MiddleWeb is all about middle school & the middle grades — with a sharp focus on teaching and learning in grades 4-8. Click to learn about our work and what we have to offer, and find out how to get involved.
Creating a well-rounded middle school student goes way beyond the textbook! Anne Jolly shares the core learning skills and life skills middle-schoolers need and invites teachers – especially STEM teachers – to take up the challenge to help students achieve their potential.
It’s easy to keep busy in just about any job, writes former principal Matt Renwick, now a regional systems coach. What’s difficult to discern is what we should be focused on in this moment. See how Renwick is using what he calls “productive presence” to stay organized and aware.
In Prompting Deeper Discussions Matt Kay provides actionable insights on how to structure discussions, promote critical thinking, and create a safe classroom environment that encourages thoughtful debate. Reviewer Melinda Stewart found tools to refine her classroom practice.
We want students to achieve in class and on tests, but we also want them to know how to use reading skills to enjoy reading. Reading aloud provides students with opportunities to experience success through thinking alongside their teachers and peers, writes Jennifer Sniadecki.
Grammar instruction has barely changed since our grandparents were in school. It’s time to flip that script. ELA teachers Patty McGee and Tim Donohue share fun, effective techniques to help students evolve into grammar rock stars. Welcome to the FANBOYS conjunction fan club!
Invest in Your Best is full of practical insights that any school leader can trust will lead to improved retention of their most effective teachers. Implementing the book’s ideas will also benefit the whole faculty and students, writes Wisconsin systems coach Matt Renwick.
Given the high level of anxiety among teens today, teachers need to focus more on students’ need for safety. Gravity Goldberg suggests ways to use what we know about the body-brain connection to help kids experience the kind of regulation needed for any learning to happen.
Sarah M. Zerwin’s “Step Aside” is full of ideas for secondary teachers ready to build a classroom that supports and encourages students to become involved, engaged, and in control of their literacy learning, writes instructional coach Kathee Lamberies.
Finding ways to scaffold in classrooms with a mix of readers – both well behind and well ahead of grade level – can be overwhelming. Author and coach Jennifer Throndsen shares low-prep, easy to implement, research-based strategies teachers can use to support all students.
Getting students to show their reasoning isn’t about adding one more step, writes math coach Mona Iehl. It’s about redefining how math learning happens and coming to see that students learn not through memorizing steps, but through reasoning, discussion, and exploration.
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