For me, this has meant:

• My county adopted a new scripted curriculum with new standardized assessments.
• I have more teacher professional development that’s required.
• We have a new screener for literacy. If students show increased risk on the screener, we develop reading plans for students which are visible to parents. These students require 2.5 hours/week of intervention which includes biweekly progress monitoring.

As you can imagine, this is an increase in workload for everyone, but it weighs more heavily on some than others. For instance, there are significant differences in the number of students who require this intensive intervention across grade levels.

I have already completed LETRS, a common professional development program related to the science of reading, so I got a few hours cut off of my professional development required for this year. My reading specialist is handling most of my data entry for progress monitoring since she has the availability in her schedule to support me, but I know other reading specialists at other schools, especially Title I schools, that could not possibly monitor all the students.

I know I am not the only educator dealing with my particular changes. Different schools and districts across states all had different starting points. There are so many pieces that are affecting different states, districts, schools, classrooms, and teachers differently. These multiple factors could make changes more or less exciting, nerve wracking, anxiety producing, and so on.

I know for my situation personally, the biggest change this year was a new language arts curriculum. Next year, there will be a new math curriculum, too! These shifts happen on cycles all around the country, but I’m sharing some of these strategies with the knowledge that these may be bigger shifts than ever due to changes in legislation and more parental input on what we should or should not be teaching.

I am not going to delve into the pros and cons of particular curriculums or my personal understanding of the science of reading. My hope is that some of these ideas help you regardless of your frustrations, belief systems, or situation. Most of the country is undergoing some kind of curriculum upheaval, so we need to cope with these changes moving forward.

4 strategies I’m using to adjust to the curriculum changes I’ve faced this year

1. Focus on radical acceptance

Angela Watson has talked frequently on the idea of radical acceptance. Notably, she shares in episode 176 of Truth for Teachers how radical acceptance is tied into her book, Awakened: Change Your Mindset to Transform Your Teaching.

She also shared recently how radical acceptance and the phrase “we’ll see” can help us move forward into 2025 in episode 316 of Truth for Teachers.

When faced with these massive (and honestly, every change I’ve encountered even when it’s small has a cascading effect that feels massive) changes, the first reaction is likely not radical acceptance. The first reaction might be disbelief and wonder if it’s actually happening!

Then, we might think about what’s actually changing vs. what is not. We might be given vastly different information at different times. School leadership may be in the dark about certain changes and what’s actually coming, so there is only so much to know.

The reaction of radical acceptance is not going to come naturally. It is going to require our intentional focus. A few phrases I’ve told myself throughout the process include the following. Many are questions because I’ve needed to allow myself to ask questions in order to stay open to possibilities.

For example, I ask myself, “Why am I upset right now? What’s the real issue here?” When we looked at the first unit assessment, I was so annoyed by so many things, but it helped to dive deeper into what was bothering me the MOST. What could I ask for that would make me feel better vs. just saying this sucks?

Other helpful framings:

• I have the background knowledge to tackle this new curriculum.
• I will look for the positive and focus on the parts I like.
• I will allow myself to try the parts I don’t like so I know for sure what I need to change/advocate for.
• I can do hard things.
• I will make the time for fun even when it looks like I can’t.
• What CAN I do? (vs. What am I being told I CAN’T?).
• What will be the most similar to what I’ve already been doing?
• How does this align with my belief systems? (It was very easy to know what didn’t align!)
• Things might change. (and they have! We cut entire units and were given more buffer days, they added audio for student assessments, etc.)
• This is happening. It’s here.

2. Find the flexibility

The biggest shift for me personally has been moving from creating a lot of my own writing projects, selecting books to read aloud, creating my own book clubs, and having quite a bit of autonomy in my classroom, to having these projects and books all dictated for me. I am told which day I’m teaching what in this program. Everyone on a grade-level team is expected to be very tightly in sync.

It could not be more opposite from my first year of teaching. When I started, I had standards which were printed out in a binder, and I created everything myself. I designed entire units around standards. I was the only one who taught my particular content area, so I designed it, taught it, and assessed it all myself. I loved it! I loved the creative aspect of teaching. I love lesson planning – or even better, unit and project planning.

At my training for this curriculum, I was told I would not do lesson planning; I would only ever do lesson prep. This made me cringe! I felt my whole body shift because I was thinking, “You are going to destroy my creative spirit!” I believe the intention was to help teachers feel like they would have less to do and less to think about, but I didn’t want to be a mindless teacher!

This year, the manual told me to pick one read-aloud book on ONE day in the opening unit. I managed to pick a few more over the first several weeks of school, such as Halloween read-alouds and picture books about classroom community and kindness. It wasn’t easy to fit these into my day.

My curriculum started on day 1, as in the very first day of school. Absolutely nothing can interrupt my language arts block now. For example, speech IEP hours happen during math, and social emotional learning has to happen during science and social studies. I had to decide what parts of my lesson could be shortened or condensed in order to make time for these read alouds that I personally felt would add to my classroom community.

My teammate and I ended up searching for crossover between projects we loved doing before and projects that were part of this new curriculum. For instance, in the past, we had students research an animal and create a nonfiction book on a program called Wixie. This year, our first unit was all about habitats. Students were supposed to research one animal in one type of habitat. We opened up the requirements a little bit, shortened our list of expectations to align to the timeline of the unit, and still had students complete the project on Wixie.

The manual was expecting students to just write an essay on paper. We found more engagement and excitement for the writing project by having one paragraph per page in their online book. They were also able to add photos and images of the animal on the computer. We used the rubric from the manual to assess students, and we covered the same standards.

The overlap completely made sense. We as teachers were happy because it felt familiar to what we had done in years past. Students were happy because it gave them more creative freedom, and their finished projects looked fun and professional. No one criticized this choice because we met all the requirements of the curriculum.

This alignment between what we were doing before and what was required now really helped us. In future units, there might not have been an overlap, but we considered: what would make this feel like a final product? How might they illustrate this? How can we make it feel more fun? We found the flexibility where we could.

3. Search for engaging moments

Every morning, my first 1.5 hours are all whole-group language arts instruction. This is a long time to keep my 2nd graders engaged.

When I look at a lesson, one lens I put on is to specifically search for engaging moments. I want to look for the moments of turn and talk (some days more are built in than others) and consider when I might want to have students talk more.

• Instead of merely turn and talk, could I have them get up and find a quick partner? WIll there be a series of mini-conversations so they could find different partners and be up out of their seats?
• If they are writing several spelling words in a row, could I make it a game where they stand back to back with a partner and show one another their word to see if they spelled it the same way?
• Is there a manipulative we could use to mix it up?
• Could we stand for this activity?
• Could we move around the classroom to read with a buddy?

