Catching up On Professional Journals

March 2014 Teaching Children Mathematics (NCTM)
"Digital Date Equations"

Although this is not a particularly new activity -- use the digits of the date to create an equation -- I have a couple of big take-aways:

• I rant that teachers of reading and writing need to be readers and writers themselves. If I follow the same logic, then I need to create equations, too.
• By making some equations of my own, I know how hard it is to keep the digits in order.
• If we begin the school year making these equations, we will be able to have conversations about order of operations, estimating, mental math, inequalities (and more) all year long instead of during a particular unit of study. Like read aloud, Poetry Friday, and 15 Minutes on Friday blog writing, this seems to be a small but mighty practice.

My equations for 6/24/2014:

(6 ÷ 2) x 4 = (2 + 0 + 1) x 4
(6 + 2 + 4 + 2 +0) = 14
(6 ÷ 24) + (2 x 0) = 1 ÷ 4
6² ÷ 4 = (2 x 4) + 1 + 0
62 x 4 > 20 x 14

 March 2014 Language Arts (NCTE)
"Addressing CCSS Anchor Standard 10: Text Complexity"

This article includes a really nice chart that summarizes all the ways a text can be complex:

Level of Meaning and Purpose
     Density and Complexity
     Figurative Language
     Purpose

Structure

     Genre

     Organization

     Narration

     Text Features and Graphics

Language Conventionality and Clarity

     Standard English and Variations

     Register (Archaic, formal, domain-specific, scholarly)

Knowledge Demands

     Background Knowledge (experiences)

     Prior Knowledge (specialized or technical content knowledge)

     Cultural Knowledge

     Vocabulary Knowledge

ReadWriteThink Text Complexity strategy for primary readers (following this link will take you down a really nice rabbit hole of ReadWriteThink resources for all levels)