Urban ELA teacher Mackenzie Grate found mock trials to be the perfect vehicle to encourage reading, teach speaking & listening, and prepare her 6th graders for their first argumentative writing essay. How-to tips, downloads and lessons learned included.
CommonLit.Org is a nonprofit organization building a growing collection of supplemental texts, curated by teachers, for teachers, writes founder Michelle Brown. The free and open resource is cross-curricular, organized around themes and essential questions.
Book Reviews / Narrative for Learning
by MiddleWeb · Published 02/19/2015 · Last modified 11/14/2019
Thomas Newkirk makes a convincing argument in Minds Made for Stories that narrative is the framework for all good learning experiences, says teacher-reviewer Jenni Miller. This insight about storytelling can be used by teachers to help students learn and retain more in any subject.
Jim Knight’s Unmistakable Impact: A Partnership Approach for Dramatically Improving Instruction focuses on school leaders working with an instructional coach in a partnership model, says principal Matt Renwick. But he finds value in the book for other leaders who lack a coaching model.
Students can learn difficult vocabulary when they are immersed in a rich array of words, says reading expert Janet Allen. In this excerpt from her new book of vocabulary teaching tools, Allen describes ways to create a word-rich environment. Includes reproducibles.
As Mary Tarashuk’s fourth graders took part in the Hour of Code this past December – assuming then switching roles as drivers and navigators in a code writing exercise – she considered how she might play the navigator more often in her own classroom.
Ready for fresh math bellringers? Reviewer Lynne Menechella highly recommends Math Lesson Starters for the Common Core. Arranged by CCSS-M domains, the compact book “does a wonderful job of providing ready-to-use problems that work as formative assessment.”
When Sandy Wisneski engaged middle graders in a comic book project that combined writing, art and social studies, she wanted a whiz-bang culminating activity. She struck virtual gold when she found professional comics illustrator and author Alex Simmons.
Common Core tests require students to analyze two literary texts and compare & contrast themes or points of view. Literacy consultant Sarah Tantillo shares a better tool to help students organize these essays. Included: Links to all her PARCC Prep articles.
Professional community / Working Draft
by Kevin Hodgson · Published 12/17/2014 · Last modified 11/16/2019
When Kevin Hodgson shared a heartfelt reflection with the Slice of Life teacher writing community, the supportive and encouraging comments he received from online colleagues “were like lifelines to me.” He highly recommends the Tuesday writing activity.
