Teacher and coach Mona Iehl loves ending the school year with a choice-driven math fact fluency challenge. Students solidify their fluency before the next grade while also engaging in a fun initiative. Discover her simple 4-step process and check out the resources she shares.
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.
Steve Gruenert and Todd Whitaker have added to their series of books on school culture with this practical, readable and well-researched work that speaks of the commitment to creating and sustaining a positive learning environment, writes school leader Jack Ferrante.
How many minutes? In which grades? What really works? How can family be engaged? These and lots more questions are answered in Cathy Vatterott’s book Rethinking Homework. Educator Brian Taylor says it’s a must for educators who want to bring sanity to homework policies.
Emphasizing content-rich curriculum, traditional literacy activities, and soundly structured lessons, Mike Schmoker’s “Leading with Focus” provides a guide for teacher leaders, principals, and others that can improve student achievement, says principal Matt Renwick.
Book Reviews / Student Driven Learning
by MiddleWeb · Published 01/06/2016 · Last modified 11/16/2019
In Building School 2.0, Chris Lehmann and Zac Chase offer sharp insights on the world of learners and a vision for where schools should be heading. They include practical advice on how to move forward as a teacher, as a staff or as an administration, says Kevin Hodgson.
Connected Reading: Teaching Adolescent Readers in a Digital World lays out the rationale, as well as a path forward, for expanding the definitions of reading, showing how to engage readers in authentic experiences using varied texts, says Kevin Hodgson.
Book Reviews / Gradual Release of Responsibility
by MiddleWeb · Published 08/16/2014 · Last modified 12/10/2019
In the 2nd edition of Better Learning Through Structured Teaching, Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey use specific classroom examples and deep knowledge in the field to explain how students can become independent learners. Sarah Cooper says read it now!
In Wiring the Brain for Reading: Brain-Based Strategies for Teaching Literacy author Marilee Sprenger covers familiar territory as she links recent research to teaching literacy, says reviewer Julie Dermody.
