In an earlier MiddleWeb post, professor and former middle grades ELA teacher Jason DeHart argued on behalf of teaching with graphic novels, with numerous examples. Here he delves deeper into a single text from the Kid Beowulf series, detailing his own instructional strategies.
In response to a pandemic spike in discipline referrals and educator burnout, AP DeAnna Miller urges school leaders make a concerted effort to be visible even though it is hard, to take time to listen even when they seem to lack the time, and to do something restorative for themselves.
If you’re looking for a way to engage your students in deep mathematical thinking as soon as they walk into class, give math warm-ups a try. Middle grades teacher Mona Iehl lays out the elements of eye-catching warm-ups and how to make them work for your kids.
Throughout the gradual release of responsibility we want students to be in control of their learning. Each phase is a partnership, with teacher as facilitator and student as agent. Cummins and Webb show how this works to produce an instructional journey with maximum benefit.
After making a strong case for small group instruction during the writing process, Jennifer Serravallo shares how to implement and develop six types. Teacher Jennifer Wirtz loves the access to videos of groups in action and the printables for students. Highly recommended.
Students with limited or interrupted formal education (SLIFE) benefit when teachers consider how SLIFEs have learned previously – most often informally in their family culture. Tan Huynh shares ways educators can blend a formal literacy focus with the relational learning they’re used to.
In classes like social studies and science, students are expected to do complex nonfiction reading. How can we ensure they’ll process and retain the content for future use? History/ELA teacher Megan Kelly shares fun activities to help kids think more deeply about information text.
In “Teachers as Architects of Learning” Gavin Grift and Clare Major offer a blueprint for developing and implementing evidence-based practices that improve learning for students. Education consultant Helene Alalouf highly recommends this well-constructed guide.
Teachers across the curriculum will welcome this post by nonfiction expert Marlene Correia and Melissa Stewart, author of 180+ nonfiction books for kids. Learn why the five categories of children’s nonfiction they identify not only excite and engage but are what many students say they want to read most.
Michelle Russell’s math students were eager to learn as this school year began but found the mechanics of solving equations more challenging than Michelle’s pre-Covid classes. After research and talk with colleagues, she’s trying several strategies to give kids the grounding they need.
