The life skills students learn in our classes prepare them to thrive in the real world. Middle grades teacher Laleh Ghotbi shares some lessons from her effort to use weekly community-building circles in her classroom to help students learn to respect their differences and focus on common values.
Choice in reading is about student autonomy and motivation. It’s especially effective with kids who don’t like to read. Stephanie Farley’s well-honed system lets 8th graders read any text they choose AND meets standards – even though they never all read the same book.
In Becoming Active Citizens Tom Driscoll and Shawn W. McCusker offer a compendium of the latest approaches and ideas in civic education. Their ideas equip teachers across academic disciplines with the tools to navigate this ever-changing landscape, writes Sarah Cooper.
Many of today’s middle schoolers lack a full understanding of the Holocaust. Media literacy consultant Frank Baker seeks to deepen their knowledge and awareness by sharing the survival story of one American family in a nonfiction graphic novel format students will be drawn to.
While logic and skill are two important elements in advancing math knowledge, students also need to be immersed in the language of math to succeed. Kathleen Palmieri brainstormed with her fifth graders to develop fun strategies that help them understand and apply math terms.
This entry in Corwin’s Five to Thrive series offers a valuable ELA resource with accessible, crucial advice and information for real teachers – written by real teachers. Veteran middle school teacher Kelli Stuhr finds the book succinct, meaty and refreshingly optimistic.
Literacy champions Lynne Dorfman and Aileen Hower join children’s author Frank Murphy in a frank, well-informed review of the book banning controversy. Students need books that help them see themselves and understand others. “The opposite of censorship is intellectual freedom.”
Articles / Civics and Current Events / Media Literacy
by MiddleWeb · Published 09/25/2022 · Last modified 07/31/2023
As disinformation proliferates, schools need a better solution than perfunctory media literacy education, say these digital citizenship advocates. When students achieve full “media fluency,” they will not only understand disinformation exists but have the tools to outflank it, write McCusker, Irvan and Driscoll.
Barry Gilmore’s Plagiarism: A How-Not-To Guide for Students helps learners understand the motivation behind plagiarism and discusses ways to avoid it in both academic and employment settings. Eighth grade teacher Erin Corrigan-Smith also recommends the teacher’s edition.
When Stephanie Farley coaxes her students into a good frame of mind – happy, relaxed, confident – they learn more, just as positivity research predicts. Join her as she shares 10 joy-inducing methods – including dogs – and suggests ways to reach across content.