These are minor tweaks that do not require me to change the lesson plan or the standards taught or anything like that. I am just adding an element or swapping out a teaching tool or method.

When I am able to search for these engaging moments and adjust, students are so much happier! When I’ve tweaked a lesson to add more movement or turned something into a game, we have all had a better day for it. It has allowed me to find joy in lessons that otherwise could have been a source of anxiety or disappointment.

One concern that I and many other teachers I know had was that the anxiety of this new curriculum, the intense schedules, and the scripted structure would all get in the way of relationship building with students. At the start of the year, I (and others I know) felt that our classroom management suffered because we were so focused on figuring this all out that we couldn’t be as present in the room. These moments of fun engagement are what helped me feel present in the classroom.

4. Prioritize your time and set limits

Whenever there is a big shift in curriculum, pacing guides, standards, and so on, we as teachers want to become experts in it. The teachers I’ve seen struggle the most with this curriculum shift at my school were not new teachers but veteran teachers. Some of the most experienced teachers have had difficulty changing.

I do not believe this is because they are resistant to change. That would be an easy blame game. It’s not because they don’t want to do what’s best for students; it is the exact opposite. They are competent and caring and want to maintain excellent standards of their own instruction.

No one is going to give you the endless time you could spend perfecting the craft of this new curriculum. If you are a veteran teacher, take advantage of the fact that you have a lot of experience. You can jump in and probably do fine. It will not be up to your standards. It will not be the “best” you could do.

I have shared before about the trap of doing your best. Angela expounded on this in episode 271 of the Truth for Teacher podcast, “What could be possible if you aimed for B+ work?” I heard a speaker once say, “C’s get degrees” in response to the intensity surrounding academia. C’s are passing. When we are starting something new, we will not be A students, especially not right away. If we are protecting our sanity and our planning time, we will have to figure out how to do what’s necessary and be willing to learn from our mistakes.

When we first started with this curriculum, it seemed as if there was no possible way to teach a day’s worth of lessons in the time we had (and we had more time dedicated to language arts in our schedules!). Let go of the anxiety of being “behind” by skimming manuals/lessons/pacing guides for what’s important and prioritizing how to condense lessons.

One thing that was important in our understanding at my school was checking which skills were expected to be mastered within a unit, which skills were assessed, and which were only introduced. Look for connections between lessons and try to merge what you can to save time. Set limits around your planning so that you are prepared enough to move forward. It is not about doing the best you possibly can; it is about doing what you can.

One of my favorite sayings from the 40 Hour Teacher Workweek is “Relax your expectations to a level no one will notice but you.” When there is a curriculum overhaul, take heart that no one knows exactly what a “great job” is going to look like! Everyone is just trying. Set your standards to a level that shows you are personally making progress. It’s about moving forward and learning.

Finally, on a personal note, this whole school year I’ve been pregnant with twins. I have been trying to do a great job with this new curriculum. I do love to excel at my job. I enjoy mastering the art of teaching. I am also especially passionate about language arts. I have not been able to do everything to my standards.

When someone offered to help, I tried to think about what I could have them do. This new curriculum required a ton of copies, so twice I had a middle schooler who needed service hours make my copies for the next 3 weeks. It took them almost 1 1/2 hours, and I was able to just sit there in the workroom and do other things. I was just there if the copier broke or they needed help.

Sometimes things that seem like more work end up helping you (such as coordinating schedules for volunteers). I had a college student come observe me for a couple of weeks right before the holidays. It was a crazy time of year, but she helped me by pulling a few students to support them, organizing some papers, and just physically walking around to monitor when that was getting hard for me. She got a great experience out of it, and I benefited from the support.

These opportunities might have felt like more work initially, but I was so happy that I embraced them and made it work for me.

Months into the school year, I felt like I was finally adjusting. I have found that the teachers who were able to handle these changes and adapt the best have accepted the reality of the change the fastest. The aspects that I handled the best were the aspects that I accepted more readily. Being able to problem solve and adapt first requires a level of acceptance, and then we can move forward.

When I’m able to try new things and take a little time to reflect on what’s working and what’s still frustrating, that at least allows me to go to school and district leadership with solutions and ideas, and a better attitude.

This is a transitional time for teaching reading, and we can make powerful changes for students. I understand the frustration of change — especially when you were seeing success in your own teaching practices before — but if you want to last through the changes and feel joy in your classroom, it’s not too late. You can adjust. You can learn. You can do hard things.

The post 4 strategies for adjusting to new curriculum and assessment methods appeared first on Truth For Teachers.

Sandra comes into the classroom before you can step outside to greet her, and she immediately starts telling you all about her weekend as she hangs up her backpack. Jordan, who you wish would talk to you a little, walks in sullenly and sulks at their desk with their backpack still on. You try to finish listening to Sandra but are relieved when Meg comes in and can continue the conversation. You walk over to Jordan to ask, “How’s your day going? Do you want to talk about anything?” You hear, rather than see, Dan and Jack come into the room literally bounding on all fours and neighing like horses.

Instead of getting to the root problem of Jordan’s morning, you take Dan and Jack outside to be able to discuss the appropriate way to enter a classroom and let them try again. Brody says something rude to his brother before entering the room and immediately sinks into the bean bag, and you have no idea what transpired between them in the morning. You are torn between greeting students at the door (like you’re supposed to because greeting kids can reduce behaviors throughout the day) or helping Brody right now so that he doesn’t have an outburst later (which you’ve experienced and know is likely).

Many other students walk in nicely and chat with friends as they get ready, but you hardly notice as you try to solve emotional problems that started before your school day even began.

You manage to get everyone ready to learn and start the day with a good morning meeting. The next couple of hours pass by alright with typical, minor problems. When you pick students up from lunch, however, there are a whole host of other issues. Someone didn’t listen to the monitor and stood on their chair. Someone else threw the corn out of their salad and all over someone else’s lunch in their haste and disgust.

You convene the class to discuss, yet again, appropriate lunchroom behavior; everyone seems to understand and agree with you. You purposely take a brain break before the social studies lesson, but students are calling out before you can get to the main idea. Someone is blocking someone else on the carpet; someone else brought a pencil and is jabbing a classmate and calling it an accident.

By the end of the day, students are wired and wild and can’t listen to your read-aloud which you painstakingly chose to be interesting. You manage to share highlights of the day in a closing circle for the last five minutes before the bell. Then, students are trying to entertain themselves for another 15 minutes as you wait for the final buses to come since runs take so long due to bus driver shortages. You’re spent as they leave, but they literally run down the hallway as a patrol tells them to walk.

It seems like no matter how many strategies you implement, how much time you allow for brain breaks and meditation, how many fidgets you allow, how many times you email parents, how much you discuss in class meetings how to meet expectations, and how much energy you put into solutions … it’s never enough.

