revised 11/26/23 What does engagement sound like? Allowing students to have a say in their work is not enough to build engagement. Adam Fletcher writes a great blog on engagement, including this entry: voice and engagement are not the same. In the Learner-Active, Technology-Infused Classroom (described in my books, Students Taking Charge), engagement refers to […]
Like it or not, to most schools, achievement means strong performance on state tests. Some claim to value life preparation and social-emotional growth over test scores, but that never plays well in the annual newspaper articles. What if you could have it all? What if you could rethink success and have happy, healthy, excited students […]
Imagine teaching a short lesson to introduce students to the concept of a preposition: Prior to the lesson, on the whiteboard, write the same sentence four times: The book is _____ the desk. Stand by a desk and hold up a book, asking students to identify the desk and the book. “These are two things, or […]
Whether in the classroom or teachers’ professional development, the instructional goal should be transformational learning rather than transactional learning. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary: Transaction: “an occurrence in which [something] is passed from one person . . . to another” Transformation: “a complete or major change in someone’s . . . appearance, form, etc.” Much […]
One of the most important characteristics for success is the ability to delay gratification: to persist in a task or goal in spite of tempting distractions. How do we build this valuable executive function skill in our students? For starters, here is an “If, Then” planning sheet to use with students; but read on . . . […]