Using engaging strategies and many examples, teacher Tim Smyth makes a convincing case for viewing comics and graphic novels as literacy tools, helping build reading and critical thinking skills. Kevin Hodgson is glad that Smyth also shows how kids can create their own comics.
Patterns of Power for grades 6 – 8 is a teacher-friendly, easy-to-navigate book that uses the invitation process to help students move beyond the traditional study of grammar so they can appreciate the patterns of language and conventions, writes consultant Anne Anderson.
Learn how middle grades teacher and NBCT Kathie Palmieri is using the upgraded and rebranded Flip video tool (formerly Flipgrid) on a daily basis to engage her students, show quick lesson reviews, and get them talking about what they did and didn’t understand. Helpful tips included.
Bright Complex Kids by Jean Sunde Peterson and Daniel B. Peters is highly readable and highly evidentially rigorous in helping educators, families and health professionals identify and work with gifted children of all socio-economic backgrounds, writes educator Amy Estersohn.
In Identity Affirming Classrooms: Spaces that Center Humanity, Erica Buchanan-Rivera provides teachers with the background knowledge, reflection tools and actionable practices needed to create identity-aware, student-centered environments. For all educators, says Katie Durkin.
Do you invite student talk? If we want kids to engage in the lessons we’re teaching, they need to see us valuing what they have to say. Kelly Owens shares tips for creating a “two-way” classroom community and home connections that encourage authentic dialogue and build trust.
A safe and stable school is essential to a successful instructional program, write Ron Williamson and Barbara Blackburn. That’s why it’s so critical for school leaders to anticipate what may be needed in a crisis and develop plans with contingencies for anything that may occur.
8th grader Lily Strickland offers teachers a student’s perspective on homework. She knows her teachers care about kids, but she’s not sure they always understand the impact that assigning homework has on busy adolescents. Her six tips draw on the ‘good policies’ of some of her teachers.
Are you looking for lesson plans and ideas to engage your students as they learn to be confident writers? Lisa Eickholdt and Patricia Vitale-Reilly offer a step-by-step plan to develop writing clubs with variations to keep community interest high all year, says Dawna Brandt.
Alyssa Hadley Dunn’s Teaching on Days After offers research and narratives on how teachers can respond equitably on days after cataclysmic events so that they and their students “reach the full measure of their humanity.” Sarah Cooper recommends Dunn’s pedagogical strategies.
