The Creative Lives of Children
The documentary School Play by Eddie Rosenstein and Rick Velleu celebrates the importance of creative arts opportunities for all students, says principal Lyn Hilt, who also reviews a companion PD guide.
Category: Book Reviews
Teaching Kids to Succeed
Debbie Silver’s book, Fall Down 7 Times, Get Up 8: Teaching Kids to Succeed, is “an ideal blend” of theory, common sense, research & humor about effective ways to help students succeed, says reviewer Susie Highley.
A Festival of Book Reviews
Our Fall Book Review Festival features 15 brand-new reviews of professional books – each one written by and for middle grades educators – on teaching strategies, visual & media literacy, test preparation, the Common Core, academic icebreakers, RTI & special education, social studies, mathematics, teacher research, ESL students, and student motivation.
Cognitive Conditions for Learning
Students don’t like school because we don’t create the right cognitive conditions for learning. Bill Ivey reviews Dan Willingham’s book, Why Don’t Students Like School? A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions About How the Mind Works and What It Means for the Classroom.
Banishing Boredom
Teacher librarian Lorri Kingan recommends Bryan Harris’s book, Battling Boredom – 99 Strategies to Spark Student Engagement, and its clever, simple-to-implement strategies to all teachers looking for ways to promote active student learning.
Essential Ideas for Math Success
Reviewer and math teacher Michelle Schwartze says the eight essential elements for school-wide math success identified by Chris Confer and Marco Ramirez in Small Steps, Big Changes: Eight Essential Practices for Transforming Schools Through Mathematics ring true.
Marrying Math & Literacy
In Amy Benjamin’s Math in Plain English: Literacy Strategies for the Mathematics Classroom, says reviewer Shelly Sims, there’s finally a book combining literacy strategies with what we know about math thinking and problem-solving.
21st Century Visual Literacy
Visual literacy is vital skill for iGeneration students, says reviewer Patricia Thomas-Jeanig. She recommends Steve Moline’s See What You Mean: Visual Literacy K-8 (2nd Edition) which explores many kinds of visual texts and includes great teaching ideas.
Inside Scoop on Reading Tests
Reviewer Rebecca Crockett praises Charles Fuhrken’s What Every Middle School Teacher Needs to Know About Reading Tests (From Someone Who Has Written Them), a book of practical, teaching-friendly advice about prepping students for reading tests.
Teaching about the Border
Bill Bigelow’s teacher-friendly book, The Line Between Us: Teaching About the Border and Mexican Immigration, offers concrete strategies & teaching resources to help students understand immigration and globalization issues, says reviewer Kelly Moser.
