Middle school English Language Arts (ELA) education is a critical phase in a student’s academic journey, as it plays a pivotal role in shaping their language skills, cognitive development, and critical thinking abilities. In recent years, the landscape of middle school ELA teaching and learning has witnessed significant transformations due to advancements in technology, shifts
The first time Valerie Minor truly felt the power of disciplinary literacy was when she introduced her AP biology students to the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. “I was able to tie it in to what we were learning in class, and quickly realized that adding the cross-curricular literacy piece
Read More… from The Power of Disciplinary Literacy: How AVID Weekly Brings Subjects to Life
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There are approximately 5 million English learners, or Emergent Multilingual Learners (EMLs), in the United States today. Yet, even in schools where nearly the entire student body speaks a home language other than English, EMLs may feel like a minority—like their needs and unique skill sets have been discounted in favor of native English speakers.
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When I first began teaching 48 years ago, I believed that the right type of motivation could encourage middle level learners to respond to any reasonable task. I didn’t wish to be insincere because students in middle school do not respect a teacher who uses the bad-tasting prescription medicine approach to addressing curriculum: “It’s really
Read More… from “I’m a Poet”: Motivating Students the Write Way
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Teaching active listening in an age of information overload When Taryn Kralik moved from teaching fifth and sixth grade in a self-contained elementary school classroom to eighth grade ELA after ten years, she knew she needed a different approach. She had a class of reluctant readers, English learners, and just reluctant learners in general. Frequently
Read More… from Using Podcast Circles to Engage Reluctant ELA Learners
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Creating Opportunities for Productive Struggle in Math, ELA, Social Studies, and Science While productive struggle has been the focus of much research for the past two decades (e.g., Ewing et al., 2019; Hiebert and Grouws, 2007; Townsend et al., 2018), much of that research centered on mathematics content. Here we posit that productive struggle can,
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