Middle schools and their students are special. By design 6-8 grade schools are intended to be communities, organized in houses or teams as the kids are exploring themselves and their world. All this helps in the leap to online school, says teacher Laurie Lichtenstein.
Recently Sarah Cooper did two lessons with her eighth grade history and civics students that afterward made her stand back and ask: Why did that work out so well? Here she analyzes the women’s suffrage lessons to uncover the key elements of success for future reflection.
Leading Learning for ELL Students is a helpful resource for all school and district leaders looking to evaluate and strengthen their EL services. ESOL educator Jordan Walker-Reyes explains how EL teachers can also use the book to improve their programs.
It’s amazing to think – with all the digital tools we have at our disposal – that genuine communication is more difficult today than ever before. Yet that’s our reality, says middle grades teacher Jeremy Hyler, at school and at home, with students, parents and colleagues.
Math teacher Robert Kaplinsky wanted his students debating about the best way to solve a problem, using strategic thinking and not just the formula. He also wanted to know when students had misconceptions so he could reshape his lessons. His solution? Open Middle Math.
Are students who increasingly communicate through bits of digital text missing the chance to develop live conversation skills? In her middle grades classroom, Nancy Costanzo has crafted strategies to help kids both deepen their understanding and become skilled conversationalists.
Helping the many kids who seem to struggle with attention is what Teach for Attention! is about. Formatted into 7 power-packed chapters, the book offers methods, tools, and strategies to help all students become engaged learners who like school, writes principal Rita Platt.
I Will Screw This Up / YA Reviews
by Dina Strasser · Published 02/19/2020 · Last modified 09/03/2020
Acknowledging that as a white woman of privilege she cannot fully experience the depth of meaning in Tomi Adeyemi’s Children of Blood and Bone, ELA teacher Dina Strasser shares four takeaways from her limited perspective as an educator and lover of speculative Young Adult fiction.
Future of History / Writing in Social Studies
by Sarah Cooper · Published 02/10/2020 · Last modified 03/23/2020
Writing a letter to a politician is about as “civic” an assignment as we can do within our classroom walls, and it feels so relevant in our polarized political climate. After 3 years of tweaking her project, teacher Sarah Cooper shares tips to boost the response rate.
These 32 formative assessment probes, designed by leading authority Page Keeley, are carefully chosen, researched, worded and explained to give students a strong understanding of key underlying concepts in physical science, writes science educator Dr. Laura Von Staden.
