SEALED Resource Repository
The SEALED project is funded by a U.S. Department of Education Supporting Effective Educator Development (SEED) grant #U423A170078. The content of this website/work does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. Department of Education nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.
These resources were compiled by selected M.S. Ed. graduates from the SEALED (Supporting Educators’ Academic Literacies and Enhanced Discourse) project. These teacher leaders are Miami-Dade County Public School secondary teachers who implemented teaching methods for the focal areas in their classrooms. Thus, they bring their experience, knowledge, and skills to the task of providing resources for fellow teachers who are interested in learning more about Academic Literacies, Data-based Decision-Making/Problem-based Learning, Engagement, Culturally Responsive Teaching. Here you will find handouts, lesson plans, videos, and other resources to help inform your teaching. Resources are grouped by focal area and then listed by resource type. You can also filter these resources to search for applicable subject areas, grade levels, and implementation level of difficulty. A brief summary for each resource is also included.
FOCAL AREAS
Academic Language and Literacies
The SEALED project defines academic language as, “…the language used in school to acquire new or deeper understanding of the content and communicate that understanding to others (Gottlieb & Ernst-Slavin (2014, pp. 4, 5).
At the same time, it is acknowledged that all students bring valuable languaging practices and linguistic resources with them to school, and that these should be valued and accepted by teachers, other students, the community, and society as a whole. The audience, along with the purpose for the communication, should drive the “register” or variety of language that is used. People adjust their registers based on their audience, and the purpose behind the communication (e.g., a text message to a friend with highlights from last night’s game is very different from a newspaper article about that same game). There is space for many varieties of language in school and teachers need to value, accept, and see all registers as resources for meaning making. The register for schooling is usually referred to as academic language.
Problem-based Learning - Data-based Decision-making
Problem-based learning centers students at the core of the knowledge discovery and construction processes.
Instead of passively listening to a lecture or starting with a set of facts, students’ curiosity is leveraged to ask questions, engage with relevant content, and seek answers through meaningful experiences and experiments. When teachers carefully plan a hands-on, minds-on approach to problem-based learning keeping their students in mind, students are able to make meaning based on their own lived experiences and their societal context.
Student Engagement
Student engagement is the behavioral, cognitive, and emotional investment that a student makes in the classroom.
It is directly connected to teachers’ efforts to facilitate and develop students’ curiosity, interest, optimism and passion in learning. Student engagement is linked to students' motivation to learn because students take ownership of their learning and contribute to the classroom in meaningful ways.
Culturally Responsive Pedagogy (CRP)
Culturally Responsive Pedagogy (CRP) is the recognition, acknowledgment, and ongoing effort to include student's cultural backgrounds and relevant content/reference points in every aspect of the learning experience.
Within CRP, a strengths based approach is used to enhance the student's and the school's academic success by providing value to who students are as individuals and to their explicit and implicit cultural identity, including their technological literacy.
Acknowledgment and a special thank you to the M-DCPS SEALED teacher leaders who worked to make these repository resources possible:
Academic Literacies: Mimi Eckert, Rose Weintraub; Culturally Relevant Teaching: Marcos Cohen, Kelsey Major, Danny Mayorga; Data-based Decision-making and Problem-based Learning: Oscar Aguirre, Angela Compton, Yvette Rosell, and Engagement: Tasha Edmonds, Michelle Izquierdo.
SEND A MESSAGE
The SEALED project was funded by the U.S. DOE Supporting Effective Education Development program (2017-2020), Grant #U423A170078. Renewed funding is not expected for this project. Email Mary Avalos (PI) (mavalos@miami.edu) with questions concerning SEALED’s project outcomes.