Top 114 Tips to Close the Achievement Gap
Top 114 Tips for Schools to Close the Achievement Gap with Limited FundsA Free Report for Educators from Merit Software In-depth Interactive Learning Tools — Because You Want ResultsTop 114 Tips for Schools to Close the Achievement Gap with Limited FundsA Free Report for EducatorsSince the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act, U.S. schools are under enormous pressure to raise student achievement. In effect, school districts must tackle two questions: How can we improve academic performance? Can it be done
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Top 114 Tips for Schools to Close the Achievement Gap with Limited Funds
A Free Report for Educators
In-depth Interactive Learning Tools — Because You Want Results
Top 114 Tips for Schools to Close the Achievement Gap with Limited Funds
A Free Report for Educators
Since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act, U.S. schools are under enormous pressure to raise student achievement. In effect, school districts must tackle two questions: How can we improve academic performance? Can it be done cost-effectively? In searching for answers, officials have been overwhelmed with claims from special interest groups. Concepts such as vouchers, charter schools and increased accountability have been highly touted and adopted. Unfortunately, these efforts have scant evidence to justify their use. Few reforms have been demonstrated to work through “Gold Standard” research—research conducted by credible third parties employing best practices such as randomized control groups, reasonable sample sizes and adequate time of use. Even reforms supported by lower quality research rarely show a meaningful effect on pupil achievement. Furthermore, the conditions required to implement many reforms are difficult to build upon and their costeffectiveness is dubious. Fortunately, there is another option for schools, an option backed by “Gold Standard” research. It is an option that has a big impact on student achievement; one that schools can easily afford and implement in their classrooms—Merit Software. Faculty members at Marshall University have independently tested Merit’s reading, writing and math programs– in a multi-year effort–in several public schools. In a groundbreaking 24-week evaluation using random assignment, 37% more students in one grade, and 19% in another, passed the state’s reading/language arts test when Merit was used as a supplement to instruction. Unlike other educational software, Merit is not drill and practice. Merit provides direct, adaptive, instruction. It breaks down key concepts into understandable parts. Students are engaged by applying skills as they learn them. Personal help is available in multiple forms and as often as is required. Merit is closely aligned to, and easily supplements, in-class instruction. With Merit, teachers are interrupted less frequently and have more time to cover prepared lessons. Built-in tracking helps teachers monitor pupil progress and know when to give additional support. The cost of using Merit is miniscule compared to other reform options. Pricing is scalable and based on a school’s need. With Merit, school officials can have confidence they will help their students—without bursting their budget. Based on feedback from educators, here are 114 tips to close the achievement gap with limited funds using Merit Software.
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Top 114 Tips for Schools to Close the Achievement Gap with Limited Funds—Best Practices for Educators: Language Arts, Reading
1. Assess Reading Levels: Determine the extent to which individual students are struggling. Look over recent grades, test scores and sample assignments. Gauge the range of students’ pre-existing skills and knowledge. What are your reading goals for these students? What content are they learning? What kinds of short- or long-term projects might help to improve their reading level? What are your overall goals for the class? 2. Relate Data to Reading: Decide which subgroups of students are in your class. Look over students’ demographics. Do your students fall into any particular subgroups? What do students from each subgroup have in common? How might factors, such as family background, enrollment, attendance, and class quartile, impact student reading levels? Consider which short- and long-term reading projects will benefit students from each subgroup. 3. Discuss Reading with Students: How much do they read when not in class? Do students enjoy reading? Why or why not? When is reading easy? Difficult? What kinds of topics do students enjoy reading about? Do they like stories about families or people solving problems, biographies, history, science, sports, or poems? What kinds of topics don’t they like? 4. Talk About Reading for School: Ask about the reading students do for social studies, science, and language arts classes. Is reading for some subjects easier than for others? What kind of reading homework do students most enjoy? What kind of reading homework do they dislike or postpone? What new ideas have students recently learned in social studies, science, or language arts class? What new concepts don’t they understand? 5. Ask About Reading Habits: Ask when students read outside school. Do they use books or read online? Where do they read—in the library, on the bus, at their kitchen table, near the TV, in bed at night? How much time do they spend reading? What do family members like to read? Have students bring in and share one paragraph that they really like from a text. Ask them to explain what they like about it. 6. Give Reading Time: Help students find books and articles that they can relate to. Make sure that the reading level for student-selected material is not too hard for struggling students. Make sure that advanced students choose something that will challenge them. Give students time to read what they like. 7. Create Reading Groups: Break students into small reading groups of 4 or 5, according to thematic interest. Assign each student a role, such as Director of Discussion; Chief of Connection (with the job of making connections between the reading and real life); President of Plot (with the job of summarizing the story, as well as explaining main ideas and themes); and Vocabulary Masters (with the job of identifying vocabulary that other group members might not know). Help each group set up a schedule for discussions and assignments. After reading groups finish a book, have them regroup and rotate jobs. 8. Learn to Like Language: Have students work in pairs, grouping each pair by reading choice. Ask each pair to read together through a page that they like. Each pair should write down the five words that seem most interesting. Have them look up any words they have trouble understanding. One student might be responsible for finding the words and the other responsible for writing down a brief definition. Next, assign each student a new partner. Ask the newly formed pairs to teach each other their new vocabulary words.
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9. Dive into Dictionaries: Give students time to look up vocabulary words from social studies, science and language arts class. Make sure all students understand what nouns, verbs and adjectives are. Make sure all students understand abbreviations, such as “n.,” “v.t.,” and “adj.” 10. Be Vocal with Vocabulary: Let students know that building a vocabulary is something that people do their whole lives. No matter how many words they already know, they will always encounter new ones that they don’t understand. 11. Relate Reading to Life: Ask students to write down their plans for the future. Where do they see themselves in 5 or 10 years? Attending college? Working at something they enjoy? Starting a career? Starting a family of their own? Ask students to briefly explain how reading fits in with their plans. What do students imagine they will need to know? What kinds of books or articles will they need to read? 12. Get to Know Reading Software: Have students use a Merit reading or vocabulary program, going through Tryouts to see where they need the most reading skills help. Ask students to write down a skill they have used before as well as skills they find easy or difficult. List the names of the different skills on the board, along with the phrases “I know this,” “I find this easy,” and “I need to work on this” below each skill name. Ask for a show of hands regarding each skill and jot down the number of students who respond to each phrase. Collect students’ written responses regarding skills. 13. Assess What Students Understand: After class, use the Merit Teacher Program Manager (TPM) to see how students did on Tryouts. Are student self-assessments accurate regarding what they know and what they find easy or difficult? How much understanding do individual students have about where they are in the learning process? Can you predict which students will need more practice with certain reading skills, and which will master new skills faster? 14. Build Student Reading Skills: Have students return to their Merit reading or vocabulary program and go through the Warm-up section. Note that all students will be applying skills as they learn them. 15. Give Reading Another Voice: Ask students to pause from their Merit Warm-up section. Explain how to click on “Voice,” and choose between “Kate” and “Paul.” Explain options for controlling voice speed. Students should start out by using the “Slow” voice rate, with the goal of resetting the Merit voice speed to “Normal” during a future software session. As students improve and become increasingly comfortable with the “Normal” voice rate, they should be encouraged to use the voice only sparingly. 16. Be a Goalkeeper: At the start of each Merit reading/vocabulary Warm-up or Workout session, discuss what students are trying to achieve. List skills they will be learning and practicing. List goals for the session. Make sure students understand these goals. 17. Review Reading Software Feedback: When doing a Merit Warm-up or Workout, discuss feedback with students. Most reading/vocabulary feedback goes beyond identifying a simple wrong or right answer; it gives students additional information they can use to correct a response. Make sure students can understand and paraphrase software feedback. 18. Link Reading Skills to Content: As students reach the Merit Workout section, ask them to think about the software content. Have students note the topic of a software text that is familiar to them, as well as a software topic that is unfamiliar. Request that students list 5 or 6 new vocabulary words from software texts that they regard as either interesting or important, along with definitions from the software. 19. Make Reading Software a Shared Experience: Follow up each software session with class discussion. Ask students to look over their notes from the software session. Can they describe a reading topic that was familiar to them? What software reading content was new to students? What new questions do students have? What topics would they like to learn more about?
