Genius Hour is a popular strategy for deepening student learning by promoting passion, creativity and engagement. Paying attention to the do’s and don’ts of effective implementation can help you make it a regular part your instruction, writes author Barbara Blackburn.
Helping the many kids who seem to struggle with attention is what Teach for Attention! is about. Formatted into 7 power-packed chapters, the book offers methods, tools, and strategies to help all students become engaged learners who like school, writes principal Rita Platt.
Retention / The Unstoppable ML Teacher
by Valentina Gonzalez · Published 02/16/2020 · Last modified 03/07/2025
Talk of grade retention revs up each spring. But it’s seldom a good answer for English learners. EL expert Valentina Gonzalez shares research that debunks the idea that retention helps ELs and suggests ways to boost their academic progress all year long.
If we want students to be better writers and communicators, we need to teach them real world writing. Liz Prather’s Story Matters is exactly the guide teachers need to blend narrative, argumentative and information writing, says English/history teacher Michelle Voelker.
Help middle graders connect past and present using the easy-to-understand lessons in Hands-On Archaeology. Teacher educator Linda Biondi says the authors show us how giving kids opportunities to ‘dig’ in and out of class can build team skills and cross-curricular learning.
As we move into the 2020 presidential election, questioning what we read and hear is paramount. In the fake news era, are students learning how to verify what they consume? Media literacy expert Frank Baker doesn’t think so and says it’s up to educators to teach them.
Future of History / Writing in Social Studies
by Sarah Cooper · Published 02/10/2020 · Last modified 03/23/2020
Writing a letter to a politician is about as “civic” an assignment as we can do within our classroom walls, and it feels so relevant in our polarized political climate. After 3 years of tweaking her project, teacher Sarah Cooper shares tips to boost the response rate.
While infographics can be engaging, students may not access the content in a way that leads to deeper understanding. Using NASA images, literacy consultant Sunday Cummins shares four ways to help readers create pathways for sticky learning from this type of resource.
Looking for more ways to have your kids “speak” to real audiences beyond your classroom? NBCT Marilyn Pryle, the 2019-20 Pennsylvania TOY, describes how she added community displays and a Vocaroo/QR code strategy to one of her major ELA projects. Student handout included!
At the heart of Ralph Fletcher’s Focus Lessons, writes Jeny Randall, teachers will find lessons that can help students connect the photographic concepts of tension, point of view, and mood to the craft of writing – so that the idea of sensory details becomes concrete.
