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Joshua Block Humanities teacher at Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia Over the summer, I offered to help some friends convert their dining room light fixture into a ceiling fan. Once the electricity was off, the old fixture was down, and I'd opened the large cardboard box, my goal was clear and pressing.

Credit: William Duke Have you ever plunked yourself down in a staff meeting where some of your colleagues were, for lack of a better phrase, not paying attention? Grading homework? Having private conversations? Texting? As we know all too well, kids aren't a whole lot different than adults: If they aren't absorbed by what's going on, they'll find something else that interests them.

Implementing a Standards-Based and Thematically Organized Curriculum Every lesson derives from a standards-based unit that culminates in students developing the ability to engage in spontaneous, unrehearsed communication for real-world purposes. Each lesson has clearly stated cultural objectives that indicate what students will be able to do and what they need to know by lesson's end.

Last week, #langchat participants discussed a HOT topic-literally! The discussion centered on higher order thinking skills (HOTS), and instructors worked together to figure out what HOTS mean for novice learners, to discuss forms of support that encourage learner engagement in HOT, and to brainstorm ways to integrate HOTS in interpersonal, interpretive, and presentational tasks.