Teaching and learning in grades 4-8

How to Empower Students as Questioners

Jackie Acree Walsh’s Empowering Students as Questioners provides teachers with the skills, strategies and structures to help each learner reach their potential by transforming their understanding of questioning, writes 5th grade teacher Kathleen Palmieri.

The Ditmas 9/11 Project Rejects “Learning Loss”

Middle school educators at Brooklyn’s Ditmar IS 62 chose to overcome “learning loss” by engaging their sixth, seventh and eighth graders in a long-range project documenting the tragic story of 9/11 through research, oral family and community history and literacy activities.

Reading for Pleasure Helps Keep Us Healthy

The positive physical, cognitive and mental benefits of reading for pleasure might convince overworked educators that diving into your favorite fiction or hobby books can be guilt free – even therapeutic! Stephanie Affinito shares the research, the rationale, and the method.

Help Faculty and Staff Find Work-Life Balance

This year’s whirlwind of factors impacting schools has left educators absolutely exhausted. Consultants Ron Williamson and Barbara R. Blackburn share ways leaders can support their staff (and themselves) to achieve work-life balance in anticipation of the next school year.

Choosing Quality Books That Raise Awareness

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!

The Magic of Math: Fun with Final Activities

The school year is winding down and the prescribed math curriculum is in its final pages. A perfect time for NBCT Kathleen Palmieri to offer her fifth graders activities that use the magic of math to help review concepts and skills and encourage mathematical conversations.