1 The Best of MERLOT for Teacher Education: A Walk Through the Vineyard MERLOT International Conference August 5-8, 2003 Vancouver, BC Canada

2 WEBSITES of INTEREST to all TEACHER EDUCATORS

3 Authentic Assessment Toolbox –Authentic Assessment Toolbox is a tutorial for all educators to use for learning about authentic assessment. It is presented with hypertext and features creating authentic tasks, rubrics and standards for measuring and improving student learning. What is authentic assessment? Why do we need it? How do you do it? Answers to these questions as well as information on standards, rubrics, portfolios, and examples can be found here.

4 Calibrated Peer Review –Calibrated Peer Review (CPR) allows students to learn while writing, through online peer evaluation, and then through a follow-up online self-assessment. CPR can be a solution for any important topic that students “can’t seem to get” (misconceptions). CPR has several strengths: 1- CPR requires the instructor to carefully think through a writing assignment. 2- CPR sharpens student critical thinking by requiring self-assessment. 3- CPR fosters collaborative learning by engaging students in a critical review of the writing of their peers. CPR is an especially effective strategy for managing writing assignments in large classes, where giving individual evaluative feedback can unduly tax a solo instructor’s time. – –

5 TrackStar –This website helps instructors organize and annotate websites used in teaching and learning. Teams of students can create tracks for topics covered in class. Other students then read and reflect on the sites and “I learned” statements to an asynchronous discussion board.

6 Bernie Dodge’s WebQuest Page –Bernie Dodge’s WebQuest Page gives instructors a model for using the web as an instructional tool. WebQuests are a very powerful inquiry-oriented learning activity. WebQuests focus the user on problem solving and higher-order thinking. The variety of materials provided on this site is excellent. Instructors can use the materials to develop their own WebQuests, teach students how to design WebQuests, and for other purposes. For example, the explanations and links to Rubric development could be used separately in an assessment course.

7 Visual Analysis of Variance –This is an extensive site on ANOVA and the concepts underlying the F-ratio that is appropriate for a statistics course or any educational research course with a statistics component. The site has a thorough interactive tutorial on the conceptual underpinnings of the F-ratio. Additionally the site has a visual model of the sources of variance in the F-ratio that can be manipulated and is very useful for understanding the effects of between and within variances on the F-ratio.

8 Shodor Educational Foundation –Included on this site are instructional resources and software ready to be used in the classroom. Shodar Foundation does an outstanding job linking mathematics activities to the NCTM standards. Included are lesson plans, activities and ways for teachers to become familiar with concepts before presenting them to their classes. Each activity has a "What" button to tell the purpose of the activity, a "How" button that explains how to incorporate it into the classroom, and a "Why" button that explains the usefulness of the activity.

9 The Math Forum: –The Math Forum is a great resource for classroom teachers and preservice teachers. Dr. Math is an opportunity for students and teachers to ask mathematics professors directly for answers to difficult problems or questions about mathematics. There is an archive available for answering most questions on the spot. The Teacher-2-Teacher section provides opportunities for math teachers to converse about current topics. There are lesson plans and activities organized by subject matter and grade level.

10 History Matters –History Matters is a standards-based learning object designed for high school and college teachers of U.S. history courses; however, teacher education majors will find this site very helpful. The site brings together sound teaching practices, historically sound information, and offers many motivation strategies for getting learners involved. Two of the better features are the Digital Blackboard and Secrets of Great History Teachers. The Digital Blackboard has many teaching ideas that bring the topic alive. The Secrets of Great History Teachers interviews these teachers about their teaching methods.

11 LD Online –LD Online brings together in one location information regarding the identification process, assessment, teaching strategies, due process, etc. and current research information and governmental actions that impact the delivery of services for children and youth with specific learning disabilities. Users can take much of the information directly from the web into the classroom with few adaptations. This site is invaluable for both in-service and pre-service teachers.

12 Classroom Assessment Techniques –Classroom Assessment Techniques can be used by faculty to collect feedback, early and often, on how well their students are learning what they are being taught. The purpose of classroom assessment is to provide faculty and students with information and insights needed to improve teaching effectiveness and learning quality. At least twenty formative assessment techniques designed to foster critical thinking are clearly outlined. References to good assessment literature are also provided.

13 ArtsEdge –ArtsEdge helps educators teach in, through, and about the arts. Features at this extensively rich site include: NewsBreak--current updates on what is happening in the arts and education; Teaching Materials--standards-based units, lessons, and activities that integrate the arts across the curriculum; and Professional Resources--planning and contact information and an excellent for reviewing ALL the national standards.

