This e:update provides teachers with
practical information about how to write
Readers' Theatre scripts that will meet
the specific needs of their students.
Teacher-written scripts enable Readers'
Theatre to be used on a regular basis
based on books that have been
programmed for the class. The range
of ideas provided in this e:update will
assist those new to this strategy and
complement the resources of those
teachers already using Readers' Theatre.
This routine helps students to reflect on their thinking about a topic or issue and explore how and why that thinking has changed. It can be useful in consolidating new learning as students identify their new understandings, opinions, and beliefs. By examining and explaining how and why their thinking has changed, students are developing their reasoning abilities and recognizing cause and effect relationships.
We must teach students how to navigate in an unjust world, but also teach them how to change it. Educators talk about teaching the basics-reading, writing, and math-but shouldn't teaching students how to stand up, fight back, and work for justice be mandatory curriculum for a democratic society? This website was created by Linda Christenson (2004), who developed the PTAB (Target, Perpetrator, Ally, Bystander) strategy. It explains the strategy in depth, and provides additional information, lesson examples and resources which may be used.
This virtual museum provides a century of coverage generatued by the Horn Book and includes significant articles, editorials, controversies, and illustrator profiles from the US children's literature scene.
At the secondary level, wellbeing is taught to groups of 12 students in four 50-minute coaching sessions each week. They meet three times as a group, and on Fridays, that time is used for one-on-one coaching sessions. They explore topics like bullying, identity, and race through grounding texts such as Wonder by R.J. Palacio, Refugee Boy by Benjamin Zephaniah, and even picture books, like Sailing Boats in the Sky by Quentin Blake.
Social media has changed the way teenagers communicate and the way they consume information. There is understandably some concern about this, as teachers and parents worry that their children will experience cyber-bullying or become addicted to their mobile devices. While these concerns are reasonable, social media is like any other technological tool, and it can be used for good or bad. We show how teachers can integrate social media into the classroom to engage students in the learning process and train them to use digital technology in productive ways.
Who better to bring the magic of stories to life than performers? The Equity Foundation is developing a program that harnesses the talent of performers to encourage children to read.
Thinglink: It is an interactive media platform that allows students to use multimedia content and links to share their knowledge and tell their story by tagging images or videos with hotspots that include additional information.
A project is a multistep activity undertaken by an individual or group to achieve a particular aim. With that broad definition there's a lot of project-based learning happening in schools these days. Some is better than others and there are a lot of variations: some thin, some deep; some teacher-led, some student-driven; some with clear deliverables, and some very open-ended.
Free to use images - This excellent page could be a lesson on image use, copyright and creative commons rolled into one. Summarises strengths and weaknesses of each source and provides guidance in searching and adhering to attribution requirements.
In this day and age, where anyone with access to the internet can create a website, it is critical that we as educators teach our students how to evaluate web content. These wonderfully funny hoax websites, test readers on their ability to evaluate websites. These hoax sites are a great way to bring humor and hands-on evaluation into your classroom, and test your students' web resource evaluation skills.
Even though many of today's students are "digital natives," they need to be taught proper digital skills. A digital citizenship curriculum gives students the opportunity to grow these skills over the years. Ideally, students will be exposed to digital citizenship in kindergarten, and the curriculum will become more advanced as students move up in grade level.
One of a number of interesting activities that could be offered in a makerspace. In this two-part activity, students design and build Rube Goldberg machines. This open-ended challenge employs the engineering design process and may have a pre-determined purpose, such as rolling a marble into a cup from a distance, or let students decide the purposes.
One of a number of interesting science activities that could be offered in a makerspace. In this two-part activity, students design and build Rube Goldberg machines. This open-ended challenge employs the engineering design process and may have a pre-determined purpose, such as rolling a marble into a cup from a distance, or let students decide the purposes.
RiAus is Australia's national science channel, promoting public awareness and understanding of science. At RiAus we make science fun, inspiring and accessible for all Australians. Follow Australia's Science Channel for groundbreaking news and developments. Subscribe for cutting edge Science curriculum resourcing.
CommonLit delivers high-quality, free instructional materials to support literacy development for students in grades 5-12. Our resources are:
Flexible;
Research-Based;
Aligned to the Common Core State Standards;
Created by teachers, for teachers.
We believe in the transformative power of a great text, and a great question. That's why we are committed to keeping CommonLit completely free, forever.
Themes include: America, comedy & tradegy, death, education, feat & paranoia, friendship & loyalty, growing up, identity, justice freedom & equality, love, man vs nature, men & women and more. Two though provoking questions posed against each.
23 Research Things is an online learning programme for university staff and graduate students, showcasing a range of digital tools that can support research activity. It originally ran from 24 March 2014 as a series of weekly blog posts but the site will remain active as a continuing resource and will be periodically updated. For ease of reference, here's the full contents of the programme.