Answers To Your Biggest Questions About Teaching Middle And High School Ela

"Matthew Johnson, Dave Stuart Jr., and Matthew R. Kay have written a book to help navigate the burning questions early career teachers long to understand. From ways to build a community of learners to motivational instruction to feedback that works for students and teachers alike, these inspirational teachers share what it takes to craft a career for the long haul." - Andy Schoenborn, co-author of Creating Confident Writers: For High School, College, and Life Your guide to grow and learn as an ELA teacher! Let’s face it, major shifts over the past decade, including pandemic-related challenges, have rapidly changed our ELA classrooms. New and experienced teachers can benefit from guidance on the fundamentals of what excellent teaching and learning of writing can look like. Friendly and practical, this book is a reminder of the things that matter most. Part of the Five to Thrive series for early-career educators, Answers to Your Biggest Questions About Teaching Middle & High School ELA offers solutions for any teacher who wishes to refresh their practice. Questions and answers are organized into five areas that will help you thrive in your classroom: How do I build a brave, supportive reading and writing community? How do I cultivate motivation? How can I ensure that my feedback and assessment are efficient, effective, and equitable? What does strong ELA instruction look like? How can I keep doing this for my whole career? The authors, all practicing ELA educators, provide solutions to the most urgent challenges teachers face in providing student-centered and efficient instruction. With an emphasis on equity, culturally responsive practice, and intrinsic motivation, the book focuses on the wellbeing of both students and teachers. You’ll find accessible tips for immediate use woven throughout. Strive to be the best ELA educator you can; your students are counting on it!

"Because of its focus specifically on the needs of the secondary ELA classroom teacher (and students), this book in the Five to Thrive series takes a slightly different approach, focusing less on content and more on instructional philosophy and wellbeing. The five sections address some of the major shifts that have occurred over the past 5-10 years, specifically around engagement and motivation, equity and cultural relevance, building and sustaining community in the classroom, feedback and assessment, and teacher well-being. The authors each have strong voices on these topics, and their combined 40+ years in ELA classrooms - as well as the lessons learned during the pandemic year(s) - will help new and early career teachers to feel support in areas they may not have received pre-service instruction or practice in"--

Your guide to grow and learn as an ELA teacher! Gain in-the-moment solutions to the most urgent challenges early-career teachers face in providing student-centered and efficient ELA instruction.

"Answers to your Biggest Questions About Teaching Elementary Writing aims to help new teachers - or teachers who need a confidence boost - to understand the foundations of solid writing instruction. Melanie Meehan has led her school to adopt best practices in writing instruction, and has worked with many teachers in her district, in professional development settings, and in online workshops, and she knows the biggest challenges teachers face in writing instruction. This installment of the Five to Thrive series will provide answers to the most critical questions early-career teachers have about writing instruction, providing the MOST critical things a new teacher can do and know to have the most success in teaching writing, as well as next steps toward thriving as a writing teacher"--

Teach reading right with just-in-time expert advice! Whether you’re new to teaching reading or if you are a veteran whose goal is to focus on authentic reading instruction, this book is designed to be an on-the-desk companion, providing answers to your burning teaching questions at the moment you most need them. A lot has changed in reading instruction over the past decades, with old assumptions and tired curricula making way for both trusted and new best practices. Answers to Your Biggest Questions About Teaching Elementary Reading, written by a veteran teacher who’s an expert in literacy instruction, offers research-backed, classroom-tested guidance to set you on the right path. Through practical teaching strategies, classroom examples, actionable steps, further reading suggestions, and more, you’ll learn to Build and maintain an inclusive, equitable classroom reading community Structure, organize, and plan student-centered, responsive reading instruction Design and implement compassionate, effective assessment methods Engage and empower students to develop agency as readers You became a teacher to teach students—not curriculum. With this indispensable book by your side, you’ll develop practices that prioritize student well-being and success.

"Because of its focus specifically on the needs of the secondary ELA classroom teacher (and students), this book in the Five to Thrive series takes a slightly different approach, focusing less on content and more on instructional philosophy and wellbeing. The five sections address some of the major shifts that have occurred over the past 5-10 years, specifically around engagement and motivation, equity and cultural relevance, building and sustaining community in the classroom, feedback and assessment, and teacher well-being. The authors each have strong voices on these topics, and their combined 40+ years in ELA classrooms - as well as the lessons learned during the pandemic year(s) - will help new and early career teachers to feel support in areas they may not have received pre-service instruction or practice in"--

"This book will serve as the non-content area, general teaching methods book in the Five To Thrive series, which launches in the Fall of 2021 with Answers To Your Biggest Questions About Teaching Elementary Mathematics. It will follow the same general format: a presentation of 5 critical areas of general practice, with 10-15 questions answered in each section. Each question/answer will be featured on a 2-page spread. The five topic areas include: building an affirming classroom community; keeping students at the center; designing effective, fun, and engaging learning for students; making assessments work for you and your students; and "shh! uncovering the answers to what we often don't talk about," which includes work/life balance, asking for support from administrators, navigating difficult parent conversations"--

Ready-to-go English Language Development tasks that focus on students "doing the doing" of talking, reading, listening, and responding. In recent years, the percentage of English Language Learners (ELLs) has increased in almost every state, so most teachers are faced with the challenge of teaching literacy to students acquiring English alongside English-speaking students. However, in many integrated learning situations, English Language Development (ELD) instruction is strikingly different than the teaching we provide students whose first language is English. The Big Book of Tasks for English Language Development helps teachers meet that challenge head-on! Bestselling author and esteemed education consultant Nancy Akhavan shows that teaching multilingual learners requires changing our instruction to focus on practices that have high impact for students as they acquire language. Yet it’s not about doing more— it’s about doing smarter. It’s about having high expectations for all students and providing scaffolds to support students at all levels of English language proficiency as they learn and grow more confident. All the ready-to-go activities in the book Center on active tasks where students do the thinking, talking, reading, and writing, with appropriate support Activate the domains of language — listening, speaking, reading, and writing — and recognize that these do not develop at the same rate Honor the continuum of language development and build on what students can do Provide teaching tools such as learning targets, suggestions for when to use a task, basic instructions and "teacher talk" for launching a task, and "Watch Fors and Work-Arounds" Focus on the linguistic assets multilingual learners bring to the classroom and provide opportunities to help them collaborate with peers With Nancy Akhavan’s signature straightforward, teacher-friendly style, this book offers an uplifting reminder that with the right teaching strategies, educators can support multilingual learners to achieve their full potential and thrive in their learning journeys.