14 K-6 Arts Lesson Plans –K-6 Arts Lesson Plans is a searchable database of 100 arts (dance, drama/theatre, music, and visual art) lessons plans developed by Dr. Cris Guenter and her student teachers at California State University, Chico. New lessons, which are added each semester that are aligned with California's Content Standards for the Arts and address the expectations of the National Standards for Arts Education. A lesson plan format, a rubric for assessing lesson plans, other online sources, and suggestions for use are also included.

15 Kennedy Center Millennium Stage –The Kennedy Center sponsors free arts performances every day of the year for the public. The intent of this website is to expand and increase access to the performing arts. Performances are videotaped as they are being performed and archived online. A range of performers take the stage, including high school groups, seasoned performers, and international groups.

16 Artful Minds Artful Minds provides students and educators with theoretical information and practical applications about arts education, brain research, technology use, and curriculum integration. There is a site search engine, a directory, and the ability to pre-load the many graphics for speed presentations. The library, which contains more than 5,000 web sites, also features unique educational web sites that have been created through ThinkQuest competitions and programs.

17 Learning Cultural Diversity –Cultural Diversity –The Spice of Life is a webquest that with activities for students to engage in to learn about cultural diversity through an exploration of apartheid in South Africa. There are 13 different activities that direct students through an investigation of cultural diversity.

18 Fight Hate and Promote Tolerance –Tolerance.org seeks to create a national community committed to human rights. Its goal is to awaken people of all ages to the problem of hate and intolerance, to equip them with the best tolerance ideas and to prompt them to act in their homes, schools, businesses and communities. The ideas in this guide will help foster tolerance in yourself, your family, your schools, your workplace and your community. Ideas presented are relevant to self, home, school, workplace, and community. Hate, bias, and tolerance news are reviewed systematically.

19 Concept Mapping Software –Concept Mapping Software on this site allows the user to construct knowledge maps. If the server is installed, users may share or collaboratively construct concept maps. The site also contains a good tutorial on concept maps and an extensive list of references in the publications and reference sections of the site.

20 Research Methods –Research Methods is a simple and easy to use tutorial about common research designs. The tutorial works well as an introduction to research design in courses such as educational or developmental psychology where empirical research is covered and students need some understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of common research methods. This is a well-designed site with measurable objectives and assessment exercises.

21 The National Library of Virtual Manipulatives –The National Library of Virtual Manipulatives contains a variety of math manipulative in a virtual format that allow students and teachers with no access to hands-on products to be able to benefit from a visual approach to conceptual understanding. The NLVM correlates all activities to the NCTM standards.

22 Science Questions: NAEP the Nation's Report Card –NAEP’s mission has been to collect, analyze, and present reliable and valuable information about what the nation’s students know and can do. Both public and non-public school students in grade 4, 8, and 12 are sampled and assessed on a regular basis in core subject areas. NAEP, the Nation’s report card provides sample questions actually used on the NAEP tests. Each question includes Performance Data, Content Classification, Scoring Guide/Key, and Student Responses, which allow classroom teachers to compare performance of their students with national norms to know whether or not they are doing a god job teaching.

23 Performance Assessment Links in Science –PALS is an on-line, standards-based resource bank of science performance assessment tasks indexed to the National Science Education Standards (NSES) and a few other science standards frameworks. Many of the tasks are associated with assessment rubrics, sample student responses, and score distributions showing how populations of students actually perform. PALS allows classroom teachers to compare performance of their students with national norms.

24 PBS TeacherSource –Educational PBS shows or videos are available through a searchable database at this site. A key feature of the site is that it stays current and is updated often. With over lesson and activity ideas, as well as education projects and opportunities, teachers and student teachers will find worthy content. Teachers can conduct searches by grade level and subject-specific areas. Lessons identified through a search are then matched to standards.

25 Our Documents –Our Documents provides teachers, teacher educators, and students of American history with images and copies of the text of 100 milestone documents of American history ( ) related to the rights and responsibilities of citizens in our democracy. Other resource material about how to use primary sources can also be found on this website.

26 Circle of Inclusion, Forms and Articles –Circle of Inclusion has strong content reflecting current best practices and strategies for implementing inclusion practices. One of the strong points of the site is its support for those involved in inclusive practices, including literature to share with the general public, other teachers, as well as with administrators and parents. This is a great resource for teaching inclusive practices to students, especially when they begin to throw up many excuses for it not working.