Group items tagged

This articles examines the need for Creative teaching as opposed to Scripted teaching. The article argues that the learning generated from creative teaching is harder to quantify on standardized testing where as the lower order skills taught through scripted lessons are easier to measure.

This post corrects the misinformation in Waiting for Superman.

This is article is particularly helpful for me since my essay is on charter schools. I found this read interesting because it hihglights the areas in education which charter schools seem to be disregarding.

I love the criticism if offers on the poster/ text alone. Many professors in the credential program are irate over the film and it's nice to see point-by-point what is wrong with the "documentary." I just love this article in general. It helps to be able to combat certain statistics in conversation too :)

A brief article about teacher preparation programs. CSUF is considering the co-teaching model. What do you think?

Resources for Teaching Mythology

Teaching Rhetoric to HS students.

Great resources and lessons for teaching English Language Arts.

Using twitter in the classroom

Teach rhetoric and banish the classics from HS English classes? What do you think?

This is the Expository Reading and Writing Course that many of us are adopting. It actually doesn't have to be an either/or. Yes there is less literature and more expository writing; however, most of us also incorporate some literature. I teach Things Fall Apart in a Socratic Seminar format, Macbeth in a more traditional format, and some poetry. The modules from the Expository Reading and Writing Binder are open-ended and need some updating, but they give students an excellent variety of college-like readings and writing instruction. Students learn to critically read passages and interpret their own thinking in writing. The writing instruction is key and not as well defined as the reading instruction in the modules. Teachers need to creatively design the lessons to prepare students to write argument with ease.

Describes the pros and cons of the CAHSEE; explores the curriculum and how to teach students so that they have a better chance to pass.

This article is about scripted lessons and teachers reactions to them

I agree that direct instruction may help some students but I feel like a scripted lesson denies the individuality of the students and the teacher. These types of lessons tell you how to conduct the lesson word for word as well as how to answer students' questions. I feel like this takes all creativity out of teaching and turns the teacher into a robot. These systems are also meant to "teacher-proof" the classroom so that even bad teacher can "teach" as long as they know how to read.

Wow and the scripted curriculum even tells the teacher how to answer questions?! If school, especially high school, is supposed to reflect a small scale-real world for students then what kind of message are we sending when we ("we" being teachers) are told how to do everything by a higher power; that we're all more successful if we do everything exactly the same all the time? So much for the development of critical literacy.

NCLB is always right...or are they?

What to do if your childs teacher is not so good

Banning books in the high school classroom... What constitutes a banned book? Who gets to decide what books are banned?

I read your article and it amazes me how many known books are now considered inappropriate to be taught in the classroom. I guess my question is when a book is too inappropriate to be taught. I am of course assuming the lower the grade of the students the more controversial it is to break away from the set course of what they should be reading. It is strange how some books are now considered inappropriate when in the past they would be held as literature and how some banned books are now appropriate. Also, are children now unable to read books that might not be appropriate simply because the parents believe it to be? Should students be restricted in what they read? I guess eventually the banned books list will continue to grow until most people are happy or they will make different version of "The Hungry Caterpillar". Oh also did you see the new banned book that just recently came out, "The Pedophile s Guide To Love and Pleasure A Child Lover". What are you views on this new addition to the banned books pile? Honestly I don't see how this book could be taught in school unless in Criminology class.

I'm very hesitant to ever say that a book should be banned. It goes against our most basic constitutional beliefs of freedom of expression, and it prompts the questions "who get to decide the criteria for a banned book?" and "how far are we willing to go with nixing books off the list just to please some people?" HOWEVER if ever there were a book that I would recommend be nixed, it would definitely be a book for teaching pedophiles how to best prey on children. That's just ridiculous. I don't think a book like that would ever be able to make it into any sort of a classroom curriculum.

This article follows the experiences of a first year teacher in a school that utilizes scripted curriculum

This article is about teachers who are fighting for literature in the classroom.

wow this article really makes me reconsider becoming a teacher. In fact this was a nightmare of mine, teaching no complete books and novels. How can students question texts critically if they cannot even finish the book. I find this new age teaching style insanely counterproductive because like the article stated some text provide a spark for the students to begin to question critically. If we continue to only use sections of full texts then the students are missing out on more possible discussion. The future seems darker for not only the students but for the teachers that once had to read a whole book and think.

This article examines how scripted curriculum can reach every student. Classrooms are made up of diverse students from different ethnic groups and cultures. How can one scripted curriculum a one dimensional way of teaching reach every student?

This article argues that charter schools as a whole are not performing any better than traditional public schools. The auhtor gives a list of five recommendations as to how to improve charter schools.

Evonne, I think it is so cool that you are doing your research paper on charter schools. I am taking another class with Kathee and we had a teacher come and talk to us about teaching at University High. What I gained from her presentation that there a lot of pros versus cons. I was totally considering teaching at a charter school after the presentation. Things seem so much easier than public schools, but that can be a myth. Let me know what you come up with. : )

The title is a little misleading, because it is not necessarily "brief." However, it offers a history of teaching English. In case anyone needed more of a historical background of how teaching English was developed. The article explains how the trend shifted from the teacher as an omniscient know-it-all, to a classroom focused on the students.

A great article on why/how Diigo can be a useful classroom research tool.

Great article about how to use Diigo as a teaching tool