Macbeth was the first Shakespeare play I ever taught, and it helped me appreciate how much fun your students can have while acting out a drama in the classroom.However, this experience also helped me understand what aspects of a Shakespearean drama frustrate students and teachers. For these reasons, I created an abridged and modified version of Macbeth. Every scene has been condensed. I have included the reading side-by-side with questions and activities to guide students through the play…

I'm always looking for poems my students haven't already read. And I'm also interested in poets and poems my students don't already know. Jamaal May's work fits these needs and interests. He is a living black poet whose work most of my students have never explored. He's also a deft writer whose writing leaves readers with room for inference. In the case of "Respiration," May builds a powerful motif and uses a small moment to explore much larger parts of the human experience. #ela #poetry…

Between the launch of a project-based learning unit and the final presentation, targeted instruction and feedback are crucial for student success.

Wait Time is a little trick all teachers need to learn and refine and it is a skill parents should be using at home too! Click to read more about why this strategy is so imporant and how it will help your children learn! #teachingstrategies #waittime #strategiesthatwork #processingtime #getkidsthinking #teachingalllearners #criticalthinking #criticalthinkingstrategies #getkidslearning #learningtips #teachingtips #parentingstrategies #parentingtip #teachingathome #learningathome…

Sitting quietly and reading a textbook can make even the most devoted student's mind wander. Instead, use these project based learning ideas to design lessons that excite and involve even the most inattentive learners.

How do you keep students on task during group work? Check out these classroom-test strategies from Jackie in Room 213.

Terrific blog entry! Learning stations are perfect for the secondary classroom.

Make your weekly lesson plans easy with this FREE lesson plans template. It's easy to use and organize for a smooth free week!

Standards Based Teaching and Assessment Teacher PD Series➤Standards Based Teaching, Standards Based Assessments, RtI, Enrichment, Teacher Planning, Professional Development, Student Mastery of Content➤This is a quick reference guide for using STANDARDS to guided your teaching and assessment. This w...

Need to mix it up in your classroom? Read this list of differentiated instruction strategies to help your students succeed in your classes.

Small group instruction is an important part of providing our students differentiated instruction. Create the perfect schedule that allows you time for math AND reading small group instruction! Stop asking yourself where all the time went, by creating a new schedule today!

Mobile devices have become an important part of our daily lives and, because of our familiarity with the technology, present a terrific opportunity to enhance learning and development. But to incorporate mobile technology into training, we must first fully understand what mobile learning (m-learning) is, and then identify the movement, adoption, and implementation of m-learning as a learning strategy.In this issue of TD at Work, you will learn about: • the varying definitions of m-learning…

Vygotsky believed teaching's purpose was to develop new knowledge, scaffolding through the ZPD is integral in supporting this learning.

Writing Essential Questions for your units may seem like a new concept, but it's the most important engagement strategy that we can harness as middle school teachers and high school teachers. A unit shaped and inspired by an essential question drives students inquiry and encourages student centered lesson planning. Here is advice for lesson and unit planning.

Activities that were once hands-on are now digital with three possibilities for collaboration: small group lessons, partner work, or peer review.

BCQ is a prereading strategy that makes the prereading process visible to readers. This minilesson will provide your readers with the tools they need to actively engage in prereading. Readers need tools to use before reading to get familiar with a new book. Check out this BCQ Prereading Strategy Minilesson.