When teachers choose literature that widens the lens on life, students discover how to reach beyond their experiences, reading between the lines, walking in others’ shoes, breaking down walls, and realizing they can act to affect the world, says teacher Bridget Suvansri.
Digital student portfolios have tremendous potential, writes author and principal Matt Renwick, from organizing passion projects to promoting student-led assessment. They can be the main method for students to document their own learning and demonstrate what they can do.
NCTE’s National Day on Writing (#WhyIWrite) is Friday, October 20. To help celebrate, we’ve pulled together a dozen of the many great posts about teaching writing that are freely available at MiddleWeb. You’ll find ideas, inspiration, and ready-to-use activities here.
With slanted news, social media and “reality” TV ceaselessly attracting the attention of young people, literacy consultant Frank W. Baker underscores the importance of Media Literacy Week, urging all educators to teach students how to analyze media “as text.”
Regardless of where educators land politically, it can sometimes feel like tiptoeing through a minefield to facilitate a balanced discussion of current events, writes teacher Sarah Cooper. Are there times when it’s appropriate for teachers to reveal their own views?
As new teachers develop routines for their classrooms, Class Tech Tips founder Monica Burns says it’s important to plan how they will check for understanding each day to gather information and inform future instruction. She shares three simple class assessment tools.
Reading is reinforced when students have hands-on experience with the ideas they find in informational texts. ELA teacher Brian Cook’s after-school drones program helps students explore flight, consider privacy and safety issues, and learn more about new careers.
Debbie Silver’s worst mistake? She managed to teach middle level science classes for too many years without ever fully embracing the practice of pre-assessment. See how her teaching changed and how yours might too with her simple go-to pre-assessment tools.
Done right, teacher coaching “can create bridges between varied experiences and classroom contexts, so that teaching knowledge flows in many directions, and teaching becomes a less isolated, more connected profession.” Ariel Sacks shares two lessons she learned early on.
When low-risk, high-interest writing becomes a daily habit for all of your students, whatever your content area, they’ll discover the powerful write-think-learn connection. Teacher-author and NBCT Mary Tedrow shares her classroom-tested “daybook” method for getting started.