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20. Flash Through Vocabulary: Reinforce Merit reading vocabulary by making sets of flash cards. Break students into groups of 3. Ask students to write a vocabulary word on one side of the card and its definition on the other. One group member should pronounce the vocabulary word, the second should state its definition, and the third should use the word in a sentence. Listen to groups, making sure they are using vocabulary correctly. Ask group members to trade roles after a while. 21. Troubleshoot Quickly: Review any problem areas for reading or vocabulary in the classroom. Discuss what skill(s) students found most difficult when answering Merit reading or vocabulary questions. Later, use the Merit TPM to assess students’ progress on the Workout section. 22. Boost Confidence: Have students print scores after completing a Merit Workout Section. Discuss scores with students. Are they pleased with their progress? What kinds of questions seem easier or more familiar to them? What new things have they learned? What will be their goal for their next software session? 23. Relate Software to Curriculum: Supplement Merit by giving students time to read material from social studies, science, and language arts class, so they may practice reading and vocabulary skills in a variety of areas. Give students reading material/quantity according to their level. 24. Practice Note-Taking: Break students into groups of 4 or 5. Give each group a short sample from a social studies, science, or language arts text that matches their reading level. Ask groups to decide together what the most important sentence in each paragraph is, and then to underline it. Have groups circle new vocabulary words. If they are unsure about what a word means, they should look it up, draw an arrow to the margin, and write the meaning of the word. Next, they should mark brackets around phrases or facts they do not understand, draw an arrow to the margin, and write a question mark. Check over what groups are doing, and respond to their questions. 25. Apply Skills to New Content: Break students into groups of 4 or 5. Give each group a short sample from a social studies, science, or language arts text that matches their reading level. Have groups find the key words that tell the main idea. Can they list 1 or 2 details? Find a fact or an opinion? Explain text sequence? What can they infer from their text? Help students understand they can apply the same reading and vocabulary skills to all school subjects. 26. Stretch Student Skills: Break students into groups of 4 or 5. Give each group a short sample from a social studies, science, or language arts text that challenges them slightly. Have groups once again apply their new reading skills to each subject area. This time, also ask them to write sentences explaining what they are reading. 27. Share Vocabulary from New Content: Write out 3 short lists of vocabulary from a social studies, science, or language arts text. Divide students into groups of 3. Ask students to create sentences using vocabulary according to the list they were assigned, so that each person in a group will be working on a different list. Have groups get together to share sentences and teach each other new vocabulary. 28. Create Weekend/ Holiday/Vacation Readers: Ask students to read something they enjoy for an extra 20-30 minutes every day during weekends and school breaks, 29. Create Careful Readers (A): Request that students keep a reading journal. Ask them to write down what they read, when they read it, and who wrote it. If they are starting new language arts reading, they should write down a list of characters and who they are. If they are starting new social studies or history-of-science reading, they should write down a list of people mentioned in the text and who they are. Under each reading-journal entry, students should write their own comments, questions, and new vocabulary words. Suggest that students try to summarize briefly what they read—but be sure to remind them not to retell all the details!
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30. Create Careful Readers (B): Give students prompts to help them with reading journals. Have them complete statements such as: “This makes me think about….”; “The person I identify with most is….”; “I felt upset when….”; “I laughed when….”; “The part that makes me think of my own life was….”; “I liked the description of….” Look through student reading journals. Offer some encouraging written responses. 31. Practice Point-of-View: Help students relate to characters they read about. Check that students understand point-of-view. Give them a scene from a story or book, and ask them to rewrite it in their reading journal from another character’s perspective. 32. Create Critical Thinkers: Break students into groups of 3 or 4. Give each group a different short text. Ask groups to imagine they are making up reading/vocabulary questions for the Merit program being used. Have each group create and write their own skill-related question and answers. Students should write at least one vocabulary question such as “What word can replace this underlined word?” and one question about reading content, such as “What is the main idea?” Ask group members to write out answers for their own questions. Next, give out copies of all texts being used. Bring groups together. Ask each group to take turns challenging the rest of the class with their reading/vocabulary questions. 33. Encourage Enrichment: Divide students into small groups of 3 or 4. Have each group imagine they are creating a crossword puzzle for the Merit reading or vocabulary program being used. Ask them to choose words from a social studies, science, or language arts text, and then work together to write, draw, and design their own vocabulary puzzles. 34. Talk About Test-taking: Have students return to their Merit reading or vocabulary program, going through the Finals section. Discuss how the specific skills they have been practicing may be applied to standardized tests. 35. Praise Achievement: Encourage students to print out scores from the Merit Finals section. Ask them to look over all the Merit scores that they have printed out. How do they feel about their accomplishment? Is reading for class getting any easier? Faster? Do they feel more confident when reading for social studies, science, or language arts class? 36. Reassess What Students Understand: List the names of different skills on the board, along with the phrases “I know this,” “I find this easy,” and “I need to work on this” below each skill name. Ask for a show of hands regarding each skill and jot down the number of students who respond to each phrase. Collect students’ written responses regarding skills. Compare these responses to students’ very early responses— from when they were just beginning to use Merit reading software. Have all your students made progress? How much? Can you predict how well they might do in another class next term? 37. Examine Reading Speed with Software: As students complete additional rounds of reading software, use the Teacher Program Manager (TPM) to see if individual students are completing rounds faster. Discuss reading speed with individual students and how speed relates to test readiness. 38. Reassess Reading Progress: Compare reading progress for student subgroups (that is, students grouped via demographics such as family background, enrollment, or class quartile). What impact did class-reading assignments and projects have on each subgroup? Which short- or long-term reading projects impacted subgroups the most? Did students within each subgroup show improved attendance, grades, reading levels, and/or performance on state reading tests? Did you fulfill your overall reading goals for this class?
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Top 114 Tips for Schools to Close the Achievement Gap with Limited Funds—Best Practices for Educators: Language Arts, Writing
39. Assess Student Writing Levels: Learn how much individual students are struggling. Look over recent grades, test scores, and sample assignments. Gauge the range of students’ pre-existing writing skills and knowledge. What are your goals for these students? What forms of writing are they already familiar with? What are their individual points of difficulty? What kinds of short- or long-term projects might help them? What are your overall goals for the class? 40. Relate Data to Writing: Decide what subgroups of students are in your class. Look over students’ demographics. Do your students fall into any particular subgroups? What do students within subgroups have in common? How might factors such as family background, enrollment, attendance, and class quartile impact student writing levels? Consider what short- and long-term writing projects will benefit students within each subgroup. 41. Talk About Writing for School: Ask what kind of writing students do for social studies, science, and language arts classes. Do they like writing? Why or why not? When is writing easy? Difficult? What kinds of writing assignments do students enjoy doing? What kinds of writing assignments do they postpone? How much time do they usually spend on writing assignments? Do they check their work? Do they usually write just one draft, or do they take time to rewrite? 42. Discuss Writing Habits: Ask if students write outside school. Do they write only for homework? Have they ever kept a writing journal? Do they write letters, e-mail, text messages, or web blogs? Create poems, songs, stories, or comic strips? What do they like to read? Can they describe any kind of connection between writing and reading? 43. Talk About Writing Away from School: Ask where and when students write. Do they write in the library or at home? Do they write by hand or use a word-processing program? Where do they write at home—at a desk or kitchen table? What kinds of documents (e.g., business letters, job applications, forms, email) do family members write or fill out? 44. Be Smart About Sentences: Make sure that all students understand what a sentence is before they try writing paragraphs. Discuss how a sentence always has a subject and a verb; starts with a capital letter; and ends with a period, question mark or exclamation point. Model both complete and incomplete sentences for students. 45. Persevere with Paragraphs: Make sure that all students understand what a paragraph is. Discuss how a paragraph is a block of text with the first line usually indented; is made up of several related sentences; and focuses on one topic or idea. Model a complete paragraph for students. Next, model an incomplete paragraph for students and ask them to explain why it is incomplete 46. Teach Specific Writing Skills: Introduce skills such as brainstorming, organizing, expanding ideas, and revising to students. Review these specific skills often. Ask for volunteers to model these skills for the rest of the class. 47. Organize Writing Software Sessions: Give an overview of writing software sessions. List skills that students will be learning and practicing. List what part of a software unit they will be engaged in (e.g., Pre-Writing, Warm-up). List goals for the software session; let students know what you expect them to complete by the end of the session.
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48. Get to Know Writing Software: Have students use a Merit writing program, going through Pre-Writing and inputting sentences for Writing-Body. Break the class into pairs. Ask students in each pair to share sentences with each other. 49. Share Writing Ideas: Ask students who have completed Writing Body to talk about their writing. What is their topic? What are they saying about their topic? What is their main idea? Can they make any predictions about how they will conclude their writing? 50. Create Confidence: Follow up each session by asking what students found easiest when using their Merit writing program. What was familiar? What new things did they learn about brainstorming, outlining, and organizing? 51. Troubleshoot Right Away: Review any problem areas for writing in the classroom. Ask what students found most difficult about brainstorming, outlining, and organizing. What questions do they have? 52. Get Ready for Revising (A): Tell your students that it’s okay to make mistakes—that’s what first drafts are for! Let students know that it’s fine for their first drafts to be full of spelling mistakes or to need organization. They should be using first drafts to get their ideas down and to figure out what they’re trying to say. 53. Get Ready for Revising (B): Tell all students that good writers revise a lot. They add, change text, move, and remove sentences. They create multiple drafts. They continue revising until they are satisfied with what they have to say. Finally, good writers edit for spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and usage. 54. Make Writing Software a Shared Experience: Have students continue with their Merit writing program till they reach Editing. Break the class into pairs. Ask them to work in pairs, helping each other as they edit. Ask students to print their work. 55. Encourage Student Editors: Ask students to break into small groups and share their printed writing. Have each group sit in a circle to share helpful feedback. What do they like about each other’s work? Do they have suggestions for each other? Does anything in their classmates’ writing confuse them? Is there anything they would like to hear more about? Give all students the goal of revising their work during the next software session. 56. Don’t Be Spellbound: Save Spellcheck for last. Make sure students understand Spellcheck suggestions— struggling students may replace whole words by clicking too quickly! If possible, use the “Say text” feature when proofreading. 57. Finish Revising: Ask students to add some suggested editing changes and to revise their work during the next writing software session. As students finish their writing, help them transfer their completed work to disks or to a word-processing, e-mail, or HTML program. 58. Build Student Portfolios: Create individual writing portfolios to help students develop as writers. Have students publish completed writing from Merit software sessions by printing it. Ask students to arrange their completed writings chronologically; this can help them assess their own progress as well as feel accomplishment about their growing mastery! 59. Assess Student Writing Progress: Use student-writing portfolios for more than a final grade—use them to periodically assess where students need help. Discuss portfolio content with students individually. For example, during such a discussion, you might point out how a student uses commas in several assignments.
