Writing a decade ago, Jody Passanisi and Shara Peters wondered if online learning could replace physical school. Now as they evaluate the costs to students of pandemic driven education, the teachers turned school leaders have their answer: Content in a human vacuum can’t sustain itself.
As Kathie Palmieri implemented the vocab ideas in Marilee Sprenger’s The Essential 25, she found her 5th graders showed greater confidence in their daily work and demonstrated increased word knowledge in their reading, writing and test-taking. She highly recommends the book.
Close Reading the Media / Factchecking
by Frank Baker · Published 05/11/2022 · Last modified 05/12/2022
How do we help students question and verify what they read? It’s not that hard to check things out, writes media literacy expert Frank Baker, but teachers tell him many students today “won’t take the time to do even a cursory investigation.” Baker offers some teaching ideas.
Some students may not have school work high on their priority list after two years of watching their normal adolescent world fall apart. Right now they may be focused on surviving, writes school psychologist Katelyn Oellerich. “We need to be focused on helping them do that.”
Geraldine Woods led independent study at her school for more than 25 years. She’s convinced some version will work in most subjects and for most middle school students if three basic principles are present: student choice, adult guidance, and students teaching students.
Middle grades teacher Kathleen Palmieri uses a time-saving digital tool to create quick and concise visual instructions. Show students how to share a document, use an add-on, find an online resource and much more. Kathie outlines the basics and recommends a good YouTube how-to video.
The many Aha! moments in Chris Hall’s The Writer’s Mindset will lead the reader to reexamine classroom practices – from reimagining revision to building student self-awareness and much more. Literacy consultant Anne Anderson appreciates the activities that pack the book.
The end of every school year is always frantic. Especially this year, plan year-end celebrations that reflect your school’s values and recognize everything the staff has done to assure a successful school year, recommend Ronald Williamson and Barbara R. Blackburn.
In Teaching Twice-Exceptional Learners in Today’s Classroom Emily Kircher-Morris clears up misconceptions about twice-exceptional students and shares many easily accessed tools for teaching 2E students in general and with specific exceptionalities, writes Sarah E. Pennington.
Class Apps / Formative Assessment
by Curtis Chandler · Published 04/04/2022 · Last modified 04/16/2024
One of the few silver linings to teaching in the pandemic has been a boost in teachers’ familiarity with and use of some pretty incredible tools, each designed to make it simple to gather evidence of learning with ease and efficiency. Curtis Chandler shares six favorites.
