If you listen to some critics, TLaC is a book with sixteen chapters on making kids stand in line and not much else. I always find that ironic. First because there is great honor in doing the thankless work of building a respectful positive and productive classroom environment, and that fact would be clear beyond any…
In my workshops I often like to tell stories about my home life and particularly my wife, Lisa, who is an incredible wife, mom, partner, etc. and who is so busy being those things that she hasn’t really had time to read any of my books. Bless her, she tries, but every time she starts to…
In this week’s video review meeting at TLaC Towers, we watched a strong teacher struggle through a common moment of teaching: She asked a series of thoughtful and demanding questions about a challenging text, but the result from her students wasn’t what she wanted. Precious few hands went up and silence descended. My colleague Dan Cotton…
We often ask students to cite evidence to support conclusions, especially in reading classes. But it struck us recently how many different ways students need to be able to use evidence. For example, sometimes you have to quote directly and sometimes you have to paraphrase; sometimes you get to give your conclusion and your evidence and…
Hi, Everyone- Revising Stretch It this morning and feeling a bit stale… not about Stretch It, I note. I still love the moment when a teacher makes a harder question the reward for a correct answer. But writing and revising has me a little tired and I’d love to rejuvenate both myself and my writing by…