I know that some great teachers in the world don’t give an ounce homework, and I’ve heard good reasons for that. Here are the reasons why I do give my ninth-grade students homework on a regular basis: First, homework is an opportunity. I want the Stuart children to have opportunities to learn beyond the school day, […]
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Burning Questions of the Year
In the 2016-2017 school year, I noticed a problem: the singleton articles of the week that I was using were not producing the degree of knowledge-building that I wanted. Like Kelly Gallagher, who created the article of the week assignment (in this post, I explain my journey with Gallagher’s assignment in-depth), my goal with articles […]
When Current Events Remain the Job of Single Departments, Kids Won’t Graduate Understanding the World Well
If current events are only being studied and discussed in one class during the school day — say, in your school’s English classes, where you’re having kids read and respond to an Article of the Week a la Kelly Gallagher; or it’s in your high school’s Current Events elective — then kids won’t graduate as smart about […]
Latin Word Chunks: A Case Study in Smart, Low-Stress Knowledge-Building
If you’ve bought into the idea that knowledge matters — that people can’t really think critically or read well or even learn things without knowing stuff — then you’re where I am. The whole skills vs. knowledge debate is a distraction built on a false premise. So now what? I’ve been wrestling with the Now what? for a lot of the summer. Knowledge-building has a chapter in […]
Drafts of Learning
Over the summer, my Advanced Placement World History students are assigned to learn a set of dates and what those dates mean. That assignment has evolved (and simplified) with each year I’ve given it, but it’s purpose is always the same: I want my students to have an initial, very rough draft of world history […]