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60. Relate Writing to Curriculum (A): Break the class into small groups of 3. Give each group a short text from their social studies, science, or language arts curriculum. Explain that each text is missing punctuation, such as sentence breaks, capitals, and commas. Have group members work together to fix their text. 61. Relate Writing to Curriculum (B): Break the class into groups of 3. Give each group copies of a different short text from their social studies, science, or language arts curriculum. Explain that their text is missing punctuation, such as sentence breaks, capitals, and commas. Have one student edit for missing capitals, another edit for sentence breaks, and another edit for commas and other punctuation. Ask groups to review their text together, explaining the editing decisions that they made. Next, have them model their editing for the rest of the class. 62. Relate Writing to Curriculum (C): Break the class into small groups of 3. Give groups a short text from their social studies, science, or language arts curriculum. Explain that their text has sentences in the wrong order. Have groups work together to fix their text. Finish by having them model their editing changes for the rest of the class. 63. Relate Writing to Curriculum (D): If using Essay Punch, break the class into small groups of 3. Give students a short text from class curriculum appropriate for their social studies, science or language arts curriculum. Explain that their text is missing paragraph breaks or has paragraphs in the wrong order. Have students fix their text. Finish by having them model their editing changes for the rest of the class. 64. Break a Spell: Give students a group of short sentences from their social studies, science, or language arts curriculum that contain common spelling or grammar mistakes (i.e., their/there; its/it’s). Have students fix text. 65. Cover Coherence: Give students a short text from their social studies, science, or language arts curriculum that has very abrupt transitions between thoughts. Have students rewrite transitional sentences to improve the text. 66. Provide Time to Practice Writing: Ask for written responses to readings during class. Ask students to keep a reading journal to record their reactions to a reading. They should use their journal to explain what they understand, keep lists of important characters or people from readings, identify something they find interesting, identify new vocabulary words, and share questions. 67. Provide Students with an Audience: Look over students’ reading journals and respond to their ideas and questions. Offer thoughtful feedback in response to written assignments. Praise students for being successful, or for just trying hard! Let students know what skills still need improvement. Offer individual teacher-student writing conferences when possible. Be clear about your expectations with individual students; expectations will vary according to student writing level. 68. Personalize Writing Prompts: Give students a choice of paragraph or essay topics relating to their own experiences, such as “the best day of my life,” “the worst day of my life,” “my dream,” “someone I love,” “what I’ve really learned in school,” “what makes me happy,” “what makes me mad,” or “my family history.” 69. Offer Range in Writing Tasks: Try to offer writing assignments that prompt reflection and inspire students to use their imagination rather than merely report on a reading. Give students a choice of different writing activities based on the same topic. Or, give students one writing activity—with each student keeping in mind your individual expectations for them. As students advance, they should be encouraged to gradually hand in longer, more complex work. 70. Offer Range in Writing Models: Provide students with models, voices, and material that they can relate to. Ask them to identify “cool sentences” or “cool phrases.” What kind of language intrigues them? Can they describe what they like about a particular voice? Ask students to try imitating a voice or style that they admire.
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71. Get Ready to Write Anywhere: Ask students to do pre-writing for language arts, social studies, or historyof-science assignments. Make sure that students understand that the skills they are learning can be applied to all kinds of written work. 72. Get Ready to Edit Anywhere: Request that students edit their writing for language arts, social studies, and science classes. Remind students about common mistakes that they need to check for, such as sentence breaks, capitals, commas, as well as common errors in spelling or usage. Offer students an editing checklist, and encourage them to use it. 73. Talk About Writing and Test-Taking: Discuss how skills students are practicing may be applied to class or standardized tests. Explain why, even during a test, it is worth taking time to brainstorm and organize ideas before writing. Explain why taking time to edit, revise, and proofread will help improve test grades/scores. Give suggestions as to how students might pace themselves through these activities when they are under specific time pressure. 74. Relate Writing Skills to Test-Taking: Give students a practice test paragraph or essay topic. Ask students to write their paragraph keeping in mind the steps from their Merit process writing program: pre-writing; thinking of a main idea; building an outline; building an introduction, writing body and conclusion; and reviewing and revising. 75. Create a Class Publication: Offer students the goal of sharing writing via a class publication, bulletin board, or collaborative web site. Ask students to choose their favorite piece of writing done with a Merit writing program. Publish or post students’ work; include one piece of writing from each member of the class. 76. Hold a Formal Reading: At the end of the term, ask students to stand up and read their published or posted work for the rest of the class. Congratulate each reader with applause. Praise all readers for progressing as writers. Celebrate student writing with a class party. 77. Reassess Writing Progress: Compare writing progress for student subgroups—that is, students grouped via demographics such as family background, enrollment, or class quartile. What impact did class writing assignments and projects have on each subgroup? Which short- or long-term writing projects impacted subgroups the most? Did students within each subgroup show improved attendance, grades, writing levels, and/or performance on state tests? Did you fulfill your overall writing goals for this class?
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Top 114 Tips for Schools to Close the Achievement Gap with Limited Funds—Best Practices for Educators: Math
78. Assess Math Levels: Learn how much individual students are struggling. Look over recent grades, test scores, and sample assignments. Gauge the range of students’ pre-existing knowledge. What are your math goals for these students? What skills and content are they learning? What kinds of short- or long-term projects might help to improve their math level? What are your overall goals for the class? 79. Relate Student Data to Math: Decide what subgroups of students are in your class. Look over students’ demographics. Do your students fall into any particular subgroups? What do students within subgroups have in common? How might factors such as family background, enrollment, attendance, and class quartile, impact student-math levels? Consider what short- and long-term math projects will benefit students within each subgroup. 80. Learn About Students as Mathematicians: Some students like math, while some suffer from math anxiety. Discuss math with students. Do they like math? When is math enjoyable? When is it frustrating? What kinds of math homework do they dislike or postpone doing? What new math concepts have students most recently encountered? What new concepts don’t they understand? Do their social studies or science classes require some knowledge of math (e.g., timelines, charts, graphs, measurements)? 81. Make Math Personal: Connect math to real life. Ask when students use math outside school. Do students compare prices when they shop for clothes? Plan in advance how much time a bus trip will take? Budget birthday money to make it last? Know about a baseball player’s batting average? Change a cookie recipe’s proportions? Can students guess the average number of hours they spend watching TV each week? 82. Make Math Add Up: Discuss your students’ overall strengths and difficulties when doing math. List shortterm math goals for students. Explain how achieving these goals—and becoming comfortable at doing math—can become possible. Explain how math can be approached as a language—how it can be learned by working step by step and through short but frequent practice. 83. Ask About Math Homework Habits: Ask about students’ math homework habits. Do they complete assignments alone or with a friend? If they get stuck, do they seek help from a classmate, a family member, or a math web site? How much time do they spend practicing and studying math? Would they be able to set aside 20 minutes a day to review math problems? 84. Write About Math: Ask students to keep math journals. Give them 5 to 8 minutes to write journal entries at the end of each math class. Math journals can help teachers gauge students’ understanding of what was covered during class. Prompts might include: “I knew my answer was right when…”; “I would like to know more about…”; “It took me__ tries to solve this problem…”; “I finally solved it by…”; “This problem was easy/ hard because…”; “The easiest/hardest part of math today was…”; “I need more help with…”; “A new thing I learned today was…: ” 85. Review Computer Math Keys: Before starting a Merit math software Tryout, remind students where number keys are located. If students will be using the keys in the keyboard center, remind them how to use the Shift key to make a + sign, and of the location for the = and - signs. Also remind them that * means multiply and / means divide.
