Grade 3 Tier 2 Vocabulary Word List

Grade 3 Tier II Vocabulary Word List

[PDF]Grade 2 & 3 Tier 2 Vocabulary List
Grade 2 & 3 Tier 2 Vocabulary List. # Word. Definition Synonyms. Word Work. Introduced. Week of/ By. 1 restate. To state again or in a new way reword.


[PDF]BUSD Grade Level Academic Vocabulary - Berkeley
The BUSD Grade Level Academic Vocabulary List is designed to help Berkeley. Unified ... CCSS references three tiers of words that are vital to academic achievement: ... different settings: 1) professional families; 2) working class; 3) welfare.

[PDF]Tier 2 Vocabulary Words for High School - Manatee School for the Arts
Tier 2 Vocabulary Words for High School ... The Academic Word List (AWL) was developed by Averil Coxhead at the School of Linguistics ... Page 3 ... disposal • solely • deny • identical • submitted •grade • phenomenon • paradigm • ultimately ...

[PDF]Vocabulary Instruction
13. Stages of Reading. Development. Late grade 2. Grade 3+ un-re-li-a-ble un-reli-able .... List some ways you provide for ongoing practice and multiple ... for choosing vocabulary words from text. Tier 3.Tier 2. Tier 1. Known,. Common words.

[PDF]Robust Tier 2 Vocabulary Cards: Level 1 - Really Good Stuff
The Really Good Stuff® Robust Tier 2 Vocabulary ... grades 2-3 and should be added and expanded upon. ... target word, and review the provided list on.

[PDF]Source List for Terms - Amazon Web
Grade 3 Tier II Vocabulary Word List

Word: Additional
Meaning: Add; more; extra.
Example: The salesman told Mr. Taylor that this iPhone 9 will cost him an additional amount of 150$.

Word: Agreeable
Meaning: willing or ready to agree or permission
Example: This type of furniture is more agreeable than the fancy one which is quite expensive.

Word: Argue
Meaning: to present reasons for or against a thing
Example: Celena wasn't going to argue with him because she knew he ate her chocolates.

Word: Arrange
Meaning: to place in proper, desired, or convenient order
Example: You may stay in the room with your daughter while I arrange the lunch.

Word: Assist
Meaning: to give support, aid or to help
Example: Do you want me to assist you in completing this assignment?

Word: Attract
Meaning: to get the admiration, attention by physical or emotional forces.
Example: This pink watch will definitely attract Sara because of its color and appearance.

Word: Careless
Meaning: not giving much attention to work or something
Example: The loss resulting from careless work is very serious.

Word: Cause
Meaning: a thing that acts, happens, or exists due to something
Example: We all serve the same cause of protecting those who are weaker than us.

Word: Climate
Meaning: weather conditions of a region, as temperature, air pressure, humidity, precipitation, sunshine, cloudiness, and winds, throughout the year
Example: The climate of Pakistan is very appropriate to grow crops.

Word: Coast
Meaning: the land next to the sea; seashore
Example: He lived up the coast in a cottage.

Word: Compare
Meaning: to examine (two or more objects, ideas, people, etc.) in order to note similarities and differences
Example: I always used to compare my grades with Allen.

Word: Construct
Meaning: to build, form, or create by fitting parts or elements together systematically
Example: He tried to construct his own house within four months.

Word: Continent
Meaning: One of the major land masses or areas of the earth, usually regarded as Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America.
Example: There are total seven continents of the world.

Word: Contrast
Meaning: to compare in order to show differences between two objects, people or places
Example: There is an amazing contrast between clouds and the clear blue sky.

Word: Credit
Meaning: 1. to give honor or respect to someone
   2. to give money back to an account or having an amount of money in an account
Examples 1: The credit goes to all the team members who played really well throughout the game.
Examples 2: He did all the shopping through his credit card.

Word: Culture
Meaning: a particular set of customs, morals, ethics and traditions from a specific time and place
Example: People have learnt a lot from the culture of ancient Greek civilization.

Word: Dangle
Meaning: to hold something so that it hangs and swings loosely
Example: The child dangled the doll by its arm.

Word: Defend
Meaning: 1. to guard from attack; keep from harm or danger; to protect
    2. to protect (a goal, etc.) against scoring by an opponent
    3. to support, maintain, or justify
Example: 1. The American army knows how to defend their country.
   2. Germany defended quite strongly against Brazil in the final match.
   3. Eric will defend the case of his brother in the criminal court.

Word: Describe
Meaning: to give details about something to someone.
Example: The teacher asked the students to describe their personalities in their own Words.

Word: Details
Meaning: to describe or give information about something
Example: He provided all the details of the task to me carefully.

Word: Develop
Meaning: 1. to grow or to become more advanced
    2. to cause something to grow, or to build improvements on land
Example: 1. To develop yourself, you need to bring some serious changes in your lifestyle.
2. The government has promised to develop the transportation system more convenient for          
     the public.

Word: Diagram
Meaning: a graph, chart, drawing or plan that explains something by showing how the parts relate to each other.
Example: The teacher explained the digestive system with the help of a diagram.

Word: Disappointed
Meaning: to let someone down or fail to fill his expectations for you.
Example: He disappointed his parents by getting involved in a crime.

