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.
In the aftermath of a school year full of challenge and uncertainty, teachers are looking forward to something closer to a normal summer. Middle school teacher Kasey Short shares ways she plans to regroup, relax, and recharge: unplugged, outdoors, by journaling, and more.
Tween and YA books are more dynamic than ever and offer readers avenues for pleasure, reflection, adventure, and emotional engagement, writes Lynne Dorfman. Many choices are also “socially conscious” and deserve a prime spot in class libraries. She has gr4-8 ideas!
Cultural Literacy / Kids on the Cusp
by Mary Tarashuk · Published 05/09/2021 · Last modified 05/10/2021
Back in her beloved Room 4T after eight months of virtual teaching, Mary Tarashuk considers how The Jetsons cartoon show influenced her nine-year old self decades ago – and what she needs to teach her mostly white, suburban 4th graders about life in the real future.
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.
Teaching poetry can give students a sense of connection, collaboration, and creativity as they express themselves and read the expressions of others. During National Poetry Month, teacher-author Marilyn Pryle shares fun activities from her classroom that touch on all three.
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.
How schools are handling standardized tests this pandemic year has really varied. Michelle Russell spent eight school days prepping students for her state’s math accountability exam, which they took last week. What paid off? What didn’t? Was it worth the time and effort?
Michelle Russell loves teaching statistics and her students enjoy it too. But it took her a few years to find activities that really engage them and that also reinforce the statistics standards they need to learn. Here are three ideas she recommends for the middle grades.
Over the life of our nation, history has been recorded from a singularly white perspective. Pablo Wolfe, Mary Ehrenworth and Marc Todd suggest ways we can create truth-seeking communities in our schools and “inoculate our students against the viral spread of falsehood.”
