Most students at Laurie Lichtenstein’s middle school were F2F all year, but masked and isolated in small classroom pods as teachers moved about. It was hard, but as time passed teachers found ways to reduce isolation, build community, and let kids have lots of time to play.
“Text Sets in Action” provides expert guidance for any teacher interested in using this engaging strategy to deepen learning. The authors define “texts” broadly and provide advice and examples across the core content areas, writes teacher educator Dr. Sarah Pennington.
Using rough drafts and revision in middle school math class can reduce anxiety and boost math learning. Kathleen Taylor and Amanda Jansen relate an action research project aimed at shifting lessons from a process of task completion to one of continuous, ongoing learning.
MiddleWeb is filled to the brim with resources and helpful ideas that new middle grades teachers will find valuable. We’ve selected 26+ articles that might be especially useful to newbies before (and after) they greet their students at the classroom door for the first time.
Michelle Blanchet and Darcy Bakkegard offer teachers ways to turn ideas into actions, personalize professional development, and create innovative learning experiences for themselves and their students. Reviewer Linda Biondi highly recommends the book.
Did the sheer exhaustion of teaching in 2021-22 cause you to take a pass on some good but long MiddleWeb articles? Here are 18 insightful posts covering a wide range of topics that you might want to look over, in the calm before the next storm.
A writer’s notebook is a place to write down what you notice and don’t want to forget; a place to record your ideas and reactions to things. Most of all, it’s a place for students to take what they’ve learned in class and make it their own. It’s a place to live like a writer.
Idaho teacher educator Curtis Chandler sees several pandemic positives: Improved teacher attitudes towards digital tools; educators who are more skillful using and troubleshooting tech; and a significant shift toward teaching methods that better engage and involve students.
Creating assessments in multiple languages means encouraging students to use their home language throughout the assessment process. Tan Huynh shares seven ways, including conferencing and self-assessing, to embed home languages into evaluations.
Reading books written for today’s middle schoolers helps teachers gain insight into the different ways students experience their adolescence. ELA teacher Kasey Short spotlights 21 novels, memoirs and collections that explore a wide range of race and gender issues and social-emotional challenges.
