Mary Tedrow shows how to cultivate students’ individual relationships with writing using a low stakes approach called a Daybook – a safe, authentic space for students to write and think that can feed into other disciplines and writing genres. Ariel Sacks calls it her “new top resource.”
Understanding concept words like ‘innovative’ can help students to make sense of complex sources. Britany Harris and Sunday Cummins share a four-step process to introduce a few new vocabulary words before reading an information text and then focus on them as kids read, talk and write.
As we move into the 2020 presidential election, questioning what we read and hear is paramount. In the fake news era, are students learning how to verify what they consume? Media literacy expert Frank Baker doesn’t think so and says it’s up to educators to teach them.
“Imperative means the same thing as important, so why can’t we just say important?” asked Adele, a student in Lauren Brown’s US history class. How do we help kids learn the academic vocabulary they need to enrich writing and deepen understanding? Brown means to find out.
Reading NBCT Roxanna Elden’s novel chronicling the trials and tribulations of educators at fictional Brae Hill Valley HS made Rita Platt laugh. A lot. While Elden reveals the often “dark heart” of reform, she also captures the small everyday successes that keep us going.
Cultural constructs and limited school resources can impact our ability to discover gifted and talented English learners. Despite these barriers, determined teachers can help close the EL representation gap in gifted programs. Specialist Valentina Gonzalez offers her ideas.
Socratic Methods in the Classroom offers a bevy of theories behind the practice and templates and tips for educators to prepare to dive into this method as a way to help students demonstrate their knowledge and consider other points of view, writes teacher educator Laurie Bobley.
Family involvement boosts student success. Yet parents of middle schoolers sometimes face a steep learning curve as they seek to interact with an increased number of teachers. Dr. Curtis Chandler suggests ways to engage and support families, including useful technology.
There is an incredible amount of inspirational “stuff” going on in the world of middle school, and it’s ours for the taking, writes teacher Laurie Lichtenstein, after her first experience participating in an AMLE national conference. Now, if they just had fast passes!
Educators and parents alike will find How Many? A Counting Book a beautiful adventure in learning about how children can grapple with the complexities of mathematical reasoning in relatively simple terms using everyday objects, says history (?!) teacher Michael DiClemente.
