Want to help middle school students improve their reading skills? Mark Weakland suggests providing direct and explicit spelling instruction. Emphasizing syllables – roots and affixes – offers lots of building blocks for students. Weakland includes differentiation tips and activity ideas.
Ad Techniques / Close Reading the Media
by Frank Baker · Published 06/30/2019 · Last modified 12/02/2019
In the hope that we can help students become better critical thinkers in a world saturated by social media and unreliable sources, media literacy expert Frank Baker calls attention to techniques used by “media manipulators” to persuade consumers and shape public discourse.
Are you a multitasker? Do you use interesting examples to make learning more relatable? Do you teach to learning styles? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you might be interested in Five Teaching and Learning Myths Debunked, says principal Rita Platt.
Beyond sharing titles, librarians Christina Dorr and Liz Deskins discuss justifications for circulating LGBTQAI+ literature to children and teens and share a brief history and approaches to “dealing with objections.” Sarah Cooper found ideas for her own classroom library.
Create Compose Connect / Reflections
by Jeremy Hyler · Published 06/26/2019 · Last modified 11/17/2019
In 2018-19 Jeremy Hyler taught 6th grade for the 1st time in 15 years. A classful of 11-year olds “felt very new.” What’s more, after a decade-plus teaching 7th graders, this year’s group “ranked high on the all-time challenge scale.” Fortunately there were bright spots!
Is it ever possible to do everything needed to be a consistently effective teacher? Look over Barbara Blackburn’s strategies to develop circumstances where you can thrive: avoid perfectionism, try incremental change, peruse helpful time management resources, and more.
How can history students use resource books more effectively in their research papers? Taking a cue from a staff meeting, Sarah Cooper devised a handout to help 8th graders quickly scope out a nonfiction book and find stories and quotes to enliven their papers. It worked!
Grading Practices / It's Not Easy Being Tween
by Cheryl Mizerny · Published 06/17/2019 · Last modified 11/24/2019
Even if we don’t yet teach in a grade-less utopia, there are steps teachers can take to become more accurate and equitable in our grading policies. Cheryl Mizerny shares steps toward fairer grading: eliminate zeroes, avoid extra points, don’t grade homework, and more.
Discover the potential of writing workshop to welcome students into engaging and productive writing practice in Shubitz and Dorfman’s Welcome to Writing Workshop. You’ll find all your questions about writing workshop answered, promises teacher educator Linda Biondi.
Christopher Danielson takes kids, tweens and teens on a journey of exploration as they think about and interact with math in new ways. Based in his research and teaching, How Many? helps students see far beyond simple responses and think creatively, writes Linda Biondi.
