As educators seek to return to a safer and more predictable learning environment, Barron and Kinney’s We Belong can be a valuable easy-to-use classroom management resource for teachers wanting to connect with their students so they thrive both academically and emotionally.
Close Reading the Media / Teaching the Holocaust
by Frank Baker · Published 04/13/2022 · Last modified 01/25/2023
What we do as educators to help our students better understand the reality of the Holocaust is crucial in a time of lies, half-truths and misinformation, writes media literacy expert Frank Baker. “It is my hope that the ideas, suggestions and resources offered here will be helpful.”
Shake things up in your differentiated classroom by offering students choice via Choice Boards, Unit Menus, and Tic-Tac-Toe boards. Sixth grade literacy teacher Kelly Owens shares the why and the how without teachers reinventing the wheel. Design considerations included!
When teaching ELLs using a culturally responsive-sustaining pedagogy, write Larry Ferlazzo and Katie Hull-Sypnieski, centering student voice is critical to creating the conditions for student success. The teacher asks for, listens to, and acts on student ideas and feedback.
In Teaching Twice-Exceptional Learners in Today’s Classroom Emily Kircher-Morris clears up misconceptions about twice-exceptional students and shares many easily accessed tools for teaching 2E students in general and with specific exceptionalities, writes Sarah E. Pennington.
Culturally responsive and sustaining teaching needs to underlie and guide all our classroom practices, write Ferlazzo and Sypnieski. When we validate the cultural learning tools that diverse learners bring, we can leverage them to produce positive outcomes for all students.
Reading and writing experts Penny Kittle and Kelly Gallagher detail how to use essays, book clubs, poetry and digital composition to support student literacy and build student agency. Reviewer Helene Alalouf says your students will thank you for bringing the book’s ideas to class.
What promises do we need to make (and keep) so that our students will truly believe they belong in our classrooms and will be safe and cared for there? Middle grades leaders Laurie Barron and Patti Kinney break down the 25 promises they feel have the most impact.
For much of her career, middle level teacher Stephanie Farley felt confounded when students “told me they didn’t understand where their grades came from.” Then her principal set her on a path of discovery that’s led to competency based learning and students eagerly self-grading.
Students with special needs face a particular challenge in middle school. Literacy is crucial to understanding academic content, and for many, literacy is a weakness. Blackburn and Witzel offer strategies to help them see patterns, read fluently, and comprehend information.
