Summer School 2023

 

Summer School is quickly coming to a close.

We look at the arrival of July. 

School is only a month away, in August

Expectations were set.

Staffing Issues were overcome.

Students participated and did their best.

Standards were met,

Success was achieved.

Manuel R. CortezRodas - Educator

Copyright 2023.  MRCR Educational Consulting Firm.  All Rights Reserved.

Roadmap for Success with English Learners

INITIAL ASSESSMENT

Succeeding with English Learners begins with an initial assessment of their English language skill and their primary language of use.  With an accurate initial assessment of the student, placement into the educational process can become an efficient introduction to a new educational approach.


ACADEMIC REVIEW

With the establishment of a starting point in the education process of an English Learner through the Initial Assessment, the focus turns towards the academic review of the student. What does the EL know, and can the EL demonstrate this knowledge?  What has the EL learned and studied in a primary language?  How can the EL's academic achievement become match to a different measuring set of academic standards?


CONTINUED SUPPORT

Each English Learner will require a certain amount of continued support until they reach the level of proficiency required to exit the English Learner program.  How much continued support will a student need?  Each according to their skills and abilities.  All ELs should be supported continuously for as long as their stay in the EL program is, and beyond.  It may be as brief as a week, or as long a grade, or few years, but all ELs deserve and should receive continued support as they develop and transition into an English language educational environment.


PROGRESS & GROWTH

English Learners should not, cannot, stay stagnant in language development.  ELs must show and demonstrate both progress and growth.  Els should be able to do this in both language and knowledge.  An EL's progress and growth can be measured through Continued Academic Assessment, Common Academic Standards, Formative Assessment, etc.

MAINSTREAM EXIT

Just as they were assessed to enter an EL program, they must be assessed to exit and become mainstream.  It is a graduation from being an English Learner to a Mainsteam Student.  They have grown along side their classmates and now share progress in language and knowledge.  The English Learner has successfully transitioned into a new educational process through language acquisition.



Manuel R. CortezRodas - Educator

Copyright 2016.  MRCR Educational Consulting Firm.  All Rights Reserved.

STEAM Education Lessons

Introduction to STEAM Education Lessons

Author: Manuel R. CortezRodas

What is a STEAM education lesson?

A lesson is a prepared presentation on an educational topic that is based on the principal strands of STEAM education.  The presentation that is prepared as a STEAM education  lesson should present information in the best educational format that allows for the students of the lesson to best learn the STEAM educational topic.

What is the objective of a STEAM education lesson?

The objective of the STEAM education lesson should be for the students to learn the educational topic of the lesson.  The educator can reach the objective by presenting the lesson by using one or a combination of various methods like lectures, textbooks and resources, research and projects, video and audio clips, letters, experiments and demonstrations, field trips, assignments, homework, guest speakers, and many more.

How is the success of a STEAM education lesson measured?

The success of the STEAM education lesson can be measured using a variety of scales and tools, however, once the measure for success has been established, it must be implemented uniformly to the students as a whole.  The measurement of success must also be fair and balanced, and allow, with in a reasonable time frame, for the possibility of reaching success by ways of reevaluation and/or reassessment.

How is a STEAM education lesson implemented?

The implementation of a STEAM education lesson is to be decided by the creator of the lesson, or the educator who has been trained on how to present such lesson.  When implementing a STEAM lesson, the following factors should be taken into consideration: the students, the classroom, knowledge level, supplies and materials, age, grade, learning skills and abilities of those whom we expect to be learning the STEAM lesson that is presented.

 

Copyright 2013.  MRCR Educational Consulting Firm.  All Rights Reserved.

STEAM Education Curriculum (Part 2)

How to Develop a STEAM Education Curriculum

Author: Manuel R. CortezRodas

Beginning and Ending

Determine where the curriculum will begin, and where it will end.  Setting these two boundaries establishes a set limit for the curriculum.  These two boundaries can be from Kindergarten to 12th grade, from age 6 to age 18, even from Pre-Kindergarten to Post Secondary School.  Determining the beginning and the ending for you curriculum sets a point of origin from where the curriculum pathway will start, until the curriculum is successfully finished by the student.

Objectives

What do you want the student to achieve?  will they all be college ready?  will they be workplace ready? will they be able to achieve success in both college and the workplace after they have completed the required list of courses, classes, and subject material in the STEAM Curriculum?  These are some of the objectives that must be discussed and stated clearly.  It must also be planned where along the path of the curriculum these objectives must be met.

 

Pathways

Although the overall pathway of the STEAM Education Curriculum should be from beginning to ending, it must be taken into consideration that having only one path may cause delays and gridlock if it cannot accommodate all students.  Therefore it is recommended that the curriculum be composed of many different pathways (as many as needed by the students) to allow for the free flow of growth and development.  It should also be taken into consideration that there can be students who may join the STEAM curriculum at later times and at different stages in the development, as well as students who may need to be withdrawn when the need arises.

Success

Will success be measured by the number of students who complete the whole curriculum from beginning to end, or will it be measured by the number of students who reach only the ending stage of the process?  Perhaps the overall measure of success should be by the solutions that students reach to our present problems and the ones they will face.  If this last is to be the measure of success, the we must take into account that it will take time (in some cases many years) before any measure of success is obtained.

Copyright 2013.  MRCR Educational Consulting Firm.  All Rights Reserved.