Month: May 2019

Interview with ‘180 Days’ Authors

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By Larry Ferlazzo

Kelly Gallagher and Penny Kittle agreed to answer a few questions about their new book, 180 Days: Two Teachers and the Quest to Engage and Empower Adolescents.

Kelly Gallagher (@KellyGToGo) teaches at Magnolia High School in Anaheim, California. He is the author of several books on adolescent literacy, most notably Readicide and Write Like This.

Penny Kittle teaches at Kennett High School in North Conway, New Hampshire.  She is the author of several books on teaching English, including Book Love and Write Beside Them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LF: Your book, I believe, provides an extraordinary template for what a year in a secondary English Language Arts class. Even so, it seems like it would also require a fair amount of preparatory work by a teacher who wanted to implement it.  And, as you say, “Every year, we believe we must rewrite curriculum so it is responsive to the mosaic of our students and our changing world.”

What do you say to a teacher who is feeling overwhelmed now with several different “preps” during the school day and a family at home?  How would you advise him-or-her to find that kind of time?  Or, do you think it can be done in a way that is not intimidating – time-wise – to a teacher?

 

LINK: con’t EDWeek interview

 

 

Michigan’s New Essential Literacy Practices

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By MDE

The purpose of literacy essential instructional practices for grades 6 through 12 is to improve children’s literacy in Michigan. Professional development throughout the state can focus on this set of research-supported literacy instructional practices for daily use in the classroom.

Expert research suggests that each of the 10 practices outlined in this document can have a positive impact on literacy development. The use of these practices in every Michigan classroom every day can make a measurable, positive difference in the state’s literacy achievement.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LINK: ELP document

LINK: Resources

Daniel Pink: How Schools Can Spend Time More Wisely

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By Alyson Klein

School and district leaders love using research to decide which curriculum to adopt or what kind of professional development to offer. But educators—and professionals in just about every other field—often ignore research when it comes to thinking through how to use another precious resource: Time.

 

In fact, almost everyone, including K-12 leaders, think timing and scheduling is an “art,” said Daniel Pink, the best-selling author of When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing. But really, it’s a “science.”

That’s the message Pink delivered to K-12 district leaders at Education Week’s Leaders to Learn From event this month. And it is a message he will likely continue repeating until people start paying attention.

“When we make our timing decisions we tend to make them based on intuition,” Pink said. “We tend to make them based on guess work. That’s the wrong way to do it. We should be making them based on evidence.”

 

LINK: con’t ED Week