This newsletter is full of great information on Gizmos, Reflex, and the latest happenings at ExploreLearning:

Expert Corner: Lesson Planning for Whole-Class Instruction

Educator of the Month: Larissa Jackson

High Reflex Usage? Higher Test Scores!

Great Implementation Ideas

Reflex Educator Grant Program

Expert Corner:
Lesson Planning for Whole-Class Instruction

Laura Chervenak has been with ExploreLearning since 2010 as the VP of Professional Development. She has taught high school science, and is the founder and former director of GOAL Digital Academy. Laura is National Board Certified in Science/Adolescence and Young Adulthood, with a B.A. in Zoology and an M.S. in Anthropology.

We all know that deliberate and careful lesson preparation can separate an okay lesson from one that is vibrant and effective. But teachers don’t have hours to review materials and make decisions about instructional strategies. There simply aren’t enough hours in the day!

To help busy teachers get the most out of their lessons, ExploreLearning Gizmos provide a suite of materials to help streamline the preparation process. To provide an example of how I would plan a lesson, I selected the Gizmo, Measuring Motion, and created a video as I prepared my lessons. In this 10-minute video, you can watch as I “think out loud” during the planning.

My entire preparation took about 20 minutes and I finished with a 3-day series of lessons, combining the Gizmo, textbook exercises, and assessment activities. My thought process is outlined below, but you should watch the video and review the finished whole-class instruction script for more details.

When using whole-class instruction with Gizmos, you want to make sure that you use standard classroom best practices for whole-class instruction.

Be sure to “chunk” your material in short segments. This will give your students lots of opportunities to be active participants. They can do so either by volunteering, or by using participation techniques like Think-Pair-Share, QuickWrites, and individual response systems (electronic or whiteboard). Design your questions ahead of time within a whole-class instruction script. You will want to include questions across all six levels of Bloom’s taxonomy, scaffolding as you progress through the lesson. Be sure to identify formative instruction strategies that you will use to see how students are doing as they work to master the standard(s).

The important steps to follow as you plan your Gizmo lesson:

1. Identify the standards you are teaching and select an appropriate Gizmo.

2. Preview the Gizmo while referencing the Student Exploration Sheet Answer Key.

3. Decide how you will use the Gizmo to address the standard(s). Does the Gizmo make a good introduction to engage the student and allow them to construct meaning for themselves? Or would you rather use the Gizmo to explain the concept and provide students with practice?

4. Utilize the Student Exploration Sheet, Teacher Guide, and Vocabulary Sheet to plan the whole-class instruction script. Remember, each of these is easily customizable to meet the individual needs of all your students.

Comments or questions about lesson planning for whole-class instruction? Please email us at GizmosPD@explorelearning.com.

Educator of the Month: Larissa Jackson

Larissa Jackson has been teaching for 17 years. Mrs. Jackson currently teaches Biology at a Title I high school in Shelby County Schools, TN.

Many of Mrs. Jackson's science computer lab sessions involve Gizmos. When she’s not using the computer lab, she has students engage with Gizmos on an interactive whiteboard during whole-class instruction. After her first year of using Gizmos in her lessons, she saw remarkable results. Her Biology students’ proficiency scores more than doubled! She attributes this success to the unique learning design Gizmos provide. Not only are students excited about using Gizmos in her class, they are deeply engaged in the content because of Gizmos. She explains:

“Because my students are such visual and kinesthetic learners, I was able to reinforce my lessons in a way that I hadn't previously. I also like the way Gizmos require students to make predictions and inferences based on evidence. Because of limited time and resources, I couldn't perform all the labs that I wanted students to experience. Gizmos gave students the hands-on and visual experience they needed to really understand the concept — specifically, the genetics lessons.”

Mrs. Jackson thinks the Mouse Genetics Gizmo is fabulous for teaching students about genetics. In the Mouse Genetics Gizmo, students can breed "pure" mice with known genotypes that exhibit specific fur and eye colors, and learn how traits are passed on via dominant and recessive genes. The Gizmo allows students to use Punnett squares to predict and track results of successive trials. Mrs. Jackson often has students work in cooperative groups to complete the Student Exploration sheets. Student Exploration sheets generally include multiple activities, with increasing levels of difficulty. This helps teachers differentiate their instruction more easily, so students of all ability levels can succeed.

Even when Mrs. Jackson engages students with hands-on labs, Gizmos are still part of the lessons — enriching students’ understanding of the concept before and after the lab. Gizmos are a great resource to remediate and reinforce the content and skills required of students. Mrs. Jackson really appreciates the Gizmo Assessment Questions too. They are a quick and easy way to assess students’ understanding of a concept. Mrs. Jackson is currently enjoying another great year of using Gizmos with her students!

High Reflex Usage? Higher Test Scores!

On two standardized tests, students with high Reflex usage substantially outgained students who did not use the program extensively. That was the conclusion of a recent study examining the relationship between Reflex usage and test scores for two groups of students in Charlottesville, VA. The study looked at both the Virginia state math assessment and NWEA’s MAP (Measure of Academic Progress) assessment.

Grade 2 Students

Reflex helps build a strong math foundation for Grade 2 students, and gives them the skills they need to succeed this year and beyond. Grade 2 students at all six elementary schools in Charlottesville had access to Reflex. MAP test data for students with at least 40 days of usage between the fall and spring test administrations was compared to the scores for students with low or no usage (0-5 days). The results were striking. While the two groups started out with very similar scores on the fall test, the high Reflex users had dramatically larger gains than those in the low usage group on the MAP test the following spring. The high usage group moved forward by 18.7 percentile points, whereas the low using group gained 1.9 points. A typical group would have simply maintained their percentile rank, gaining zero points.

Grade 4 Students

In Grade 4, Reflex helps students shore up their knowledge of their basic facts as they prepare to tackle more complex topics, such as long division and computation with fractions. In this part of the study, the state math test pass rate for Charlottesville students who used Reflex for at least 40 days during Grade 4 was compared to the pass rate for the same students a year earlier in Grade 3 (before they had used Reflex). In Grade 3, the Charlottesville students had a pass rate of 62.5% compared to the state average of 64%. On their Grade 4 test, however, these same students now had a pass rate of 85%, which far surpassed the statewide average of 74%.

Check out our website for more great Reflex results.

Great Implementation Ideas

Reflex is an effective solution for getting kids to know their math facts. But it only works if kids are using it regularly and getting the “Green Light.” We’ve collected lots of terrific ideas from creative and talented educators on how to encourage good usage and inspire kids to work hard.
The principal at Gavin H. Cochran Elementary School encourages parents to get students to use Reflex at home by “advertising” it on the school sign. In addition, teachers hang up certificates and fluency charts in the hallway to encourage student success.

You can find lots of other great ideas from educators on the Reflex Blog.

Reflex Educator Grant Program

ExploreLearning is now accepting applications from exceptional math educators who want an opportunity to use Reflex with their students. The program provides full use of Reflex for 12 months for one classroom of students, plus training and ongoing support for participating teachers.

The deadline to apply is November 29, 2013.

Stay in Touch

If you want to comment on any of the information in this newsletter, be sociable and post your insights on the Facebook pages for Gizmos and Reflex.

And as always, if you have a question or comment about Gizmos or Reflex, don't hesitate to contact our Customer Support team using the support form for either Gizmos or Reflex. We would love to hear from you.

For information on bringing Gizmos and Reflex to schools in your area, contact your ExploreLearning Account Representative:

866-882-4141, Option 2 sales@explorelearning.com