Teachers who begin lessons without telling students “what we’re doing and where we’re going” are kidnappers, says Sarah Tantillo. Don’t take your middle graders on a mystery ride. Use the RPM strategy to write rigorous, purposeful, measurable objectives in any subject. Cheatsheet included!
If you are looking for detailed, richly resourced content ideas on how to integrate technology, Literacy Lessons for a Digital World is for you. The book does not emphasize how to work with the software and programs, says Sandy Wisneski.
Book Reviews / Common Core State Standards
by MiddleWeb · Published 09/16/2014 · Last modified 11/16/2019
Common Core Literacy for ELA, History/Social Studies and the Humanities deserves a place on the bookshelf of all educators in the Humanities, says reviewer and rookie SS teacher Michael DiClemente. The book offers detailed strategies and timely tech advice.
Regie Routman’s Read, Write, Lead could not have come out at a better time. Reviewer Matt Renwick says the veteran educator brings much needed sanity to the learning discussion, emphasizing the link between school leadership and literacy success.
Book Reviews / Common Core State Standards
by MiddleWeb · Published 09/03/2014 · Last modified 11/18/2019
“Common Core in the Content Areas” not only makes a convincing case that content-area teachers can be “literacy teachers” when it serves their purposes, says reviewer Sarah Goodis-Orenstein, it also provides “a bunch of teaching and planning tools” and collaborative learning tasks.
Sarah Tantillo has taken her 2012 book, The Literacy Cookbook, to the next level, adding flavor-enhancing Common Core ingredients to the mix. Reviewer Linda Biondi reports Literacy and the Common Core: Recipes for Action “deserves a five star rating.”
New teachers will find Teaching Students to Think Like Scientists full of ideas for modeling the scientific method and integrating literacy & science in grades K-6. But independent school educator Tracey Muise felt the Common Core focus was overdone.
Bringing the Common Core to Life in K-8 Classrooms, by Eric Jensen and LeAnn Nickelsen, offers fresh, easy-to-use ideas and resources to captivate, challenge and engage students as they build literacy skills, says reviewer Sandy Wisneski.
If persistent inequalities in urban and rural classrooms continue across the public system, reading expert Laura Robb says, it will be impossible for many children in poverty to achieve the deeper levels of learning anticipated by the Common Core.
In The Literacy Teacher’s Playbook, Jennifer Serravallo provides a step-by-step approach to analyze the data that teachers already have to help them find ways to meet the needs of their students by finding their strengths and weaknesses, says reviewer Casey Gilewski.