I hear you. The scenarios listed above are not imaginary. While I changed names and minor details, this is my teaching life as a 2nd-grade teacher. Some days, I am truly exhausted by students. It does seem at moments (or even for a week or two at a time) that nothing I’m doing is making a difference in student behavior.

In the grand scheme of a year, though, I do see improvements or changes in behavior. I can sense what helps me on my best days. My great days are not free of challenging behaviors; no day as a teacher has zero interruptions, zero need for redirection, zero conflict between students. I think teachers have been saying for years that students are more active, seem to have undiagnosed or diagnosed ADD/ADHD, have difficulty focusing, are emotionally dysregulated, and struggle to calm down and readjust. This is a problem that’s facing teachers as a whole, but here are the ideas that seem to be helping me the most.

I would encourage you to approach these solutions with the Swiss Cheese Model in mind that Angela discusses here. These solutions are not one-size-fits-all, one-and-done, checklist-type strategies. You will need more than one solution to a problem, and you’ll need to layer those solutions. It’s important to have multiple strategies for each problem so that you can move on to a new solution when one stops being as effective. Layering solutions allow you to swap out strategies throughout the year.

The Swiss Cheese Model: Letting go of “all or nothing” thinking

One thing I have noticed about students with increased frequencies of behaviors is that they need different things throughout the different seasons of the school year. Sometimes, just specific praise works. Other times, an intense behavior plan is needed. Then, when that behavior plan feels too stale, it’s time to shake things up with a different plan.

I’m listing multiple solutions to common struggles in the classroom with the idea that you can do more than one strategy when needed. If the behavior increases, add another strategy and/or double down on what you were doing a month ago but had lessened. This list can serve as a set of reminders of strategies you probably already know and therefore you can draw from this for ideas to implement when you get worn down by the ongoing issues in your classroom.

Try something different, and you’ll feel like you are taking action which is a powerful motivator in and of itself. You’re in control of the strategies you choose to use, and you can make a difference.

Here are the 10 issues I’m discussing in case you want to jump down to one that stands out to you.

1. Calling out
2. Fidgety bodies
3. Emotional regulation
4. Focused attention
5. Following directions and creating consistent habits
6. A few students pull your attention away or are constantly seeking connections
7. Other students are frustrated
8. Need more space and activity
9. Impact is from home
10. You’re personally overburdened

1. Problem: Calling out

Strategies: Take a Break, Buddy Classroom Break, Reteach/Clarify Procedures, Repeat Procedure

• Reteach procedures: At the beginning of the year, you will teach procedures such as raising your hand. If you skipped explicitly telling students when they need to raise their hand vs. when they are allowed to call out, take the time to do that. One of the most confusing things for students is when you are (probably unintentionally) confusing in your expectations. If you’re validating responses when some students are calling out and then getting upset when other students call out, you are not clear in your expectations. Likewise, if you are sometimes encouraging students to shout out answers and just share openly without raising hands but then other times you are telling them they should always raise their hands, that’s frustrating. Take the time to get clear on when you want students to just call out. Is there a particular activity? Can you point to the class with open hands to show them it’s their turn? Can you explicitly say “you can call out ideas” for certain times you’ll accept those responses? Will you accept calling out in a small group only?
• Repeat procedure: When a student calls out, immediately respond, “What do you do when you have something to share?” or “Show me what it looks like when you want to share.” If expectations are clear, they will say “raise my hand” or they will actively raise their hand. You can tell them to “try again.” Then have them raise their hand, call on them, and then validate their response. In this way, you are re-training their body and mind to follow the procedure. If you keep this up, you should not have to repeat it frequently.
• Take a break is a Responsive Classroom practice. I have found Responsive Classroom to be extremely helpful. I send kids on Take a Break as a response to calling out or being disruptive. At the beginning of the year, I read aloud the book, “When Sophie Gets Angry, Really, Really Angry” and explain how Sophie is able to calm down when she focuses on nature and gets away from the upsetting scene. While students can’t climb a tree and hide, they can find a comfy spot in the classroom (I have a bouncy ball and a child-size beach chair) and practice breathing techniques. I have other tools in my take-a-break spot: a whiteboard to write down their feelings and wipe away because feelings come and go, a stress ball, a glitter wand that can act as a timer. I explain how to use these tools. We also learn about the different parts of the brain. We can get upset and not be able to be as focused in the decision-making center of our brain at the front which is like being the driver of a car. You want to be the driver of your own car. I explain that when you’re making a choice that’s showing you’re distracted or you’re distracting others, you need to take a break to get back in the driver’s seat. Later in the year, I often just have to look at a kid and they tell me, “I’ll go take a break.” You can read more from Responsive Classroom about this system here.
• Buddy classroom break: Similar to taking a break in the classroom, students can also take a break in a buddy teacher’s room. If you have a teacher who’s next door whether they teach the same grade as you or not, try to build a system between you where if you need a break from a student, they can go take a break in the other teacher’s room. Similarly, you can be a safe space for a student who needs to take a break in your room. Often, students do not want to take a break in another classroom. I’ve had students really struggle with accepting the consequence of behavior to go to another room. I persist in this agreed-upon consequence and follow through, and it truly helps prevent repeat behaviors in the classroom. It also gives me a chance to clear my head while they are away so that I can appropriately discuss behavior with them later. If you have never tried this, I would highly recommend it. Here is an article about Buddy Teachers to learn more.

2. Problem: Fidgety bodies

Strategies: Chair Bands, Take a Break, Calm Strips or Velcro Dots, Weighted lap bands, Chair Push Up, Chair Pull Up, Wall Push Ups, Hallway Break, Brain Breaks, Classroom Jobs, Classroom Games

