Can I explicitly teach knowledge and skills in my inquiry-based classroom? Do I need to frontload everything before my students can be successful in our inquiry? Knowing that learning through inquiry is the basis of a three-dimensional Concept-Based Literacy classroom, teachers often wonder about the
Our underperforming, low-confidence students need teachers who understand how they learn and who communicate that they care. The instructional strategies listed below are productive for all students, but they are essential for underperforming, low-confidence students. These students can’t mobilize effective effort if they don’t know
Early in my career as a high school English teacher, I learned the importance of building relationships with my students. I discovered that in order for me to teach and learn with my students, I had to build a dialogic, which would allow me to
Today I yelled at a 9 year old. He was ignoring me over and over again. He rolled his eyes at me. He laughed at me. And I snapped. I yelled at him. I yelled at him loud and I embarrassed him. It was during my dismissal
I lean toward Luddite. I use “the Facebook” and “the Netflix” and I have an e-reader so I can read on vacation without having to pack a trillion books. But, I have just a handful of apps on my very outdated phone because that’s all
Often, we combat time constraints by teaching more to the whole class, while interacting less through small groups or one-to-one. Yet doing so creates more teaching-to-the-middle and less individualization. So how do we move toward more individualized learning opportunities within our time constraints? Small-group reading experiences!
Disclaimer 1: This post is the third in a series on planning. The first part of the series covered Long Range Plans. The second part of the series covered Unit Planning. You wouldn’t read Prisoner of Azkaban without reading Sorcerer’s Stone and Chamber of Secrets,
Every teacher knows the feeling… when something just works and you can see the light of learning in your students’ eyes. Maybe it was a brilliant project that connected your students to the real world. Maybe it was a breakthrough moment with one particular student. We
I’ve spent all of my career teaching intermediate grades (seven years in 4th grade, one year in 3rd grade, and this is my sixth year in 5th grade). Here’s why I’m obsessed with intermediate teaching! For the most part, the kids are great at following multistep
In my work with teachers across the country on differentiating instruction, it appears that when it comes to differentiation, teachers fall into one of three categories: teachers who want to differentiate instruction for their students but don’t know how teachers who have tried to differentiate