Word: Division
Meaning: to divide; separation; distribution or partitioning
Example: The country was divided into four different provinces.

Word: Effect
Meaning: Effect is defined as a result of something or the ability to bring about a result.
Example: Her statement had a surprising effect on Dean.

Word: Elect
Meaning: The definition of elect is chosen, but not necessarily acting in the position yet.
Example: The higher management will elect the new Class Representative very soon.

Word: Endangered
Meaning: in danger, at risk, said of something where there is a strong possibility something bad will happen to it.
Example: A strange viral disease has endangered the lives of those living in the town.

Word: Event
Meaning: The definition of an event is something that takes place.
Example: Michael Jackson will perform in the grand event in Paris this year.

Word: Examine:
Meaning: Examine is defined as to analyze, inspect or carefully study.
Example: The doctor will examine the patient in an hour.

Word: Example
Meaning: 1. Example is defined as something or someone that is used as a model.
2. The definition of Example is a punishment that warns others to follow rules.
Example: 1. The teacher gave students an Example of solar system to help them understand the term ‘rotation’.
2. That serious road accident became an Example for all other kids in the neighborhood.

Word: Experience
Meaning: Experience is defined as something that happens to someone.
Example: He has literally learnt from his past experience of driving rashly on highway.

Word: Fatal
Meaning: The definition of fatal is something that causes death or that leads to failure or disaster.
Example: The polluted water being used for drinking in rural areas is fatal for human health.

Word: Flexible
Meaning: The definition of flexible is someone or something that bends easily, is easily persuaded or can be changed easily.
Example: A rubber band is far more flexible than a spring.

Word: Furious
Meaning: The definition of furious is full of anger or rage.
Example: The man got furious when he saw his car hit by a truck.

Word: Gathered
Meaning: Gather is defined as to bring or come together in one place.
Example: Everyone in the neighborhood gathered on the streets after they felt a terrible earthquake.

Word: Gist
Meaning: a central idea or the main point
Example: Equality must have been the gist of his speech.

Word: Infer
Meaning: Infer is defined as to conclude from evidence or assumptions.
Example: We should infer that the details in the document were all approved by the company.

Word: Intelligent
Meaning: The definition of intelligent is someone or something that is bright, informed or shows sound judgment.
Example: He considered to be an intelligent student in the class due to his strong ability of solving mathematical problems.

Word: Invitation
Meaning: The definition of an invitation is a request for a person's attendance at an event.
Example: He sent an invitation of his birthday party to all the relatives.

Word: Irritate
Meaning: The definition of irritate is to exaggerate or annoy, or to cause itchiness or discomfort in or on the body.
Example: The constant noise in the factory irritate the workers all day.

Word: Marine
Meaning: Marine is defined as something related to water or the sea.
Example: The life of marine animals is totally different from those living on land.

Word: Mend
Meaning: To mend is defined as to fix or repair, or to get better or resolve a disagreement.
Example: The carpenter told that it is easier to mend instead of replacing it altogether.

Word: Multiply
Meaning: to increase in number, amount, extent, or degree.
Example: The army decided to multiply the number of troops sent for war.

Word: Nervous
Meaning: The definition of nervous is fearful, frightened or anxious.
Example: She felt nervous after hearing the sad news on the television.

Word: Occur
Meaning: To occur is to happen or to be found.
Example: It was expected that the road accident will occur sooner or later.

Word: Opposite
Meaning: Opposite is someone or something that is the reverse of something else.
Example: These brothers are quite opposite to each other in studies.

Word: Passage
Meaning: Passage is moving through something, being granted permission to move through something.
Example: The passage along the park was quite narrow.

Word: Patient
Meaning: 1. The definition of patient is waiting calmly for long.
2. Patient is defined as someone under medical care.
Example: 1. The trainer told the team to be patient and confident during the competition.
2. The old man was a patient of asthma since last two years.

Word: Peer
Meaning: 1. a person or thing of the same rank, value, quality, ability, etc.
2. To peer is defined as to look closely or intently at something that may difficult to see.
Example: 1. Young children are easily influenced by their peers.
2. She pulled the wardrobe open and turned to peer over her shoulder.

Word: Persuade
Meaning: The definition of persuade is to convince someone to do or think something.
Example: He thought that he will persuade his father to get him a new car.

Word: Pleasant
Meaning: The definition of pleasant is someone or something that is agreeable, enjoyable or likable.
Example: The weather of Los Angeles is quite pleasant since last couple of weeks.

Word: Prank
Meaning: a mischievous trick or practical joke
Example: People usually make prank calls to annoy others.

Word: Predict
Meaning: The definition of predict is to say what will happen in the future.
Example: Many people were able to predict the winner of the final match in the World Cup.

Word: Purpose
Meaning: Purpose is defined as to plan or aim to do something; the reason behind doing something
Example: His purpose for flying back too early was just to attend the funeral of his grandmother.

Word: Recognize
Meaning: Recognize is defined as to identify someone or something known before.
Example: He will definitely recognize you in the next meeting as his memory is quite sharp.

Word: Region
Meaning: a large part of the surface of the earth
Example: Few years ago, that region was purely suitable for agriculture purposes.