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86. Introduce Skills with Math Software: Have students use a Merit math software program, going through Tryouts to see where they need math help the most. Ask students to identify a math skill they have used before, as well as a skill they find easy or difficult, in their math journals. List the names of different math skills on the board, along with the phrases “I know this,” “I find this easy,” and “I need to work on this” below each skill name. Ask for a show of hands regarding each skill; jot down the number of students who respond to each phrase. Later, look over your students’ written responses. 87. Assess What Math Skills Students Understand: After class, use the Merit Teacher Program Manager (TPM) to see how students did on math Tryouts. Are self-assessments from student math journals accurate regarding what they know, and what they find easy or difficult? How much understanding do individual students have about where they are in the learning process? Can you predict which students will need more practice with certain math skills, and which will master new skills faster? 88. Organize Math Software Sessions: At the start of each math software session, discuss what students are trying to accomplish. Give students an overview of the session. List math skills they will be learning and practicing. List what part of a software unit they will be engaged in (e.g., Warm-up). List goals for the math software session and ask students to write down these goals in their math journals. Make sure that struggling students understand the session organizer. 89. Multiply Student Comfort: When starting math software sessions, struggling students may feel uncomfortable about doing math. Many may have difficulty with fractions. Some may mix up math operations, such as subtraction and addition or division and multiplication. A realistic, short-term goal for such students might be to respond to basic math steps, using visual clues presented in the software lesson. 90. Reinforce Math Software Feedback: When doing Merit math Warm-ups—as well as Merit Workouts later on—discuss feedback with students. Most math software feedback goes beyond identifying a simple wrong or right answer. It gives students information that they can use to correct a response. Make sure students understand and can paraphrase feedback. 91. Relate Math Software to Journal Writing: Give out student math journals at the end of Merit software sessions. Prompt students to write 1 or 2 sentences about a math problem they have been able to solve before, and 1 or 2 sentences about a math problem they find difficult. Also, ask them to write down a math vocabulary word from a software text that they already understand (e.g., addition, solution), and any math vocabulary words that they find unfamiliar (e.g., quotient, operation). 92. Talk Math with Students (A): Follow up each software session with class discussion. Have students look over notes they made in their math journals at the end of the software session. Ask volunteers to give examples of a math problem they know how to solve. Ask other volunteers to give examples of a math problem they find difficult. Next, ask students to name a math vocabulary word from a software text that was already familiar to them before their session. What new math vocabulary words did they encounter? 93. Talk Math with Students (B): Have students start keeping a list of important math words and phrases that they encountered during their Merit software math sessions in their journals. Ask students to work in small groups, explaining their math terms to other students. 94. Talk Math with Students (C): Practice basic math words or phrases by giving students a problem and a list of relevant terms (e.g., “equals,” “multiplied by,” “variable”). Have students rewrite the problem using some of these words. Then, have them solve it. 95. Give Fractions a Common Denominator: Model the steps needed to solve a fraction problem. Give students a list of relevant terms (e.g., “numerator,” “denominator,” “fraction bar,” “mixed number,” “equivalent fraction”). Have students rewrite each step using some of these words.
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96. Problem-Solve Right Away: Choose several math problems that students mentioned finding difficult. Model math problems mentioned by students. 97. Follow-up Math Software Sessions: Review math skills practiced during software sessions. Model the same approach as a Merit software lesson in the classroom. Ask students to co-model and practice these skills along with you. Review problem-solving steps, and help students find a way to recall these steps when working on their own. 98. Divide Math into Smaller Parts: Explain to students that they can avoid making many mistakes if they keep solving math problems step by step, just like they did when using Merit math software. They will also find it easier to check their work, and to see exactly where a solution went wrong. 99. Keep Math Practice in Proportion: Supplement Merit math software with workbooks and/or worksheets, so students have a chance to practice skills in a variety of contexts. 100. Multiply Math Skills: Return to the software. Have students continue with Merit math Warm-up and/or Workout sections. Note that all students are applying math skills as they learn them. 101. Increase Math Confidence: Have students print scores received for completing Merit math Warm-up and Workout sections, and to keep their scores in a math folder/portfolio. Discuss scores with students. Are they pleased with their progress? What kinds of math problems seem easier or more familiar to them? What new things have they learned? What goals do they have for their next math software session? 102. Equate Software with the Classroom: Relate skills being practiced in Merit math software to material in the classroom. 103. Make Math Practical (A): Practice percents, ratios, and/or fractions by having students observe their surroundings. For example, what percent of students in the class are wearing sneakers or the color blue? Also practice percents, ratios, and/or fractions by having students apply math to their own lives. For example, how many days of the week do students attend school? Use manipulatives or coins, as well, for practicing fractions. 104. Make Math Practical (B): Practice proportion problems by having students observe and compare their surroundings, such as the length of a desk with the length of a wall, the diagonal of a book with the diagonal of a room, a diagram of their state with the actual size of their state. 105. Make Math Practical (C): Practice converting metric units by having students work in pairs. They might try measuring objects in the room (e.g., a desk, chair leg, computer monitor, blackboard). They might try weighing small objects (e.g., a notebook, math textbook, box of chalk); or comparing weights listed on common food items (e.g., a water bottle, yogurt container, box of raisins). Have each pair share their conclusions. Finally, have students convert data into different units of measurement. 106. Make Math Practical (D): Practice data problems by having students create their own chart, graph, or table based on their own experiences, (e.g., number of hours they study, talk on the phone, listen to music, go online, or walk per week). 107. Spread the Word About Word Problems: Have students practice word problems in pairs, giving each pair a word problem from a text. Ask students to list phrases from the problem showing the strategy needed to find the answer. Have them list what operation(s) and steps are needed to solve the problem. Ask pairs to solve the problem and share what they did with other students.
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108. Examine Math Speed with Software: Have students continue through Merit math Workout sections. As students complete additional rounds of software, use the Teacher Program Manager (TPM) to see if individual students are completing rounds faster. Discuss math speed with individual students, and how speed relates to test readiness. 109. Give Math Time-Tips: Remind students that if they get stuck on a hard problem when taking a math test, they should not use up too much time struggling with the hard problem. Instead they should take a guess and go on. 110. Talk About Math and Test-Taking: Have students return to their Merit math program, going through the Finals section. Discuss how the skills students are practicing may be applied to class or standardized tests. Later, use the Merit TPM to assess students’ progress on the Finals section. Follow up software units with written post-tests. 111. Praise Achievement: Encourage students to print out scores from the Merit Finals section, and to keep scores in their math folder/portfolio. Ask them to look over all the Merit scores that they have printed out. How do they feel about their accomplishment? Do they find that math class is getting to be any easier? Do they find that they can complete math assignments/homework faster? Do they feel more confident when using math in social studies or science class? Do they feel more confident about math in general? 112. Relate Math Skills to Test-Taking: Give students a practice test covering any core math skills, such as fractions, word problems, and pre-algebra, covered during class. Remind students to apply the steps from their Merit math program. Explain why, during a test, it is still worth taking time to write out each math step—otherwise it is easy to make a mistake and never catch it! Explain why taking time to complete math steps and checking over work will help to improve test grades/scores. Give suggestions about how students might pace themselves under specific time pressure. 113. Reassess What Math Students Understand: List the names of different math skills on the board, along with the phrases “I know this,” “I find this easy,” and “I need to work on this” below each skill name. Ask for a show of hands regarding each skill; ask students to jot down and record their response to each skill in their math journals. Compare these responses to students’ earliest responses in their journals—when they were just beginning to use Merit math software. Next, compare student responses to scores on written practice tests, as well as to scores on Merit math Finals rounds. Have all your students made progress? How much? Can you predict how well each student might do in another math class next term? 114. Reassess Math Progress: Compare math progress for student subgroups (that is, students grouped via demographics such as family background, enrollment, or class quartile). What impact did classmath assignments and projects have on each subgroup? Which short- or long-term math projects impacted subgroups the most? Did students within each subgroup show improved attendance, grades, math levels, and/or performance on state math tests? Did you fulfill your overall math goals for this class?
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Merit Reading/Writing/Math Programs to Help Schools Close the Achievement Gap with Limited Funds
Merit programs are self-paced improvement and management tools that help students learn and apply proven strategies. Key skills are taught and explained in an easy-to-learn fashion. Contextual help and feedback
are provided throughout. Using the Merit Text Talker, students can hear questions, answers, tips, and explanations spoken aloud. A record management system, which automatically records student progress, allows educators to create reports. Sessions, time-on-task, and individual improvements are all tracked. “We’re using the software for remedial purposes—for middle school students who haven’t passed exams. The students use it after school. It has been very effective.”
– Delmar School District Delmar, DE
Basic Skills Pack
Basic Skills Software that works!
Intermediate Skills Pack
Software that covers the crucial skills students need to know.
Covers language arts competencies necessary to prepare students for college work.
Language Arts Bundle for College Prep
“The software all looks good. We use it in a classroom for student skills training. We use it as a supplement at least once a week. The students are in high school and need remediation.”
