Barbara Blackburn strongly believes that if we are going to truly support students to higher levels, we must continually assess their learning and use that information to plan our future instruction. She offers eight formative assessment ideas that are easy to integrate.
It's Not Easy Being Tween / Spring Learning
by Cheryl Mizerny · Published 03/11/2018 · Last modified 12/04/2019
With spring fever looming, Cheryl Mizerny breaks out her teacher-tested collection of apps and tools that can make her classroom more interactive, relevant and engaging – and her students more eager to learn. Check out Quizizz, Inklewriter and other digital all-stars.
Class Apps / Student Self-Assessment
by Curtis Chandler · Published 03/07/2018 · Last modified 12/12/2019
How do we help kids become skillful at evaluating their own work and performance against clearly established criteria? Curtis Chandler highlights quality self-assessment practices, sharing how-to’s and apps for rubrics, portfolios, data notebooks, concept maps and more.
Articles / Picture Books / Wide Open Learning
by MiddleWeb · Published 03/05/2018 · Last modified 05/09/2024
When Megan Kelly uses wordless picture books in her middle grades classroom, she’s able to push her students deeper. Learn about some of the intriguing texts she uses to improve inference skills, reinforce vocabulary, inspire descriptive writing, and support ELLs.
John Merrow weaves a narrative that explores the history of America’s failed school reform efforts and offers a vision for ridding public education of our addiction to more of the same in favor of long-term, meaningful and sustainable change, writes teacher Rita Platt.
How can teachers help students become deep thinkers and creative problem solvers – skills needed to solve the pressing challenges facing global societies? STEM provides a pathway. Expert Anne Jolly poses 11 questions that can help teachers design effective STEM lessons.
Future of History / Learning from Students
by Sarah Cooper · Published 02/27/2018 · Last modified 03/01/2022
Sarah Cooper’s eighth graders take a “Bread and Roses” metaphor from the Progressive Era to the fight for the ERA – making insightful comparisons Cooper had not anticipated. “Giving students room to make their own connections meant that they could teach me,” she says.
It’s difficult to learn from someone we don’t trust, writes literacy consultant Regie Routman. Bonding with individual students and their families builds that trust. Routman offers 10 ways to make sure that none of our students ever become “mostly silent and unseen.”
It’s Oscar season and media literacy consultant Frank W. Baker has ideas about leveraging student interest in movies to teach visual literacy skills and learn about cool careers. Lots of resources, including teacher tools at the Oscars website.
In Enticing Hard-To-Reach Writers, Ruth Ayres offers wide ranging ideas and resources to help all students become writers because “when writers believe their words matter, nothing can stop them.” We begin, reviewer Mary Langer Thompson notes, by getting our hearts right.