• Take a break: There are several logical consequences you choose in response to behavior, but taking a break is useful for many of the typical disruptions to “classroom management.” If a student is talking when they are not supposed to be, distracted and not focused, doing a preferred task over the expected activity, take a break is a great strategy. See problem #1 for more explanation.
• Classroom jobs: I love my classroom job system. I had always used a job system, but this was one thing the 40 Hour Teacher Workweek Club helped me improve. I keep jobs for a month or two at a time and students apply for them, so it works really well to have an active job that a student is motivated to do. Some of my favorite jobs to assign my active students are:
  • Bouncer — student answers the phone for me, answers the door, closes the door as needed, turns on/off lights
  • Messenger — student is a buddy to go to the clinic, take something to the office, etc.
  • Paper Passer — passes out papers
  • Recycling/Trash — they walk around with a recycling bin whenever we cut things up
  • Manipulatives Manager/Supplies Manager — passes out calculators, math manipulatives such as counters or base ten blocks, individual whiteboards, etc.
• Chair bands: These are like exercise bands that get wrapped around the front two legs of a chair. Students can push on the band. They can break eventually, but they last a long time.
• Calm strips/velcro: Calm Strips are a brand name tool that is a piece of tape with texture so it has some resistance as you rub it. I have found strips of velcro to be very effective stuck to desks. They are cheaper and even tend to last longer.
• Weighted lap bands or weighted stuffed animals: This can be used in conjunction with a take-a-break spot. For some students, this can be an effective tool to have a weighted item to calm their body and give them a sensory outlet.
• Chair push-up: You can teach students how to get out some excess energy by pushing their hands down on either side of their legs and lifting up their body.
• Chair pull-up: Students push themselves down as the sit at the same time as they pull up on the sides of their chair. I find this one better for frustration than the push-up. Students can alternate push-ups and pull-ups on their chairs with deep breaths.
• Hallway break: I will allow a student to take a break in the hallway if they need an alternative spot to take-a-break spot in the classroom and don’t need the consequence of a buddy classroom break. This can be helpful for stretching out legs or pacing. We used to have an area at my school that a counselor set up that had a little walking exercise for students to do. They had to type their name on a fake keyboard, follow the winding tape in circles, then jump, then do wall push-ups, then hop like a frog, etc. This really helped a few students I’ve had who needed to go take a break elsewhere. I could call the office to have someone take the student over for 5 minutes then return. This would need to be something that the school collectively prepares, but it could be a good solution to offer to administration.
• Wall push-up or wall sit: If a student is taking a hallway break, a good strategy is a wall push-up or wall sit. A wall push-up is where you lean against the wall and just do a standing push-up. A wall sit is where you start standing then slide your back down along the wall and put your feet out so that eventually your legs are at about a 90-degree angle or a little higher. This can help a student focus on their body and use up some energy — good if they have a tendency to want to punch or kick.

• Brain break: Consider building in more brain breaks throughout the day. I like to have one calm quiet independent brain break (I call this quiet time) and one active brain break where we are doing an exercise or dance. I think having these two types of brain breaks are helpful. Throughout COVID, I heavily relied on how-to drawing videos for brain breaks which were fun.
• Academic Games: Consider using classroom games to make learning more active. Here is an article I wrote for 24 classroom games that can make learning fun. These help break up longer class periods and long days with movement.

3. Problem: Emotional regulation

Strategies: Zones of Regulation, Yoga, Mindfulness, Special Place Boxes, Trauma-Informed Practices

• Zones of regulation: This is something that the counselor and social worker use at my school to help students choose strategies appropriate to their feelings. This framework can be helpful in talking through options with students and building their own self-awareness. I like to use this as a check-in for students about their feelings and readiness for learning. You can read more about this framework here: https://zonesofregulation.com/ Below is a short encapsulation of what I’ve found helpful.

• CASEL: Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning or CASEL has a lot of information on schoolwide implementation of SEL resources: https://casel.org/ They also offer a playbook to support morning meetings and other resources.
• Mindful schools: Many educators love using Mindful Schools and those resources. Here is their site: https://www.mindfulschools.org/ While their official trainings cost money, they have mindful moment videos for free as well as monthly community practices for free.

• Yoga4Classrooms: Here is their website: https://yoga4classrooms.com/ While they recommend their official training which costs money, one easy-to-use resource they offer are yoga activity cards which are specifically designed for use in a classroom setting. It’s only $29 for one set and you can use them right away with limited yoga experience. If you’re looking for a set of mindfulness and yoga activities that can be used in a classroom, these are a great option that I’ve used with lower and upper elementary.

• Special place boxes: When I taught 6th grade, I had students make special place boxes out of used Altoid tins. I collected a bunch of random craft supplies, pebbles, shells, thread, beads, different textured papers, and all sorts of tiny objects. I also printed some mindfulness strategies on cardstock that fit inside the box. Then, I let students decorate the outside with paper and hot glue objects onto it. I let them fit whatever tiny objects they wanted inside. I got this idea from a trauma-informed teaching seminar I went to as part of my professional development. Everyone in my class loved making these boxes and then they were a traveling calming corner for them. I told them to think about it as their special place and try to put things inside that would make them feel safe and loved. They carried them around in their pencil pouches and could use them anytime in any classroom. One student told me later that she used it a lot during online learning throughout COVID and it really helped her focus and feel better. That was over a year after I gave her the box!
• Trauma-informed practice: Often, students have difficulty regulating their emotions or understanding what an appropriate response would be to a situation or feeling because of trauma. Here is one article on the Truth for Teachers site that has more ideas specific to trauma-informed teaching.

4 trauma-informed approaches that help kids with ACEs (and benefit your entire class!)

4. Problem: Focused attention

Strategies: Timers, Stations, Small Group Teaching, Teach student habits

• Stations and small group teaching: I try to cut down on my whole group teaching as much as possible. The days I try to do more lessons and activities as a whole class are always my most exhausting days because I’m working to maintain the attention of the group as long as possible. As a goal, I keep mini-lessons to 10 minutes. I recommend a workshop model of teaching where you have students listening to a minilesson and spending the majority of a class period writing, reading, doing a science lab, practicing math skills, etc. I know it can feel like more work to plan different stations and activities for students to do, but keep in mind that you can repeat stations. Since the students are doing different activities on a daily basis, they can repeat those activities often. I have found it so much more efficient to teach in small groups than whole group because I’m able to adjust my pace in the moment with students.
• Independent work habits: It’s imperative that students have independent work habits in place so that they can reserve energy and teach in small groups and use station models in the classroom. Set goals with your class to be on a website without interruptions for 10 minutes, then 15 minutes, then 20 minutes depending on the age of your students. Then, practice doing worksheets as a whole class or everyone reading independently for 10 minutes without needing an interruption. Work towards the goal with small increments and let students know that you can introduce more free choice stations and games as they prove to you that they can handle independent work.

• Timers: It can help students focus if they know how long they need to focus. If you can clarify that everyone is going to be writing quietly for the next 15 minutes then they know how much they can get done in 15 minutes. You also can teach students your expectations for that amount of time (1 page of ______ or _____sentences or ______problems). You can project a timer on the board or you can use individual timers for students at desks with only those who most need the reminder.

