Just take off the top of your head! Share your reading (and writing) expertise with think alouds. In our last post, “Developing Student Expertise Through Deliberate Practice,” Michael Smith discussed Anders Ericsson’s (Ericsson & Pool, 2016) findings about deliberate practice. For practice to develop expertise, it
“Too often, educational tests, grades, and report cards are treated by teachers as autopsies when they should be viewed as physicals.” Douglas Reeves One of my favorite stories is about the man who taught his dog to whistle. The man was so proud of his teaching.
The day after I retired as superintendent of a large suburban New York school district, I drove north to Montreal, instead of south to Miami. Twelve years after I began the experiment of living in an officially French province of Canada, I have learned a
I challenge all teachers to try this daily: forget all you know as an expert of your content area. Yes, I am asking that, for a moment, pretend you cannot remember all you have learned as you followed your passion as a reader, writer, historian,
No one is more enthusiastic to hit the classroom running than a new graduate of a teacher-prep program. They’ve done their course work, studied educators in action, and worked alongside experienced teachers for months to get into the rhythm of the profession and they can’t
If you are trying to create a balanced assessment system with a combination of formative and summative assessments, don’t dismiss the use of performance tasks. Performance tasks could be considered the “jack of all trades.” They can be used as learning experiences, formative assessments, or as
One of the key tenets of Student Voice work is believing--really believing--that students have something to teach us. Russ Quaglia says this in virtually every keynote, book, article, blog, or interview he has ever provided. If it's not his most frequent tweet, it's right up
In the long run, the most useful form of assessment is self-assessment, right? We want our students to know whether they’ve finished a task without asking someone else; to know whether they need help, more research, or polish; to know whether they have done or
Spending time outdoors is becoming less common as students watch their phone, tablet, and TV screens more and more. For Louv (2008), students today suffer from what he calls “nature-deficit disorder” and can be linked to a rise in obesity, academic and social problems, and
I have a confession to make. Every six months my university requires me to change my password. And every six months I dread doing it. Why? After I follow Temple’s directions on how to change my password on their system, I have to change my