Teaching Unscripted

Introducing TCRWP Office Hours: Live Online Conversations with Lucy Calkins and her Teachers College Reading and Writing Project Colleagues

In this video, Allison & Rebekah explain how they've shied away from the bread and butter literary analysis approach, and instead push their students to write with passion and authority about topics they care about, effectively bringing their whole selves to their writing.

“This class is special,” I say. “We’re going to write and say things in this class that you’ve never said or written in any other class yet in your high school career.”

All students, those that gravitate toward nonfiction and those that don’t, need opportunities to engage with nonfiction not just during nonfiction reading units, but all year long.

There are few absolutes in social comprehension; full immersion in it often yields more questions than answers. This work is messy because it is authentic and because it deals with human beings.

if you have a good readers workshop going in your classroom I give you a hi-five and say keep it up! There are, though, a few caveats that might cause you to consider the whole class novel approach...

The use of different formats helps authors shape the same information in different ways. As a result, diverse sets of sources promote critical thinking.

How do we create learning conditions where kids can ask the questions they want to ask and have tough conversations? Author Sara Ahmed says it begins with discomfort and not trying to save the moment.

We use mathematical notation because it strips away all the extraneous information and helps us communicate as directly as we can about mathematical ideas. We couldn’t live in a world where all quantities were represented with dots or hash marks. We need abstract representations of numbers.

Right then Kristi decided: it wasn’t projects that would change the world, it was teaching how to be an engaged and responsible member of a community.

In order for students to learn and understand mathematical concepts, they must live in classrooms that support cooperative learning and mathematical discourse. Students develop an understanding of mathematics when in an atmosphere where they feel safe to learn, take risks, make mistakes, and grow.

This blog comes to us from Terrence J. Roberts, PhD., member of the Little Rock Nine. He is currently Principal of the management-consulting firm Terrence Roberts Consulting. The following is his encouraging and reflective forward for Sara Ahmed's upcoming book Being The Change.

Engaging students in lines of inquiry and independent projects of their choosing is a way to teach into transferable skills and to give students practice with the kind of learning that is lifelong.

Even the most disengaged student is passionate about something, and we can leverage that passion to help nurture their writing life.

Students of color make up over 50 percent of the population in today’s U.S. schools, yet adopted curricula rarely includes histories of minoritized populations.

Look inward to understand how we develop empathy, so we can integrate experiences that foster empathy in students, as well as lead us toward more inclusive decision-making in our schools.

From the first days of school to the last, Kids First from Day One walks you through how to put your deepest teaching beliefs into action; from building community and designing your classroom spaces; to matching instruction to students' needs, and engaging students in curriculum.

Congratulations to Kelly Gallagher, this year's CATE Distinguished Service Award recipient.