Kevin Hodgson begins his 6th grade poetry unit “with a listening field trip across the United States, powered by our imaginations.” Before young writers can compose poetry, they need to listen closely to its rhythms and “make the shift away from prose.” The anthology My America provides mentor texts.
Dramathemes (4th edition) can help build literacy through its activities on revealing identity, planting hope, and more. Reviewer Mark Domeier would like to have more guidance about using the materials, which he feels are mostly too “little kid” for middle school.
When teachers ask all the questions and then rush to supply the answers, “the result is a cognitive disconnect,” says author Nanci Werner-Burke. Stop usurping the “right to wonder” by teaching students to ask deep, Bloom’s-friendly questions of their own.
STEM By Design / STEM Misconceptions
by Anne Jolly · Published 05/18/2014 · Last modified 11/28/2019
STEM doesn’t deserve some of the fallout that’s pummeled it of late. What’s an education initiative devoted to correcting deficiencies in education to do? Anne Jolly takes on some of the jaw-dropping attacks and works to set the record straight.
The topic of dictionaries came up in assorted conversations in the past few weeks, reminding Kevin Hodgson both of the power of those esteemed books of words as symbols of thought and scholarship, and the ways in which technology is completely altering the ease and means of how we find information when we need it.
In To Look Closely: Science and Literacy in the Natural World, Laurie Rubin draws you into her students’ excitement as they explore sun-lit spaces outside their classroom and participate in scientific observation, journaling, poetry and discussion.
Articles / Teaching Vocabulary / Vocabulary
by MiddleWeb · Published 11/03/2013 · Last modified 01/26/2020
ELA teacher & former llama wrangler Lee Ann Spillane details how she teaches content-related vocabulary using several versatile digital tools.
About Kids on the Cusp / Kids on the Cusp
by Mary Tarashuk · Published 07/07/2013 · Last modified 05/19/2020
MiddleWeb’s newest blogger, Mary Tarashuk, will write about “teaching it all” to tweens in fourth and fifth grades. She begins with some personal backstory!
We interview The #Sugarkills Gang, a group of sixth grade science students. They’re on a social media nutrition mission to sugar-shock the world.
Positive discipline is supported by brain research about adolescent learning, say the authors of U-Turn Teaching. So demonstrate, facilitate, motivate.
