Mark Gerl, a school-based technology coordinator in Atlanta GA, reflects on the key role of language arts & storytelling in successful video games — something he & his students have learned in chats with a team of Canadian adventure game designers.
Working Draft / Writing and Coding
by Kevin Hodgson · Published 01/05/2014 · Last modified 11/24/2019
If our English Language Arts students don’t learn the basics of reading and writing computer code, asks middle grades teacher Kevin Hodgson, how can we be sure they will grow up to be creators of ideas and not just users of information created and managed by others?
Working Draft / Writing with Students
by Kevin Hodgson · Published 11/03/2013 · Last modified 11/17/2019
ELA teacher Kevin Hodgson often joins his students during freewriting time and sometimes shares his own messy work, as a way to model what writers do.
Future of History / New Teacher Advice / Novice History Teachers
by MiddleWeb · Published 08/18/2013 · Last modified 11/13/2019
What should new social studies teachers keep in mind as they begin their first year in the classroom? Our three Future of History bloggers have tips!
STEM & the Makers Movement / STEM By Design
by Anne Jolly · Published 06/23/2013 · Last modified 11/23/2019
The authors of “Invent To Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom” share an exciting guest post at Anne Jolly’s STEM Imagineering blog. The tools and ethos of the maker revolution offer insight and hope for middle schools and for science and math studies, they say. “The breadth of options and the ‘can-do’ attitude is exactly what students need.”
Book Reviews / Vocabulary Instruction
by MiddleWeb · Published 06/09/2013 · Last modified 02/03/2024
In addition to its comprehensive, CCSS-friendly approach to integrating vocabulary lessons into literacy curriculum, Word Nerds: Teaching All Students to Learn and Love Vocabulary is also fun for students, says reviewer Linda Biondi.
Randy Bomer’s passion for literacy for all students is evident throughout Building Adolescent Literacy in Today‘s English Classroom. Reviewer Linda Biondi suggests close reading of this research & experience based book.
Inference Rubric / MiddleWeb Classics
by MiddleWeb · Published 04/19/2013 · Last modified 01/19/2024
In this MiddleWeb Classic post, literacy coach Juli Kendall shares a rubric used in her middle school across content areas to evaluate a student’s level of inference with academic texts.
Four years after becoming an instructional coach, Elena Aguilar once again found herself in front of a class of 8th graders, looking for trusting relationships. “Within just five minutes, I was humbled. Who did I think I was that I could incur their trust that fast? I wanted to bow down to the teacher—Oh, yes, this is so hard.”
Closing the Achievement Gap / Two Teachers in the Room
by Elizabeth Stein · Published 04/03/2013 · Last modified 11/18/2019
Elizabeth Stein & assistant principal Paul McNeil consider personal, classroom, and school strategies that can help close achievement gaps for students with disabilities, including peer tutoring and support for high expectations. It takes a team approach, and it takes time and patience.
