply understand technology as the "digital plumbing" that works hand in hand with what November calls the "real revolution": the large amounts of information that flow through technology.
Collaboration
The educational experience can and should be supercharged with true collaboration. Collaboration can take place in the classroom itself, such as when certain students are tasked with the daily documentation of classroom activities via collaborative note taking, videography, and photography. Or, collaboration can take place across thousands of miles if teachers take the time to find classrooms in other parts of the world that are willing to work with a partner classroom on a given project. For example, a classroom in the US studying the American Revolution partnering with a classroom in the UK studying the same thing could help learners understand and respect differing perspectives.
Empathy
When he asked the CEO of HSBC Bank in England what the most important "21st century skill" is, November received the surprising reply, "empathy." Empathy, the ability to identify with others and value their perspectives, is a crucial life skill in today's small world, for both students and teachers. Empathy helps teachers build relationships with educators in various parts of the world and encourages young people to become fearless global communicators who are able to work with anyone.
More than once during his presentation, November states that he hopes his ideas are "good enough to critique." He clearly sees the ideas he proposes as a jumping-off point for further exploration and conversation about how to make the most of our era's hyperconnectivity.
No matter where you are in today's small, small world, you’ll want to check out the entire webinar…and you can. Click here.
Alan November is an international leader in education technology known for his compelling thought leadership. He passionately challenges teachers and administrators to harness 21st century technology and create learning opportunities to prepare young people for an open, connected, and engaged future.
Related Reading:
How to Motivate Students: The Psychology of Success
5 Reasons Why Your Students Should Write Every Day
Attend one of our popular webinars with thought leaders in learning. Live and pre-recorded webinars are available. Register today!
Categories: Education Trends, Reading & Learning
Overall District Performance Score Improves at Almost Double the Rate of LA State Baseline Score
- February 14, 2012 by Melissa Agocs
We are unable to detect Flash Player 9 or higher on your system.
(Flash Player 9 or higher is required for this presentation)
Download the most recent version of Flash Player.
This presentation is an update on previous studies out of the St. Mary Parish Public School System in Louisiana. The latest study investigated the changes to the district’s performance on the Louisiana state assessment between 2003, three years before implementation of the Fast ForWord software, and 2011, when over 9,000 St. Mary Parish students district-wide had used Fast ForWord or Reading Assistant software, or both. The data span a period of nine years, from 2003 - 2011.
The Louisiana Educational Assessment Program, abbreviated as LEAP, is part of Louisiana’s criterion-referenced state testing program and is administered to students in the fourth and eighth grades. It measures how well a student has mastered the state content standards in the subjects of English language arts, math, science, and social studies.
This summary shows results achieved by the district on the English Language Arts portion of the LEAP as well as substantial improvements in District Performance Score, a combination a school district’s individual student scores on the LEAP, iLEAP and Graduation Exit Exam as well as attendance and dropout rates, and graduation outcomes. Improvements in other critical district numbers are covered as well.
Fast ForWord was first used in the St. Mary Parish Public School System during the 2006-2007 school year. Since that school year, fourth graders in the district have shown dramatic improvements in their English language arts achievement as measured by the LEAP. In 2008, for the first time in a decade, the district exceeded the state average for the percentage of fourth graders performing at or above the Basic level on the English Language Arts exam. In the five years of Fast ForWord implementation in St. Mary Parish elementary schools, the percentage of fourth graders in the district performing at or above Basic on the initial LEAP English Language Arts test increased from 55% to an impressive 81%.
By the time district-wide implementation was achieved in 2009, the improvements had impacted the district performance such that the District Performance Score exceeded the state baseline. And, in fact, the rise in Performance Score continued between 2006 and 2011, with the district score increasing from 80.0 to 96.7, nearly double the increase of the state baseline score.
In addition, between the years 2006 and 2011 the district increased the promotion rate of both the General Education and the Special Education students. During the same period, the number of students requiring Special Education services decreased by 17%.
If you have questions on this report or any other Scientific Learning study, please feel free to contact our Customer Service Team.
Related Reading:
In Independent Study of Fast ForWord, Sixth-Grade Students Exceed Expected Gains
Attend one of our popular webinars with thought leaders in learning. Live and pre-recorded webinars are available. Register today!
Categories: Fast ForWord, Reading & Learning, Scientific Learning Research
In Independent Study of Fast ForWord, Sixth-Grade Students Exceed Expected Gains
- February 2, 2012 by Melissa Agocs
We are unable to detect Flash Player 9 or higher on your system.
(Flash Player 9 or higher is required for this presentation)
Download the most recent version of Flash Player.
Hello. This presentation will review achievement gains made at the Bulloch County Schools in Georgia after students used the Fast ForWord® products. This was an independent study conducted by Dr. Jody Woodrum, an Assistant Superintendent at the district.
The Bulloch County Schools started using the Fast ForWord products at selected schools during the 2007-2008 school year. The district’s focus was on students close to proficiency in reading or language arts. In the fall of 2009, the Langston Chapel Middle School expanded its implementation to all sixth graders, regardless of ability level. This summary is about these sixth graders.
The students in this study used various Fast ForWord products, including the Fast ForWord Literacy, Fast ForWord Literacy Advanced, Fast ForWord Reading Prep, and Fast ForWord Reading Level 1 – 5 products. The participating school’s Fast ForWord Participation and Attendance were routinely considered “Gold Cap,” which is a high standard to strive for and shows that the school was adhering to the protocol.
Study participants were evaluated using the Measures of Academic Progress, abbreviated as MAP. Developed by the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA), the MAP are state-aligned, computerized adaptive tests that accurately reflect the instructional level of each student and measure growth over time. The MAP are appropriate for students in grades 2 through 10 and are available to evaluate student achievement in a variety of subject areas including reading, language arts, math, and science.
The MAP uses a measure of improvement called the Growth National Percentile Rank, which is a percentile rank of growth relative to “academic peers” – students in similar grades and at similar achievement levels. On average, Fast ForWord participants made gains on the MAP, and for students who made gains, the gains were very large, corresponding to high Growth National Percentile Ranks. The next two graphs look at the Reading and English Language Arts results more closely.
Overall, 64% of participants from both groups of students – on and above grade level, and below grade level – increased their percentile rank on the Reading portion of the MAP. For the students who made gains, the gains corresponded to the 98th percentile, which is considered very large and exceeded the expected improvement on the Reading component.
On the English Language Arts component of the MAP, 77% of participants made gains. Once again, the improvement of both groups of Fast ForWord participants exceeded the expected improvement and the gains that were achieved were substantial – at the 99th percentile.
Analyses by the staff at Bulloch County indicated that high gains were seen regardless of the students’ prior achievement levels, and regardless of the highest Fast ForWord product completed.
Thank you for your time. This video was a brief summary of the rigorous study from Bulloch County. For further detail, please reference Dr. Woodrum’s full report on the Scientific Learning website at www.scientificlearning.com/woodrum.
Related Reading:
60% of Middle and High School Learners Exceed FCAT Annual Learning Gain Expectations
Attend one of our popular webinars with thought leaders in learning. Live and pre-recorded webinars are available. Register today!
Categories: Fast ForWord, Reading & Learning
