Stressing the need to provide wide fiction and informational text choices, the authors consider the needs of all readers while offering extensive activities for all classrooms. Reviewer Jenni Miller found the book “wonderful” – both informative and encouraging.
Ready for fresh math bellringers? Reviewer Lynne Menechella highly recommends Math Lesson Starters for the Common Core. Arranged by CCSS-M domains, the compact book “does a wonderful job of providing ready-to-use problems that work as formative assessment.”
Amp Up Your Year! / The Co-Teaching Relationship / Two Teachers in the Room
by MiddleWeb · Published 12/20/2014 · Last modified 12/05/2023
If you share teaching responsibilities in an inclusion classroom, teaching coach Elizabeth Stein suggests you take time over the holidays to reflect on the three traditions of successful co-teaching partnerships: communication, respect and persistence.
Reviewer Joy Kirr stopped often during her reading of 8 Myths of Disengagement so she could include ideas in lessons or share them with coworkers. Kirr highly recommends the book to teachers who want to take a fresh look at engagement based on research.
Today’s students have never known a time when computers didn’t exist. Many are surrounded by digital options in school as well as at home. But teacher Cheryl Mizerny has noticed her 6th graders are often drawn to low-tech learning experiences. She looks at why that might be.
As a collection of primary sources, My Pearl Harbor Scrapbook 1941 is truly a treasure trove, ranging from telegrams to WW II images. Reviewer Jody Passanisi, while noting its dense design and limited personal narration, recommends the book for all ages.
Even with all the usual basics in place, the small things novice teachers do could be wreaking havoc on your whole classroom management system. Middle school veteran Jennifer Gonzalez identifies unproductive habits, along with more effective alternatives.
Future of History / Lesson Planning
by Jody & Shara · Published 11/17/2014 · Last modified 12/02/2019
Last year Jody Passanisi concluded that her go-to lesson on types of government no longer gripped students’ attention. Here she evaluates the successes and challenges of a redesign: lots more student ownership, but is there enough understanding at the end?
One hallmark of rigor in the classroom is an effective grading system, says PD consultant Barbara Blackburn. Teachers with ineffective practices often overvalue simple tasks and need to be clear about the “what, why and how” behind their grades. She analyzes a weak social studies grading rubric.
Shirley McPhillips’ Poem Central invites students to move through poetry that we might not know exactly how to teach and to live with those words on their own terms – not needing us to facilitate all meaning and experience for them, says Jenni Miller.
