[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”] English teachers are seduced by literature. We fell in love with an author’s language, a fascinating plot turn, or a well-developed character, and we are bold in our love. While students may roll […]
Common Core
Posted inCommon Core, Featured, From the Front Lines, Literacy
Up, Up, My Friend…and Quit Your Close Reading!
The Common Core Literacy Standards encourage “close reading”, the careful inspection of a text for analysis, but I believe that the British poet William Wordsworth offers his sly opinion on that practice in one of his poems The Tables Turned. The poem is a plea to the reader to throw down the books with poems […]
Posted inCommon Core, Current Events in Education, From the Front Lines, The State of Education
The State of Education: State of Fear in Small-Town Tennessee
The area in which I teach can be viewed from the outside as your typical agricultural region: farms, tractors, cowboy boots, Southern accents, etc. Newcomers feel wary of the locals and of being treated like outcasts; meanwhile, locals feel wary of newcomers and of being treated like simpletons. Truth is, life is more complex than […]
Posted inCommon Core, Featured, From the Front Lines, The State of Education
The State of Education: Pennsylvania, PSSA and Pension
This article is part of our new feature “State of Education” where we hear what is going on in each state around the country, from an educator in that state. If you would like to write about your state, contact us at info@theeducatorsroom.com! 1 – What are 2-3 of the big educational issues in […]
Posted inCommon Core, Current Events in Education, From the Front Lines, Instruction & Curriculum, Literacy
Knowing the Ending Need Not Be a Spoiler
Enter the spoiler alert. Because the number of ways people hear about stories is increasing, spoiler alerts for books and films are offered as a “heads-up,” a means to prevent plot details from becoming public. Knowing the end of a story might mean that the strategy of “predicting” a story has been compromised. However, there are genres […]
Posted inCommon Core, Featured, From the Front Lines, The State of Education
State of Education: The Perfect Storm of Connecticut Involves a New Evaluation System, Standardized Testing and Teacher Pension Fund
This article is part of our new feature “State of Education” where we hear what is going on in each state around the country, from an educator in that state. If you would like to write about your state, contact us at info@theeducatorsroom.com! A “perfect storm” is the name given to an event that […]
Posted inCommon Core, Featured, Instruction & Curriculum, Literacy
Teaching Students How to Analyze Text
With Common Core standards on the rise, many ELA teachers are concerned about teaching students how to analyze text closely. Text analysis constitutes referring back to a text to find evidence to support a conclusion. Evidence can be direct or implied, with implied evidence being the more challenging. Students new to this concept, especially younger […]
Posted inCommon Core, Current Events in Education, From the Front Lines, Uncategorized
Product Marketing a Test that Markets to Students
The New York State Department of Education’s new standardized tests were administered last week. The tests for grades 3-8 were developed by the educational testing company Pearson and contained new “authentic” passages aligned to the new Common Core State Standards. State tests might have been routine news had not several teachers also noticed that the English Language […]