21 Anchor Charts That Teach Reading Comprehension This blog is sponsored by Questar Assessment, a K–12 assessment-solutions provider focused on building a bridge between learning and accountability. Reading comprehension is one of the most complex skills to teach. It’s also arguably the most important. 20 Incredible TED Talks You Should Show Your High School Students What makes TED such an appealing web series and organization is its desire to offer up a little something for everyone. This includes high school students and the teachers who love, hate, or tolerate them. Honestly, pretty much any video hosted there boasts its own educational value, but some hold more relevance than others. Whether they empower and inspire, shine a light on social injustices or simply show off some seriously cool innovations, the following 20 videos are bound to make class time just a little more interesting. Viktor Frankl: Why to believe in othersFrom TED’s Best of the Web series comes a fabulous lecture by influential psychiatrist, philosopher, and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl. In it, he explores youth’s universal quest for meaning.
5 Reader’s Theater Myths Debunked (and Tips to Make it Work in YOUR Class!) Guest post by Sarah Wiggins I first heard about reader’s theater in college and thought, “How fun! I will definitely do that when I have a class of my own.” When I did get my very own classroom, however, I was overwhelmed with everything that I was supposed to fit into my reading block. How to Keep Kids Engaged in Class Have you ever plunked yourself down in a staff meeting where some of your colleagues were, for lack of a better phrase, not paying attention? Grading homework? Having private conversations? Why Prosody Matters: The Importance of Reading Aloud with Expression Reading aloud with expression is a foundational reading skill students should be developing between grades 1 - 5, according to the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts (2012). It is pretty easy to recognize when someone skillfully reads aloud in an expressive manner. However, to effectively teach or assess this skill, a closer examination of its features, development, and relationship to other reading skills is needed. Prosody, the defining feature of expressive reading, comprises all of the variables of timing, phrasing, emphasis, and intonation that speakers use to help convey aspects of meaning and to make their speech lively.
10 Mind-Blowing Experiments That Will Change The Way You Understand Yourself Why do we do the things we do? Despite our best attempts to “know thyself,” the truth is that we often know astonishingly little about our own minds, and even less about the way others think. As Charles Dickens once put it, “A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.” Psychologists have long sought insights into how we perceive the world and what motivates our behavior, and they’ve made enormous strides in lifting that veil of mystery.
A Teacher's Field Guide to Parents Share it now! Teachers would be foolhardy to label parents as either good or bad. Not all parents are created equal and cannot be categorized on a single spectrum. To do so would jeopardize a teacher’s ability to survive. 100 Intro Open Courses on Everything You've Ever Wanted to Learn Posted on Wednesday May 12, 2010 by Staff Writers While the classes you take through an online college are a great resource, you can augment your learning by taking some time to see what entirely free courses are out there offered by universities. Taking these courses can be a great way to get a foundation of knowledge or expand on what you already know. Here are 100 open courses that are designed for beginners, so you can start your educational journey on the right foot.
Creative Homework Assignments Can Motivate Students Teachers can make homework more meaningful by giving students interesting and motivating assignments. It’s easy to get into a routine in which you give students the same type of homework each week. There’s usually a spelling packet and math worksheets involved. While these types of homework assignments serve a purpose, there are ways to incorporate additional activities to make learning at home a little more meaningful and interesting. Create Assignments That Relate to Real Life