This is a super-informal post- a set of impromptu thoughts as I sit here at my desk about my task for the past three weeks: reading up on middle level fiction and specifically what could be included among the books in our middle level reading curriculum. I’ve read a mix of contemporary YA fiction, historical classics…
Lately I’ve been posting some excerpts from Reading Reconsidered here on Field Notes. Today I’m posting a section from Chapter 2, which is about Close Reading. The segment I’ve chosen deals with the idea of Establishing Meaning–making sure that students understand the full text and its nuances before you jump fully in to analysis. Colleen, Erica…
Learn alongside colleagues from around the country. I’m happy to announce our schedule of 2018-2019 Train the Trainer workshops. Unlike in the past year you can register starting now for any of the workshops all year long. (Our Check for Understanding workshop, slated for October in London, is the one exception as we are still working…
Some teachers are inclined to think of Cold Call as something that involves ‘picking on’ kids–it involves a teacher ‘forcing’ students to talk when the kids don’t want to talk. I don’t think that’s true. Ask a question of a room full of people and most (at least many) of them are having productive useful…
This is the second of a series of short posts sharing new realizations I arrived at thanks to the insights of teachers at the workshops Colleen Driggs and I led in England this week. This one is on yet another synergy–one we hadn’t recognized before–between writing and discussion. Writing After a Discussion Allows it to Be…