Word: Repair
Meaning: To repair is defined as to fix something.
Example: He knew that the mechanic will repair the car in an hour.

Word: Ridiculous
Meaning: The definition of ridiculous is something that clearly can't be true, and that is as silly or foolish as to be worth making fun of.
Example: It was ridiculous to live in a five bedroom house especially when you need only two bedrooms.

Word: Scar
Meaning: The definition of a scar is a mark left on the skin after it heals, or a sign of mental or physical damage.
Example: There was a huge scar on the left cheek of his face which makes him look ugly.

Word: Scatter
Meaning: To scatter is to spread something around in different directions or different places.
Example: The toys were left scattered on the floor after the birthday party.

Word: Shiver
Meaning: Shiver is defined as to shake or tremble.
Example: She used to shiver a lot in cold weather conditions.

Word: Signal
Meaning: 1. Signal is defined as to communicate or indicate.
2. in radio, television, cell phones, etc., the electrical impulses, sound or picture elements, etc. transmitted or received
Example: 1. There are different kinds of traffic signals on the roads in each country.
2. There were no signals on the cell phone during his flight to London.

Word: Similar
Meaning: The definition of similar is two things that have characteristics that resemble each other but are not exactly alike.
Example: The two statues in the mart looked quite similar to each other.

Word: Slumber
Meaning: The definition of a slumber is a deep sleep.
Example: She fell into a deep slumber soon after she went to bed after a tiring day.

Word: Solution
Meaning: The solution is the method of solving a problem or the correct answer to a puzzle, problem or difficult situation.
Example: He was quite quick in finding the solution of the problem in the class.

Word: Starve
Meaning: Starve is defined as to die or suffer from hunger, or to have an intense want for something.
Example: Most of the animals in jungle either starve or get killed.

Word: Stumble
Meaning: The definition of a stumble is an act of making a minor mistake or of tripping or missing your step while running or walking.
Example: After that serious injury, he used to stumble while walking.

Word: Tackle
Meaning: To tackle is to take something or someone on or to stop someone from moving forward with a ball in a sporting game.
Example: He knew how to tackle the ball so it was quite difficult for the opponents to score.

Word: Tentacle
Meaning: The definition of a tentacle is a flexible arm used to touch and grab things, or the sensitive hairs on a plant leaf.
Example: The biologists tried hard to study the tentacles of the unique plant they found under water.

Word: Typical
Meaning: The definition of typical is a characteristic or behavior that is normal and expected for a given person or thing or in a given situation.
Example: Alex used to have a typical irritating attitude in the class.

Word: Unite
Meaning: Unite is defined as to join or bring together.
Example: There is always one friend who loves to unite everyone on special occasions. 

Word: Unusual
Meaning: The definition of unusual is something rare or out of the ordinary.
Example: It was quite unusual for him to do over speeding.

Word: Valuable
Meaning: The definition of valuable is something that is worth a lot, either in terms of money or in terms of being useful or loved.
Example: Museums usually contain precious and valuable items.

Word: Vehicle
Meaning: The definition of a vehicle is a type of transportation or a way that something is conveyed.
Example: Andy loved to see different vehicles on the roads when he was a kid.

Word: Volunteer
Meaning: The definition of a volunteer is a person who donates his time or efforts for a cause or organization without being paid.
Example: I used to volunteer a lot for various charity events in my neighborhood.

Creating a Successful School Improvement Plan

Creating a Successful School Improvement Plan

TOP QUESTIONS YOUR SCHOOL NEEDS TO ASK About SIP!
1. How effective is your school/district wide progress monitoring (RTI)?
2. Is your school/district capable of quitting or modifying programs that are not working?
3. Are solutions top down or bottom up?
4. Is your school/district effectively dealing with truancy, academic issues (CAN'T or WON'T) and/or disruptive behaviours in the classroom?
5. Are teachers treated as respected professionals by students, parents, and administrators? 
6. Is your school stuck in the "ENDLESS Silver Bullet Cycle" cycle of buying the next batch of hyped, recycled, and costly curriculum. 
7. Is your NEW vision going to meet the needs of an overly distracted student population trying to navigate a very hostile and changing world?

School Improvement Plans (SIP) are the first step in turning around

failing and low performing schools. They must target improving student outcomes, parent engagement, and teacher training. Without highly motivated, trained and engaged teachers and supportive parents, your School Improvement Plans (SIP) are useless. For 100 years, schools and education-in-general has been the introduction to academic life that all children need in order to gain the qualifications needed to succeed as adults. As well as teaching specific academic subjects, education also looks to provide children with enrichment opportunities and life lessons to set them up for a successful productive life. Moreover, times are changing which means that schools need to be even more flexible, a school improvement plan that offers students the best academic service possible is an ongoing erudite process that takes a comprehensive team effort. Sadly, many schools turn the (SIP) process into window dressing that never impacts students academic or social enmotional outcomes. 

Currently, there are some key areas that provide concern for all stakeholders of schools and these are the barriers to school learning and teaching. For the most part, the success or failure of a school nowadays can be attributed to whether there has been a specific plan in place that looks to address barriers to learning and teaching. If these issues are not addressed, improvements cannot be made and the whole system collapses in on itself.