– Palm Desert High School, Palm Desert, CA
SOLUTIONS FOR:
Elementary School Middle School High School College Prep Special Ed - Learning Disabilities Workplace Adult Literacy - GED Prep ESL Beginning ESL Intermediate ESL Advanced - TOEFL Prep
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ABOUT MERIT SOFTWARE:
Since 1983, Merit has been giving everyone involved – teachers, tutors, parents and students – the tools and opportunities to improve learning and to attain positive, measurable results. The programs provide detailed coverage of the core competencies students require to succeed. Concepts in reading, writing, grammar, vocabulary and math are covered from the basics to higher levels. Troublesome points are identified and broken down into understandable parts. Personalized explanations and tips are tailored to each student’s responses. Built-in tracking permits teachers and tutors to quickly discover individual areas of concern and to plan lessons in response to specific student needs. Faculty members at Marshall University have rigorously evaluated the impact of Merit on pupil achievement in a multi-year effort at many schools. In a landmark 24-week evaluation, using Merit reading and writing software as a supplement to in-class instruction produced statistically significant gains for treatment group students. Prior to the start of the school year, 151 students were randomly assigned to control or experimental groups. The researchers determined that 37% more 6th graders and 19% more 7th graders passed a state standardized reading/language arts test after using Merit. An unusually large effect size of .94 was calculated for Merit 6th graders’ test scores and .70 for 7th graders. For details of the research conducted on Merit go to http://research.meritsoftware.com
For information, pricing, full-working demos, and a FREE evaluation CD-Rom contact us direct at:
MERIT SOFTWARE 121 West 27th Street, Suite 603 New York, NY 10001 T: 212-675-8567 | 800-753-6488 | F: 212-675-8607 www.meritsoftware.com
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A Free Report for Educators
In-depth Interactive Learning Tools — Because You Want Results
Top 114 Tips for Schools to Close the Achievement Gap with Limited Funds
A Free Report for Educators
Since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act, U.S. schools are under enormous pressure to raise student achievement. In effect, school districts must tackle two questions: How can we improve academic performance? Can it be done cost-effectively? In searching for answers, officials have been overwhelmed with claims from special interest groups. Concepts such as vouchers, charter schools and increased accountability have been highly touted and adopted. Unfortunately, these efforts have scant evidence to justify their use. Few reforms have been demonstrated to work through “Gold Standard” research—research conducted by credible third parties employing best practices such as randomized control groups, reasonable sample sizes and adequate time of use. Even reforms supported by lower quality research rarely show a meaningful effect on pupil achievement. Furthermore, the conditions required to implement many reforms are difficult to build upon and their costeffectiveness is dubious. Fortunately, there is another option for schools, an option backed by “Gold Standard” research. It is an option that has a big impact on student achievement; one that schools can easily afford and implement in their classrooms—Merit Software. Faculty members at Marshall University have independently tested Merit’s reading, writing and math programs– in a multi-year effort–in several public schools. In a groundbreaking 24-week evaluation using random assignment, 37% more students in one grade, and 19% in another, passed the state’s reading/language arts test when Merit was used as a supplement to instruction. Unlike other educational software, Merit is not drill and practice. Merit provides direct, adaptive, instruction. It breaks down key concepts into understandable parts. Students are engaged by applying skills as they learn them. Personal help is available in multiple forms and as often as is required. Merit is closely aligned to, and easily supplements, in-class instruction. With Merit, teachers are interrupted less frequently and have more time to cover prepared lessons. Built-in tracking helps teachers monitor pupil progress and know when to give additional support. The cost of using Merit is miniscule compared to other reform options. Pricing is scalable and based on a school’s need. With Merit, school officials can have confidence they will help their students—without bursting their budget. Based on feedback from educators, here are 114 tips to close the achievement gap with limited funds using Merit Software.
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Top 114 Tips for Schools to Close the Achievement Gap with Limited Funds—Best Practices for Educators: Language Arts, Reading
1. Assess Reading Levels: Determine the extent to which individual students are struggling. Look over recent grades, test scores and sample assignments. Gauge the range of students’ pre-existing skills and knowledge. What are your reading goals for these students? What content are they learning? What kinds of short- or long-term projects might help to improve their reading level? What are your overall goals for the class? 2. Relate Data to Reading: Decide which subgroups of students are in your class. Look over students’ demographics. Do your students fall into any particular subgroups? What do students from each subgroup have in common? How might factors, such as family background, enrollment, attendance, and class quartile, impact student reading levels? Consider which short- and long-term reading projects will benefit students from each subgroup. 3. Discuss Reading with Students: How much do they read when not in class? Do students enjoy reading? Why or why not? When is reading easy? Difficult? What kinds of topics do students enjoy reading about? Do they like stories about families or people solving problems, biographies, history, science, sports, or poems? What kinds of topics don’t they like? 4. Talk About Reading for School: Ask about the reading students do for social studies, science, and language arts classes. Is reading for some subjects easier than for others? What kind of reading homework do students most enjoy? What kind of reading homework do they dislike or postpone? What new ideas have students recently learned in social studies, science, or language arts class? What new concepts don’t they understand? 5. Ask About Reading Habits: Ask when students read outside school. Do they use books or read online? Where do they read—in the library, on the bus, at their kitchen table, near the TV, in bed at night? How much time do they spend reading? What do family members like to read? Have students bring in and share one paragraph that they really like from a text. Ask them to explain what they like about it. 6. Give Reading Time: Help students find books and articles that they can relate to. Make sure that the reading level for student-selected material is not too hard for struggling students. Make sure that advanced students choose something that will challenge them. Give students time to read what they like. 7. Create Reading Groups: Break students into small reading groups of 4 or 5, according to thematic interest. Assign each student a role, such as Director of Discussion; Chief of Connection (with the job of making connections between the reading and real life); President of Plot (with the job of summarizing the story, as well as explaining main ideas and themes); and Vocabulary Masters (with the job of identifying vocabulary that other group members might not know). Help each group set up a schedule for discussions and assignments. After reading groups finish a book, have them regroup and rotate jobs. 8. Learn to Like Language: Have students work in pairs, grouping each pair by reading choice. Ask each pair to read together through a page that they like. Each pair should write down the five words that seem most interesting. Have them look up any words they have trouble understanding. One student might be responsible for finding the words and the other responsible for writing down a brief definition. Next, assign each student a new partner. Ask the newly formed pairs to teach each other their new vocabulary words.
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9. Dive into Dictionaries: Give students time to look up vocabulary words from social studies, science and language arts class. Make sure all students understand what nouns, verbs and adjectives are. Make sure all students understand abbreviations, such as “n.,” “v.t.,” and “adj.” 10. Be Vocal with Vocabulary: Let students know that building a vocabulary is something that people do their whole lives. No matter how many words they already know, they will always encounter new ones that they don’t understand. 11. Relate Reading to Life: Ask students to write down their plans for the future. Where do they see themselves in 5 or 10 years? Attending college? Working at something they enjoy? Starting a career? Starting a family of their own? Ask students to briefly explain how reading fits in with their plans. What do students imagine they will need to know? What kinds of books or articles will they need to read? 12. Get to Know Reading Software: Have students use a Merit reading or vocabulary program, going through Tryouts to see where they need the most reading skills help. Ask students to write down a skill they have used before as well as skills they find easy or difficult. List the names of the different skills on the board, along with the phrases “I know this,” “I find this easy,” and “I need to work on this” below each skill name. Ask for a show of hands regarding each skill and jot down the number of students who respond to each phrase. Collect students’ written responses regarding skills. 13. Assess What Students Understand: After class, use the Merit Teacher Program Manager (TPM) to see how students did on Tryouts. Are student self-assessments accurate regarding what they know and what they find easy or difficult? How much understanding do individual students have about where they are in the learning process? Can you predict which students will need more practice with certain reading skills, and which will master new skills faster? 14. Build Student Reading Skills: Have students return to their Merit reading or vocabulary program and go through the Warm-up section. Note that all students will be applying skills as they learn them. 15. Give Reading Another Voice: Ask students to pause from their Merit Warm-up section. Explain how to click on “Voice,” and choose between “Kate” and “Paul.” Explain options for controlling voice speed. Students should start out by using the “Slow” voice rate, with the goal of resetting the Merit voice speed to “Normal” during a future software session. As students improve and become increasingly comfortable with the “Normal” voice rate, they should be encouraged to use the voice only sparingly. 16. Be a Goalkeeper: At the start of each Merit reading/vocabulary Warm-up or Workout session, discuss what students are trying to achieve. List skills they will be learning and practicing. List goals for the session. Make sure students understand these goals. 17. Review Reading Software Feedback: When doing a Merit Warm-up or Workout, discuss feedback with students. Most reading/vocabulary feedback goes beyond identifying a simple wrong or right answer; it gives students additional information they can use to correct a response. Make sure students can understand and paraphrase software feedback. 18. Link Reading Skills to Content: As students reach the Merit Workout section, ask them to think about the software content. Have students note the topic of a software text that is familiar to them, as well as a software topic that is unfamiliar. Request that students list 5 or 6 new vocabulary words from software texts that they regard as either interesting or important, along with definitions from the software. 19. Make Reading Software a Shared Experience: Follow up each software session with class discussion. Ask students to look over their notes from the software session. Can they describe a reading topic that was familiar to them? What software reading content was new to students? What new questions do students have? What topics would they like to learn more about?
