When teaching literacy—whether it be reading and writing or grammar and mechanics—detached exercises and single-focused instruction are not ideal methods to retain literacy skills. That’s because (spoiler alert) words are not mathematical concepts. We can memorize grammar terms and study vocabulary words until we are blue in the face, but this approach omits the very…
What is Digital and Media Literacy? According to Common Sense Media, an independent, nonprofit, researched-base website designed for parents and educators to keep kids safe and informed in a media-driven world, digital/media literacy is “the ability to effectively find, identify, evaluate, and use information” and “specifically applies to media from the internet, smartphones, video games,…
Dear Readers, This was not the blog post I intended to write. I’ve been working on a post about the Literacy Narrative for two weeks now. It is not a difficult thing to write about – literacy is my passion, and narrative-based learning is one of my favorite things to write about and share! And…
The most common feedback I give my students with their writing is: Be specific! That is always our goal, isn’t it? To compose with the 3 C’s: Clarity, Conciseness, and Coherence. So often, general statements muddy a composition, making it difficult to understand what claims are actually being made, and therefore impossible to distinguish the…
Do you consider bodily movements and exercise as part of your child’s academics? What about as part of your writing routine? I encourage you to. This is a great article that moves away from the idea of the brain being a “muscle” we should work out, as that usually encourages traditional “work” hunched over a…
I am resistant to making this strange time of isolation all about productivity and staying busy and pretending like things are anything but normal. They’re not. And that’s OK. It’s also OK to not feel creative, or to feel too overwhelmed to do much. And, if you are a student, or parent of a student,…