Urban ELA teacher Mackenzie Grate found mock trials to be the perfect vehicle to encourage reading, teach speaking & listening, and prepare her 6th graders for their first argumentative writing essay. How-to tips, downloads and lessons learned included.
Kids on the Cusp / Standardized Testing
by Mary Tarashuk · Published 02/26/2015 · Last modified 11/15/2019
Teacher Mary Tarashuk has reasserted her “Irish Zen” following the full frontal assault on PARCC testing in her last post. She describes how her fourth graders had fun learning about Chinese New Year while also practicing for the high stakes test in prescribed ways.
In “59 Reasons to Write” Kate Messner shifts from teaching writers workshop and writing books for tweens to helping teachers build their own writing skills, assisted by more than 30 published authors. Reviewer Wendy Moore plans to try out their strategies.
When Cheryl Mizerny invited her 6th graders to pursue a “passion project” of their own choosing, she included the option to help someone in need. The results surprised her. “I greatly underestimated my students’ capacity for wanting to make a difference.”
Book Reviews / Teaching for the Future
by MiddleWeb · Published 02/12/2015 · Last modified 11/13/2019
David N. Perkins’ Future Wise: Educating Our Children for a Changing World is profoundly unsettling in the best way, simply because it gives so many expansive possibilities for making every minute of a student’s day relevant, says reviewer Sarah Cooper.
Kids on the Cusp / Standardized Testing
by Mary Tarashuk · Published 02/11/2015 · Last modified 11/13/2019
New Jersey teacher Mary Tarashuk finds herself in a traffic-snarled “PARCCing lot” waiting for March testing madness to begin. In a new Kids on the Cusp post, she lists her concerns –including a PARCC 4th grade reading test sample that levels at Grade 9.
What makes a lesson or unit STEM-worthy? Expert Anne Jolly evaluates two actual lessons that have been given the STEM label. Each incorporates science, math, group work and technology, but one fails the ultimate STEM test. She details the reasons why in this insightful article.
Helping students develop into strong writers is difficult work. Fortunately, as teacher Kevin Hodgson discovered recently, the Common Core emphasis on writing in every content area means there are many more colleagues with ideas to share.
Altering Perspective / Future of History
by Jody & Shara · Published 01/25/2015 · Last modified 12/06/2019
When student teams create skits to gain perspective on different aspects of the same historical event, they may begin to grasp complexity of history. Sometimes they leap to fresh insights, as they did during a Revolutionary battle in Jody Passanisi’s classroom.
Stressing the need to provide wide fiction and informational text choices, the authors consider the needs of all readers while offering extensive activities for all classrooms. Reviewer Jenni Miller found the book “wonderful” – both informative and encouraging.
