Co-editors John Norton and Susan Curtis highlight 15 of MiddleWeb’s most popular posts for middle level educators during the past 12 months. You’ll find articles that were new in 2021 or rediscovered and shared widely in this second “weirdest year ever.”
In this pandemic year Katie Durkin adopted 3 new practices she’ll be carrying forward: going paperless; slowing down the curriculum to provide more feedback to students; and using the Flipped Classroom model.
Class Apps / Measuring Engagement
by Curtis Chandler · Published 05/11/2021 · Last modified 11/08/2022
Education stakeholders agree that student engagement is essential. The challenge arises when we’re asked to define and measure it. Curtis Chandler shares a number of free methods and tools educators can use to measure three types: behavioral, emotional, and cognitive.
Teacher, author and adolescent literacy consultant Cris Tovani guides us through her 6Ts (Topic, Target, Task, Text, Time, and Tending) as she tells the story of her first virtual literacy workshop – with 7th graders who are studying the Sahara Desert. Engagement? CYA!
It’s past time to rethink the label “Long-term English Learner,” writes EL teacher Tan Huyhn. He shares Dr. Maneka Brooks’ ideas for involving students designated as LTELs in their own learning, including text sets that relate to their experiences beyond the classroom.
Meaningful Math / Productive Struggle
by Michelle Russell · Published 03/02/2020 · Last modified 10/19/2022
Michelle Russell realized her students were falling into a rut. They expected her to provide the steps and jump in to help instead of figuring some things out for themselves. Learn what she did to increase engagement and deepen thinking during a challenging unit.
In a new edition of Teaching What Really Happened, Loewen moves beyond textbook distortions of historical facts and calls for teaching unvarnished history to educate “critical citizens.” History educator Michael DiClemente highlights insights all K-12 teachers can use.
Using the Reading Response strategy, Marilyn Pryle writes, class time becomes a time of meaningful discovery. Students do not passively ingest information but actively create ideas through their own thinking, writing and discussion. Teachers facilitate, clarify and celebrate.
Teachers don’t set out to bore students to death with fact-filled research projects. They want assignments where students *do something* with their facts. In her story about ‘Drew,’ former New Hampshire TOY Angie Miller provides the insight we need to spark their critical thinking and creativity.
Co-teaching Reflections / Two Teachers in the Room
by Elizabeth Stein · Published 03/21/2018 · Last modified 11/24/2019
After helping a co-teaching team talk through their student engagement challenges, coach Elizabeth Stein shares some of the guiding questions that helped the two teachers unpack their differing goals and philosophies and begin to find ways to reach more students.