Barriers to Learning and Teaching - If a school improvement plan is to be successful, common educational and even psychosocial issues need to be addressed and this includes first and foremost learning problems due to poor language skills (word poverty), attention issues, language delays, reading difficulties, attendance problems, life transition issues, anxiety, abuse, health, family problems, and more. For the education industry, these are the biggest areas of concern because they have a huge impact on not only the learning of individuals but the learning of whole groups and classes.

In addition to this, there also needs to be a way of countering external stressors. For example, some children may not have sufficient clothing, food, or security at home whilst others face inadequate support systems and have to experience hostile environments at home. Of course, this has a huge impact on their experience at school so what are the best ways to handle this in a world where any sort of interference into personal lives is deemed immediately negative?

Finally, schools find it difficult to meet the needs of students with cognitive, developmental, intellectual, mental, physical, sensory, or some combination of these, and that substantially affects a student's school life and academic success. Students with learning disabilities, as well as mental or physical disabilities, are everyone's responsibility in a successful school. Not only is it a case of devising a special curriculum for such students, there is also the case for caring, serving, and accommodating students with disabilities. In recent years, we have seen an increase in students stress, poor student conduct, eating disorders, oppositional defiance, and school phobia. What’s more, there are significantly more young people experiencing severe depression, suicidal thoughts or self harming behavior, and post-traumatic stress disorder which presents new challenges for all involved.

All things considered, these are the major issues that schools face right now and they happen to be the biggest areas for concern for governing bodies and those in charge of educating the next generation. Later, we will be providing a five-step guide to creating a successful school improvement plan but it is first perhaps necessary to address the main questions that need to be asked in order to improve schools.

What is Missing? - For most people, the most fundamental question is ‘why aren't schools doing a better job in addressing emotional, learning, and behavior issues? However, it isn't as easy as this because, if something could be done, you would suggest that it would have been done a long time ago. Instead, we need to draw attention to what is perhaps the root cause of such problems - the fact that school policy and daily practice marginalize any attempts to fix said issues.


With this in mind, all programs and special projects that have been designed as a learning support service find themselves as ‘supplementary’. For example, the simple fact that all planning and implementation is done on an ad hoc basis, including when attempting to address these key barriers, is a cause for concern. Furthermore, the support staff required are normally operating independently of the main stakeholders which leads to an over-reliance, for small groups and individuals, on specialized services. Finally, fragmentation occurs when students are assigned to different programs who all work independently from one another. When this is allowed to happen, it drives up the cost of the whole process and the maximum results cannot be achieved.

Five-Step Plan - As mentioned previously, we have five key steps that need to be taken if a successful school improvement plan is to be constructed;


1) Vision - Before anything else can happen, you need to put an end goal on your improvement. If you could have your way, what would the school look like when finished, what practices would be in place, how would it differ to right now? Of course, this will be different for every school in every location so it needs to be unique with your goals in mind.

When we use the word ‘success’, we use it quite loosely because it is a subjective word. For some schools, they will have higher ambitions than others depending on the resources available to make the plans happen. Therefore, you need to spend some time defining success and then a vision can be created from this.


2) Comprehensive needs Assessment - In order to get to the end point, you need to know exactly where you are starting from. If you phone a friend and ask for exact directions, they will need to know where you are right now otherwise they cannot help. Therefore, you will need to conduct an honest assessment of your current position and practices.

Within this assessment, you should consider your strengths, weaknesses, and areas that need overall improvement. If you need a starting point, try looking through classroom walkthrough information, student achievement data, and, if you want the most honest of opinions, complete surveys of children, administrators, teachers, and even students. Ultimately, all of these stakeholders will want to see improvement in the school so will be willing to offer honest evaluations.

At this stage of the process, you need to be as honest as possible because no improvement can be made otherwise. If a chef believes that their food is the best of the best even though the customers and experts say otherwise, there is no way that the chef can improve if they aren't honest with themselves because they will think that everyone else is wrong. If you are going to make good decisions for the future of the school, you need to obtain a full picture of the school’s current state.

In a recent book, published after an extensive study, a research team attempted to discover what all high-growth companies had in common and why they were seeing more success than their competitors. Within every single company that they assessed, it was found that they would ensure every planning process started with ‘brutal facts’ and ‘reality checks’. Why? Because the path to the end goal will become glaringly obvious once you are honest and determine the absolute truth of what is occurring.

3) Goals - Using your vision that was created in step one, you can take your needs assessment and find some objectives. As well as having one huge goal that defines ‘success’, you should then break this down into numerous smaller, achievable goals. As well as long-term goals, make sure that you have some short-term goals too as this will allow you to see whether you are on the right path or not.

For example, your needs assessment may point out some key discoveries regarding your students. As well as an overall ‘what is the point in this’ mindset, you could find that students aren't finding lessons engaging enough to stay interested and keep paying attention. If you wanted to address these, you would set a number of goals;

Change lessons so that topics relate to real-life scenarios

Keep learning personalized so students understand the need

Ensure all understanding before switching topics via formative assessment

If you have limited time and resources, limit your goals to things that can be achieved in a short period of time. If possible, order goals in terms of importance and then get started because these are the ones that will have the largest impact. Once you start achieving goals, no matter how small, you know that progress is being made and you will be on your way towards the ultimate objective.


