4thGrade Writing Assignment

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Creativity in Open Court.
4th-Grade Writing Assignment Write a paper
comparing and contrasting Anne Frank and
McBroom from your Open Court textbook. Be sure
to tell what you learned from reading both
stories.
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Examples of Student Work
Both Ann Frank and McBroom are two
stories about survival, but beyond that they are
very different. McBroom tries to stay away from
the big wind. Ann Frank is trying to survive by
hiding from their enemies. McBroom is a tall
tale and Ann Frank is not. Ann Frank is a
true story in which three families hide in a
warehouse inside an attic. They are hiding from
the Nazis because the families do not want to go
to concentration camps. In contrast, Mc Broom is
a tall tale where McBroom is hiding in the bottom
of his house. McBroom is hiding from the big
wind that came.
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Ann Frank and McBroom are first person
narratives. After reading Ann Franks first
person narrative, I felt sorry for her. I felt
sorry because they would have to hide in a
warehouse everyday. I cant imagine living in a
small attic full of stuff with three families.
If their families were caught by one of the Nazi
helpers, they could be killed. After
reading McBrooms first person narrative, I felt
happy. I was happy because McBrooms purpose is
to entertain, and McBroom uses a lot of
exaggeration. The two stories are really
about survival. These two stories are very
interesting. One day when I get older, I will
buy the books, and Im going to read them
everyday because people need to be entertained
and informed.
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Or This
9th Grade Multiple Intelligence Meets
Shakespeare Demonstrating Comprehension
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9th Grade Assignment Create a visual that shows
you understand the central theme of Romeo and
Juliet. Be prepared to present your creation to
the class.
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6th Grade Totem Pole Assignment Multiple
Intelligence Meets Science
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A diagram to bring clarity to the previous slide
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Elementary School Example

• Kindergarten Assignment
• Based on our reading, draw a picture of an ocean
  animal that you would like to be.

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Elementary School Example

• Kindergarten Assignment
• Based on our reading, choose an ocean animal you
  would like to be. Explain what you would look
  like, what you would eat, and what you would do.
  Why do you want to be this animal?

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Grade 7 Standards Based, Rigorous Writing
Assignment
Essay on Anne Frank Your essay will consist of
an opening paragraph which introduced the title,
author and general background of the novel.
Your thesis will state specifically what Anne's
overall personality is, and what general
psychological and intellectual changes she
exhibits over the course of the book You might
organize your essay by grouping psychological and
intellectual changes OR you might choose 3 or 4
characteristics (like friendliness, patience,
optimism, self doubt) and show how she changes in
this area.
Source Unnamed school district in California,
2002-03 school year.
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Grade 7 Low-Level Writing Assignment

• My Best Friend
• A chore I hate
• A car I want
• My heartthrob

Source Unnamed school district in California,
2002-03 school year.
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The Odyssey Ninth Grade High-level Assignment
Comparison/Contrast Paper Between Homer's Epic
Poem, The Odyssey and the Movie "0 Brother Where
Art Thou" By nature, humans compare and contrast
all elements of their world. Why? Because in the
juxtaposition of two different things, one can
learn more about each individual thing as well as
something about the universal nature of the
things being compared. For this 2-3 page paper
you will want to ask yourself the following
questions what larger ideas do you see working
in The Odyssey and "0 Brother Where Art Thou"? Do
both works treat these issues in the same way?
What do the similarities and differences between
the works reveal about the underlying nature of
the larger idea?
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The Odyssey Ninth Grade Low-level Assignment
Divide class into 3 groups Group 1 designs a
brochure titled "Odyssey Cruises". The students
listen to the story and write down all the places
Odysseus visited in his adventures, and list the
cost to travel from place to place. Group 2
draws pictures of each adventure. Group 3 takes
the names of the characters in the story and gods
and goddesses in the story and designs a
crossword puzzle.
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Using the SAME TEXT BOOKCollege-prep assignments
from

• School A, District A, California
• 1467 students enrolled in 2005
• 82 White
• 6 Asian
• 4 Latino
• 2 Black
• 2 Low-Income

• School B, District B, California
• 2001 students enrolled in 2005
• 45 White
• 4 Asian
• 48 Latino
• 1 Black
• 27 Low-Income

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Same Text Book High-Level college-prep
assignment.

• Describe the fundamental problems in the economy
  that helped cause the Great Depression. Consider
  agriculture, consumer spending and debt,
  distribution of wealth, the stock market
• Describe how people struggled to survive during
  the Depression
• How did Hoovers belief in rugged individualism
  shape his policies during the depression?

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Same Text BookLow Level college-prep assignment.

• Role play (Meet the Press) interview key people
  of the era
• Draw a political cartoon highlighting a major
  event of the time
• Share excerpts from noted literary authors-Lewis,
  Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Hughes
• Listen to jazz artists of the 20s
• Construct a collage depicting new inventions

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Folks Need Help.

• A. Provide Anchor Assignments. At every grade
  level.For each core discipline.And for good,
  rigorous CTE courses.
• B. Create A Repository for Good Course Redesign
  Strategies. (Technology enables good pedagogy
  with large s of students.)
• C. Create a Repository for Model Course Syllabi.
  (e.g., ON COURSE FOR SUCCESS A CLOSE LOOK AT
  SELECTED HIGH SCHOOL COURSES THAT PREPARE ALL
  STUDENTS FOR COLLEGE, ACT and the Education
  Trust, 2005)

Source ON COURSE FOR SUCCESS A CLOSE LOOK AT
SELECTED HIGH SCHOOL COURSES THAT PREPARE ALL
STUDENTS FOR COLLEGE, ACT and the Education
Trust, 2005
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And They Need More Time.
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How Much Time for Teaching and Learning? The Full
Calendar Year 2008
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2007-08 California High School Calendar Less
Summer Vacation
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2007-08 California High School Calendar Less
Weekends and Holidays
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Less Special Schedules and Professional
Development Days
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2007-08 California High School Calendar Less
Testing Days
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Final Instructional Time Left for
Students/Teachers?
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Whats left?About 18 days per subject, per
year.For a total of 51,027 instructional
minutes.

