This month, my students are learning to see the differences in the world. They’re reading The Giver, a dystopian novel written by Lois Lowry in the 1990s. The Giver relates the story of Jonas, a 12 year-old boy living in a community of sameness, a community in which there is no color, no differences, no […]
Instruction & Curriculum
Posted inFeatured
Why I Read To Eighth Graders
They have to read on their own. You should be assigning reading and having them read it, not reading it all to them. That’s spoon-feeding. I have heard this for the past thirteen years I’ve been teaching. When I taught high school English, I would read The Odyssey aloud to my ninth graders, The Great Gatsby to my […]
Posted inHigh School, Instruction & Curriculum, Instructional Strategies, Literacy, Uncategorized
Close and Critical Reading: So What?
This is the final post in the Close and Critical Reading (CCR) Series. If you want to catch up: The first post defines what CCR is and why all teachers should be using it to instruct their students in reading. The second post discusses the importance of teaching summary. The third post examines why it is important […]
Posted inElementary School, Instruction & Curriculum, Literacy
Making Connections in Reading
Readers process text in many ways to make sense of what they are reading. There are proven strategies strong readers use to help comprehend and process text. For the first six weeks of school my fourth graders have been practicing making connections. This skill involves using the text in the story or article to connect to your […]
Posted inFeatured, Instruction & Curriculum, Instructional Strategies
Thoughts on Grading Part 2: The Grading Scale
Fairness is a battle that is fought in everywhere in the United States. As teachers, we teach about fairness and the difference between what is right and what is wrong. Being aware of bias and unfair situations in the classroom is something I always strive to be aware of and I hope to bring awareness […]
Posted inClassroom Management, Featured, High School, Instruction & Curriculum, Literacy
The Problem of the Chronically Absent Student
It’s not even a month into the school year and already it’s clear that my 7th period has a problem. Overall, they seem like a nice group of kids. They participate, they ask questions, and they are pretty easy to redirect if we get off task…but still, there is a problem. The problem is that […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
[Episode 7] The Pushy Parent
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Posted inFeatured, Instruction & Curriculum, Opinion
How to Stop Zombie Students Dead in Their Tracks
Last week, I wrote about how disengaged students are like zombies. It’s scary how quickly the epidemic of disengaged, zombie students spreads when you don’t take appropriate steps to prevent it, but thankfully there are measures you can take to bring your students back to life without creating a mob. Prevention Imagine a classroom where […]