Yesterday, I wrote an obituary to close reading. This grew out of a delightful professional development session I led with a group of teachers in Louisville, KY. (It was delightful, mind you, because of the audience, not the presenter!) During the training, in which we worked through the non-freaked out approach to Common Core literacy, it hit me: the […]
An Obituary for Close Reading
Close reading, one of the most ubiquitous terms of the Common Core literacy era, passed away yesterday evening. Ironically, its death is mourned by the very teachers (myself included), administrators, coaches, consultants, and authors who killed it through overuse. In its final hours, close reading lay on its deathbed and reflected on its meteoric rise to stardom and similarly rapid decline […]
I’m Creating a New eBook. Tell me which you’d like to read
While the summer sun shines and my students are on break, I’m going lurk in local coffee shops and write another ebook to help you fight the Common Core freakout and pursue the long-term flourishing of your students. Before I go all-in on a book idea, however, I want your feedback on what to create. […]
PVLEGS: A Public Speaking Acronym that Transforms Students
Before I start lathering at the mouth about PVLEGS, let me just state plainly that this acronym for effective speaking was developed by Erik Palmer, a professional speaker/edu-consultant/former-teacher and the author of Well Spoken, Digitally Speaking, and Teaching the Core Skills of Listening and Speaking. To my knowledge, Erik is doing the. best. work. around teaching kids to […]
Jim Burke’s Common Core Companion series — Here’s Why It’s Awesome
I respect Jim Burke a lot. Here’s why: He’s a prolific author of helpful books for teachers, and, get this: he still teaches; He’s a co-author on the high school edition of They Say/I Say (I partially explain my obsession with this book here, here, and here); In addition to a sharp mind, I sense that […]