Most Recommended Content

Learning Point Associates

What Are the Key Elements of Student Engagement?

As part of their series to help schools understand the federal No Child Left Behind Law, Learning Point Associates describes the four key elements of student engagement — student confidence, teacher involvement, relevant texts, and choice among texts and assigments.
Diverse book covers collage

Diverse Books Project

Kids need diverse books — places where they can find themselves, see reflections of themselves, and see worlds different from their own. Browse our collection of books and resources for families and schools.

Elaine K. McEwan

Provide Models, Examples and Nonexamples

Similar to expert craftsmen teaching their trades to apprentices, teachers can model thinking and problem-solving skills to their students. Read more about various classroom modeling techniques.

Male Latino teacher discussing assessment results with male Latino student

Literacy Assessment

Every school should do an initial screening to check on student reading skills at the beginning of each semester or school year. And every teacher should continue to check on students’ progress throughout the year, in order to see whether those kids need more ongoing support.

Jonathan Cook, Carol Kaffenberger

Solution Shop: A Solution-Focused Counseling and Study Skills Program for Middle Schools

“Solution Shop” is a counseling and study skills program designed to address the academic needs of struggling middle school students. In this program, the school counselor serves the critical role of developing and providing appropriate interventions, which range from individual and group counseling, study skills instruction, parent consultation, behavioral contracts, math and reading tutoring, and teacher meetings.

AdLit.org

Book Picks from AdLit.org’s Boys of Summer

We’ve added three new book reviewers for the summer — Nick (10th grade), Graham (7th), and Breece (4th), are sharing their summer reading choices each week and telling us exactly what they think.

Denise Ousley-Exum, PhD

From the Lunchroom to the Classroom: Authentic Assessment and the Brown Bag Exam

A Brown Bag Exam uses found objects and images to help students activate prior knowledge and creates a framework for students to express their understanding. Students work individually and in collaboration to create concrete connections between the reading and the Brown Bag items. Unlike traditional assessment, the Brown Bag Exam is an exam filled with conversation, idea exchange, and learning.

Elaine K. McEwan

Create Reading Accountability

Engaged, accountable reading requires students to interpret, and respond, often creatively. This article suggests several personalized ways to hold students accountable for their reading.

Elizabeth Moje, Nicole Tysvaer

Literacy Practices Interview

Literacy practices interviews are informal assessments that elicit information on students’ reading and writing activities, including their free-time reading habits, their access to books, and their attitudes toward reading and writing. Use the interviews in one-on-one or small, focus group-like settings.

David T. Conley

Components in a Comprehensive Definition of College Readiness

College readiness is a multi-faceted concept that includes factors both internal and external to the school environment. The model presented here emerges from a review of the literature and includes the skills and knowledge that can be most directly influenced by schools.

North Central Regional Educational Laboratory

Five Phases of Professional Development

Too often, teachers say that the professional development they receive provides limited application to their everyday world of teaching and learning. Here The North Central Regional Educational Laboratory shares a five-phase framework that can help create comprehensive, ongoing, and — most importantly — meaningful professional development.

Access Center

Teaching Writing to Diverse Student Populations

Writing is a complex operation requiring knowledge of text structure, syntax, vocabulary, and topic, and sensitivity to audience needs; so it is not surprising that many teens find writing challenging. This article identifies the qualities of strong writing instruction, and offers advice to teachers for incorporating writing instruction into their practice, using tools like notebooks and journals, and sharing strategies that reinforce the importance of pre-writing and revision.

Norma Mota–Altman

Academic Language: Everyone’s “Second” Language

Being able to speak English fluently does not guarantee that a student will be able to use language effectively in academic settings. Fluency must be combined with higher order thinking skills to create an “academic language,” which allows students to effectively present their ideas in a way that others will take seriously. The author, an ELL teacher, describes her use of “protocols” (a cheat sheet of sentence starters) to build students’ cognitive academic language proficiency.

Kathleen Bulloch

How to Adapt Your Teaching Strategies to Student Needs

Teachers are often asked to modify instruction to accommodate special needs students. In fact, all students will benefit from the following good teaching practices. The following article takes the mystery out of adapting materials and strategies for curriculum areas.

America's Promise Alliance

Engaging Parents to Support Academic Achievement

Academic achievement is a strong predictor of high school graduation and is critical to long-term success in college, work, and life. A sixth grader who fails math or English, has unsatisfactory behavior, or poor attendance has a 75% likelihood of dropping out. Freshmen in Chicago public schools who earn a B average or better have an 80% chance of finishing high school with at least a 3.0 GPA.

David T. Conley

What Schools and Students Can Do to Foster College Readiness

If schools and students understand college readiness in a more comprehensive way, they can do more to develop the full range of capabilities and skills needed to succeed in college. At the heart of this definition is the notion that those most interested in college success will change their behaviors based on the greater guidance the definition offers on how to be college ready.

Pathways to College Network

Social Support: An Essential Ingredient to College Success

Social support strategies that sustain the preparation and success of all students are critical to improving academic achievement, raising expectations, and increasing the college-going rates of underserved students.