5. Problem: Following directions and consistent habits

Strategies: Teacher Language, Redo Procedures, Echo Instructions, Write Down Instructions

• Teacher language: Another Responsive Classroom practice is using teacher language. This article has multiple specifics on different types of teacher language, and I’ve found it helpful. Teacher Language helps me know what to say when. When I want to reinforce a behavior, I say “I notice…” and give specific feedback. This ideally is 70% of your feedback to students throughout the day — noticing the positive. Personally, that’s a goal for me that I don’t think I’ll ever reach but it’s good to try! I use reminding language often; having go-to language such as “How do we..?” or “Show me how…” helps me stay calm and not say something I’ll regret out of frustration. I just remind the student of the expectations we have. Redirecting language is when you need to stop something. It helped me to distinguish between reminding language and redirecting language since I’m only redirecting when I need to immediately stop unsafe behavior. Now that these are part of my typical language, I think it makes me a much better teacher because students know what I will say in response to behavior which means my consistency is high which is so important with behavior management.
• Redo procedures: One of the most effective strategies I’ve found in my classroom is just the phrase “Try again.” If a student ran to get in line, I respond, “We walk in the classroom. Go back and try again.” If the whole class is too loud coming to the carpet for a read-aloud, I’ll say, “That was not an appropriate noise level. Everyone go back to their desks.” I’ll select a few students to model if needed, then I can even ask, “What did everyone notice?” and we can discuss the few things I’m looking for. Then, I ask everyone, “Let’s try again. Show me how to come to the carpet.” The more you do this and take the time to repeat procedures and try again, the fewer times you’ll have to do it. I have also found that trying again prevents some arguments or disagreements with me over unfair treatment (someone did the same thing yesterday and you didn’t say anything!) because my expectations are very clear even if I miss something every once in a while.
• Echo back instructions: While students should be listening to you, we know they do not always do that. It can help to have students echo back a specific direction such as where this paper gets placed, where to put something away, when it’s due, or what page they should be on. This way students who were not listening as intently will hear it loud and clear. Even if they ask you, you can ask them to think about what the class said out loud.
• Write down essential instructions: I have a section of my board at the front of the classroom where I write a summary of directions. This helps students know where to look. While it takes those students who struggle to know what to do several weeks to get into the habit of looking there, it does eventually help a lot. I finally start seeing all students look at the board when they get confused by the end of the first quarter, and I notice that I am answering far fewer questions about what to do next, what their options are, and so on. If you teach early readers, consider using visuals with the numbers 1 and 2 next to it so they know first I do this, then I do this.

6. Problem: A few students pull your attention away or are constantly seeking connection

Strategies: Positive Behavior Plan, Lunch Bunch, Mentor, Buddy Readers/Helpers

• Positive behavior plan for individuals: An individual behavior plan is good if you have 1-2 students that really require a ton of energy from you. The idea behind this is that you will set up an agreement between you and the student that if they meet ______ expectations then you will give them ____ reward. A couple of tips would be to ensure that the student knows exactly what you’re looking for and you have clear goals (not perfect student goals but manageable goals within the reach of this student), to have a motivating reward, and to start small. You can and should increase the goal as the student is meeting goals. The best ways I’ve found to track behavior plans are beads on a pipe cleaner or stickers on a chart. A special education teacher at your school may be able to help you create a plan or another classroom teacher who has used one successfully. I write more about how to create an individual behavior plan on my personal blog here if you are interested.
• Whole class behavior plan: If a decent handful of students are creating daily disruptions for you, then you can set a goal as a class with rewards built in. I’ve used beads on a pipe cleaner with the whole class before if there were just too many kids who needed constant attention and reminders from me. They get a bead each time I catch them doing something well. Then, whenever they get to 30 beads they can choose a prize (fancy sticker, fidget, bag of chips, whatever). Checklists on desks can be helpful to implement whole class. I used to see it as a bit of a failure when I tried one thing and it stopped working, but now I don’t. I just readjust and introduce a new strategy to the class. It helps to try a few different small things. The past few years I’ve used the game Kerplunk at the end of the year. Each time the class does great we pull a stick and when all the marbles fall, we draw a reward from a pile such as a virtual field trip or outdoor game or extra indoor recess. It is not something I’m interested in doing throughout the whole year, but for particularly busy seasons where it’s hard to focus, this type of motivation can be helpful.
• Lunch bunch: Often students really are seeking connection and attention. Having a lunch bunch can help. Let them invite a couple of friends and spend time with you in the classroom. I used to avoid this because I’m naturally introverted and need recharging time to myself, but I found that this was a good strategy even for me. It helped me have a positive relationship with a student outside of an academic setting and gave me energy instead of draining it.
• Mentor: If your school or community has a mentorship program, see if you can have parents, community members, and other teachers be mentors to students who need someone to talk to and require more interaction. There is only so much attention you can give an individual student, so see if there’s a structure set up where someone can come in. High school students might be a great option as mentors for elementary students.
• Buddy readers/helpers: I have had groups of students where I felt they needed interaction with others to develop certain skills. When older students buddy read with younger students, it actually is proven to help the older student even more than the younger student. The act of teaching how to read to a younger student can build confidence, fluency, and increase motivation and skills. I’ve had a buddy classroom a few times where we connected with another grade level. Older students would read with younger students in purposeful partnerships that I created with the other teacher. Both classes loved having a buddy. It also built excellent community school-wide because students recognized each other and students were able to interact with another teacher in a meaningful way. I’ve had a small group of students be reading buddies before. You might think it’s best to choose stronger older readers to support the younger students, but it really helps the older students, so choosing readers who actually need to work on their reading skills can be the best fit. One year with a difficult class I had them take turns supporting in a special education classroom with one teacher who knew those students. These 12-year-olds ended up practicing a lot of kindness and humility in that other space. They became more compassionate and loved helping in another classroom. It taught them skills that I could not just by talking to them about behavior.

7. Problem: Other students are frustrated

Strategies: Sharing Emotions, Quiet Times, Calm Classroom

• Empower students to share how it affects them: I let other students share how they feel when someone/a group of someone’s is not meeting expectations. I might share honestly that I feel frustrated right now when I can’t finish the lesson. Then, I might ask anyone if they would like to share an I feel … statement. I did not use to do this because it felt like I would just be blaming a student or shaming them,  but I think it was helpful for some students to understand the impact of their behavior on others. Try to model the “I feel…” statement in a calm voice for students to set the expectation that this is a productive sharing time and not a complaining time. “I feel [emotion ] when [description of action occurring]. While some particular students may wish that others made no noise at all or never touched them on accident, that’s unrealistic. There is, however, a range of control each child has, and they can work within their own range of control. I talk to kids 1-1 about that in behavior conferences, too.
• Quiet time: I have a 10-minute quiet time in my classroom every day. This is often midday after lunch or recess or specials classes depending on my schedule that year. Students can read, draw, play with play dough. It might double as a snack time or time to catch up on unfinished work depending on the time of day. It’s a choice time and if students can handle the freedom, then I allow them to move in the classroom to read in the library or sit somewhere else. This time is essential for me, too. It gives me a chance to check in with a student if needed, solve a peer conflict, input a couple grades, sort some papers, or check my email. I love this 10 minutes and have gotten so used to having it. Students also understand the idea of “quiet time” and can do it if I suddenly get called out of the classroom for a moment or my meeting goes long and the sub needed an extra activity.
• Calm classroom: There are many ways to create a Calm Classroom. Here is one article with some ideas you might find helpful. One of my favorite ways to infuse calm is by playing quiet music or using the site Noisli which plays different sounds such as fireplace or ocean waves.

