As a teacher, do you ever have that feeling of mild panic that you’ve gone in too high with a text? I certainly have. Oh, no, you think, the students are out of their depth here. Should I abandon this or persevere and hope we get through it somehow? You
The International Baccalaureate (IB) focuses on teaching the value of perspectives, ideas, and connections from around the world. Whether you’re new to the IB, an IB educator, or are familiar with another curriculum framework, you probably know that it’s a challenge to think about how to take a big idea
This blog post is a follow-up to a webinar I gave a few weeks ago. The webinar addressed this question: How do we avoid overwhelming our learners when we present them with new topics and information-rich texts and then ask them to discuss and analyze them in a meaningful way?
In this series of blog posts for primary teachers, Katherine Bilsborough, author of Imagine level 1, offers simple tips for easy ways to teach grammar, phonics, and reading. The best way for children to learn grammar is by first seeing and hearing examples in context, then getting opportunities to practice
As English language teachers and educators on the path of enrichment, we’re always on the lookout for new ideas and activities that we can incorporate into our classrooms to enrich our students’ learning experience. In the past, I would spend hours trawling my favorite ELT resource sites looking for that
What makes a confident English communicator? Is it always a student with a very advanced level of English? Not necessarily. I have worked with students who have a low intermediate level of English but who can communicate very effectively only using the English they know. On the other hand, I
A key factor in helping young learners progress in the writing skill is making sure they are involved in the evaluation of their writing. Here are the positives we can help them with: understanding standards recognizing what they have done well developing ability to judge their own work learning how
There is no doubt about the important role that parents and caregivers play in their children’s school lives. Researchers have been telling us this for decades but up until now it has been much easier for teachers to just “get on with it” and for families to “leave us to
Nonie K. Lesaux is the Juliana W. and William Foss Thompson Professor of Education and Society at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She leads a research program that focuses on promoting the language and literacy skills of today’s children and youth from diverse linguistic, cultural, and economic backgrounds. Nonie
Tackling challenging texts is an overwhelming task for most students, even for strong readers. Close reading is an effective instructional strategy to help students interact with complex texts and gain deeper understanding of them. Close reading could also empower students to become strong, independent readers of highly complex texts (Sisson