Expert Frank W. Baker wants to convince teachers that toy advertisements are a great media literacy teaching tool. Video clips and colorful ‘print’ ads abound on the Internet and are sure to engage students. Baker provides some good discussion questions & lesson ideas to get started.
Future of History / Lesson Planning
by Jody & Shara · Published 11/17/2014 · Last modified 12/02/2019
Last year Jody Passanisi concluded that her go-to lesson on types of government no longer gripped students’ attention. Here she evaluates the successes and challenges of a redesign: lots more student ownership, but is there enough understanding at the end?
Writing Pathways: Performance Assessments and Learning Progressions can help K-8 educators at the grade, school and district levels develop effective collaborative writing programs, says reviewer Linda Biondi. Teachers will find extensive resources to build student ownership of writing.
With Common Core discussions as a sturdy frame, Heather Wolpert-Gawron provides solid commentary about how writing and literacy relate to all curriculum areas, says reviewer Kathleen Pham. Central to the sample lessons: project based learning.
Whether you’re a principal, staff developer or teacher leader, you’ll find ideas to convey your PD message effectively in this checklist adapted from “The Ten-Minute Inservice” by experts Todd Whitaker and Annette Breaux. One tip: Walk your talk.
Technology allows us to record and reflect on the writing process in ways that pencil and paper could not, says digital writing expert Troy Hicks. The MS teacher turned college prof demonstrates with a video demo’ing how we might teach sentence combining.
“Close Reading in Elementary School,” by Betsy and Diana Sisson, offers upper elementary teachers a framework for creating lessons; ways to link close reading, writing and talking; a model for gauging text complexity, and a reasonable approach to rigor, says reviewer and 4th grade teacher Linda Biondi.
Shirley McPhillips’ Poem Central invites students to move through poetry that we might not know exactly how to teach and to live with those words on their own terms – not needing us to facilitate all meaning and experience for them, says Jenni Miller.
Movies and television are recognized in the Common Core standards as forms of “text” that deserve serious study. Media literacy expert Frank W. Baker suggests ways that the Emmy Awards might serve as a way to engage students around familiar media.
The most effective teachers know that if you want to have a great lesson, you need to plan a great lesson, say experts Todd Whitaker and Annette Breaux. Novice teachers will appreciate their handy planning checklist. Bonus download: How to overplan!
