Assessment / The Flexible Classroom
by Amber Chandler · Published 01/08/2017 · Last modified 11/24/2019
Amber Chandler is pondering testing. Not big league, high stakes exams but the run of the mill end-of-unit kind. When 20 percent of her students stumble over literary terms on The Giver unit test, she opts for a flexible (but controversial) “point buy-back” offer.
Helping students believe in themselves is a critical part of teaching. Consultant Barbara Blackburn shares strategies to help encourage students to reach beyond the limitations they sometimes feel and pursue their dreams. One idea: Write a personal “theme song.”
Weber, Crane and Hierck provide many charts, examples and resources that can be instantly adopted, adapted, or enhanced for a school or district RTI process in middle school math. Instructional coach and interventionist Kim Schneider offers her highest praise.
When students blend multimedia elements into their writing projects, interest and engagement can zoom up, writes teacher-author Sean Ruday. Ruday highlights a five-step process he uses in PD workshops to help teachers make the tech meaningful and not maddening.
Meaningful Math / Student-Teacher Connections
by Michelle Russell · Published 01/02/2017 · Last modified 12/11/2019
As Michelle Russell revisits her start-of-school teaching goals, she decides to focus the New Year on building deeper connections with her students. Her strategies: use personal surveys and follow-up chats; glean more from parents, and confer to set challenge goals.
Social Justice / Two Teachers in the Room
by Elizabeth Stein · Published 12/27/2016 · Last modified 11/13/2019
It’s time, writes teaching coach Elizabeth Stein, for co-teachers to take a strong, visible and audible stance on behalf of those students “who have been on your mind every day since school began.” Co-teachers need to become social justice leaders in the classroom.
Before middle school students can become lovers of stories and savvy assessors of fake news and false claims, they must be creative readers who comprehend texts at high levels and empathize with characters and people, says literacy expert and advocate Laura Robb.
Barbara Boroson’s second edition is a valuable source of information and advice, written in everyday language. Although the book is intended for educators, teacher Linda Biondi also recommends it to parents who want to learn more about ASD and to advocate for their children.
As news organizations are increasingly folded into fewer and fewer media conglomerates, writes media literacy expert Frank Baker, their independence is left in doubt. He urges teachers to involve students in studies of “Big Media” as part of their civic education.
Gifted and talented students need to be challenged every day. Former GATE coordinator Mary Langer Thompson urges parents and educators to share Inman and Kirchner’s thorough book with school personnel to benefit these youngsters, who won’t thrive without support.
