To encourage her seventh graders’ reading, Katie Durkin finds herself constantly searching for new ways to keep books in the hands of students. She shares four sustainable practices she uses throughout the school year to plant the seeds of reading with her students.
In What Great Principals Do Differently Todd Whitaker sets out a clear and understandable path to success and demystifies some of the unique aspects of school leadership. Any school leader will find value, reinforcement, and solid advice, writes educator Becky Johnson.
In Unconventional Leadership, Minnesota principal Jessica M. Cabeen offers principals extensive resources to move beyond the office and become more connected, collaborative, and creative leaders, writes social studies teacher and school PD director Becky Johnson.
Similar to reading, listening to what we hear during an interview requires comprehension and the active construction of meaning. Elizabeth Hagan, Lisa Friesen and Sunday Cummins share action research on ways to prepare students to conduct interviews they’ll enjoy and learn from.
To get her 4th graders off their remote screens for a good old-fashioned, hands-on collage project to strengthen fine-motor skills, Mary Tarashuk asked them to create image-filled books exploring Room 4T’s central Social Studies question this year: “Who Is America?”
Assessments that aren’t designed with language learners in mind perpetuate an equity gap, writes teacher Tan Huynh. When language specialists co-assess with subject area colleagues they can ensure the right balance of challenge and support for each student. Here’s how!
For Megan Kelly’s Ancient Civilizations unit, Grade 7 gamers played her “Ancient” adaptation of Apples to Apples (see her tips), Galactic Mappers and Inhabitation. Along the way they created continents and civilizations, and learned systems thinking and plenty of content.
Noting that Thinking Like a Generalist is “exactly the type of book a busy teacher needs,” educator Michael DiClemente says the book explains how to help students become truth seekers, developing questions and getting answers they need using concrete and practical skills.
Close Reading the Media / Internet Literacy
by Frank Baker · Published 01/26/2021 · Last modified 02/13/2021
New studies continue to reveal that many students cannot evaluate internet information for truthfulness, writes media literacy expert Frank W Baker. “It has become a crisis in American education,” he says, as disinformation becomes industrialized and “truth decay” spreads.
Many media literacy initiatives start with skills – teaching kids to fact-check and dig for information. Instead, Angela Kohnen and Wendy Saul urge us to guide students as they assume the identity of Generalist – “sifters” who are curious, skeptical, accurate and persistent.
