Compassionate discipline calls us to action, writes SEL & the Brain expert Marilee Sprenger – actions much different from our usual vision of discipline. Showing compassion and managing our behavior can help our students recognize their own emotions and regulate themselves.
To guide middle grades students into paying more attention to poetry – and reconsidering their often negative attitudes about reading and writing poems – author and teacher Linda Rief suggests kids create heart books, do quickwrites and illustrate lines of their own work.
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.
Help your middle graders grow academically and behaviorally with these monthly SEL themes and activities developed by middle school teacher leader Kasey Short and her counseling colleague Janani Buford. Just right for busy teachers to incorporate into their advisories!
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.
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.
In The Power of Teaching Vulnerably David Rockower explains how personal, relational, and dialogic vulnerability can help educators build healthy classroom dialogue. Amy Estersohn would have liked more guidance for teachers facing job loss if they discuss sensitive topics.
Many school problems are social at their core. When teachers and counselors give students a leadership role in normalizing the problems – making them accessible and resolvable – the community culture improves for everyone, says national counseling leader Jean Peterson.
Lisa Eickholdt and Patty Vitale-Reilly’s favorite student collaboration is the Writing Club – an opportunity for kids to write in authentic, engaging, and creative ways. They prepare a foundation for this work with read-alouds, feedback structures, partnering activities, and more.
In this unprecedented school year, as teachers and school leaders set goals and decide what to keep and what to change, Lynne Dorfman and Aileen Hower argue that “it is social-emotional learning – not academics – that should be the focus for the first month of school.”
