By the end of the first day of school, I need index cards with each of my students’ names on them. I’ll use these to randomly call on students throughout the year during Think-Pair-Shares, doing everything in my power to ensure that every student speaks, every day, and I’ll use them as a quick seating chart […]
Instruction
A First Day of School Activity That Teaches Argument, Which Teaches Thinking (Updated)
On the first day of school, I tell my students that one of the central threads of academia, and clear thinking in general, is argument. Now: guess what pops into their heads when they hear that word? Let’s just put it this way — it’s not exactly the image I want them leaving my class with on […]
Can Pop-Up Debate Produce Grit in Students?
With little more than one day left on the voting for my Character Lab project (update: voting has ended!), I thought it would be worth sharing with you exactly what I’m hoping to research next year with pop-up debate and grit. So let me show you the actual application that happened to be chosen as one of […]
What are the Keystone Habits for Success?
In my last post, I introduced the concept of keystone habits and invited you, dear Teaching the Core family, to weigh in on what you suspect are the answers to these questions: What are the keystone habits for success in school? How about for specific areas of literacy skill, like reading, writing, speaking, and listening? Which habits are most […]
Keystone Habits: Unlocking Success for our Students and Ourselves
Charles Duhigg is a champion writer. Through years of deliberate practice, he’s attained a level of excellence that makes the Pulitzer Prize and the New York Times bestseller list possible. In his book The Power of Habit, you begin to see how Duhigg reached this level of success. Yet, more importantly, you see how we can teach our […]
