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
Assess Students Using Projects and Performance
Whether it’s performing as a person from history or working on a community problem with others, an assessment that gets students to dig deep into content will result in more rigorous learning, writes consultant Barbara Blackburn. She shares examples to get kids started.
Could Doubt Be a Tool to Spark Student Learning?
Student discussions fueled by doubts and personal questions can push learning very deep, says teaching consultant Jackie Walsh. To set the stage, educators will need to address Teacher Mindset, Classroom Culture, Teaching Modeling, and Student Skills and Dispositions.
4 Ideas Help New ELA Teachers Start Strong
After considering his early years as an English teacher, looking at research and talking with teachers and administrators, teacher educator Sean Ruday shares four recommendations to help new ELA teachers’ first years in the classroom be as successful as possible.
Connect with Kids and Families This Summer!
We work all year to build and nurture relationships with our students and families. Why stop over the summer? Rita Platt offers quick, low-stress ideas for teachers and principals to stay connected to during the summer months. Public library meetups are super simple!
A Helpful Field Guide for Beginning Teachers
Tina H. Boogren takes beginning teachers in their first years through the phases they can expect: anticipation, survival, disillusionment, rejuvenation, and reflection. Teacher educator Linda Biondi finds Boogren’s recollections of her novice teaching particularly helpful.
Creating New Scientists: Teaching with the NGSS
In Creating Scientists Christopher Moore helps readers better understand the reasoning behind the NGSS and how to implement the standards in classrooms. If teachers focus lessons with his goals in mind, says science educator Joyce Depenbusch, students will benefit.
Room 4T: Looking Back at How Far We’ve Come
Mary Tarashuk’s fourth graders dedicate a large part of their end-of-year together looking back at where they began and how far they have come, not only as individuals, but as a classroom community. The Workshop journaling model helps everyone share their conclusions.
The Teacher’s Challenge: Balancing Work and Life
Successful, career-minded teachers must learn how to juggle the demands of being in a classroom all day long and still maintain a satisfactory personal life. Julia Thompson, author of a bestselling survival guide for first-year teachers, tells how to achieve that balance.
Co-Teachers: 3 Keys to Boost Summer Learning
Make the most of summer’s three ‘R’s’: relaxation, rejuvenation, and reflection! Coach Elizabeth Stein shares what she’s learned from great co-teachers to help focus summer learning and plan ways to bring out the best in students and colleagues next year.
Refreshing Advice for New History Teachers
When Lauren Brown left her history classroom and became a teacher educator, she always shared a page of advice when pre-service teachers finished her course. Three years after returning to middle school, Brown updates her tips with fresh insights from the front lines.