8. Problem: Need more space and activity

Strategies: Get Outside, Brain Breaks, Flexible Seating/Standing

• Get outside: If there is a space on your school grounds to get outdoors, this is a great way for students to burn energy, express themselves, and learn about their world without you having to put as much energy towards anything. You will need to set up parameters, boundaries, and expectations, but once students are out, often the activity will be far more exciting and engaging than if it had been indoors. Some activities might include writing outdoors, monitoring plants, doing a mindful search for something (ex. living vs nonliving things), measuring objects, taking notes on the weather, growing plants, reading outside, observing forces such as push/pull, and so much more. Here is a Truth for Teachers article that talks more about teaching outdoors.
• Brain breaks: My second graders love YouTube videos that are indoor obstacle course runs. Coach Corey Martin is a favorite in my classroom, but there are tons of other videos. Go Noodle is a popular site with many dances. With older students, a 5-minute free choice time to just talk might be what they desire most. I like to share drawing videos from Art for Kids Hub which can be applicable to a wider range of ages. I previously mentioned the Yoga4Classrooms cards. I have found older students to be more engaged with the visualization exercises from that deck.
• Flexible seating/standing: Even in tight classrooms, there’s often some space available for students to sit in a different location (on a floor, bean bag, stool, fuzzy bathroom rug, etc.) or stand at a tall table. Flexible seating doesn’t have to be fancy; just having a different option other than a desk can be quite liberating for many students and offer movement.

9. Problem: Impact from home

Strategies: Communicating Needs to Parents

• Talking points: One point of frustration and difficulty can be communicating with parents. I have found the site Talking Points to be enormously helpful for students with home languages other than English. Here is their site https://talkingpts.org/ where you can create a free teacher account. This is a translation service that translates to 150+ languages. While not perfect, I’ve found it to be a pretty good translation. Families can communicate with the teacher by using a text feature on a phone or using the app. Sometimes we as educators don’t want to overburden parents who might already have a lot on their plate or aren’t sure how to communicate misbehavior in a way that builds rapport. This service can make it really easy to stay in communication with parents in a way that’s at their fingertips. It can truly help that family-school partnership stay strong.
• Sleep: Sometimes students are just tired even if they appear hyper. Ask students casually about when they go to sleep and when they get up. You can discuss their schedules and with older students you can even problem-solve together. Some parents may not be aware that their child isn’t getting the sleep they really need due to work schedules. Instead of jumping to criticism, start with curiosity. You might be able to educate parents on the importance of sleep and let them know that their child is tired and not doing well because of it.
• Screen time: While we as educators can’t dictate to parents what to do in their homes, we can provide resources to them and educate parents on the negative impact of screen time and the developing brain. Parents love their kids and want to make the best choices for them. As a teacher, I have used their digital citizenship curriculum to teach students about how to be a good digital citizen; these are age-appropriate lessons that are ready to use and can give students the strategies they need to set their own boundaries. They also have a parent toolkit for early childhood (ages 0-8) and a wealth of articles for all ages across topics such as screen time, cell phones, and social media. We do have some influence, and we can use that to support healthy habits.
• Social workers and other professionals: I know that different schools have varying amounts of access to counselors, school social workers, and school psychologists. The wellness team, as they call themselves at my school, can be an excellent support system for you and can help communicate. They might be able to have a lunch bunch with students, do a 6-week-long intervention and give you strategies to implement, come discuss some ideas with your whole class, or just be a listening ear and sounding board.

10. Problem: You’re personally overburdened

Strategies: Seek Support and Advocate for Yourself, Mindfulness, Give Yourself Credit, Positive Closing Meetings

• Get support: Advocate for yourself. If that means asking a counselor 5 times to talk to the same kid until they finally clear their schedule and make it happen, do that. If it means going to your administrator and asking them to observe something, come to a parent conference, or pay for a resource you really need, be ready to propose your solution to them and ask for what you need. If you still don’t get support where you are after asking directly and being solution-oriented, maybe it’s time to find other administrative support in a different school or district.
• Embrace resources provided/free resources: While I’ve listed several resources throughout this article, I recommend focusing on one framework vs. pulling from a million places. It can be overwhelming to go in too many different directions or get too many resources. Start with one website or framework that appeals to you and go from there. That one resource will likely give you a ton to work with. It may not make sense for you to try a particular program or resource because it requires training that you don’t have and can’t pay for or it requires more time than you can offer. Almost every paid program out there has some free resources associated with it. Use what you can and if you end up wanting the resources or professional development that requires more funding, you can look into scholarships and grants and ways to make that happen. If your school has already picked one particular program, lean into that and try to make it work. The resources are there for you and hopefully a support system of other people who are also trying it out.
• Positive closing meetings: I had been doing closing meetings intermittently in my classroom for years. I often liked to have a reflection question to discuss or a “highlight of the day.” My teammate did “peaks and pits” at closing meetings. A peak is something that went well and a pit is something you wish was better. I have also used “rose, thorn, and bud” where a rose is a positive thing that happened, a thorn is something that wasn’t good, and a bud is something you’re looking forward to. I used to do “thank you’s” in my class where I put one popcorn kernel in a jar for each example that someone could give for being helpful or kind or supportive that day. They could also notice a kind act that someone else did for another person. They could also point out that the whole class did well with an activity or transition throughout the day and I would put one popcorn kernel for each person in the class (ex. 27). These closing meetings are such a nice way to end the day as an elementary teacher. If I taught middle school, I might do them at the end of the week only. I am often surprised by students when they say they “have no pit” or “My peak is that we had a good day as a class.” My first reaction might be to think, “But you were so cranky this morning” or “The class was so loud in math!” Their interpretation is that the day was great and they literally can’t think of anything to complain about. Why can’t I take that interpretation to heart as well?! I can embrace that mindset. Even if I feel tired or a little annoyed about one part of our day, if everyone in the class is listing how positive their day was, I should take some credit for that. I helped our class function and flow. It’s important for us to end on a positive note; it personally gives me fuel for another day.
• Mindfulness: I mentioned mindful strategies for students, but you can also use mindfulness for yourself. In Angela’s new daily encouragement podcast she offers weekly mindful moments. There are lots of meditation and mindful moments online for free through YouTube. There are podcasts dedicated to this practice. Headspace and Calm are both apps that offer mindfulness and meditation strategies.

Finally, give yourself credit

I see posts on Facebook about how teachers are stressed out with the expectation for students to make a year’s growth in reading and math and how impossible that feels, yet these teachers who are saying they’re not doing enough are also saying in the same breath that most of their class DID make a year’s growth. So are you truly not doing enough? You are honestly succeeding. That is what success looks like.

