When we transform a text into a multitasking mentor text, we increase the instructional mileage we can get from one power-packed teaching tool, writes veteran teacher and literacy consultant Pam Koutrakos. She includes five “energy star” ideas and a text set to get started.
Last Days of Math Class / Meaningful Math
by Michelle Russell · Published 05/16/2022 · Last modified 04/26/2024
Covid or not, ending school is always hard. To quell the stress and fatigue felt by her math students and herself, Michelle Russell is taking more time for quick fun activities. Students have enjoyed documenting the year, preparing tips for next year’s students, and playing math games.
Book Reviews / I Will Screw This Up / Teaching ELLs
by Dina Strasser · Published 04/26/2022 · Last modified 08/23/2022
In The ESL/ELL Teacher’s Survival Guide (2nd Edition) teacher-authors Larry Ferlazzo and Katie Hull Sypnieski provide an accessible compendium of deep practical knowledge intended for the most part for MS and HS ELLs and teachers, writes ENL educator Dina Strasser.
When teaching ELLs using a culturally responsive-sustaining pedagogy, write Larry Ferlazzo and Katie Hull-Sypnieski, centering student voice is critical to creating the conditions for student success. The teacher asks for, listens to, and acts on student ideas and feedback.
Class Apps / Formative Assessment
by Curtis Chandler · Published 04/04/2022 · Last modified 04/16/2024
One of the few silver linings to teaching in the pandemic has been a boost in teachers’ familiarity with and use of some pretty incredible tools, each designed to make it simple to gather evidence of learning with ease and efficiency. Curtis Chandler shares six favorites.
Culturally responsive and sustaining teaching needs to underlie and guide all our classroom practices, write Ferlazzo and Sypnieski. When we validate the cultural learning tools that diverse learners bring, we can leverage them to produce positive outcomes for all students.
Ideally, the “you do together” phase of GRR is a student-led experience that acts as a catalyst for learning. But how often does this kind of student interaction really happen in classrooms? Cummins and Webb consider what teachers can do to foster true collaboration.
365 Quotes for Teachers: Inspiration and Motivation for Every Day of the Year does what author and principal Danny Steele intends – motivates, challenges, and helps keep the job in perspective. Reviewer Anne Anderson suggests ways to use the book and offers some samples.
Rather than fixating on immigrant parents’ economic conditions and languages as deficits and labeling them as unable to contribute to their children’s education, ML specialist Tan Huynh advocates for an assets-affirming narrative, sharing the instructive story of his own mother.
Vocabulary / Vocabulary / Wide Open Learning
by Megan Kelly · Published 03/06/2022 · Last modified 02/04/2024
How can teachers be more intentional about teaching vocabulary words given the limited instructional time available? Megan Kelly shares ways she has begun to add more vocabulary instruction into small pockets of class time using focus words, drawing, GIFs, and Spot It cards.
