I had the pleasure of visiting a few schools in Memphis last week with Darryl Williams, Teneicesia White and Joaquin Hernandez, including Believe Memphis Academy, which uses our Reading Reconsidered English Curriculum. Among the many highlights were some of the great lesson preparation moves teachers used to get ready to teach (and adapt!) the units. For…
We’re experimenting with a new kind of video-learning here at TLAC. Keystone Videos—new in TLAC 3.0–are extended videos (most are about 10 minutes long) intended to show a longer arc of a teacher’s lesson where they use multiple techniques in combination. They are not just longer but more complex and nuanced. Our team developed these keystones…
We’re excited to share this fantastic video of Jen Brimming’s English lesson at Marine Academy Plymouth. Jen and her colleagues have been working hard to make their classrooms more energetic and dynamic across the school and have been focusing on adding Turn and Talk and Call and Response into their common methods of participation to support…
Recently I received a note on Twitter from Sean Morrisey, a self-proclaimed data nut, who uses the Reading Reconsidered Curriculum with his fifth graders at Pinehurst Elementary School in Hamburg, NY. In his first year using the curriculum he has some interesting takeaways that I wanted to pass along. Sean started the year with the unit…
A week or so ago I shared on Twitter a really great slide that Ipswich Academy (Ipswich, England) uses to support teachers in helping them implement one of the most important but challenging techniques in the TLAC toolbox. The technique–Habits of Discussion–involves building a set of habits and norms that cause students to listen actively…