Watch as Marilyn and Aaron plan using the Benchmark Advance ELA Resources

Review and Routines: Watch as teachers Marilyn Stefan and Aaron Grossman share their thoughts on the Benchmark Advance, Review and Routines. They also describe the read alouds they will use during the first five days of instruction and the opportunities they’ve identified to elevate some of the program materials. Finally, they end with predictions for how they think the first 15 days will unfold. Bonus: Marilyn explains how to use the online components.

Unit 1: Government: Watch as Marilyn Stefan and Aaron Grossman, educators in Washoe County School District, plan for Unit 1 in Benchmark Advance. Marilyn and Aaron will share tips for implementation, areas where they see teachers can elevate outcomes, and share predictions for how they see the unit playing out.

Unit 1: Online Resources: Marilyn explains how to find all of the online resources for Unit 1.

Emergency Vlog: Help, I am Struggling with Benchmarks: You reached out and we are responding! Watch as we describe how we are navigating the challenges of using Benchmark Advance. We’ll share classroom management strategies, scaffolds for complex text and speak with real candor about how we are “fitting it all in.”

Unit 2: Characters Watch Getting ready to implement Unit 2 of Benchmark Advance? Gain tips, strategies, and instructional moves to increase your success with this unit.

Unit 3: Life Science and Animal Adaptations: Watch as classroom teachers Marilyn Stefan and Aaron Grossman outline strategies to successfully work with Unit 3 in Benchmark Advance. After sharing their “hot tips” to increase student engagement, they describe what they like about the unit and ways they plan to blend and enhance the educational experience for their students.

Unit 4: Point of View: Watch as Aaron Grossman and Marilyn Stefan outline their plans for Unit 4, within Benchmark Advance, and the materials they will elevate with. In this episode, Aaron and Marilyn reflect on how the reading components are working for them, the areas they plan to enhance, and all of the resources they are posting for free at www.justtwoteachers.com.

Unit 5: Technology: Watch as Marilyn and Aaron share tips and strategies for success with Unit 5, within the Benchmark Advance Universe. Among other things, they describe their 90 minute literacy block.

Unit 6, Making Decisions: Watch as Marilyn and Aaron plan for implementation of Benchmark Advance Unit 6 and the essential question, What helps us solve problems? They begin with how they are using resources from the Benchmark Universe and http://www.justtwoteachers.com to plan for subs and help students who were absent during instruction. They also outline ways they plan to elevate the unit.

Unit 7, History and Culture: Knowing that uncommon vocabulary is a significant challenge to understanding complex text, Aaron and Marilyn outline six strategies to help students secure academic vocabulary. The six strategies are research-based and move from easy to implement to more difficult to get started. The hope in sharing the strategies is to increase student engagement, especially since so many features of Benchmark have been secured by Unit 7.

Digitizing Benchmark Advance for Online Learning: As we move students online, Marilyn and I explain how we are using different applications and tools to ensure the Benchmark Advance experience is highly engaging and maximizes social opportunities, for our students. These two outcomes become especially important with the prospect of a lot of learning occurring outside of our classrooms.

We explain how we are using conferencing software, Flipgrid, Edpuzzle, Padlet, OneNote, and the digitized resources at http://www.JustTwoTeachers.com to reach this outcome.