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Teaching Unscripted

A Heinemann blog for curious educators.

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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.

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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.

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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.

On the podcast today, something different. A story from author Sara Ahmed. A story about compassion, empathy and most importantly, identity.

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Poetry is something that is happening now, everywhere, and we need to bring it into the classroom. In Poems Are Teachers, Amy introduces the skills and techniques involved in writing a poem and how it connects to writing across all genres.

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This is what we want for our students: the ability to look at multiple sources and triangulate meaning from a variety of perspectives.

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In this following video, Kate walks you through what you can expect to find in her new book, A Novel Approach, and shows you how you too can find a student-centered, balanced approach to teaching reading.

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Teaching questioning skills is not an easy process. It involves patience, scaffolding, and focused instruction. Asking a question is not something that a lot of our students know how to do innately, especially at the primary level.

I believe we can teach whole class novels in ways that increase independence, ability, and engagement. We can keep our novels, but we may need to change the way we do them.

Curriculum should be meaningful, engaging, relevant, and relatable to our students. We want all children to be engaged and to learn.

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In the upper grades, students don’t often move up reading levels as quickly as they do when they are younger. But that said, it’s still important to take note when a student has been in the same level for what seems like too long.

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Today on the Heinemann Podcast, authors Mark Lubkowitz, Amy VanDerwater and Valerie Bang-Jensen. What are crosscutting concepts?

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In this video, author Sunday Cummins explains how we want students to ask questions and then actively seek out answers by locating and reading or viewing multiple sources—articles, books, videos, photographs, infographics. Then, we want students to articulate what they've learned.

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In this video, you’ll see Boston Teacher Residency alumni using instructional routines in their planning and teaching.

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As principals, we tend to think a lot about the big moments like staff meetings, welcome-back letters, and assemblies. But, in truth, leadership doesn’t happen in grand gestures

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At this week’s TCRWP Twitter chat, Janet Steinberg, Research and Data Manager for the TCRWP, and staff developer Rhea Royster will lead a chat on what is most important in helping students in grades 3-8 prepare for tests.

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Liz Prather knows that time management can be a real challenge for students, but what they gain in understanding is so important.