From the desk of Carol C…
You have the opportunity to go to Hawaii, and everything for you is free. Would you take it? What about Paris, London, Rome, or southern Germany free of charge? Pearl Harbor, the Louvre, Tower of London, or Bavaria. Of course you would. It would be the opportunity of a lifetime. You would explore part of the world, learn about a different culture, and grab some time at the beach. …
From the desk of Carol C…
I’ve thought a lot about the role of questioning in our classrooms and its effect on students. Questioning, if used to help students think more critically is a vital part of any high achieving classroom. Lately though I’ve started thinking about the answers we give children. Whether kids are preschool age or in college the answers we give them open the door to learn more or shuts it and …
From the desk of Carol C…
Teachers have always asked questions. It is a natural part of any lesson, but questioning in 2013 must be different. Today in order to meet the rigorous demands of the Common Core Standards we must approach questioning from a different perspective. Now questions must be preplanned and deliberate just like lessons plans. Questions can no longer be used solely for recall and comprehension. They are to be used to …
From the desk of Carol C…
Let’s be honest- why do we suddenly care about rigor? Most of us would say “because it’s in the new Common Core”. Understandable. After all, how often was that word mentioned before the introduction of the CC? Almost never. So are there reasons besides the CC that we should care about rigor? The answer is “yes”.
Rigor is important because current research shows that students need to be able …
From the desk of Carol C…
Read an education journal or a book about teaching reading comprehension (no matter the grade level), you will find a myriad of strategies to use with your students. You’ll, also, find a difference of opinion on whether to teach these strategies using the same novel for your entire class otherwise known as “the whole class novel”.
Why, according to some experts (classroom teachers duly included), should we abandon teaching …
From the desk of Carol C…
I thought I knew the educational jargon: ABC’s, testing, EOG, EOC, accountability, Common Core, and the list goes on. I could talk confidently about any of these terms to anybody. Then one day a fellow educator asked me what I thought of READY. “I’m ready for it,” I tried to bluff. “It’s something isn’t it!” I followed with. “Yes it is,” my friend replied and then added, “You don’t …
From the desk of Alice…
I recently wrote a post about the anti-workbook classroom. There is another layer to the story. The teacher I mentioned in the post had chosen not to use the workbooks provided to her in order to teach reading to Kindergarteners. Instead, she chose to use rich literacy instruction that engaged students in reading and writing across the day in a meaningful way that aligned with the Common Core standards.…
From the desk of Alice…
As 2013 is arriving, I am sitting at my kitchen table on a work holiday, typing on a wireless laptop and scheduling this blog to post in the future when I am no longer at my computer. My iPhone is nearby with my calendar at my fingertips and I am texting with friends and checking emails while listening to music on a playlist that I created. Every now and then, …
From the desk of Alice…
I recently had a conversation with someone about instruction in the elementary school. In that particular school system, a program is in place that requires reading workbooks for Kindergarten students.
If this happens to be the case in your school or system, I am so sorry. Having our youngest learners (or any learners) sit and work in workbooks is far from an authentic reading and writing experience. In this era …
From the desk of Carol C…
The Common Core doesn’t directly list writing poetry as one of its standards. So why teach it if it’s not in there? “How do I tell thee? Let me count the ways.”
First of all teaching students how to write poetry requires that they understand what poetry is and how to interpret it. Both of these ideas are in the CC standards for reading. Poetry teaches the writer …