What considerations do teachers of English Language Learners need to keep in mind as they help students “close read” complex texts and meet Common Core standards? Veteran ELL teachers Larry Ferlazzo and Katie Hull Sypnieski share ideas from their classrooms.
Kids on the Cusp / Switching Classes
by Mary Tarashuk · Published 04/05/2016 · Last modified 11/24/2019
How to fit it all in? For Mary Tarashuk, switching classes with a 4th grade team teacher is helpful. He takes science; she takes history. One downside: her homeroom kids get extra history instruction through their ELA studies. Might “platooning” be better?
History in Fiction / Working Draft
by Kevin Hodgson · Published 04/04/2016 · Last modified 12/01/2019
Kevin Hodgson’s 6th graders learn about church bombings as he reads from The Watsons Go to Birmingham 1963. The students also explore primary sources and write about children in the Civil Rights movement to begin to understand bravery in the face of racism.
Evernote is a 21st century day planner. In Part 4 of his productivity series for school leaders, organization consultant and former principal Frank Buck singles out Evernote as a must-have for collecting school and home information in an easily accessible way.
In The Gift of Failure, teacher/writer Jessica Lahey calls on parents to value failures along the way to help children build growth mindsets. She also effectively describes how educators can work with parents, reports retired principal Mary Langer Thompson.
As the 2016 Presidential Campaign heats up, media literacy expert Frank W. Baker brings the political races to the classroom with standards-based activities to help students understand the persuasive power of plentiful and often misleading political ads.
Current Events / Future of History
by Sarah Cooper · Published 02/15/2016 · Last modified 12/02/2019
Sarah Cooper’s 8th graders recently attempted to create a “consensus document” on U.S. gun laws. She describes the research and discussion process, then shares what she and the students learned about consensus building when issues are highly controversial.
4th grade teacher and NFL fan Mary Tarashuk has been watching lots of football lately, prepping for the Super Bowl. Given her love of metaphors, it’s no surprise she finds some analogies between quarterbacks and teachers running plays in their classroom arenas.
Raising the level of rigor in your classroom does not have to be difficult or require a separate lesson, says author and learning consultant Barbara Blackburn. She lays out three engaging teaching strategies that can push students to higher levels of thinking.
Book Reviews / Student Driven Learning
by MiddleWeb · Published 01/06/2016 · Last modified 11/16/2019
In Building School 2.0, Chris Lehmann and Zac Chase offer sharp insights on the world of learners and a vision for where schools should be heading. They include practical advice on how to move forward as a teacher, as a staff or as an administration, says Kevin Hodgson.
