A former English teacher, Megan Kelly is eager to discover how she can incorporate the learning power of storytelling into history units. As a first step she created a transmedia storytelling experience that had summer camp students exploring where ‘history’ comes from.
Close Reading the Media / New Vocabulary
by Frank Baker · Published 01/09/2022 · Last modified 01/10/2022
Metaverse? Prebunking? Zombie claims? The rapid evolution of digital technology and methods of persuasion has unleashed a flood of words and phrases that need to be in students’ vocabularies. Media literacy expert Frank Baker offers examples from across current culture.
Bouncing off a family session of Scattergories gone wrong, Curtis Chandler considers how to tap into multilingual learners’ interest in games and competition – including challenging tasks – by offering opportunities to play with and practice new skills in collaborative settings.
Kathie Palmieri likes the free teacher-owned Flippity site, offering engaging teaching tools in all subject areas. She shows how to easily create multimedia flashcards, involve classes in randomly choosing partners, and make interactive spelling lists tailored to students.
Digital storytelling lets student writers share their own characters who come to life, engage in dialogue, and move around the setting. Best of all, it helps middle grades teachers reach all types of learners. Sam Weigle and Katie Caprino offer examples and suggested tools.
Close Reading the Media / The Emmy Awards
by MiddleWeb · Published 09/08/2021 · Last modified 09/12/2021
The Emmy Awards continue to be a rich source of teaching ideas for educators who have an interest in media, television and film literacy. Expert Frank Baker’s latest edition of his annual Emmys column offers background perspective, teaching ideas and additional resources.
From a drawing to a book, Maria Walther and Karen Biggs-Tucker trace a 5th grader’s growing creativity, curiosity and individuality. Discover their innovative ways to streamline literacy instruction while offering students opportunities to follow individualized learning paths.
Laurie E. Westphal offers a comprehensive introduction to student choice and how to make menus successful. Aimed at high school, the ideas can also work for advanced students in middle school as they develop their strengths, writes history teacher Erin Corrigan-Smith.
Educators Daniel Rose and Christine Walsh receive a thank-you note for their new book, Talking Through Reading and Writing: Online Reading Conversation Journals” from middle school director and teacher Jeny Randall. She’s ready to reinvigorate her practice with their ideas.
In celebration of Pride Month, 8th grade ELA teacher Kasey Short highlights 12 YA books featuring LGBTQIA+ characters who represent diverse identities, sexualities, experiences and families – showing young teens experiences that may be similar to or different from their own.