Trying different strategies and adapting to student needs is a success. You made it through another year or another day with a group of students with hugely diverse needs, and you taught them so well that despite their challenges they learned a whole year’s worth of material. If you’re thinking that you wish you could have done more or you wish you could have done better at this one thing or many things. You are right. Of course, hypothetically you could have done more or done better at something, but in reality, it wasn’t possible.

You did what you could do. Look at what you DID. You are amazing. You have done enough, and you are enough.

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This is partly because of my own professional development around different classroom management philosophies, partly from my own mental adjustment in response to student misbehavior, and also partly from listening to the way other teachers and myself talk to students. I feel enormously blessed to work at the school I do, and I think teachers in general have the best interest of students at heart. There are phrases, however, that I’ve heard both uttered from myself and other teachers that have made me wince. It’s not that any of these phrases below are inherently bad, rude, or would only be said by a teacher who is out of touch. These are just phrases that have left me questioning after I’ve heard or said them.

As I turn these phrases over in my mind, I want to think about the impact of our language as teachers. There is a lot of gray area when it comes to things like jokes and sarcasm, but more and more, I think about how something might be misinterpreted or remembered in a way that doesn’t put me in a positive light. I don’t want that to be my legacy in a student’s mind. I want to leave behind a positive, professional impression. I also don’t know what my off-handed comment might lead a student to think, either positively — in that they never saw themselves as a writer or good at math — or negatively — in that now they think I don’t believe they are capable or happy.

For these reasons, the phrases below are ones I try to actively avoid. Below I will also offer the replacement phrases that I have tried to use in my interactions with students. I believe that this is a work in progress, not just professionally but personally for me. Our language should be flexible and mindful. One of the most uncomfortable things I’ve done is record myself teaching and watch it back, but it really helps me reflect on what I’m doing and what I’m saying. This is the power of reflection, and I hope that this article, even if you don’t agree with everything I say, helps you reflect on your own teacher language.

#1 You must say yes if someone asks you to play.

Replacement: Is it possible to include them? What is your choice: play the game with ____ or play a different game? Is there a reason you don’t want them to play (talk to the student off to the side)?

As an elementary school teacher, this phrase is actually an expectation within my school that has been stated by the assistant principal and counselor, and it has bugged me for a long time. The intention behind it is that no student is purposely excluded from a game or bullied. The way this is often phrased to students is: “What do you say when someone asks you to play?” “Yes!” I think it is important to make space for students in a game, teach them to compromise, and work out our differences; however, I have found that when students don’t want to play with someone, it might be for a reason that’s more complicated. This is a chance for problem solving which requires nuance and not merely a command: you must play. Here are some problems I’ve come across:

• They just spent 10 minutes sorting out groups and don’t want to renegotiate teams
• That person was mean to them the last time they joined
• The group is getting too big for the game to work effectively
• That person tends to cheat, and they are tired of dealing with it

In these instances, saying “yes” and letting the person join in does not solve the problem. Instead, maybe consider these solutions to talk through with students:

• Let’s discuss what’s important and not important. Since this is just a game at recess, anyone can join in anywhere, and it’s okay if the teams are not perfectly balanced.
• Share your feelings with an “I statement.” I feel worried that you will be mean to me when you play this game. Can you be nice? If you are not nice to us, I will not want to play with you and will leave the game.
• Can we split the group into 2 separate games? Is there another game we can play instead that’s better suited to a large group?
• If you don’t want to play with them, you can leave and play a different game.

I personally think it’s helpful to teach students that if they are mean, if they cheat, if they are physically rough, others will not want to play with you. That is a logical consequence. As an adult, I love to play board games, but if I pitch a fit over rules, try to cheat, or brag about winning, others will not want to play with me. As a result, I will not be invited to play at other people’s houses. Perhaps we should be more open with that information with one another. If my behavior is inappropriate, I should not expect others to just include me because I want to play.

This whole scenario of being forced to say yes just because someone else asks is also an issue of consent. There is mutual consent going on when people are playing together. I do not think that consent is something that can only be taught as students get older. In fact, the earlier we can teach the idea of consent, the easier it can be applied to situations where it is more harmful if not followed. If someone asks you to do something, do we want to teach students that you have to say yes? Is that the message we want to send?

I think I have been taught that I have to say yes to someone’s request if someone asks me nicely, but I now believe that I can say no, even when someone asks nicely. I think there is a difference between bullying and targeting someone, telling them no repeatedly, and just being able to tell someone no in an isolated instance. So many teachers (women) were trained as children (girls) to say yes and be helpful and include someone regardless of how it made them feel. I think forcing a “yes” out of someone is a consent issue, and it’s one we can address better.

#2 “Friends”, “Boys/Girls,” “Gentlemen/Ladies” for students

Replacement: Scholars, Writers, Mathematicians, Scientists, Readers, Students, [4th…] Graders, Everyone, Caring/Kind/etc Students

There are many names we use for “students” and “class.” I personally have always told students that they were not my friends. A friend is a dynamic where the two participants are equal. They do not have to be the same age, but a teacher/student dynamic is not equal. As a teacher, even when I feel powerless in the school system at large, I have power in my classroom and authority over students. I determine many things about our space and time together. Therefore, I do not call students “friend” or “buddy”.

While this is arguably more important when teaching older students, younger students also need that professional line to be drawn. I have noticed that teachers or adults who use “friends” to address students tend to be more personally affected by misbehavior and students and they tend to experience a lot of disrespect from students in small ways (calling out, talking back, etc.)

One trend that is fading out is naming student genders (boys/girls, gentlemen/ladies). This approach varies widely where some teachers feel it is respectful, some teachers feel it is harmful to our LGBTQ+ students, some parents are upset when it is said, some parents are upset when it is not said. When I moved grade levels to teach younger students, I often felt that they were more obsessed with gender and more vocal about it than older students. They see things in black and white and want to know if an ambiguous character or video persona is a boy or girl.

I do not think we need to reiterate gender separation with constant reminders that this is who you are – a boy or a girl. With our language, we can give students an identity. If a student is unsure of their gender identity, then I am reminding them of that all day long if I use gentlemen/ladies. If a student easily identifies as a girl but feels like they are different from other girls, we might be reminding them of that feeling all day long without knowing it. Instead of making students feel respected and included, we are likely alienating certain students.

However you feel about pronouns, one small shift you can make is to not use gender-specific naming for your whole class. According to the Trevor Project, “having at least one accepting adult can reduce the risk of a suicide attempt among LGBTQ young people by 40 percent.” We as teachers are constantly informing the identity of students and their role socially. I believe this gender-neutral language is important at all levels of education. You can read more about LGBTQ-Inclusive and Supportive Teaching Practices here. 

