The Adolescent Literacy Model is easily adaptable for meeting the needs of gifted students in heterogeneous classrooms. As teachers strategically select ALM strategies for their lessons, they can simultaneously plan modifications for their students identified as academically gifted.
Notetaking is an expectation for students beginning in the intermediate grades that increases at each level of schooling and work. Explicitly teaching the notetaking skill enhances student learning.
Students struggle to share what they know about mathematics through writing, and it should not be surprise to anyone that students feel uncomfortable writing about mathematics. As math teachers, most of us don’t write about mathematics routinely (if ever). We were not expected to write as students, so we don’t have a lot of experience writing, and we do not have much (again, if any) training in the writing process.
Incorporating academic dialogue into a mathematics classroom is easy if you start small and build your understanding of the processes as you go. The Conditions for Thinking and Learning provide a framework for expectations.
Schools and districts are so often looking for a silver bullet to improve student outcomes. This isn’t new, we’ve been doing it for years and I’ve yet to find or hear of that ONE SINGLE THING that does it. With a mindset of not this or that, but both/and, teachers can begin to take the best of the resources they have before them to engage students in learning the content.
To get better at our craft we need to reflect, and protocols allow us to reflect on our practice with our peers. Together we get better.
The Adolescent Literacy Model is easily adaptable for meeting the needs of Multilingual Learners in heterogeneous classrooms. As teachers strategically select ALM strategies for their lessons, they can simultaneously plan modifications for their students with limited English proficiency.
