1. What Does ‘Career Readiness’ Look Like in Middle School?
“Not only are the jobs changing, but the very landscape they will have to navigate will be changing rapidly,” said Baker Wright, the former JFF program manager. “That’s what career training is about today, giving students skills that will make them more flexible and resilient as workers.”
2. The Reading Wars: Choice vs. Canon
“The day I arrive for the school-wide “Read-In” this past spring, teenagers and books are covering every available surface in Jarred Amato’s English classroom at Maplewood High School in Nashville, Tennessee—flung across lived-in couches, desks, and chairs. But there’s not a book one might traditionally identify as a “classic” in sight, and that’s by design.”
3. Why Normalizing Struggle Can Create a Better Math Experience for Kids
“It’s not uncommon for students to graduate from high school believing that every math problem can be solved in 30 seconds or less. And if they don’t know the answer, they’re just not a math person. This is a failure of education,” Finkel said.
4. What Doesn’t Work: Literacy Practices We Should Abandon
“From Reading Month in March to year-long reading incentive programs, it’s common practice in the U.S. to give students prizes such as stickers, bracelets, and fast food coupons for reading. What’s the problem?
Unless these prizes are directly related to reading (e.g., books), this practice actually makes students less likely to choose reading as an activity in the future (Marinak & Gambrell, 2008). It undermines reading motivation. Opportunities to interact with peers around books, teacher “book blessings,” special places to read, and many other strategies are much more likely to foster long-term reading motivation (Marinak & Gambrell, 2016).”
5. Is It Time to Detrack Math?
“In the past several years, schools and districts around the country, including ones in Cambridge, San Francisco, and Escondido, California, have eliminated math tracking, recognizing that the practice can create inequities between students, with significant ramifications as they progress through school.”
6. Concrete Ways To Help Students Self-Regulate And Prioritize Work
“There are a lot of skills necessary to succeed in school that aren’t directly about mastering content, including the ability to recognize, name and control one’s emotions. The school day often comes with lots of emotion, everything from elation to frustration, which makes it the perfect place to practice self-regulation.”
