The #1 Close Reading Skill
Literacy expert Sarah Tantillo shares an essential strategy in helping students become close readers, with help from Percy Jackson and the Olympians.
Category: Articles
Can Teachers and Students Be Friends?
Teachers should be friendly with students but avoid adult-style friendships, say Larry Ferlazzo & Rick Wormeli in this excerpt from Classroom Management Q&A.
STEAM & Media Literacy
Media literacy consultant Frank W. Baker considers some of the ways that media arts intersect with STEM and present STEAM learning opportunities.
Make Me or Break Me: A Poem for New Teachers
If chicken soup isn’t working for your first-year teacher soul, maybe the gritty reality of this Roxanna Elden poem will help get you through.
Teaching Vocabulary with Digital Tools
ELA teacher & former llama wrangler Lee Ann Spillane details how she teaches content-related vocabulary using several versatile digital tools.
Students: What We Need from Our Teachers
The founders of What Kids Can Do share a selection of middle grades student voices expressing what teachers can do to help all kids be successful.
Powerful Thematic Teaching and Learning
Middle school advocates have long championed thematic curriculum design & project learning. Now is the time to actually do it, say Nancy Doda & Mark Springer.
Let Them Read Whole Novels!
Ariel Sacks says that by teaching novels “whole” she has been able to ignite interest in books, deepen discussions & improve reading comprehension. In this informative article, Sacks shares her rationale, her method, and reactions from her middle school students.
10 Signs That You Have a Together School
After visits across the US, Maia Heyck-Merlin, author of The Together Teacher, highlights 10 characteristics of together schools that support teachers well.
Learning by Immersion
Veteran music educator Nancy Flanagan shares the story of how a “solid bar band” taught her to be a better teacher by immersing her in the rhythm and flow.
