ABC Books
Have you ever had your students write ABC books? Creating ABC books reinforces language skills and develops research skills. The activity also is a unique tool for turning students into teachers, as they share what they learn about a curriculum-related topic.
Professional Development Features
Ed
World Columnists
Experts -- like Fred Jones -- offer professional development.
The
Reading Room
Four popular features put the focus on reading:
Reading Coach: Cathy Puett Miller offers advice for
working with struggling readers.
Anger Management
A single student whose emotions are out of control can sabotage the learning
of an entire classroom. A variety of strategies and programs have been
developed to help teachers deal with the angry, frustrated, or aggressive
student.
Book Reports
Book reports are a classroom staple; they represent a valuable exercise in literacy development. That doesn't mean they have to be boring assignments, though. Discover 50 ideas for book report formats that engage students and motivate them to read more.
"Brag" Phone Calls
Too often, parent-teacher communication is about negative things students do. Many teachers see the value in calling parents to report good news. Teacher Donna Kelly believes in the power of "brag phone calls," but she lets her students make those calls!
Bullying
According to noted expert Dan Olweus, bullying affects the social climate and learning environment of the entire classroom. Set the right tone in your classroom this year by making it clear that bullying -- or harassment of any kind -- will not be tolerated.
Career Education
Job shadowing helps students make a connection between what they learn in class and
what they need to learn to achieve their career goals. But it's only part of a comprehensive career education program.
Character Education
"When the educational system works well," says Secretary
of Education Rod Paige, "the best indicator is the character of its students." Read about the importance of teaching
character education and about some of the programs schools are using.
Chess
Research reveals that chess improves children's critical thinking and problem solving skills. One indicator of that fact is that chess players demonstrate higher math and reading test scores. In addition, chess develops kids' visual memory, attention span, spatial reasoning and prediction skills.
Curbing Cheating
A 1998 national survey found that four out of five top high school students admitted to cheating at some point. Is cheating a problem in your school? Education World explored that issue with students, teachers, and other experts who offered workable strategies to curb cheating.
Classroom Management
Effective classroom management creates an environment that
is conducive to teaching and learning. It is the most important -- and
the most difficult -- skill a teacher must master.
Debates
There's no debate about it! Debates are a great tool for engaging students. They can help students develop skills in critical thinking, public speaking, organization, persuasion, research, teamwork and cooperation, and etiquette. And that's just the beginning!
Designer Homework
One teacher discovered a unique way to add interest to homework assignments and get parents involved. Kids say the technique allows them to be creative and teaches them responsibility. Included: Learn about student-create assignments.
Differentiated Instruction
Differentiated instruction is a teaching approach in which educational content, process, and product are adapted according to student readiness, interest, and learning profile. Discover how research into how students learn led to the changes in how teachers teach.
Electronic Portfolios
Hardcopy portfolios of student work have been used for some time;
the use of electronic portfolios, which allow students to save and display
sound and video files as well as text and graphics, is a relatively recent,
trend.
"Every Day" Activities
Most students love routine. Use that fact to your advantage by offering daily
activities in one or more curriculum areas. "Every Day" Activities offer reinforcement
and practice, ensure retention, and improve end-of-year test results.
Exit Slips
Exit slips are small pieces of paper on which students share -- usually in 5 minutes or less -- what they learned from the day's classroom lesson. Exit slips help students take stock of their learning and let teachers know whether students "got it."
Family Fitness Nights
Sending students a message about the importance of fitness isn't enough. Many schools are going for the gold with events designed to make sure kids -- and their families -- put that message into motion. Included: Four teachers share different Family Fitness Night approaches.
Family Reading Nights
Many schools, in an effort to improve test scores, are placing a renewed emphasis on reading. Planning a special night to showcase student reading and to get entire families involved is a sure way to boost reading excitement and achievement.
Handwriting
Few teacher education programs in the United States today teach handwriting
instruction. If
you've been avoiding teaching handwriting because of a lack of knowledge
or training, the following resources can help!
Homework
Homework builds skills and responsibility -- but it also can be a hassle.
How to keep track of homework, what weight to give it, and what to do
if students don't do it are issues most teachers face.
Homework Study Hall
Startled by the number of failing grades his students were receiving, principal David Chambers made making up missed work a mandatory activity. The policy has raised students' GPAs and improved teacher morale. Could it work for your school?
100th Day of School Celebration
The 100th day of the school year is a classic "teachable moment." Celebrate the day by organizing a classroom or school celebration that engages students in activities that promote special fun and memorable learning.
