Teaching and learning in grades 4-8

Fiction and Nonfiction: Smart Lesson Planning

Do you want a book filled with lesson plans that you can use the next day or something based in theory that will inform your teaching decisions along the way? Pam Hamilton writes you can have it both ways in these fiction and nonfiction guides by Gravity Goldberg and Renee Houser.

How to Maximize School Board Effectiveness

This is a needed, practical book for superintendents, school leaders, and others who want to know how districts work and how these key figures should function in terms of school governance and working relationships, says retired principal Mary Langer Thompson.

Bring Your Personality and Humor on Day One

We might think a new school year should start off with solemnity. But that’s not the message teacher Heather Wolpert-Gawron has garnered from her survey of 6-12th graders across the country. Students learn more when teachers share their humanity and their humor ASAP.

Apps to Help Teachers Hit the Ground Running

As the new school year approaches, explore a selection of digital tools recommended by teacher educator Curtis Chandler that can help you streamline lesson planning, create secure class websites, connect with families, and gather information on how your new students like to learn.

How We Become Skillful Math Teachers

Tracy Zager’s professor told students it would take five years to become a skillful math teacher. In this message to beginning educators, Zager shares insights that can help push the process. Most important: “Become addicted to listening to students’ mathematical ideas.”

Strategies to Energize School Staff and Culture

School Culture Recharged is a good mix of philosophy, research, and practical strategy. Rita Platt recommends that “school and district leaders read it to get a handle on the what’s, how’s, and why’s of developing school cultures that help bring about success for all.”

Teach Workshop Writing with K-6 Mentor Texts

In the 2nd edition of Mentor Texts, Lynne Dorfman and Rose Cappelli help put a gradual-release focus on purposeful planning, finding stories to engage young readers, and using the book’s readings to support strong writing by students, says Erin Corrigan-Smith.

Race, Class, & Gender in the Classroom

After building a theoretical groundwork for social justice education, Caldwell and Frame organize their book around the constructs of gender, race, and class. Each section includes a bank of relevant lesson plans, activities, and videos, says teacher Amy Estersohn.

Use Community Builders to Help Set Expectations

Building classroom community through fun and engaging activities is important at the beginning of school and throughout the year. Author/educator Walton Burns urges teachers to be sure you’re setting students up for success by communicating your expectations clearly.