Sadly, some schools follow this five-step plan but they fail at this step because they try and solve everything at once. When this is attempted, only minimal effort is going into each change instead of focusing on one and then making progress this way. With just one aim to believe in, this can be reached before then turning to the next important objective on the list.

4) Action Steps - So far, we have a vision, an honest assessment, and some goals but this isn't enough alone. After finding out what you want to achieve, you need to lay out exactly how you plan to get there. Without actionable steps, there is no way to make progress. When you go on a road trip, you know your starting point and you know your end goal. However, you also lay out a plan so you can get there in time and the same can be said for a successful school improvement plan.

Unfortunately, this is another vital cog in the machine that schools tend to miss out and this leads to frustration and a distinct lack of improvement. For the most successful school districts, they map out how they are going to reach their end goals in the shape of strategies for all employees and ensuring that everyone is pulling in the same direction. If you imagine the school as a train with all the staff at the front, it isn't going to go anywhere is everyone is pulling in all different directions. Therefore, everyone needs to be reading from the same book at all times and the management has to keep them in line.

5) Include Stakeholders - Finally, we have something that is frequently forgotten and that is to keep all stakeholders included. When strategies are collectively established, they are proven to be more successful so leaders need to listen and keep an open mind. Going back to the study discussed previously, businesses that see the most success make sure that all stakeholders have a voice that can be heard. With this in mind, you should be including teachers, students, parents, administrators, and community leaders.

Summary - If you take the advice provided here and take actionable steps towards your goals, you will be well on the way to success. Of course, you will need to avoid the common mistakes we have discussed but, with this five-step plan, success is viable and achievable!

SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT PLANs: WHAT WORKS?

Highly Succesful Schools, Develope and Revise School Improvement Plans Yearly! (SIP)

Turning around a school's low or failing academic performance requires trust, faith, smart hard work, and quality engagement from parents, students, administrators, and teachers. Turning around a school's low academic performance starts with a comprehensive needs assessment that guides and informs short and long-term school improvement planning.

"In the real world, there is never enough money to meet all needs. Needs assessments are conducted to help program planners identify and select the right job before doing the job right." 

Researching strategies that work, setting BIG goals, vertically aligning critical developmental benchmarks, monitoring progress and reporting data. A School Improvement Plan (SIP), is a working document that all shareholders use to plan and implement High-quality instructional practice and increase engagement to raise achievement for all of its students. The School Improvement Plan defines the school's SMART goals and objectives to increase engagement and raise achievement for all students. These plans are only effective if they are used as a working document that all stakeholders are invested in. They should be the driving force behind real change in every community, school, and classroom. Hope is not a tactic for academic success, without explicit short and long term planning schools are constantly chasing their tails or looking for the quick fixes. 

1. ALL Stakeholders are Part of the Process (Parents, Students, Administrators, and Teachers Must ALL buy in!)
2. Family and Community Engagement and Support
3. Comprehensive Needs Assesment with Honest Reporting 
4. School Mission Statment and Grade Level Mission Statements, Beliefs and Big SMART Goals are shared, promoted and celebrated!
5. Effective and flexible school-based leadership 
6. Comprehensive ongoing progress monitoring (Student achievement data drives instruction)
7. High-quality instructional practice
8. High-quality professional development
9. SIP is a Working Document that is Revised Annually 

[PDF]School Improvement Planning: What's Missing?Our specific concerns are about how current school improvement planning .... assessing whatt ends to be missing in school improvement planning guides.

[PDF]Strategies for Community Engagement in School Turnaround
=Mar 10, 2014 - report to describe State and school district efforts to turn around ... academic achievement, attendance and behavior . ... for families, required parent volunteer time and workshops to help ... strategies that included parent/community liaisons, teacher/parent ... student achievement at schools engaged in the.

[PDF]Turning Around Low-Performing Schools (PDF) - U.S. Department of ...
We have worked to raise academic standards, promote accountability, ... turn around low-performing schools and help students in them get a better education. ... student performance standards, aligning teacher development, curriculum, .... around low-performing schools requires that state and district leaders take active ..

[PDF]Comprehensive Needs Assessment
Comprehensive. Needs Assessment. Title I Statewide School Support/Parental. Involvement Initiative.

[PDF]Conducting a Comprehensive Needs Assessment - Virginia ...
A needs assessment is the first step in developing a schoolwide or school improvement plan. It is a process of looking at data and information about the school to develop a clear picture and understanding of what is and has been occurring at the school.
[PDF]school improvement: a systemic view of what's missing and what to do ...
barriers to learning and teaching, we clarify what is missing in school— improvement planning“ We move on to outline the type ofcomprehen~ sive, multifaceted ...

[PDF]Turning around, transforming, and continuously improving schools - Eric
by H Adelman - ‎2011 - ‎Cited by 12 - ‎Related articlesauxiliary services and usually as an afterthought. For our policy analysis of the problem with this trend, see. School Improvement Planning: What's Missing?

[PDF]School Improvement Planning - A Handbook for Principals - Ontario
people who are developing a school improvement plan will find useful during the planning ... version of the handbook—as both an HTML and a PDF file. In this ...


