If schools are always being “held” accountable, asks leadership coach and veteran principal Matt Renwick, how will students ever learn to “be” accountable? When do they get to make important choices that affect others and themselves? Three shifts can change the paradigm.
It took Stephanie Farley 21 years to solve the student self-assessment equation. The solution? Teaching students to explain their thinking as they revise and improve. The result was transformational; they gained confidence in their work and were far less anxious about grades.
Students Taking Action Together goes deep into five techniques to cultivate civic engagement and a healthy democracy. The strategies – Norms, Yes-No-Maybe, Respectful Debate, Audience Communication, and PLAN – work across content areas, writes Katie Durkin. Highly recommended.
Jennifer Bogard and Lisa Donovan share ways to humanize social studies and bolster student engagement with history by pairing Library of Congress primary sources and arts-integration strategies. Try their lesson plans for altered text, soundscapes, and sketching to observe.
Mona Iehl’s students were shocked when she first asked them to grapple with math problems BEFORE they received instruction. Then, to her surprise, “they got out the blocks, and drew pictures, and tried!” Her trust in productive struggle grew as she saw their confidence increase.
This January, don’t hastily jump on the bandwagon with the latest decorating fad. Design a place where students want to learn and grow. Your classroom environment may be one of the most powerful tools in your teaching toolbox, writes teacher and former marketer Kelly Owens.
Using an innovative idea from her district’s teacher-sharing day, Katie Durkin and her 7th grade ELA and Social Studies teams implemented a “motifs and lenses” strategy to strengthen students’ close reading of fiction and academic texts. She details their successful steps.
In a time of unprecedented teacher criticism, burnout, and flight, National Board Certification offers an opportunity for teachers to feel empowered and inspired, writes NBCT Marilyn Pryle. Best of all, the challenging, self-directed process helps good teachers become even better.
With so many daily classes, the working memories of adolescents get overloaded. Their evolving brains have not yet developed fluent coping strategies. To teach students to handle all the inflow, two experts share UDL strategies that build executive function and self-regulation.
Interactive student notebooks are a great way to reduce the amount of time your students spend on screens, writes middle school ELA teacher Jenna Smith. Her step-by-step example of a week-long literature study – plus how-to tips and lessons learned – make it easy to get started.
