Anna M. Quinzio-Zafran and Elizabeth A. Wilkins bring together up-to-the-minute advice from award-winning educators to guide new and veteran teachers alike as they navigate the school system, form relationships with colleagues, and connect with students and families.
To help in assessing studentsβ digital stories, Katie Caprino and Alyssa Marzili share tips on ways to engage middle graders in thinking about their storiesβ purpose, genre, tone and audience, how to structure peer feedback, and how to use digital tools for ongoing evaluation.
In his farewell reflection upon leaving the classroom, teacher Jeremy Hyler says he will be βworking for an organization that believes in making every student successful through the programs they offer and not just selling a product or serving a subset of our students.β
In an earlier MiddleWeb post, professor and former middle grades ELA teacher Jason DeHart argued on behalf of teaching with graphic novels, with numerous examples. Here he delves deeper into a single text from the Kid Beowulf series, detailing his own instructional strategies.
The Columns strategy developed by Jill Brown and Jana Schmidt offers the organizing tool teachers need to provide students in grades 2-5 targeted and well-paced reading intervention, making all of the data we collect both relevant and meaningful, writes AP Ginny Hornberger.
Getting in touch with emotions, especially as a middle schooler, has become a critical component to classroom success. Itβs also an essential life skill. Award-winning social studies teacher Jennifer Ingold shares some ways she helps students raise their emotional awareness.
After making a strong case for small group instruction during the writing process, Jennifer Serravallo shares how to implement and develop six types. Teacher Jennifer Wirtz loves the access to videos of groups in action and the printables for students. Highly recommended.
After a year of having her classroom book collection in pandemic disarray, Katie Durkin was ready for a restart. “Iβd been researching the benefits of promoting student voice and choice by having them assist in organizing an in-class library. Now I wanted to give it a try.”
Brain and learning expert Marilee Sprenger highlights the 25 most high-frequency words for learners in the English language to focus upon. “I call these words ‘essential’ because knowing and using them can boost academic success and lifelong learning.” Are they on your vocab list?
“Improve Every Lesson Plan with SEL” shows us how β through intentional, deliberate and embedded instruction, including differentiation and choice β teachers can assure all students gain the explicit and implicit SEL skills they need, writes middle level leader Todd Brist.
