Unlike quick teacher check-ins, teaching conferences allow for a deep conversation with a student in just 5 or 6 minutes. And they’re not just for ELA teachers and balanced literacy. Katie McGrath shares step by step conferring tips to target learning in any content area.
Matthew Kay’s Not Light, But Fire is a thought-provoking book that challenges teachers to move beyond typical classroom conversations to help students understand how to discuss difficult topics such as race. Teacher Laura Von Staden says the risks are worth the growth.
No matter your content area or whether your students are in special ed, AP, or ELL classes, Mary Tedrow’s Write Think Learn can help you implement a daily writing program. A “must read” says consultant Anne Anderson and a rich source of practical ideas and activities.
Mary Tedrow makes a strong case for daily student writing that generates ideas and wonderings not only in English but all content areas. Sarah Cooper finds Tedrow’s detailed guide to using Daybooks and her recommendations on grading and indexing particularly helpful.
Take 5! is a handy science resource targeted for K-5 teachers that can also help differentiate instruction in higher grades, says Laura Von Staden. The year’s worth of prompts will help young students to tie science, writing and critical thinking together.
Recent research finds that hesitant adolescent writers seldom respond positively to mentor texts by “stellar” peers. Instead, poet and educator Sara Holbrook suggests a co-creation framework that scaffolds the student writing process in a collaborative poetry workshop setting.
Kate Messner’s 59 Reasons to Write helps teachers who want to write get started and keep at it. Educator Kevin Hodgson reports every chapter is knee deep in advice from Messner and other teachers and writers. And the book is packed with opportunities to write.
In “59 Reasons to Write” Kate Messner shifts from teaching writers workshop and writing books for tweens to helping teachers build their own writing skills, assisted by more than 30 published authors. Reviewer Wendy Moore plans to try out their strategies.
Teachers working to build complex texts into classes will welcome the framework for teaching comprehension in Laura Robb’s book, says reviewer Linda Biondi.