Looking for a way to work on "Main Idea"?

Something sort of odd happened to me today. During a demonstration of the program, I was asked whether a science lesson in Skills Tutor would read the text on the page. I said, "Let's click on it and see." Not all Skills Tutor pages work in exactly the same way. Some read passages sentence by sentence, some read the entire page, and some read a summary of what is on the page. Science is one that reads a summary of the page. 

While it was reading the summary or main ideas of the page, it occurred to me that this could be a great way to work on identifying main idea or summarizing.

Here's the suggestion. Assign a science lesson that you think would be interesting to your kids. We used the lesson on the cell in Science I. Either have them all bring the page up, or, if you have the technology, bring it up on a projector or smart board. Have the kids read the contents of the page; a process which will take about three minutes. Then, have your students write a quick summary of what the main or most important ideas on this page were. Next, click on the text on the page and it will read its summary out loud. It's a quick way for the student to do some self evaluation to see if they were correct. There should be about three pages at the beginning of any science lesson which will operate in this way, and when you get to the point where your students are having to answer science questions, you can either choose to have them answer, or you could exit that activity and go to another.

Keep in mind that the Science lessons are leveled for high school, but are frequently used in middle school and occasionally lower. The vocabulary may be too difficult for lower grades. I'd love to hear from you in the comments if you try this

Do you have questions?

Sometimes we don't ask questions because we don't want to bother someone who might have the answer. We at Skills Iowa want to assure you that you are never a bother to us; we are always happy to answer your questions. Just contact your project leader and he or she will get right back to you.

Another solution is to ask someone at your school who is using Skills Iowa's programs to help improve student achievement. Usually, those folks are happy to help.

A third option might be to ask the questions right here on this blog through the comments section. It's easy, and you can bet you aren't the only person with the question you might want to ask, so just ask!

Is your report not loading?

If you are getting a white screen that doesn't go away when you are trying to download a report, the problem is most likely an activated pop up blocker.

You may have already turned off the pop up blocker, but in a Windows computer, you may have a Google toolbar which also contains a pop up blocker. Check for that too. When you turn off the pop up blockers, try your report again, and it should load.

Reports, Reports, Reports

Skills Iowa usage really comes down to Assess, Analyze, Act. If you are giving assessments and assigning lessons in Skills Tutor, you really need to be checking the reports. This article gives a review of what the reports are and what they do. 

Let your project leader or your building leader know if you have questions.