Rather than despairing over grammar mistakes in their corrected papers, Jason DeHart suggests students can succeed in ELA by noting the varieties of sentences, talking about their impact on the narrative, and describing the feelings and actions these stylistic choices evoke.
To avoid experiencing co-teaching within an imbalanced power relationship, author, NBCT and co-teaching coach Elizabeth Stein shares a process that strengthens co-teaching through a dynamic exchange of individual and collective power – truly in partnership with one another.
2024 is another fantastic year for new middle grades books with many more titles to come in the next few months. ELA teacher Kasey Short introduces titles for school and class libraries that are sure to appeal to your students. Fantasy, immigration, science, WW II, and more!
During this reading activity, partners think out loud, supported by active listening, to deepen their individual and shared understandings. Rather than reading without focus, this strategy teaches students to attend to their reading by stopping to “say something” at intervals.
Academic success relies on students taking charge of their learning. To achieve that goal, kids must learn to organize and study effectively. G/T Facilitator Sharon Ratliff shares strategies she uses to introduce and implant essential study skills in the middle school years.
In middle school some gifted students find themselves lost in an urban maze without sufficient navigational support. GT facilitator Sharon Ratliff shares some teaching techniques and conversational strategies that can help them stay on the road that leads to academic success.
After 20+ years of teaching, Dina Strasser has found one thing almost never fails to connect with adolescents: the positive reaction you get when you genuinely compliment a kid on their appearance. Check out the strategy she’s developed to help reap smiles and build rapport.
The authors of Shifting the Balance (Grades 3-5) invite literacy educators in the upper elementary and early middle grades to “engage in both the headwork and the heartwork required to ensure our practices are science-aligned and student-centered.” And do it in a safe space.
Author and master teacher Debbie Silver begins her case for spirit-building humor and laughter in classrooms and schools with a personal story from her years as a middle level educator. “Pay attention to how much you laugh together. Teachers and school leaders who laugh, last.”
Gholdy Muhammad’s Unearthing Joy offers ways to elevate meaning, reflection and joy so readers can offer cultural and historically responsive teaching most effectively. Sarah Cooper calls it “one of the most beautiful, inspiring, actionable books about pedagogy I’ve ever read.”
