Amp Up Your Year! / It's Not Easy Being Tween / New Year's Resolutions
by Cheryl Mizerny · Published 12/27/2015 · Last modified 11/29/2019
An NCTE workshop convinced Cheryl Mizerny that if she’s going to expect her students to set challenging goals, reflect, and try again, then she needs to practice what she preaches. Her resulting resolutions may ring true for many middle grades teachers.
Write This Way: How Modeling Transforms the Writing Classroom is a teacher-friendly guide to implementing modeling as a fundamental part of each step of the writing process. Teacher Jennifer Floyd says Kelly Boswell’s book clarifies modeling, interactive writing, and shared writing.
Teachers in K-12 will find lots to use among David W. Booth’s strategies for increasing comprehension. Based in his research, Booth’s focus is on 10 modes for understanding texts. His lessons incorporating the arts are particularly helpful, says ELA teacher Julia K. Colombo.
Teachers will see the standards movement differently after finishing Kelly Gallagher’s “In The Best Interest of Students.” Reviewer Beth Morrow expects readers will have a renewed passion for making a difference in students’ lives with best ELA practices.
Kelly Gallagher’s “In the Best Interest of Students” considers both the strengths and shortcomings of the Common Core ELA anchor standards. In this excerpt, Gallagher stresses the need for students to have “worthy models” at every stage of the writing process.
Teaching versus Testing / Two Teachers in the Room
by Elizabeth Stein · Published 02/15/2015 · Last modified 11/14/2019
“There is this race to absorb content just in time for the tests,” writes teaching coach Elizabeth Stein. But where is the time inside our secondary schools that students need to really connect to the learning process? Simple answer: there isn’t any.
Writing Pathways: Performance Assessments and Learning Progressions can help K-8 educators at the grade, school and district levels develop effective collaborative writing programs, says reviewer Linda Biondi. Teachers will find extensive resources to build student ownership of writing.
As teachers help their students meet Common Core standards through close reading of the movies, they may want to include costume design in their lesson plans, says Frank Baker. In many movies, director Martin Scorsese has noted, “costume is character.”
Donalyn Miller’s Reading in the Wild is a great workshop-focused resource for any ELA teacher who wants to cultivate lifelong reading habits and is “looking for a viable alternative to traditional instruction,” says teacher-reviewer Tyler McBride.
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.
