Teaching and learning in grades 4-8

Content Area Literacy Strategies That Work

Jordan Walker-Reyes recommends Lori Wilfong’s Content Area Literacy Strategies That Work to all literacy coaches and facilitators, ESL teachers, and content area teachers who want to grow students’ content area knowledge while also increasing their literacy skills.

Teaching Gifted Kids in Today’s Classrooms

Gifted students are often the forgotten portion of the special education spectrum. To remedy the problem, gifted and special educator Laura Von Staden highly recommends this book full of valuable information and insight, written in a concise, user-friendly format.

Classroom Podcasting for the Middle Grades

Podcasting is exploding, and teachers are discovering that listening to and producing podcasts are great ways to promote deeper learning. Former NPR reporter Monica Brady-Myerov shares the whys and hows of engaging kids in their own projects, with examples and resources.

How My “Assumes” Affect My Classroom

How do teachers’ assumptions about what students know impede the learning process? Michelle Russell is realizing the “obvious” is sometimes not so obvious to kids in her math classes. Her two big problem areas: basic rules of behavior and prior knowledge of operations.

3 Keys to Keeping the Rigor High for ELs

ELs are capable of doing the same kind of thinking that non-ELs can do. They might just have to temporarily show their understanding differently than their peers do. EL teacher Tan Huyhn shows how teachers can focus on the ELs’ thinking and differentiate everything else.

How Leaders Cultivate Positive Schools

Steve Gruenert and Todd Whitaker have added to their series of books on school culture with this practical, readable and well-researched work that speaks of the commitment to creating and sustaining a positive learning environment, writes school leader Jack Ferrante.