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1) Intervention for struggling intermediate readers

For struggling readers, success depends on self-regulation and the ability to transfer knowledge to new situations. In their new DVD/CD professional development program, Small Group Intervention, Linda Dorn and Carla Soffos model the components of an effective word study intervention that gives students opportunities to transfer word-solving strategies to reading and writing texts.

The DVD contains eleven short video episodes and the accompanying CD integrates these same episodes into a PowerPoint presentation that will be welcomed by staff developers. Background, instructional principles, and discussion prompts guide teachers through three intervention components: a word study lesson, reading a new book, and writing about the book. The program models explicit instruction that helps students acquire new knowledge, and shows how to use five levels of prompting for problem-solving strategies as students read connected texts.

Dorn and Soffos emphasize the importance of instructional language and scaffolding according to each student's needs. Teachers can study the video episodes and implement the intervention as part of their school's Response to Intervention (RTI) process. In addition to the PowerPoint, the CD also contains a viewing guide and handouts.

Small Group Intervention is available now. View a sample video clip, download the free viewing guide, and get more details here:

http://www.stenhouse.com/0814.asp?r=n178w

*Special for Newslinks subscribers*
Order Small Group Intervention at stenhouse.com by November 20 and we'll waive the shipping charge (a $5 value!). Just enter the discount code NLT at the bottom of the "Summary" checkout screen.

Small Group Intervention
Linking Word Study to Reading and Writing
Linda Dorn and Carla Soffos
DVD with 16 minutes of video + CD-ROM with 83-slide PowerPoint, viewing guide, and handouts • $55.00
http://www.stenhouse.com/0814.asp?r=n178w

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2) PD Corner: Cheating

I was thrown out of college for cheating on the metaphysics exam; I looked into the soul of the boy sitting next to me.
—Woody Allen

Humor aside, cheating has gone viral. An eye opener, Tony Vincent's post "How to Cheat" features wall-to-wall videos of cheating tips and tricks. Vincent leaves readers wondering when teachers will build cheat-proof tests:

http://learninginhand.com/blog/2008/04/how-to-cheat.html
(Some of the videos are no longer playable, but you'll get the idea. Check out the rest of Vincent's site, which is rich in resources for engaging students with handheld technology.)

Find out how "Professors Use Technology to Fight Student Cheating" by reading Kim Clark's recent article in U.S. News & World Report. From software programs such as Turnitin.com to luring students with Web "honey pots," Clark reviews what works against cheating. Ultimately, teachers need to design assignments that students want to do:

http://www.stenhouse.com/rdClarkUSNews.htm?r=n178w

Plagiarism is cheating. Review fair use and copyright with "A Fair(y) Use Tale," a hilarious (and legal) mash-up of Disney bits and bytes that's sure to engage students in a discussion about plagiarism:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJn_jC4FNDo

Teach students how to cite their sources with EasyBib or Citation Machine. Fill in the forms and these free sites will provide a citation in proper style:

http://www.easybib.com

http://citationmachine.net

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3) Franki Sibberson interviews Patrick Allen

Last week Stenhouse author Franki Sibberson posted a thoughtful interview with Patrick Allen, author of the new book Conferring. Hear what Patrick has to say about the advantage of making conferring more authentic and conversational in tone ("There's an amazing sense of trust that develops if we confer honestly and sincerely"), what makes reading conferences more difficult than writing conferences, and how to develop your own record-keeping system:

http://www.stenhouse.com/rdSibbersonAllen.htm?r=n178w

Preview the entire text of Conferring online:

http://www.stenhouse.com/0768.asp?r=n178w

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4) How's your classroom blog going?

At the start of second quarter I am excited to see the new ways that I will be able to use my blog. It did not take me long to realize that it will be a long-term process in order to integrate all components that I would like, so I decided to have goals for each quarter.

We asked Amanda Villagomez, a middle-school language arts and social studies teacher from Oregon, to give us an update on her classroom blog. (Amanda wrote about starting a new blog in a guest post on the Stenhouse Blog back in July.) Read about some of her initial obstacles, how she handles the posting of ideas from other teachers, and her plans for the future:

http://www.stenhouse.com/rdVillagomez2.htm?r=n178w

And here's a link directly to Amanda's classroom blog:

http://villagomez.edublogs.org/

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