[PDF]School Improvement Planning Process Guide - Office of ...
Jan 1, 2005 - School Improvement Planning. Process Guide. Prepared by. The School Improvement Office. Robert MacGregor. Assistant Superintendent ...

[PDF]School Improvement Plan - Aberdeen Public School
0. 2015-2017. Central High. School. School Improvement. Plan .... administrators have joined to form aSchool Improvement Planning Committee.

[PDF]Best Practices for School Improvement Planning - Hanover Research
Section I: Essential Components of a School Improvement Plan . ..... 6. http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/document/reports/sihande.pdf. [3] Park, S., et al.,

Growth Mindset and Stoic Philosophy of Mind

Self Improvement Philosophies - Growth Mindset and Stoicism

“Non est ad astra mollis e terris via" - "There is no easy way from the earth to the stars” ― Seneca

If you stop for a minute and just let this quote soak in, it can be extremely powerful. In truth, you have probably heard this before or some variation of the words and this is because it speaks the truth. When it comes to life, there really are no shortcuts and you have to work hard for everything that you earn. Let’s face it, school, career, and life can be extremely tough and there are many hurdles that we have to overcome which is why it is only "the stoic or today the gritty" that make it look easy. Making it to the top for many takes Herculean sticktoitiveness "grit"! Academic hurdles will stop many people from pursuing advanced education or advanced careers, this impacts future finances, life success, and even lifelong happiness. Americans spend $23 billion a year seeking to develop the success mindset and an easy path to happiness "self-improvement?"1000s of new books yearly from the nuevo sages, DVDs, seminars, and coaching all selling a solution. The source for most of the "successful-self-programs" comes from ideas on Stoic philosophy. Read the free book, Meditations By Marcus Aurelius Written 167 A.C.E. a book on being gritty, developing a growth "stoic" mindset, and the original self-improvement book. 

"Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties." Helen Keller

Over the years, we have seen many sages and gurus come out and say that they have the definitive guide to business or education success. Of course, many of them were simply attempting to make a quick buck from those who had ambition but didn't quite know how to use it correctly. However, there is one philosophy that has been in existence for 2,000 years and this is something you may not have heard about - stoicism and the modern phycological counterpart, growth mindset. Within this theory, it suggests that the key to lasting happiness and success is adopting the correct mindset or philosophy. However, let’s not take this as a given; let’s delve into exactly why this is true. 

“Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.”
― Seneca

Growth Mindset - Currently, there is a buzzword or truism in education - ‘growth mindset’. Whether you are a teacher or a student, this is something you may have heard because it is a philosophy that has attracted a lot of attention. First developed by Carol Dweck, growth mindset is a theory that revolves around self-perception; this means the opinion that one holds about one’s self. For example, do you believe that you are intelligent or unintelligent? Although this is a simple example, there are many others including whether you think you are a good parent, teacher, friend, etc. 

“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” ― Seneca

Fixed Mindset - In Dweck’s work, she explains that there are two different types of mindset that one may have - fixed or growth. When someone has a fixed mindset, it suggests that their qualities, such as certain talents or intelligence, are completely fixed. Instead of attempting to develop their skills, people who have this fixed way of thinking prefer to document their intelligence. In most cases, there is also a general belief that effort doesn’t really play a role in success because talent is the key factor. In the classroom, students convince themselves that they are ‘dumb’ or even just slow learners which leads to a shying away from challenges. All things considered, this can be detrimental because when an exam is failed, for example, the student will convince themselves that they just aren't good enough to pass as opposed to revising and taking the test again. 

“Did I win? Did I lose? Those are the wrong questions. The correct question is: Did I make my best effort?” If so, he says, “You may be outscored but you will never lose.”
― Carol S. Dweck, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

Growth Mindset - On the flip side, Dweck rediscovered or reinvented the stoic philosophy as it relates to pedagogical philosophies,  "growth mindset" which is where people believe that they can improve their basic abilities "intelligence/skills" as long as they work hard and persist in pursuing their goals in spite of obstacles.  At birth, people are given a starting point in terms of intelligence and people with the growth mindset say that this starting point can be improved over time with great effort, hard work, determination, and a stoic philosophy. When this mindset is in action, it creates a passion for learning because they know that they will reap the rewards. For students with this mindset, there is a belief that perseverance, reflection and revision of beliefs, and working on challenging and difficult academic problems is all worthwhile because it can pay off with deeper skills and knowledge. Rather than saying ‘I’m just not good at algebra’, the student sees struggle and failure as an opportunity to from their mistakes and make faster progress and improve a skill. 

"Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten." ― B. F. Skinner

Education - As we can see, the differentiation between the two mindsets in education is a vital component for success beyond the school years. Just as we said in the beginning, ‘there is no shortcut to success’. Essentially, this means that the students with the fixed mindset are going to get eaten alive in the real world because they don’t believe in self-improvement and development of self is a lost cause. 

"When it comes to success, there are no shortcuts’"― Bo Bennett

Although many will say that it is ‘too early’ for someone’s mindset to be altered, the reason why it has made such an impact in schools of late is because people who leave education with a fixed mindset struggle to change later in life. If a student can be encouraged to think about learning with a growth mindset, the affect on their academic improvement will be phenomenal. Suddenly, they will realize that ‘wait, I have to work hard if I really want to achieve!’. 

