You’ve spent the school year teaching students skills and strategies and covering the curriculum, giving your best to all your classes. Now as the year winds down, the time has come to let the students take over. See how Kathie Palmieri’s middle grades kids share learning.
Dynamic duo Donalyn Miller and Teri Lesesne have teamed up again to create a book filled with practical strategies to implement immediately as well as valuable resources to ensure student success. Teacher Cheryl Mizerny says the conversational guide is essential reading now.
Literacy mavens Brenda Krupp, Lynne Dorfman and Aileen Hower are more than excited about the possibilities of summer reading this year. Check out their many ideas for choice-based summer programs, including book swaps, virtual author visits, online clubs and more. Plan now!
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.
Last Days of Math Class / Meaningful Math
by Michelle Russell · Published 05/16/2022 · Last modified 04/26/2024
Covid or not, ending school is always hard. To quell the stress and fatigue felt by her math students and herself, Michelle Russell is taking more time for quick fun activities. Students have enjoyed documenting the year, preparing tips for next year’s students, and playing math games.
A strengths-based approach to teaching multilinguals means understanding what students bring to schools. We can use dialogue journals to invite students to have a conversation with us about their strengths. Tan Huynh shares how he implements the weekly exchange of notes.
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.
The “You do” phase of Gradual Release of Responsibility should give students many opportunities to reveal signs of mastery and indicators of readiness, with teachers serving in the role of “active observers.” Experts Sunday Cummins and Julie Webb guide us through the process.
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.”