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20. Flash Through Vocabulary: Reinforce Merit reading vocabulary by making sets of flash cards. Break students into groups of 3. Ask students to write a vocabulary word on one side of the card and its definition on the other. One group member should pronounce the vocabulary word, the second should state its definition, and the third should use the word in a sentence. Listen to groups, making sure they are using vocabulary correctly. Ask group members to trade roles after a while. 21. Troubleshoot Quickly: Review any problem areas for reading or vocabulary in the classroom. Discuss what skill(s) students found most difficult when answering Merit reading or vocabulary questions. Later, use the Merit TPM to assess students’ progress on the Workout section. 22. Boost Confidence: Have students print scores after completing a Merit Workout Section. Discuss scores with students. Are they pleased with their progress? What kinds of questions seem easier or more familiar to them? What new things have they learned? What will be their goal for their next software session? 23. Relate Software to Curriculum: Supplement Merit by giving students time to read material from social studies, science, and language arts class, so they may practice reading and vocabulary skills in a variety of areas. Give students reading material/quantity according to their level. 24. Practice Note-Taking: Break students into groups of 4 or 5. Give each group a short sample from a social studies, science, or language arts text that matches their reading level. Ask groups to decide together what the most important sentence in each paragraph is, and then to underline it. Have groups circle new vocabulary words. If they are unsure about what a word means, they should look it up, draw an arrow to the margin, and write the meaning of the word. Next, they should mark brackets around phrases or facts they do not understand, draw an arrow to the margin, and write a question mark. Check over what groups are doing, and respond to their questions. 25. Apply Skills to New Content: Break students into groups of 4 or 5. Give each group a short sample from a social studies, science, or language arts text that matches their reading level. Have groups find the key words that tell the main idea. Can they list 1 or 2 details? Find a fact or an opinion? Explain text sequence? What can they infer from their text? Help students understand they can apply the same reading and vocabulary skills to all school subjects. 26. Stretch Student Skills: Break students into groups of 4 or 5. Give each group a short sample from a social studies, science, or language arts text that challenges them slightly. Have groups once again apply their new reading skills to each subject area. This time, also ask them to write sentences explaining what they are reading. 27. Share Vocabulary from New Content: Write out 3 short lists of vocabulary from a social studies, science, or language arts text. Divide students into groups of 3. Ask students to create sentences using vocabulary according to the list they were assigned, so that each person in a group will be working on a different list. Have groups get together to share sentences and teach each other new vocabulary. 28. Create Weekend/ Holiday/Vacation Readers: Ask students to read something they enjoy for an extra 20-30 minutes every day during weekends and school breaks, 29. Create Careful Readers (A): Request that students keep a reading journal. Ask them to write down what they read, when they read it, and who wrote it. If they are starting new language arts reading, they should write down a list of characters and who they are. If they are starting new social studies or history-of-science reading, they should write down a list of people mentioned in the text and who they are. Under each reading-journal entry, students should write their own comments, questions, and new vocabulary words. Suggest that students try to summarize briefly what they read—but be sure to remind them not to retell all the details!
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30. Create Careful Readers (B): Give students prompts to help them with reading journals. Have them complete statements such as: “This makes me think about….”; “The person I identify with most is….”; “I felt upset when….”; “I laughed when….”; “The part that makes me think of my own life was….”; “I liked the description of….” Look through student reading journals. Offer some encouraging written responses. 31. Practice Point-of-View: Help students relate to characters they read about. Check that students understand point-of-view. Give them a scene from a story or book, and ask them to rewrite it in their reading journal from another character’s perspective. 32. Create Critical Thinkers: Break students into groups of 3 or 4. Give each group a different short text. Ask groups to imagine they are making up reading/vocabulary questions for the Merit program being used. Have each group create and write their own skill-related question and answers. Students should write at least one vocabulary question such as “What word can replace this underlined word?” and one question about reading content, such as “What is the main idea?” Ask group members to write out answers for their own questions. Next, give out copies of all texts being used. Bring groups together. Ask each group to take turns challenging the rest of the class with their reading/vocabulary questions. 33. Encourage Enrichment: Divide students into small groups of 3 or 4. Have each group imagine they are creating a crossword puzzle for the Merit reading or vocabulary program being used. Ask them to choose words from a social studies, science, or language arts text, and then work together to write, draw, and design their own vocabulary puzzles. 34. Talk About Test-taking: Have students return to their Merit reading or vocabulary program, going through the Finals section. Discuss how the specific skills they have been practicing may be applied to standardized tests. 35. Praise Achievement: Encourage students to print out scores from the Merit Finals section. Ask them to look over all the Merit scores that they have printed out. How do they feel about their accomplishment? Is reading for class getting any easier? Faster? Do they feel more confident when reading for social studies, science, or language arts class? 36. Reassess What Students Understand: List the names of different skills on the board, along with the phrases “I know this,” “I find this easy,” and “I need to work on this” below each skill name. Ask for a show of hands regarding each skill and jot down the number of students who respond to each phrase. Collect students’ written responses regarding skills. Compare these responses to students’ very early responses— from when they were just beginning to use Merit reading software. Have all your students made progress? How much? Can you predict how well they might do in another class next term? 37. Examine Reading Speed with Software: As students complete additional rounds of reading software, use the Teacher Program Manager (TPM) to see if individual students are completing rounds faster. Discuss reading speed with individual students and how speed relates to test readiness. 38. Reassess Reading Progress: Compare reading progress for student subgroups (that is, students grouped via demographics such as family background, enrollment, or class quartile). What impact did class-reading assignments and projects have on each subgroup? Which short- or long-term reading projects impacted subgroups the most? Did students within each subgroup show improved attendance, grades, reading levels, and/or performance on state reading tests? Did you fulfill your overall reading goals for this class?
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Top 114 Tips for Schools to Close the Achievement Gap with Limited Funds—Best Practices for Educators: Language Arts, Writing
39. Assess Student Writing Levels: Learn how much individual students are struggling. Look over recent grades, test scores, and sample assignments. Gauge the range of students’ pre-existing writing skills and knowledge. What are your goals for these students? What forms of writing are they already familiar with? What are their individual points of difficulty? What kinds of short- or long-term projects might help them? What are your overall goals for the class? 40. Relate Data to Writing: Decide what subgroups of students are in your class. Look over students’ demographics. Do your students fall into any particular subgroups? What do students within subgroups have in common? How might factors such as family background, enrollment, attendance, and class quartile impact student writing levels? Consider what short- and long-term writing projects will benefit students within each subgroup. 41. Talk About Writing for School: Ask what kind of writing students do for social studies, science, and language arts classes. Do they like writing? Why or why not? When is writing easy? Difficult? What kinds of writing assignments do students enjoy doing? What kinds of writing assignments do they postpone? How much time do they usually spend on writing assignments? Do they check their work? Do they usually write just one draft, or do they take time to rewrite? 42. Discuss Writing Habits: Ask if students write outside school. Do they write only for homework? Have they ever kept a writing journal? Do they write letters, e-mail, text messages, or web blogs? Create poems, songs, stories, or comic strips? What do they like to read? Can they describe any kind of connection between writing and reading? 43. Talk About Writing Away from School: Ask where and when students write. Do they write in the library or at home? Do they write by hand or use a word-processing program? Where do they write at home—at a desk or kitchen table? What kinds of documents (e.g., business letters, job applications, forms, email) do family members write or fill out? 44. Be Smart About Sentences: Make sure that all students understand what a sentence is before they try writing paragraphs. Discuss how a sentence always has a subject and a verb; starts with a capital letter; and ends with a period, question mark or exclamation point. Model both complete and incomplete sentences for students. 45. Persevere with Paragraphs: Make sure that all students understand what a paragraph is. Discuss how a paragraph is a block of text with the first line usually indented; is made up of several related sentences; and focuses on one topic or idea. Model a complete paragraph for students. Next, model an incomplete paragraph for students and ask them to explain why it is incomplete 46. Teach Specific Writing Skills: Introduce skills such as brainstorming, organizing, expanding ideas, and revising to students. Review these specific skills often. Ask for volunteers to model these skills for the rest of the class. 47. Organize Writing Software Sessions: Give an overview of writing software sessions. List skills that students will be learning and practicing. List what part of a software unit they will be engaged in (e.g., Pre-Writing, Warm-up). List goals for the software session; let students know what you expect them to complete by the end of the session.
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48. Get to Know Writing Software: Have students use a Merit writing program, going through Pre-Writing and inputting sentences for Writing-Body. Break the class into pairs. Ask students in each pair to share sentences with each other. 49. Share Writing Ideas: Ask students who have completed Writing Body to talk about their writing. What is their topic? What are they saying about their topic? What is their main idea? Can they make any predictions about how they will conclude their writing? 50. Create Confidence: Follow up each session by asking what students found easiest when using their Merit writing program. What was familiar? What new things did they learn about brainstorming, outlining, and organizing? 51. Troubleshoot Right Away: Review any problem areas for writing in the classroom. Ask what students found most difficult about brainstorming, outlining, and organizing. What questions do they have? 52. Get Ready for Revising (A): Tell your students that it’s okay to make mistakes—that’s what first drafts are for! Let students know that it’s fine for their first drafts to be full of spelling mistakes or to need organization. They should be using first drafts to get their ideas down and to figure out what they’re trying to say. 53. Get Ready for Revising (B): Tell all students that good writers revise a lot. They add, change text, move, and remove sentences. They create multiple drafts. They continue revising until they are satisfied with what they have to say. Finally, good writers edit for spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and usage. 54. Make Writing Software a Shared Experience: Have students continue with their Merit writing program till they reach Editing. Break the class into pairs. Ask them to work in pairs, helping each other as they edit. Ask students to print their work. 55. Encourage Student Editors: Ask students to break into small groups and share their printed writing. Have each group sit in a circle to share helpful feedback. What do they like about each other’s work? Do they have suggestions for each other? Does anything in their classmates’ writing confuse them? Is there anything they would like to hear more about? Give all students the goal of revising their work during the next software session. 56. Don’t Be Spellbound: Save Spellcheck for last. Make sure students understand Spellcheck suggestions— struggling students may replace whole words by clicking too quickly! If possible, use the “Say text” feature when proofreading. 57. Finish Revising: Ask students to add some suggested editing changes and to revise their work during the next writing software session. As students finish their writing, help them transfer their completed work to disks or to a word-processing, e-mail, or HTML program. 58. Build Student Portfolios: Create individual writing portfolios to help students develop as writers. Have students publish completed writing from Merit software sessions by printing it. Ask students to arrange their completed writings chronologically; this can help them assess their own progress as well as feel accomplishment about their growing mastery! 59. Assess Student Writing Progress: Use student-writing portfolios for more than a final grade—use them to periodically assess where students need help. Discuss portfolio content with students individually. For example, during such a discussion, you might point out how a student uses commas in several assignments.
