Free Reading Friday has transformed Laurie Miller Hornik’s 7th grade class into a reading community, without having to cut back on whole-class text studies. Students arrive on Fridays ready to talk and write about the free reading they’ve done outside of school during the week.
We know group work can help middle schoolers learn, but what about their concerns? Who does what? How do they meet outside of class? How will they be graded? Laurie Hornik details four ways teachers can amplify the positive effects of group work and minimize the negative ones.
Lord of the Flies by William Golding remains a riveting, relevant book for middle school because of its themes of survival, power, and leadership. Laurie Hornik’s PBL unit also teaches students to appreciate and practice multiple perspectives and be open to changing their minds.
A Year for the Books is, in equal parts, about love of reading and how to organize a student-centered classroom environment for elementary and middle school students. ELA teacher Laurie Miller Hornik especially likes “Turning Beliefs about Teaching and Learning Into Actions.”
Laurie Miller Hornik describes what happened when English department colleagues got together to improve their responses to student writing. The collaboration produced a feedback protocol for reading, coaching and evaluating assignments that’s still in use five years later.
In Literacy’s Democratic Roots: A Personal Tour Through 8 Big Ideas, Thomas Newkirk brings his enormous experience and wisdom from writing and teaching over many decades to his exploration of the connections between literacy education and democracy, writes Laurie Miller Hornik.
