Future of History / Project Based Learning
by Aaron Brock · Published 06/21/2015 · Last modified 11/21/2019
Inner-city history teacher Aaron Brock has developed a childrens’ book project for eighth graders, many of whom struggle with academic literacy. He details how his step-by-step approach addresses important skills and serves as a synthesis and assessment tool.
Homa Sabet Tavangar and Becky Mladic-Morales have created the ideal global education toolkit for any teacher, K-12, to bring the world into their classroom. The resource packed book is well written and easy to navigate, says 5th grade teacher Jennifer Druffel.
Teacher-Made Assessments: How to Connect Curriculum, Instruction, and Student Learning (2nd Ed) by Gareis and Grant gets reviewer Anne Anderson’s gold star for usefulness and practicality with its guidelines offering plentiful techniques and examples.
Many students don’t expect math to make sense and learn to disengage their reasoning and even distrust it. Teacher-experts Cathy Humphreys & Ruth Parker highlight an 8-step “Number Talks” process that can promote deeper discussions about how numbers work.
Articles / Teaching the Whole Adolescent
by MiddleWeb · Published 06/07/2015 · Last modified 11/29/2019
After a decade teaching third and fourth graders, Patti Grayson ventured into middle school this past year. She has come away from her first year in the middle with several gleanings about the most effective ways to work with unpredictable, sensitive tweens.
Making Number Talks Matter guides teachers in implementing frequent 15-minute conversations that help students make sense of math relationships and apply strategies to manipulate numbers mentally. Reviewer Jennifer Druffel is planning Number Talks in her classroom next year.
Math teachers wondering how their students came up with wrong answers will find lots to use in Children’s Mathematics: Cognitively Guided Instruction. Videoed children explain their solutions and so reveal teaching insights, says reviewer Maia Fastabend.
Book Reviews / Data-driven Instruction
by MiddleWeb · Published 05/14/2015 · Last modified 11/24/2019
17,000 Classroom Visits Can’t Be Wrong leaves the reader feeling empowered and ready to make positive changes to reach the next level of engagement and academic strategies in the classroom. It is a must read, says reviewer Jennifer Druffel.
Seventh grade teacher Kami Spampinato uses four kid-savvy strategies to get her students to “buy in” to reading complex texts. In this post, former MS educator Anne Vilen of Expeditionary Learning summarizes each technique and shares supporting EL videos.
Every day news images flood our print publications, digital spaces and social media apps. Why do some become iconic and unforgettable? Media literacy expert Frank Baker suggests ways that students can explore this question through close reading & research.
