Making Curriculum Matter to Students
By Erin Nerlino February 1, 2023 Why do I need to know this?” “When will I ever need this again?” As a high school teacher, I regularly hear these questions from students. Sometimes their frequency makes them easy to dismiss as complaints, but buried within them are two important questions for teachers: (1) Does each […]
Start with Higher-Order Thinking
Susan M. Brookhart These three strategies can help you ensure that every lesson encourages students to think deeply. Memorizing facts is boring. Drill-and-practice is boring. But thinking, for most students most of the time, is actually fun. The good news is that lessons that support higher-order thinking are also likely to interest and engage students. […]
Starting Strong
Establishing the “what” and the “why” in the first 10–15 minutes pays high dividends. My high school biology teacher had a sign taped to her desk that read “Failure to plan on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine.” After becoming a teacher, I realized that when it came to lessons, failure to […]
Are We Motivating Students with Data?
Caitlin C. Farrell, Julie A. Marsh and Melanie Bertrand From “data chats” to “Data Fridays,” teachers are involving their students in looking at data. Does your approach increase student motivation—or decrease it? On one “Data Friday,” Ms. Mendoza tries to encourage healthy competition by displaying her 7th period’s performance on the most recent interim assessment […]