Reflective and restorative practices are not new, writes middle school administrator Sara Johnson, but the pandemic has created an even greater need to view discipline as a tool to guide and support the social-emotional learning of tweens and teens. Here’s how Sara does it.
When students try to write a short response to a fact-filled passage they’ve read, some will likely lose their grounding. How do we help them leap the gap between reading and writing? Alicia Genchi and Sunday Cummins share an essential scaffold for building the bridge.
What if a STEM project became a product kids make for actual use? Anne Jolly shows how industry’s Product Design Process (PDP) expands upon the familiar engineering design popular in STEM classes, giving students new skills as they move from prototypes to the marketplace.
When the goal of argumentation is to learn from each other, the task becomes less competitive and more enriching. SS/ELA teacher Megan Kelly uses games to help students build socratic skills as they consider perspectives, identify their audiences, and argue with insight.
Alex Valencic began his career sending work home with his students without much thought. Over the years he came to question the need for homework at all – until parents rebelled. Then he invented the Homework Menu. And embraced the D.E.L.I.B.E.R.A.T.E ideas of Erik Youngman.
Teacher Gillian Mertens and her colleagues recommend educators do more than help students debunk social media misinformation they find. Instead, the goal is for students to recognize why the information was believed by so many people, thereby developing greater resistance for themselves.
In The Playful Classroom Jed Dearybury and Julie Jones offer a playful guide written in a playful style with all the research and resources to create a classroom where students will be filled with joy as their learning and soft skills skyrocket, writes Laura Von Staden.
Are students becoming more prejudiced and racist, or have students always been this way? In his rural, predominantly white Midwestern town middle school ELA educator Jeremy Hyler felt an urgency to advocate for antiracist teaching practices in his school and community.
Principal and NBCT Rita Platt shares advice for a paradigm shift away from obsessive coverage of content and toward deep and differentiated learning for students who have lived through the months of pandemic schooling. Three questions help us understand what’s essential.
In Forged by Reading: The Power of a Literate Life, Kylene Beers and Bob Probst offer insights and strategies to help teachers consider how reading and writing relate to change, power, and hope. Reviewer Katie Durkin highly recommends the book as a tool to examine practice.
