Assess with a commitment to compassion, collaboration, and the goal of helping students succeed It’s easy to become jaded about assessment, but I’m going to offer a different view that will hopefully make assessment a tool for learning instead of just an after-the-fact event. We can’t always control all of the assessments our students take, so set
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What are the advantages and disadvantages of each? Collaborative, individualized, and competitive learning are instructional methods that can be used with the project-based learning approach in middle school, with collaborative learning (sometimes known as cooperative learning) likely being the most popular. Project-based learning is a teaching method in which students gain knowledge and skills by
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Examining the cultural narrative around these ideologies As with most things in education, context can be everything. A skill taught in isolation from meaningful context, for example, is rarely learned, and often becomes grist for blaming the student for his lack of learning rather than analyzing the teacher’s instructional design. Read a mediocre piece of
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Fostering more risk-taking, creativity, and true collaboration Aiden, an eighth grader, wanted to vent about his latest group project. He had to work with classmates to design an environmentally sustainable home in Vietnam. This involved sourcing local palm thatching and bamboo, understanding the local culture, and calculating measurements. “I’m sure I’ll do the whole thing,”
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Building community, reading comprehension, and student leadership Tying shoes. A simple activity that’s typically performed one or more times daily. Once people learn how to tie shoes, they can do so almost without thinking. One of my favorite activities to do with teachers and students is to teach them how to tie their shoes in
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The importance of focusing on relationships, reflection, and retakes Is great teaching rocket science? No. It’s actually far more complicated. Maslow & Bloom The middle school years can be some of the most exciting, yet nerve-racking phases in life. Recent studies have identified the vast differences between the young and mature brain and the implications
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