Language Arts
The Benefits of Bilingual Education: Models, Outcomes, Credentials
By: Kylie Hall | Oct 30, 2017
The benefits of bilingual education show up in three places: students hold onto their home language, they tend to do as well or better in English over time, and families stay more involved in school. Program models differ a lot, though, and the model a district picks matters more than the label on it.
Ask ten people what bilingual education is and you'll get ten answers, ...
20 Picture Books About Bullying for Teachers
By: Kylie Hall | Aug 16, 2017
The best picture books about bullying give kids language for what they're seeing: the child being targeted, the child doing the targeting, and the bystanders who could step in. This list of 20 covers all three roles, with a suggested read-aloud band for each so you can match a title ...
Teaching Character Traits Through Macbeth in Fifth Grade
By: Tricia Koechig | Mar 13, 2017
Teaching character traits works best when students separate what a character looks like from what a character is, then back every trait with evidence from the text. This fifth-grade class did it with Macbeth. The play is hard, the language is harder, and the dynamic characters make the traits impossible ...
What Is an Anchor Text in Education? A Teacher’s Guide
By: Michelle Areaux | Nov 4, 2016
An anchor text is the core text, usually a novel, picture book, or other rich piece of writing, that a teacher builds a thematic unit around. Other resources, from vocabulary to assessments, connect back to it as a central reference point. A strong one is grade-level-complex and aligned with your ...
Text Coding: A Reading Strategy for Struggling Readers
By: Michelle Areaux | Aug 24, 2016
Text coding is a reading strategy where students mark up a text with symbols: a star for important information, a question mark for confusion, an exclamation point for surprise. As a text coding reading strategy, it can give students a concrete way to track their thinking while reading, and it ...