Kids on the Cusp / Teaching writing
by Mary Tarashuk · Published 05/27/2014 · Last modified 11/30/2019
Having helped her students visualize scenes and characters during read alouds, Mary Tarashuk tries the same idea with writing. She and her students “write aloud” as they create text to match the opening illustrations from The Invention of Hugo Cabret. Then they envision their own stories.
Too much close reading is boring, say Mike Fisher & Danielle Hardt, as students comb through fiction, constantly analyzing lots of text. Ask them to read and write digital microstories. They’ll build evaluation & synthesis skills and have some fun.
In her book about the social life of networked teens, Internet scholar danah boyd “issues a call to all of us who are adults to take more time to understand the shifts now taking place,” 6th grade teacher Kevin Hodgson writes. The guidance role of teachers & parents “has never been more important, nor more complicated.”
Reviewer and middle grades teacher Judi Holst strongly recommends Troy Hicks’ Crafting Digital Writing to any teacher who uses writing in their classroom and is ready to more deeply engage today’s digital-savvy students. It’s easy to read and full of ideas, she says.
Teachers working to build complex texts into classes will welcome the framework for teaching comprehension in Laura Robb’s book, says reviewer Linda Biondi.
Julia G. Thompson, author of the 1st Year Teacher’s Survival Guide, considers what it means to have a culturally responsive classroom. Tips & resources.
Book Reviews / Common Core State Standards / ELA & Literacy
by MiddleWeb · Published 06/02/2013 · Last modified 12/03/2019
Reviewer Anne Anderson recommends 20 Literacy Strategies to Meet the Common Core for its research-based strategies designed to grow readers & thinkers within a CCSS framework. The payoff will justify the necessary time investment, she says.
Positive discipline is supported by brain research about adolescent learning, say the authors of U-Turn Teaching. So demonstrate, facilitate, motivate.
Thanks to a popular blog and a 5-star Amazon book, career teacher Donalyn Miller has become a national champion of YA reading. We talk with her.
In Write Like This: Teaching Real-World Writing Through Modeling & Mentor Texts teacher-author Kelly Gallagher shows us how to teach the real-world writing skills our students urgently need, says literacy coach Francesca LoGiudice.
