Close Reading the Media / The Emmy Awards
by Frank Baker · Published 07/25/2018 · Last modified 11/17/2019
Studying TV in the middle grades might seem frivolous, writes media literacy expert Frank Baker, but when teachers engage kids through popular culture, they meet them where they are. The Emmys is a perfect example. Baker has background and teaching ideas to get started.
If you’re having tough times at school this year, new teachers and veterans alike can relieve some of the stress that comes when everything seems to be going wrong. Tested advice and actionable ideas from author, veteran teacher, and classroom survivor Julia Thompson.
Math educator Jerry Burkhart expanded his horizons this summer when he taught a 3-week math exploration course to a class of 22 gifted middle level students from across India. Learn what he discovered about the similarities and differences in U.S. and India math education.
Although some teaching strategies have been around for a long time, not all the “classics” are actually effective at engaging students in authentic ways. Bryan Harris and Lisa Bradshaw, the authors of Battling Boredom, explain why some common practices just don’t work.
Stambaugh and VanTassel-Baska focus on purposeful planning, finding stories to engage young readers, and discovering ways to use readings to get the most impactful writing from students while increasing their overall comprehension, says teacher Erin Corrigan-Smith.
Create Compose Connect / Student Research Papers
by Jeremy Hyler · Published 07/09/2018 · Last modified 03/23/2024
It is not easy for students to research today, or to read with a critical eye. Yet these are the very skills they need in an internet-driven world. In a new MiddleWeb column, teacher-author Jeremy Hyler shares tips that can make research writing more fun, effective and efficient.
One area of Matt Smith’s teaching “that has improved tremendously since my novice days” is facilitating productive discussions. Students need to engage in active talk to process complex ideas. This won’t happen until teachers master “wait time” and stop affirming too much.
Middle school dean Bill Ivey says Rachel Simmons’s Enough As She Is will thoroughly illuminate and clarify what parents and teachers of girls are seeing and hearing and help those adults think through how best to be supportive as girls seek their best authentic selves.
Sarah Cooper’s Creating Citizens will ignite a passion for discovery, challenge students to seek information from wide ranging sources, and help them apply their learning and form their own opinions about history, civics and current events, writes Linda Biondi.
Grammar doesn’t need to be numbing. As you consider curriculum additions and tweaks over summer, author and literacy consultant Sarah Tantillo suggests ways you can incorporate grammar into those refreshed lessons to help students understand structure and write more clearly.
