Every child wants to be successful, but school can be a tough place for vulnerable students. To pull them into the success loop requires both an understanding of their plight and a willingness to fully support them with targeted strategies, writes Suzy Pepper Rollins.
We’ve collected our 16 most-read posts with pandemic themes, from March 15 through today. Each has thousands of visits, retweets and shares. Check out our summaries and explore – there’s plenty here to help with fall planning and teaching. And keep watching for more!
How do we put our young writers first? We seek to develop a mindset and actions that provide opportunity, dignity, and encouragement, says literacy expert Regie Routman. Then we carefully tailor feedback that celebrates strengths and boosts each and every writer’s confidence.
When it’s time to analyze a fiction or nonfiction text, don’t let students coast through the lesson by simply filling in a graphic organizer. Author and teaching coach Sunday Cummins has ideas that will help learners think about text structures conceptually and flexibly.
David Lee Finkle teaches English and creative writing in a Florida public school. For 20 years in local newspapers and online, his comic strip Mr. Fitz has shared the realities of teaching and school life with humor, empathy and irony – as you’ll see in this selection of recent ‘pandemic strips’.
The slow burn of racial injustice has once again erupted in a blaze of protests – illuminating long-standing social, economic, and educational disparities and divisions. Only this time is different, writes Vernita Mayfield. And it demands cultural competency from every educator.
To motivate students to embrace independent reading, Kasey Short recommends we help them find the right books, use authentic assignments for accountability, and provide the time to read – all to help build a classroom climate where reading is valued, enjoyed and celebrated.
Get kids engaged in narrative writing using Story in a Bag. ELA consultant Lynne Dorfman shows how this hands-on activity enlivens in-class and distance learning as it helps students build their writing fluency and encourages them to learn problem solving on the spot.
Simulations involve tactile or kinesthetic participation and offer a way for students to be actively engaged in lessons and experience another dimension of learning. Barbara Blackburn and two colleagues share online and in-class SS, ELA, and STEM ideas.
Jennifer Sniadecki and Jason DeHart dive deep into using picture books in upper level classrooms to meet state standards and increase student mastery. In this 3rd post on the topic they share examples, research, and stories from their own teaching experiences.