• Note State Ed Code Instructional Minutes
  Requirement in High School 64,800

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Be Careful Instructional Time Per Course
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We cant be serious about closing the
Achievement Gap while allowing the Teacher
Quality Gap to persist, and grow.
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K-3 Teacher Credentials in California Schools
with Different Proportions of Low-Income Students
Source Class size reduction in California
1998-99 evaluation findings, 2000, CDE.
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And Now, Theres Virtually No Gap.Highly
Qualified.According to the states definition
there is virtually no gap.
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Most Intern Teachers Work in Our Lowest
Performing Schools

• 54 of all interns are teaching in schools with
  the lowest API scores, compared to only 8 of
  interns in schools with the highest API scores.

Minority Quartiles
Source Wechsler, M., Tiffany-Morales, J.,
Campbell, A., Humphrey, D., Kim, D., Shields, P.,
Wang, H. (2007). The Status of the Teaching
Profession 2007. Santa Cruz, CA The Center for
the Future of Teaching and Learning.
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Todays 6th graders who attended a low-achieving
school have had

• A 41 chance of being taught by one underprepared
  teacher
• AND
• A 24 chance of having more than one.

Source Guha, R., Campbell, A., Humphrey, D.,
Shields, P., Tiffany-Morales, J., Wechsler, M.
(2006). Californias teaching force 2006 Key
issues and trends. Santa Cruz, CA The Center for
the Future of Teaching and Learning.
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While their peers in the highest-achieving
schools have had

• A 20 chance of being taught by one underprepared
  teacher
• AND
• A 2 chance of having more than one.

Source Guha, R., Campbell, A., Humphrey, D.,
Shields, P., Tiffany-Morales, J., Wechsler, M.
(2006). Californias teaching force 2006 Key
issues and trends. Santa Cruz, CA The Center for
the Future of Teaching and Learning.
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Monitor the Distribution of Teacher Talent in
More Revealing Ways
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Students Who Start 2nd Grade at About the Same
Level of Math Achievement
Source Heather Jordan, Robert Mendro, and Dash
Weerasinghe, The Effects of Teachers on
Longitudinal Student Achievement, 1997.
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Finish 5th Grade Math at Dramatically Different
Levels Depending on the Quality of Their Teachers
Source Heather Jordan, Robert Mendro, and Dash
Weerasinghe, The Effects of Teachers on
Longitudinal Student Achievement, 1997.
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The Teacher Quality Gap is about money too.
Were spending far less on teaching the kids who
need good teachers the most.
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A Tale of Two Schools

• Locke High School
• Los Angeles Unified
• 99 Latino African American
• 66 of students receive free or reduced price
  lunch
• Academic Performance Index 440

• Granada Hills High School
• Los Angeles Unified
• 32 Latino African American
• 27 of students receive free or reduced price
  lunch
• Academic Performance Index 773

Source CA Department of Education, 2003-04 data
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• The average teacher at Locke High School gets
  paid an estimated 8,034 less every year than his
  counterpart at Granada Hills High School.
• If Locke spent as much as Granada Hills on
  teacher salaries for its 119 teachers, the school
  budget would increase by nearly a million dollars
  (956,056) every year.

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If we had the courage and creativity to change
these patterns?
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The Rivkin, Hanushek, and Kain estimates of
teacher performance suggest that having five
years of good teachers in a row could overcome
the average seventh-grade mathematics
achievement gap .
1.0 standard deviation above average, or at
the 85th quality percentile
SOURCE Eric A. Hanushek and Steven G. Rivkin,
How to Improve the Supply of High-Quality
Teachers, In Brookings Papers on Education
Policy 2004, Diane Ravitch, ed., Brrookings
Institution Press, 2004. Estimates based on
research using data from Texas described in
Teachers, Schools, and Academic Achievement,
Working Paper Number 6691, National Bureau of
Economic Research, revised July 2002.
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Help Make Sense of the Adequacy vs. Efficiency
Debate. Would More Money Help?
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Remember the 1.5 Trillion? Business as usual gets
us little relationship between dollars spent and
outcomes. District API and Spending per Pupil
2004-2005
Source Imazeki, Jennifer (2007), Assessing the
Costs of K-12 Education in Californias Public
Schools, Paper in Getting Down to Facts Research
Project, www.irepp.net
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Some districts that out-perform spend lessNAEP
2005 Grade 8 Math -Overall Scale Scores
7,132
8,311
11,920
8,283
7,284
11,312
12,562
6,923
7,799
10,199
11,847
Source National Center for Education
Statistics, http//nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/n
de and Standard and Poors www.schoolmatters.com
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Of course, but more money must be spent more
wisely. Advocates for more money must also be
advocates for reform.
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Closing Californias Achievement Gaps is the Most
Important Issue Facing Our Public Schools. This
conference is about helping you with tools to use
now as we work together to build the civic and
political will to do what it takes. Our Mission
is Possible.The Time is Now.