The Genius Hour Guidebook by Denise Krebs & Gallit Zvi provides a practical guide for teachers who want to encourage students to pursue their passionate interests and expand their 21st century skill set. Reviewer Laura Von Staden also recommends the companion website.
Writing from her experience attempting to implement Standards Based Grading at her middle school, Jennifer Wirtz admits to frustration and looks to Schimmer’s “Grading From the Inside Out” for ways to consistently hold students accountable while promoting mastery.
The new edition of A School Leader’s Guide to Excellence offers essential ideas for collaborating with all school stakeholders. Reviewer Tamekia McCauley says the authors provide extensive implementation guidance for their 9 topics, from Planning to Culture.
Karen Chace knows storytelling can build literacy as well as joy. In Story by Story she explains in detail how to develop students’ storytelling skills and how to gain support for storyteller festivals. Reviewer Kevin Cordi especially values her reports of student engagement.
Book Reviews / Student Driven Learning
by MiddleWeb · Published 02/12/2015 · Last modified 11/15/2019
The authors of Make Just One Change: Teach Students to Ask Their Own Questions provide a thorough rationale and detailed steps to achieve a technique they say can “revolutionize” education. Reviewer Laura Von Staden finds their arguments compelling.
Book Reviews / Teaching in the Middle
by MiddleWeb · Published 01/22/2015 · Last modified 11/30/2019
Even if you think you know all there is to know about middle schoolers, says teacher-reviewer Beth Morrow, you are bound to understand their thinking and behavior differently after you finish reading What Every Middle School Teacher Should Know.
Book Reviews / Common Core State Standards
by MiddleWeb · Published 09/03/2014 · Last modified 11/18/2019
“Common Core in the Content Areas” not only makes a convincing case that content-area teachers can be “literacy teachers” when it serves their purposes, says reviewer Sarah Goodis-Orenstein, it also provides “a bunch of teaching and planning tools” and collaborative learning tasks.
What do your students need to succeed in close reading? Literacy consultant Nancy Boyles outlines 10 steps in this article, drawn from her recent Corwin book “Closer Reading.” She also includes five questions to consider before students get started.
In Dispositions: Reframing Teaching and Learning, Costa & Kallick present evidence of the important role dispositions play in student success and how to strengthen them. The book may be too scholarly for some readers, says reviewer Laura Von Staden.
Starting out in STEM? The authors provide practical and engaging activities to help novice & experienced teachers along the path and provide school leaders without a STEM background the information they need to help guide program development.
