Teaching and learning in grades 4-8

Helping Students Build & Use Prior Knowledge

Using personal anecdotes, educational research, and practical strategies, Kelly Gallagher offers both a call to action and a guide for educators invested in students’ literacy development as he explores the connection between background knowledge and reading comprehension.

Teaching ELA Students to Annotate with Purpose

Whether they’re annotating for current engagement or as preparation for discussion and writing assignments, students benefit from knowing the purpose of their notes. Seventh grade teacher Laurie Miller Hornik shares steps to help students understand the power of annotation.

Engaging Math Students in a Thinking Classroom

After her close study of insights from three leading math educators, Kathleen Palmieri took “a deep dive into what I had been doing in my classroom and flipped the stage to create a Thinking Classroom for my students.” See examples of how she’s moved from theories to practice.

What We Can Do When Students “Skim Read”

Across classrooms, it is increasingly common to see students skim instead of read, search instead of think, and move quickly through text without following how ideas connect. This is not simply a motivation issue. It’s a cognitive one. Veteran educator Holly Durham has a cure.

AI Help with Assessment Saves Me Valuable Time

What AI has done in its teacher assistant role this year has been transformative for teacher leader Katie Durkin. It’s helped her save time by generating ideas for formative assessments, giving her more time to provide students personal feedback – “a feat for any English teacher.”

Everything I Knew about Grading Was Wrong

Thanks to her “joyful” journey from traditional to competency-based grading, teacher and instructional coach Stephanie Farley has seen not only more growth of skill among her students but also increased competence, “which increases confidence, which increases resilience.”