Painless Poetry “Gross! I hate this stuff!” “This is too hard, I don’t wanna do it!” “It never makes sense to me, it’s all so weird.” Then the calm voice of reason speaks- “Ladies, we have to teach it, it’s part of the curriculum.” What is this dreaded standard? Poetry. That single word would often […]
balanced literacy
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
One Step At A Time: My Go To Lesson With Van Gogh’s Starry Night
My Go-To Lesson If I were to ask you what is your “go-to” lesson, I bet a dozen donuts you could tell me all about it! Well, one of my favorite ones involves several different variations of Van Gogh’s Starry Night. Small side story – while visiting my son and daughter-in-law in Dallas, we took […]
Posted inFeatured, High School, Instruction & Curriculum, Instructional Strategies, Literacy, Series
Close and Critical Reading: What’s the Point?
This is the fourth post in a series about teaching Close and Critical Reading. The first post explaining what CCR is can be found here, the second on summary is here, and the third on writer’s craft is here. The third portion of Close and Critical Reading (CCR) asks the students: Why did the author write this? […]
Posted inFeatured, Instruction & Curriculum, Instructional Strategies, Literacy
In Balanced Literacy, Johnny’s Reading Means More than Decoding
Throwbacks in education are common. This time, Robert Pondiscio, a Senior Fellow and Vice President for External Affairs at the Thomas B. Fordham Institution is itching for a fight to reopen old “reading war” wounds.He has taken umbrage with the NYTimes (7/2/14) opinion piece Balanced Literacy Is One Effective Approach by Lucy Calkins: Director of the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project at Columbia University and a proponent […]