Topic: Video

While good readers are able to meet state reading standards and often achieve at the highest levels on standardized tests, they can be helped to become more thoughtful readers.

Sketchnoting fosters metacognition. It's a vehicle to help us think about our thinking. The pens, paper, and apps we use aren't the end all, be all; they change with us over time as our thinking grows and changes. The stuff of sketchnoting contributes to the process. The media helps move the message.

If we want to ensure that kids benefit from the way that we choose to do school, we must realize that culture is not naturally occurring. Culture is visible and large and if we are not careful, our classroom and school culture can work to silence, exclude, and oppress children.

How does a conference work? What do teachers think about? What do they say? A conference is not simply a venue for students to report on their thinking. A conference is a shared opportunity for teachers and students to learn together in the moment.

We are happy to share that on Monday, December 10, Heinemann author Marilyn Pryle was named Pennsylvania's Teacher of the Year in recognition of her innovative teaching and dedication to her students.

When students write Reading Responses about a text, they have something to say in class. It may be a minor point, or it may be a major point, but it is a concrete thought and it is tied to a specific part of the text.

In The Six Academic Writing Assignments, author Jim Burke aims to help better understand that nature of the academic writing assignments we give our students through the examination of these six different types of assignments we already give in one form or another.

Feedback is key to student learning. Since writing conferences are conversations between students and teachers, they provide opportunities for two types of feedback: student to teacher, and teacher to student.

We call it 'workshop' for a reason; the learning time is about the work children do. Children need to make connections from one day's learning to the next; it's the story of their meaningful work and the how, what, and why of their learning.

Learning never occurs in a straight line. Lisa Cleaveland and Katie Wood Ray, co-authors of Getting Started with Beginning Writers, know that this is especially true when it comes to learning to write.

Sketchnoting can add some fun and variety to the otherwise routine practice of note taking, but let's delve deeper into the why and not just be enamored with the how.

In a world marked by histories, doctrines, policies, and beliefs that can sometimes drive us apart, what we do is vital. Mathematics, history, arts, sciences, writing, and reading matter immensely. But these disciplines are not the entirety of our work. They cannot be.

Beginning with poems, we can teach students to recognize craft and deepen their understanding of it across genres and beyond specific assignments.

Design adds a dimension to our thinking that might seem expendable, but when embraced becomes increasingly valued. Design decisions that involve color, font, and style matter here because they help make our thinking more memorable.

The six types of writing assignments represent the way we really work, the assignments we actually give, and what we can ask students to do within the constraints of time, class size, student needs, and available resources.

Why do we learn? It's a question principals always have on their mind. Children and adults, students of school, and students of life learn with greatest investment when they are engaged in what they are doing, when they feel that their learning is meaningful and relevant.

The use of sketchnotes is gaining in momentum and credibility in business and education Like so many popular concepts, though, the topical lexicon can be confusing.

Developing an understanding of text characteristics offers you a crucial context for understanding what to expect from readers. To determine whether students 'get it,' we have to know what 'it' is.