Welcome to the Middle Grades!
MiddleWeb is all about middle school & the middle grades — with a sharp focus on teaching and learning in grades 4-8. Join us, learn about our 5 streams of content, and find out how to get involved.
Teaching and learning in grades 4-8
Can Tech Replace the Classroom? Should it?
Writing a decade ago, Jody Passanisi and Shara Peters wondered if online learning could replace physical school. Now as they evaluate the costs to students of pandemic driven education, the teachers turned school leaders have their answer: Content in a human vacuum can’t sustain itself.
How to Keep the Rigor in Differentiated Lessons
When differentiation and rigor are intertwined the result helps all students learn at high levels. Combining the two is not more work, it’s more effective, says teaching consultant Barbara R. Blackburn. Using a content literacy lesson, she shares her three-group strategy.
25 Essential Words and How to Teach Them
As Kathie Palmieri implemented the vocab ideas in Marilee Sprenger’s The Essential 25, she found her 5th graders showed greater confidence in their daily work and demonstrated increased word knowledge in their reading, writing and test-taking. She highly recommends the book.
Sealing Civic Readiness in Our Middle School
Multiple award-winning social studies teacher Jennifer Ingold details her middle school’s civic awareness campaign – ‘The More You Know’ – which has 8th grade peers teach and learn from their 6th grade protegés as they turn advocacy into action. Jennifer shares the details!
Survive (and Enjoy) the End of the School Year
Covid or not, ending school is always hard. To quell the stress and fatigue felt by her math students and herself, Michelle Russell is taking more time for quick fun activities. Students have enjoyed documenting the year, preparing tips for next year’s students, and playing math games.
Looking Ahead to the Last Weeks of School!
What can you and your students accomplish the last few weeks of school? In this MiddleWeb Resource Roundup educators share activities that align learning with fun, offer ideas for responding to stress, and suggest strategies to help sustain your classroom community.
Relationship Building with Dialogue Journals
A strengths-based approach to teaching multilinguals means understanding what students bring to schools. We can use dialogue journals to invite students to have a conversation with us about their strengths. Tan Huynh shares how he implements the weekly exchange of notes.
How to Build Any School into a Success Story
Every school leader needs a focused, intentional process to move a school from what it is to what it can become, writes veteran principal Frank Hagen. Robyn Jackson offers a “new way of thinking” through the phases of her Buildership Model and its 90-day iterative blueprints.
Every Student Needs to Know How to Factcheck
How do we help students question and verify what they read? It’s not that hard to check things out, writes media literacy expert Frank Baker, but teachers tell him many students today “won’t take the time to do even a cursory investigation.” Baker offers some teaching ideas.
Here’s How to Get Kids Talking in Math Class!
We know how to get those same 6 students talking and raising their hand each day. But how do we engage every student in truly explaining their thinking and sharing their math reasoning? Middle grades teacher Mona Iehl shares 3 ways to structure questions that pull them in and keep them talking.
