Newspapers are changing into varied text-based formats thriving on the net, and students need ways to engage these new incarnations of current events articles, ways to consider how events can impact their lives. The tools and challenges we give them must go beyond the “here are the facts, now summarize” methods many of us faced... Continue Reading →
The Writer Within Every Teacher
Teachers are writers. From unit plans to activity directions to parent emails, the words teachers choose and the order in which they assemble words are powerful decisions creating published works. If you are a teacher, you are published. Each activity you design goes to the readers on your class roster and to parents monitoring their... Continue Reading →
Walks, Shuffles, and Snow Ball Fights As Formative Assessments
My student teacher asked how often he should use a particular formative assessment. “Using any formative assessment activity frequently will make it boring, and students will hate it,” I responded. “They won’t be invested in the assessment. The results will not be meaningful.” Variety and activity are keys to keeping students’ attentions and to make... Continue Reading →
Teaching With Feeling: Reaching The Affective Domain
The Scourged Back, an 1863 photo of an escaped African American slave, his back covered by a thatch of thick scars, touches students more deeply and reveals more about this period of our nation's history than could any third-person text. My student teacher and I posted The Scourged Back, period illustrations of slave-catchers, sepia photos... Continue Reading →
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