Icebreakers
An icebreaker is a simple activity that enables teachers to get to know
their students and students to get to know their teachers and each other.
Most of the activities are short and fun, and most require little or no
preparation.
Inclusion
A generation ago, few classrooms included students with disabilities. That all changed, however, with the passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). So, how are schools today doing with the challenge of including all students in the regular classroom?
Interest Fairs
More flexible than a Science Fair or a Social Studies Fair, an "Interest Fair" taps all subjects and students' interests. Whatever their ages, students have their talks ready and are prepared to answer questions on Interest Fair Night.
The "Jigsaw" Technique
The "jigsaw" cooperative learning strategy helps students create their own learning. Each member of a group works to master a segment of information; when group members come back together, they "piece together" a clear picture of the topic at hand.
Journal Writing
Journal writing in the classroom can take many forms and serve many purposes. Whatever the intent or structure, however, for many teachers journal writing is an integral part of the curriculum. Included: Links to hundreds of journal-writing prompts.
Literature Circles
A classroom literature circle is a small group of students who read, discuss,
and then showcase a particular piece of literature. Learn how literature
circles can help your students apply and improve their literacy
skills while motivating them to read.
Looping
Looping -- when a teacher moves with his or her students to the next grade level rather than sending them to another teacher at the end of the school year -- is a phenomenon that is growing in popularity. What are the benefits and disadvantages and looping?
Mini Whiteboards
Individual student whiteboards are the 21st-century version of the chalk slates used by students in colonial times. The whiteboards provide a great way to actively involve students in the learning process -- and a terrific tool for immediate feedback and assessment.
Motivating Reluctant
Readers
The key to turning reluctant readers into enthusiastic readers, says Literacy
Ambassador Cathy Puett Miller, is to make sure all students are active
participants in their own learning, not just passive recipients of teacher
instruction. These strategies do just that.
Motivation
Teachers motivate students who are not intrinsically motivated to learn by engaging their interest, demonstrating the relevance of what they're learning, displaying enthusiasm for what we're teaching; establishing challenging, but achievable goals, and employing a variety of instructional strategies.
Multiple Intelligences
With an understanding of Howard Gardner's theory of Multiple Intelligences,
educators can allow students to explore and learn in many ways, direct
their own learning, and understand and appreciate their own strengths.
Parent Involvement
Research shows that children are more likely to succeed academically, and less likely to engage in violent behavior, if their families are involved in their education. In many schools, teachers are working hard to bridge the gap between school and home.
Parent Open House
At the start of the school year, open house night is the perfect opportunity to make connections with parents that will last throughout the school year. With a little planning, your school can improve open house attendance and make a good first impression too.
Parent-Teacher Conferences
When it comes to parent-teacher conferences, it's a toss up as to who least wants to be there -- the nervous parents or the teacher who must deliver news that isn't always expected or appreciated. The most important survival strategy for both, however, is to be prepared.
Playground Maps
A large-scale map painted on playground asphalt "provides a 'clean slate' on which students can do all kinds of activities," says Ed Bonne, known throughout the United States as "The Playground Map Guy." Included: Activities for using playground maps.
Poetry Slam
Blend poetry and theater to create a fun event that emphasizes creativity while developing students' thinking and presentation skills. Use a slam as a Poetry Month fundraiser or Parents Night event, or as an antidote to the winter blahs or end-of-year slump.
Pretzels
Pretzels -- an activity from the Northeast Foundation for Children, creators of the Responsive Classroom approach to teaching and learning -- is a primary-grade strategy that focuses on students' kindnesses and results in improved classroom behavior.
Puzzles
What can children learn from and enjoy at the same time? Puzzles, that's
what! Learn how you can use the inherent appeal of puzzles to sharpen
students' thinking and problem-solving skills and reinforce concepts in
language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies.
Reader's Theater
Reader's Theater is a strategy in which students read from scripts. Repeated reading of Reader's Theater scripts builds students' comprehension and fluency as it improves their self-esteem and reading confidence.
Reading Aloud
The landmark report Becoming a Nation of Readers concluded that reading aloud is "the single most important activity for…eventual success in reading." Teachers agree, and they offer their thoughts on using read-alouds in classrooms across the grades.
Reading Response Journals
A reading response journal is a notebook that students use expressly for "talking" -- thinking and writing -- about what they read. Response journals can help teachers assess students' comprehension and critical thinking abilities.
"Responsive Classroom" Approach
Developed by teachers, the Responsive Classroom® approach has a growing following. The approach emphasizes students' social and academic growth through morning meetings, organized play, guided discovery, and academic choice.