“It is the power of the mind to be unconquerable.” ― Seneca, The Stoic Philosophy of Seneca: Essays and Letters

For the teachers, it is all about encouragement for students and trying to transform those who have the fixed mindset which can be so damaging. In fact, research has suggested that students achieve better results when they believe that learning and hard work will improve their skills. As well as learning more, there is also an argument for faster learning as well as a more thorough type of learning with this mindset. For many, this doesn’t come as a surprise because it is the key to lasting happiness and success. 

“So what should we say when children complete a task—say, math problems—quickly and perfectly? Should we deny them the praise they have earned? Yes. When this happens, I say, “Whoops. I guess that was too easy. I apologize for wasting your time. Let’s do something you can really learn from!”
― Carol S. Dweck, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

Teaching the Mindset - At first, there were many challenges for teachers in knowing how this mindset could be taught but there is now sufficient evidence to show that it can be taught intentionally. For example, teachers could openly praise effort in the classroom as opposed to focusing solely on achievement. Rather than saying that a student must be very smart, teachers are now encouraged to praise hard work and effort. 


“After seven experiments with hundreds of children, we had some of the clearest findings I’ve ever seen: Praising children’s intelligence harms their motivation and it harms their performance. How can that be? Don’t children love to be praised? Yes, children love praise. And they especially love to be praised for their intelligence and talent. It really does give them a boost, a special glow—but only for the moment. The minute they hit a snag, their confidence goes out the window and their motivation hits rock bottom. If success means they’re smart, then failure means they’re dumb. That’s the fixed mindset.”
― Carol S. Dweck, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

Stoicism - As so many self-improvement philosophies do, the growth mindset has a foundation in stoicism. Essentially, stoicism is a term that reflects the learning that takes place through logic and rationalism as opposed to feelings and comfort. Over the years, there has been many misconceptions regarding stoicism and this is because the term is often simplified so far that it becomes inaccurate. For example, many have said that stoicism means that one must reject pleasure but this simply isn't true. According to early Stoics, we will all be fine as long as we align ourselves with logic because everything thereafter will fall into place. 


“Parents think they can hand children permanent confidence—like a gift—by praising their brains and talent. It doesn’t work, and in fact has the opposite effect. It makes children doubt themselves as soon as anything is hard or anything goes wrong. If parents want to give their children a gift, the best thing they can do is to teach their children to love challenges, be intrigued by mistakes, enjoy effort, and keep on learning. That way, their children don’t have to be slaves of praise. They will have a lifelong way to build and repair their own confidence.” ― Carol S. Dweck, Mindset: How You Can Fulfill Your Potential

Embracing Adversity - When it comes to philosophy itself, the topic is also the victim of many misconceptions. For the most part, people believe that it involves men and women sitting around a table questioning life and the aim/purpose of us all. In this false suggestion, philosophy is purely theoretical but there is also a very important practical element that needs to be discussed. When philosophy is used, there is an underlying aim to make our time on Earth that little bit easier and more productive. In some regards, it could be considered an instruction manual for our own lives which has been written and edited by the leaders throughout time.

Of all the philosophical theories, stoicism happens to be one of the most useful because, as we saw earlier, it discusses the idea of aligning one’s self with logic. At the same time, it trusts that we are spending our time focusing on the things that we can change as opposed to the events to which we have no control. Once again, comparisons can be drawn to how there are no shortcuts to success. If success is to be earned, we all have to focus on the events that we can change.

In life, we will all have tricky times to overcome whether it is happening right now or is some years away. No matter how hard you try, there will be adversities that take your full attention but stoicism explains how these obstacles can be overcome before then turning them in our favor. With a growth mindset that has been taught at an early age, this process becomes a whole lot easier.

The Connection - Immediately, you should be able to draw the link between the growth mindset and stoicism because they are very closely related. As stated earlier, the growth mindset comes from stoic foundations because students have to make a decision. Will they take the fixed mindset and decide that they cannot improve their key skills? Or will they realize that there are certain things that we can control and one of these few things is ourselves? On the one hand, there is a focus on controlling the wrong thing but, on the other, there is a stoic mindset in that we can control our own destiny as long as we are willing to spend a little time becoming a more informed person.

In truth, it isn't hard to see why the growth mindset is making waves in education because it promotes a confidence in one’s ability and allows students to make up their own minds regarding their academic choices, career choices, and future path when they see hard work is part of life. If they want to become a scientist and need to improve their math skills, growth mindset tells them that they need to work hard to learn everything that they will need to know rather than deciding that it ‘isn’t for them’ after failing one test. Then, stoicism is needed to overcome failure and push through any adversity that comes their way. If an exam is failed or they are rejected from their dream job after school, they will know exactly how to bounce back.

Summary - In conclusion, we may not have control over external events even if they affect us in the worst ways possible. However, what we do control is how we react. If you happen to fail an exam, job interview, or even in a relationship, you need to react in the right way in order to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and go again. If we teach the younger generations that the key to lasting happiness and success is the growth mindset, we may just have adults that are happy and successful, whilst willing to put in the hard work, in the future!