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60. Relate Writing to Curriculum (A): Break the class into small groups of 3. Give each group a short text from their social studies, science, or language arts curriculum. Explain that each text is missing punctuation, such as sentence breaks, capitals, and commas. Have group members work together to fix their text. 61. Relate Writing to Curriculum (B): Break the class into groups of 3. Give each group copies of a different short text from their social studies, science, or language arts curriculum. Explain that their text is missing punctuation, such as sentence breaks, capitals, and commas. Have one student edit for missing capitals, another edit for sentence breaks, and another edit for commas and other punctuation. Ask groups to review their text together, explaining the editing decisions that they made. Next, have them model their editing for the rest of the class. 62. Relate Writing to Curriculum (C): Break the class into small groups of 3. Give groups a short text from their social studies, science, or language arts curriculum. Explain that their text has sentences in the wrong order. Have groups work together to fix their text. Finish by having them model their editing changes for the rest of the class. 63. Relate Writing to Curriculum (D): If using Essay Punch, break the class into small groups of 3. Give students a short text from class curriculum appropriate for their social studies, science or language arts curriculum. Explain that their text is missing paragraph breaks or has paragraphs in the wrong order. Have students fix their text. Finish by having them model their editing changes for the rest of the class. 64. Break a Spell: Give students a group of short sentences from their social studies, science, or language arts curriculum that contain common spelling or grammar mistakes (i.e., their/there; its/it’s). Have students fix text. 65. Cover Coherence: Give students a short text from their social studies, science, or language arts curriculum that has very abrupt transitions between thoughts. Have students rewrite transitional sentences to improve the text. 66. Provide Time to Practice Writing: Ask for written responses to readings during class. Ask students to keep a reading journal to record their reactions to a reading. They should use their journal to explain what they understand, keep lists of important characters or people from readings, identify something they find interesting, identify new vocabulary words, and share questions. 67. Provide Students with an Audience: Look over students’ reading journals and respond to their ideas and questions. Offer thoughtful feedback in response to written assignments. Praise students for being successful, or for just trying hard! Let students know what skills still need improvement. Offer individual teacher-student writing conferences when possible. Be clear about your expectations with individual students; expectations will vary according to student writing level. 68. Personalize Writing Prompts: Give students a choice of paragraph or essay topics relating to their own experiences, such as “the best day of my life,” “the worst day of my life,” “my dream,” “someone I love,” “what I’ve really learned in school,” “what makes me happy,” “what makes me mad,” or “my family history.” 69. Offer Range in Writing Tasks: Try to offer writing assignments that prompt reflection and inspire students to use their imagination rather than merely report on a reading. Give students a choice of different writing activities based on the same topic. Or, give students one writing activity—with each student keeping in mind your individual expectations for them. As students advance, they should be encouraged to gradually hand in longer, more complex work. 70. Offer Range in Writing Models: Provide students with models, voices, and material that they can relate to. Ask them to identify “cool sentences” or “cool phrases.” What kind of language intrigues them? Can they describe what they like about a particular voice? Ask students to try imitating a voice or style that they admire.
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71. Get Ready to Write Anywhere: Ask students to do pre-writing for language arts, social studies, or historyof-science assignments. Make sure that students understand that the skills they are learning can be applied to all kinds of written work. 72. Get Ready to Edit Anywhere: Request that students edit their writing for language arts, social studies, and science classes. Remind students about common mistakes that they need to check for, such as sentence breaks, capitals, commas, as well as common errors in spelling or usage. Offer students an editing checklist, and encourage them to use it. 73. Talk About Writing and Test-Taking: Discuss how skills students are practicing may be applied to class or standardized tests. Explain why, even during a test, it is worth taking time to brainstorm and organize ideas before writing. Explain why taking time to edit, revise, and proofread will help improve test grades/scores. Give suggestions as to how students might pace themselves through these activities when they are under specific time pressure. 74. Relate Writing Skills to Test-Taking: Give students a practice test paragraph or essay topic. Ask students to write their paragraph keeping in mind the steps from their Merit process writing program: pre-writing; thinking of a main idea; building an outline; building an introduction, writing body and conclusion; and reviewing and revising. 75. Create a Class Publication: Offer students the goal of sharing writing via a class publication, bulletin board, or collaborative web site. Ask students to choose their favorite piece of writing done with a Merit writing program. Publish or post students’ work; include one piece of writing from each member of the class. 76. Hold a Formal Reading: At the end of the term, ask students to stand up and read their published or posted work for the rest of the class. Congratulate each reader with applause. Praise all readers for progressing as writers. Celebrate student writing with a class party. 77. Reassess Writing Progress: Compare writing progress for student subgroups—that is, students grouped via demographics such as family background, enrollment, or class quartile. What impact did class writing assignments and projects have on each subgroup? Which short- or long-term writing projects impacted subgroups the most? Did students within each subgroup show improved attendance, grades, writing levels, and/or performance on state tests? Did you fulfill your overall writing goals for this class?
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Top 114 Tips for Schools to Close the Achievement Gap with Limited Funds—Best Practices for Educators: Math
78. Assess Math Levels: Learn how much individual students are struggling. Look over recent grades, test scores, and sample assignments. Gauge the range of students’ pre-existing knowledge. What are your math goals for these students? What skills and content are they learning? What kinds of short- or long-term projects might help to improve their math level? What are your overall goals for the class? 79. Relate Student Data to Math: Decide what subgroups of students are in your class. Look over students’ demographics. Do your students fall into any particular subgroups? What do students within subgroups have in common? How might factors such as family background, enrollment, attendance, and class quartile, impact student-math levels? Consider what short- and long-term math projects will benefit students within each subgroup. 80. Learn About Students as Mathematicians: Some students like math, while some suffer from math anxiety. Discuss math with students. Do they like math? When is math enjoyable? When is it frustrating? What kinds of math homework do they dislike or postpone doing? What new math concepts have students most recently encountered? What new concepts don’t they understand? Do their social studies or science classes require some knowledge of math (e.g., timelines, charts, graphs, measurements)? 81. Make Math Personal: Connect math to real life. Ask when students use math outside school. Do students compare prices when they shop for clothes? Plan in advance how much time a bus trip will take? Budget birthday money to make it last? Know about a baseball player’s batting average? Change a cookie recipe’s proportions? Can students guess the average number of hours they spend watching TV each week? 82. Make Math Add Up: Discuss your students’ overall strengths and difficulties when doing math. List shortterm math goals for students. Explain how achieving these goals—and becoming comfortable at doing math—can become possible. Explain how math can be approached as a language—how it can be learned by working step by step and through short but frequent practice. 83. Ask About Math Homework Habits: Ask about students’ math homework habits. Do they complete assignments alone or with a friend? If they get stuck, do they seek help from a classmate, a family member, or a math web site? How much time do they spend practicing and studying math? Would they be able to set aside 20 minutes a day to review math problems? 84. Write About Math: Ask students to keep math journals. Give them 5 to 8 minutes to write journal entries at the end of each math class. Math journals can help teachers gauge students’ understanding of what was covered during class. Prompts might include: “I knew my answer was right when…”; “I would like to know more about…”; “It took me__ tries to solve this problem…”; “I finally solved it by…”; “This problem was easy/ hard because…”; “The easiest/hardest part of math today was…”; “I need more help with…”; “A new thing I learned today was…: ” 85. Review Computer Math Keys: Before starting a Merit math software Tryout, remind students where number keys are located. If students will be using the keys in the keyboard center, remind them how to use the Shift key to make a + sign, and of the location for the = and - signs. Also remind them that * means multiply and / means divide.
