From Kim and Jeff

Dear Students,

Valentine’s Day is all about love, and what shows love in the elementary classroom more than simple acts of kindness? This Valentine’s Day incorporate teaching about kindness into your classroom with these simple ideas.

If you are a middle or high school English teacher and you’ve never taught sentence composing, stop what you are doing and read this post. Sentence composing is that good.

Picture this: Desks are arranged in a circle. Students are seated, and engaged in a lively discussion of a text. You are observing silently from the back of the room. Students are building on each others’ ideas, asking clarifying questions, and citing examples from the text to support their assertions. 

Trying something new in the classroom is daunting. We tend to teach the way that we were taught. Often this means whole-group instruction. The Gradual Release may feel like the safer route, but is the safer route what students need?