Top Multisensory Reading Techniques

How to Teach Reading - Top 10 Multisensory Reading Techniques

Using multisensory reading techniques in your daily reading instruction will greatly help students with reading and language issues. Students with specific reading disabilities like dyslexia can learn to read with greater fluency, greater comprehension and with less struggle when using Multisensory Reading Techniques. Going from practice to praxis always needs to include intelligent repeated actions between the teacher and students.

For some children, reading is just a normal part of growing up and the skill steadily improves over time. For others, it can be a real challenge and this is especially true for those struggling with dyslexia or perhaps even those who have other issues including the simple use of sight, touch, movement, or hearing. In these scenarios, engaging more than one sense can be incredibly useful so multisensory learning techniques are what we will be discussing today! Going multimodal is critical for praxis, the use of kinesthetic muscle memory, the wisdom of the hand/mind connection, seeing, listening, saying, and touching ELA concepts. 

Word Dance - Take a difficult word that students need to master and create a word dance, a series of gestures and kinesthetic body movements that help students visualize concepts through dramatic gestures. Students can use American Sign Language gestures or create their own gestures. Whole Brain Teaching uses The Crazy Professor Reading Game to power up kinesthetic learning. 

Back to Writing - As the name suggests, this technique will see students using their fingers to write letters and words on their partners back. They say the sounds and syllables as they write letters, phoneme forms, and words. Special care can be used to enforce differentiate between ‘b’ 'p' 'q', and ‘d’ and other common errors. To help even further, students can write the complete word and have students guess the word as part of a game. Back to writing can also be turned into a great team building game. 

Procedure from: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/back-writing

1. Put students into teams (no more than eight or so in each team) and get each team to line up facing the board.

1. The student at the front of each team needs chalk or a board pen. Show a word or a picture to all the students who are at the back of each line. Use a word you've studied in class, that all the students should know.

1. The students at the back of the line should ‘write' each letter of the word with their finger, on the back of the student in front of them in the line. The students pass the letters down the line by doing the same and ‘writing' the letters in turn on the back of the student in front of them.

1. The student at the front of the line writes the letters on the board to make the word. The first team with the word written correctly on the board wins.

Palm and Air Writing - As the name also suggests, this technique will see students using their fingers to write letters or words in the air or on a flat surface. Again they say the letters and the sounds as they write the letter forms and or words in the air, on a desk, or on their palms. This can also be turned into a game and team guilding activity. The student can air spell or even use AMERICA SIGN LANGUAGE with the same procedures in the Write to Back game.

Word Building - Find a set of fridge magnets or a set of scrabble letters, word building exercises can be fantastic for learning. You can make a set of letters and or phonemes to target specific phonics goals. Vowels appear in specific clusters within a single word, and building words using the digraphs help students see common patterns. For example, you could have one color for consonants, consonant blends, diphthongs, and another for single vowels, diphthongs, digraphs, and diphthongs. If you add in sounds for each letter, the student will be engaging colors, sounds, phonemes, and letters all together as one concept to build individual words. With physical magnets and scrabble letters, touch will also play a huge role and the shape will be attained easily. 

Sand Writing - After grabbing a tray, lay out some sand and allow the student to write with their fingers. For many, this will keep them engaged whilst using sight, sound, and touch once again to spell words and write letters. With all of these exercises, students will need sound each letter or word as they write and the connection will then be made. In truth, sand could even be replaced with shaving cream or any other similar substance.

Sandpaper - Sometimes, paper just isn't enough to engage the touching element which is where sandpaper can come in and play a pivotal role. Much like magnets, students will get a feel for the letters whilst connecting this to the sound as they talk aloud. Again, different colors can be used and words can be spelled on the table after cutting the letters out.

Broken Telephone - One person whispers a message to the ear of the next person through a line of people until the last player announces the message to the entire group. Although the objective is to pass around the message without it becoming misheard and altered along the way, part of the enjoyment is that, regardless, this usually ends up happening.

Read, Build, Write - Using sight words, magnetic letters, and then a marker, students can follow this process for each word. With three boxes on a piece of paper, the teacher and student can first ‘Read’ the word together. Then, the student can use the magnets to ‘Build’ the word before using the marker to ‘Write’ the word.

Story Sticks - For more advanced practice, story sticks can be a great addition for comprehension. Often, students will struggle to answer questions on a story but what if you were to introduce simple colored sticks? Whilst reading together, the teacher could hand across simple sticks asking questions such as ‘where does the story take place’ or ‘who is the main character’.

Shared Digital Reading - Nowadays, there is a multitude of digital resources available and this includes audio versions of most chapter books as well as printable excerpts of books. Whilst reading in small groups with the teacher is preferred that is not always possible in large classrooms, students can use these to follow the story and share and underline points of interest. 

Chunking and Tapping - Finally, the tapping system is yet another great technique to test. Taking a simple word like ‘cat’ as an example, the word begins with a harsh ‘c’ sound which will bring their index finger to their thumb. With the short ‘a’ sound, their middle finger can be tapped. To finish, their ring finger can tap the thumb for the ’t’ sound. With this, words will become segmented and easier to understand and remember.

There we have it, ten fantastic techniques that encourage students to use more than one sense which will improve understanding as well as memory recall in the future!

TEACHER RESOURCES
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