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86. Introduce Skills with Math Software: Have students use a Merit math software program, going through Tryouts to see where they need math help the most. Ask students to identify a math skill they have used before, as well as a skill they find easy or difficult, in their math journals. List the names of different math skills on the board, along with the phrases “I know this,” “I find this easy,” and “I need to work on this” below each skill name. Ask for a show of hands regarding each skill; jot down the number of students who respond to each phrase. Later, look over your students’ written responses. 87. Assess What Math Skills Students Understand: After class, use the Merit Teacher Program Manager (TPM) to see how students did on math Tryouts. Are self-assessments from student math journals accurate regarding what they know, and what they find easy or difficult? How much understanding do individual students have about where they are in the learning process? Can you predict which students will need more practice with certain math skills, and which will master new skills faster? 88. Organize Math Software Sessions: At the start of each math software session, discuss what students are trying to accomplish. Give students an overview of the session. List math skills they will be learning and practicing. List what part of a software unit they will be engaged in (e.g., Warm-up). List goals for the math software session and ask students to write down these goals in their math journals. Make sure that struggling students understand the session organizer. 89. Multiply Student Comfort: When starting math software sessions, struggling students may feel uncomfortable about doing math. Many may have difficulty with fractions. Some may mix up math operations, such as subtraction and addition or division and multiplication. A realistic, short-term goal for such students might be to respond to basic math steps, using visual clues presented in the software lesson. 90. Reinforce Math Software Feedback: When doing Merit math Warm-ups—as well as Merit Workouts later on—discuss feedback with students. Most math software feedback goes beyond identifying a simple wrong or right answer. It gives students information that they can use to correct a response. Make sure students understand and can paraphrase feedback. 91. Relate Math Software to Journal Writing: Give out student math journals at the end of Merit software sessions. Prompt students to write 1 or 2 sentences about a math problem they have been able to solve before, and 1 or 2 sentences about a math problem they find difficult. Also, ask them to write down a math vocabulary word from a software text that they already understand (e.g., addition, solution), and any math vocabulary words that they find unfamiliar (e.g., quotient, operation). 92. Talk Math with Students (A): Follow up each software session with class discussion. Have students look over notes they made in their math journals at the end of the software session. Ask volunteers to give examples of a math problem they know how to solve. Ask other volunteers to give examples of a math problem they find difficult. Next, ask students to name a math vocabulary word from a software text that was already familiar to them before their session. What new math vocabulary words did they encounter? 93. Talk Math with Students (B): Have students start keeping a list of important math words and phrases that they encountered during their Merit software math sessions in their journals. Ask students to work in small groups, explaining their math terms to other students. 94. Talk Math with Students (C): Practice basic math words or phrases by giving students a problem and a list of relevant terms (e.g., “equals,” “multiplied by,” “variable”). Have students rewrite the problem using some of these words. Then, have them solve it. 95. Give Fractions a Common Denominator: Model the steps needed to solve a fraction problem. Give students a list of relevant terms (e.g., “numerator,” “denominator,” “fraction bar,” “mixed number,” “equivalent fraction”). Have students rewrite each step using some of these words.
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96. Problem-Solve Right Away: Choose several math problems that students mentioned finding difficult. Model math problems mentioned by students. 97. Follow-up Math Software Sessions: Review math skills practiced during software sessions. Model the same approach as a Merit software lesson in the classroom. Ask students to co-model and practice these skills along with you. Review problem-solving steps, and help students find a way to recall these steps when working on their own. 98. Divide Math into Smaller Parts: Explain to students that they can avoid making many mistakes if they keep solving math problems step by step, just like they did when using Merit math software. They will also find it easier to check their work, and to see exactly where a solution went wrong. 99. Keep Math Practice in Proportion: Supplement Merit math software with workbooks and/or worksheets, so students have a chance to practice skills in a variety of contexts. 100. Multiply Math Skills: Return to the software. Have students continue with Merit math Warm-up and/or Workout sections. Note that all students are applying math skills as they learn them. 101. Increase Math Confidence: Have students print scores received for completing Merit math Warm-up and Workout sections, and to keep their scores in a math folder/portfolio. Discuss scores with students. Are they pleased with their progress? What kinds of math problems seem easier or more familiar to them? What new things have they learned? What goals do they have for their next math software session? 102. Equate Software with the Classroom: Relate skills being practiced in Merit math software to material in the classroom. 103. Make Math Practical (A): Practice percents, ratios, and/or fractions by having students observe their surroundings. For example, what percent of students in the class are wearing sneakers or the color blue? Also practice percents, ratios, and/or fractions by having students apply math to their own lives. For example, how many days of the week do students attend school? Use manipulatives or coins, as well, for practicing fractions. 104. Make Math Practical (B): Practice proportion problems by having students observe and compare their surroundings, such as the length of a desk with the length of a wall, the diagonal of a book with the diagonal of a room, a diagram of their state with the actual size of their state. 105. Make Math Practical (C): Practice converting metric units by having students work in pairs. They might try measuring objects in the room (e.g., a desk, chair leg, computer monitor, blackboard). They might try weighing small objects (e.g., a notebook, math textbook, box of chalk); or comparing weights listed on common food items (e.g., a water bottle, yogurt container, box of raisins). Have each pair share their conclusions. Finally, have students convert data into different units of measurement. 106. Make Math Practical (D): Practice data problems by having students create their own chart, graph, or table based on their own experiences, (e.g., number of hours they study, talk on the phone, listen to music, go online, or walk per week). 107. Spread the Word About Word Problems: Have students practice word problems in pairs, giving each pair a word problem from a text. Ask students to list phrases from the problem showing the strategy needed to find the answer. Have them list what operation(s) and steps are needed to solve the problem. Ask pairs to solve the problem and share what they did with other students.
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108. Examine Math Speed with Software: Have students continue through Merit math Workout sections. As students complete additional rounds of software, use the Teacher Program Manager (TPM) to see if individual students are completing rounds faster. Discuss math speed with individual students, and how speed relates to test readiness. 109. Give Math Time-Tips: Remind students that if they get stuck on a hard problem when taking a math test, they should not use up too much time struggling with the hard problem. Instead they should take a guess and go on. 110. Talk About Math and Test-Taking: Have students return to their Merit math program, going through the Finals section. Discuss how the skills students are practicing may be applied to class or standardized tests. Later, use the Merit TPM to assess students’ progress on the Finals section. Follow up software units with written post-tests. 111. Praise Achievement: Encourage students to print out scores from the Merit Finals section, and to keep scores in their math folder/portfolio. Ask them to look over all the Merit scores that they have printed out. How do they feel about their accomplishment? Do they find that math class is getting to be any easier? Do they find that they can complete math assignments/homework faster? Do they feel more confident when using math in social studies or science class? Do they feel more confident about math in general? 112. Relate Math Skills to Test-Taking: Give students a practice test covering any core math skills, such as fractions, word problems, and pre-algebra, covered during class. Remind students to apply the steps from their Merit math program. Explain why, during a test, it is still worth taking time to write out each math step—otherwise it is easy to make a mistake and never catch it! Explain why taking time to complete math steps and checking over work will help to improve test grades/scores. Give suggestions about how students might pace themselves under specific time pressure. 113. Reassess What Math Students Understand: List the names of different math skills on the board, along with the phrases “I know this,” “I find this easy,” and “I need to work on this” below each skill name. Ask for a show of hands regarding each skill; ask students to jot down and record their response to each skill in their math journals. Compare these responses to students’ earliest responses in their journals—when they were just beginning to use Merit math software. Next, compare student responses to scores on written practice tests, as well as to scores on Merit math Finals rounds. Have all your students made progress? How much? Can you predict how well each student might do in another math class next term? 114. Reassess Math Progress: Compare math progress for student subgroups (that is, students grouped via demographics such as family background, enrollment, or class quartile). What impact did classmath assignments and projects have on each subgroup? Which short- or long-term math projects impacted subgroups the most? Did students within each subgroup show improved attendance, grades, math levels, and/or performance on state math tests? Did you fulfill your overall math goals for this class?
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Merit Reading/Writing/Math Programs to Help Schools Close the Achievement Gap with Limited Funds
Merit programs are self-paced improvement and management tools that help students learn and apply proven strategies. Key skills are taught and explained in an easy-to-learn fashion. Contextual help and feedback
are provided throughout. Using the Merit Text Talker, students can hear questions, answers, tips, and explanations spoken aloud. A record management system, which automatically records student progress, allows educators to create reports. Sessions, time-on-task, and individual improvements are all tracked. “We’re using the software for remedial purposes—for middle school students who haven’t passed exams. The students use it after school. It has been very effective.”
– Delmar School District Delmar, DE
Basic Skills Pack
Basic Skills Software that works!
Intermediate Skills Pack
Software that covers the crucial skills students need to know.
Covers language arts competencies necessary to prepare students for college work.
Language Arts Bundle for College Prep
“The software all looks good. We use it in a classroom for student skills training. We use it as a supplement at least once a week. The students are in high school and need remediation.”
– Palm Desert High School, Palm Desert, CA
SOLUTIONS FOR:
Elementary School Middle School High School College Prep Special Ed - Learning Disabilities Workplace Adult Literacy - GED Prep ESL Beginning ESL Intermediate ESL Advanced - TOEFL Prep
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ABOUT MERIT SOFTWARE:
Since 1983, Merit has been giving everyone involved – teachers, tutors, parents and students – the tools and opportunities to improve learning and to attain positive, measurable results. The programs provide detailed coverage of the core competencies students require to succeed. Concepts in reading, writing, grammar, vocabulary and math are covered from the basics to higher levels. Troublesome points are identified and broken down into understandable parts. Personalized explanations and tips are tailored to each student’s responses. Built-in tracking permits teachers and tutors to quickly discover individual areas of concern and to plan lessons in response to specific student needs. Faculty members at Marshall University have rigorously evaluated the impact of Merit on pupil achievement in a multi-year effort at many schools. In a landmark 24-week evaluation, using Merit reading and writing software as a supplement to in-class instruction produced statistically significant gains for treatment group students. Prior to the start of the school year, 151 students were randomly assigned to control or experimental groups. The researchers determined that 37% more 6th graders and 19% more 7th graders passed a state standardized reading/language arts test after using Merit. An unusually large effect size of .94 was calculated for Merit 6th graders’ test scores and .70 for 7th graders. For details of the research conducted on Merit go to http://research.meritsoftware.com
For information, pricing, full-working demos, and a FREE evaluation CD-Rom contact us direct at:
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