Review Games
Reviewing for tests can be a dreaded chore for both students and teachers. Education World, however, has gathered resources to help tired educators liven up review time. Students will enjoy these review games, and teachers will see the results in improved test scores.
Rewards
In a perfect world, the acquisition of knowledge would be reason enough for children to want to learn. In the real world, however, some extrinsic motivation often is required. Learn about some of the incentives teachers use to reward students for good behavior and academic effort.
Rules
One of the most basic factors in establishing a positive classroom climate is the development of class rules. In these Education World articles, some of education's most respected experts on classroom management discuss how to develop and implement effective classroom rules.
Service Learning
In its truest form, service learning connects deeply to the school curriculum. It offers students unique opportunities to learn responsibility, experience satisfaction, and provide benefit to the community as they acquire new skills.
Shared Reading
Many teachers use shared-reading -- an approach to teaching reading that engages students and makes them better readers. Included: Reading expert Dr. Janet Allen and two teachers offer tips for a successful start to shared reading.
SLANT
The class participation strategy known as SLANT is a simple, easy-to-remember
technique for helping students increase their contributions to -- and
benefits from -- group instruction and class discussion.
Spelling
Are you and your students tired of the same old spelling lessons week in and week out? With just a few new strategies and activities, you can turn your spelling practices from dull to dynamic and your students' spelling skills from grating to great!
Stress Relief
Do you ever find yourself dealing with unmotivated, disrespectful, or
unruly students?
With large classes, heavy workloads, or unreasonable accountability standards?
With job-related stress? What teacher doesn't? These articles
can help.
Student-Led Conferences
Many teachers and parents speak enthusiastically about the benefits of student-led conferences. Student-led conferences help students take responsibility of their own learning, reflect on what they have learned, and set goals for themselves, teachers say.
Teaching About the
Election
Teachers across the United States are using news stories about the upcoming
national election as a timely lesson in citizenship. But don't forget
one other tool for teaching citizenship and critical thinking -- newspaper
editorial cartoons.
Teaching Current Events
The statistics we read about students' awareness of world events are frightening. Every teacher must play a role in building students' current-events knowledge. A strong current events program can also teach essential skills related to writing, geography, and history.
Teaching Geography
with E-Mail
Are you looking for an easy way to incorporate technology into your geography
lessons? If so, you might consider one of the excellent collaborative
projects available via e-mail. What better way is there to
learn about the world than by virtually chatting with the people who live
here?
Teaching Manners
Although character education is a hot topic in schools, education in manners often receives scant attention. Teachers who "teach" manners say, however, that they notice a real difference in students' attitudes, in the way they treat one another, and in their schoolwork.
Teaching with Games
In the classroom, games can be used to review learned skills and to teach new ones. Games help build students’ academic confidence, improve their problem-solving skills, and strengthen teacher-student and student-student relationships.
Teaching with Music
"I started writing [music] as a way of helping myself (and my colleagues)
survive the year with an intact sense of humor," educator and songsmith
Eric Baylin told Education World. But teachers aren't the only "savage
beasts" who are soothed and inspired by music.
Teaching Writing
A new SAT, as well as the mandates of NCLB, make it more important than
ever that teachers at all grade levels provide students with increased
opportunities to practice and develop their writing skills. Help your students prepare for high-stakes testing.
Timelines
Across the grades and curriculum, teachers treasure the value of timelines; the ultimate graphic organizers. Timelines provide visual tools for studying brief periods of time -- a day, a year, an individual's life -- or for examining a topic across centuries.
Tools for Teaching
Dr. Fred Jones has developed a method of classroom management in which the prevention of discipline problems and training children to be responsible are carried out in a positive and affirming context. His practical, clear-cut techniques are both effective and doable.
Visualization (A Reading Comprehension Strategy)
Students are bombarded with the visual images on TV and video games. As a result, they often view reading as a passive activity. A simple technique -- visualization -- can help transform students from passive to active readers while improving their reading comprehension.
Word Walls
A word wall is a collection of words displayed on a classroom wall. Word
walls, teachers say, promote literacy by providing a print-rich environment
and creating in students an excitement about words. Learn how to create
and use a word wall in your classroom.
Writing Prompts
Writing prompts are descriptions of situations designed to interest students
in a topic and encourage them to write about it in a thoughtful and creative
way. Are you looking for effective writing prompts to use in your classroom?
Choose one of the excellent prompts in these Education World articles.
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