#3 Sit down. Be quiet. 

Replacement: Show me how we listen to our classmates. How can you show respect to your classmates? What are the options for sitting on the carpet? Think about what you need to start class. Show me how to sit at your desk. What are the expectations for ____?

When we redirect behavior, we do not want to get into a power struggle or debate over our choices as educators. Since we do not want to linger and have to explain a myriad of reasons why a student should just be following the rules, we can clip our language to statements such as “sit down” or “be quiet.” I have heard these words come out of my own mouth when I was frustrated, but I did not like the way it made me feel even if everyone started behaving afterwards.

I’ve been trained in Responsive Classroom which is a classroom management philosophy. The teacher language I’ve learned through that course and their books has revolutionized my practice, and it’s something I continually try to improve. There are 3 types of teacher language: Reinforcing, Reminding, and Redirecting. Reinforcing language is positive, and I’ll talk about that next. Reminding language is a chance for you to help students adjust their own behavior. This is the difference between telling a student what to do and helping them recall a procedure they’ve already been taught.

Phrases such as “Show me…”, “What did we…”, “How can we…”, and “Think about…” are great sentence starters. I will force myself to just say “Show me…” and try to finish the sentence with an expectation so that I’m training myself to not just tell students what to do but help them be more successful in the long term by thinking about the consequences of their actions and how to participate in the classroom more fully. If you’d like to learn more, The Power of Our Words by Paula Denton and The Power of Our Words for Middle School are great resources.

#4 I like how….is doing it

Replacement: I notice…Did you notice…I see…You _____

Something I heard stated over and over again in classrooms when I was first in practicums by other pre-service teachers and younger teachers whom I felt I wanted to emulate was “I like how the class is getting started. I like how John is starting his work. I like how Bella is working quietly.” I heard these affirmations and thought they sounded like cheap praise which felt a little gross, but it also seemed to work. I was confused by what I didn’t like exactly. I never picked up the practice because it just didn’t work for my personality, but I wanted to provide encouragement to students and let them know when they did something well.

The solution I needed but didn’t know I wanted was reinforcing language. As I mentioned above, Responsive Classroom names 3 types of teacher language. Reinforcing Language should be the majority of our language with students. As most teachers will quickly tell you, some students need a large amount of attention and positive language. It is often those students that we end up reminding about behaviors so often that also need the most positive language reinforcement. We need to balance all of that redirection and reminding with reinforcing language about when they are meeting expectations.

These are not shallow statements meant to just praise following rules; these should be statements that specifically identify a strength in what the student is doing in the moment:

• I noticed you picked up those pens that fell out of Aidan’s bag.
• I see that you have checked your work for capital letters and periods.
• Did you notice how everyone in the room was so focused during writing class today?
• You made sure everyone was included in the math game today.

Here are more examples. This takes more effort than just stating “Good job!” but it’s more helpful to students when you specifically state what they’re doing well. What we notice and name is what students will pay attention to, also. If I slip up and say a generic comment or I’m starting to just say something like, “Nice work!” I will just tag on an “I notice” statement afterwards. Again, these are sometimes patterns that are quite ingrained, so it takes time to develop new patterns of behavior in ourselves. I will force myself to just start with “I notice…” when I come up to a student and look for something nice to say.

#5 Wow! You did that so fast! You’re so smart! 

Replacement: That seemed to be easy for you since you did it quickly. What can we do to challenge you a little more? Was there a part that was more challenging for you so we can work on that? Wow! You worked hard on that. I see your brain growing while you’re working on this. That mistake is helping you learn. 

The initial comments of “You’re so smart!” and “Good job!” might feel like positive praise that a student needs to hear. Again, when we are thinking about reinforcing language, we do not want it to sound empty and vague. We want to be specific and praise students for sticking with a problem. Since learning and reading about growth mindset, I have strongly steered away from praising speed. I explain to students that fast reading does not necessarily mean it was good reading, and I discuss the different paces of reading. I talk with my slowest readers about how sometimes they are the deepest thinkers (which is true; students with dyslexia tend to make deeper connections and are more global thinkers even though their fluency is slow). I talk with students about how being able to come up with multiple strategies in math and being able to think flexibly is more important than getting the right answer quickly.

Now, my reinforcing language is often about recognizing when students are sticking with the same math worksheet and focused instead of getting frustrated about why they haven’t moved on. Or I’m glad they’re reaching for a difficult text and working through the words instead of giving up. Believing that students can achieve difficult things, trying to find appropriate challenges for them, and encouraging challenge is all part of having a growth mindset focus in your classroom. I have found this to be particularly important in math class where students, parents, and teachers all have held onto the belief that some people are capable of doing math or have a “math brain” and others don’t.

Here are some resources specifically around growth mindset in math from the fantastic website youcubed started by Jo Boaler. One resource that I have personally used in my classroom is her Week of Inspirational Math. You can select videos and resources to share with students that set up your classroom at the start of the year (or restart your math classroom midyear) with challenges. The lessons include such mindset shifts as “Brains Grow and Change,” “The Importance of Struggle,” and “Speed is not important.”

I have also worked to not get too excited when a student makes zero mistakes. I might instead point out to a student that they are ready for a more challenging page in their packet. When I select worksheets for students, I put together a variety of pages that have varying levels of difficulty. I can then direct students towards different pages and allow students to self-select their differentiation. If a student is choosing the easiest pages to complete and then is bored, I can have a conversation with them about their focus in class and how they should be persisting through a more difficult page instead of completing whatever they can the fastest. This also helps my conversations with parents because I can refer to their work in a way that shows if their child is on grade level and achieving or reaching for challenges or needing remediation.

Similarly, if a student is reading 3 books in their 15-minute independent reading station, I can have a conversation with them about “just right” books. It’s okay to read easy books, sometimes; we all enjoy a treat every once in a while, but it’s not helping you grow. I can point out to students that it seemed too easy for them because it was so fast, so they should try to slow down and read a more challenging book.

#6 You must write before you draw. 

Replacement: Do you need to draw before you write to get into a flow? Use a sentence frame to get started. Could you draw out the word problem first?

I don’t remember where I first heard this phrase, but I think even when I was supporting in classrooms doing pre-service hours I noticed that there was a push towards focusing on the finished product. I’ve become more open to the idea of a thinking classroom where I want students to explore ideas and use thinking routines. I am less focused on the “correct” answer or final product when we are learning a new concept or in the beginning or middle of a unit of study. I realized that student writing tended to be better after they took time to think and draw. I also realized that student work in math tended to be deeper when students took time to draw or use manipulatives first. The way I feel I was trained to think was that drawing was something you did afterwards to explain what you wrote, add on if you had time, and make your work “prettier.”

I have almost gone the opposite way and tell students they should typically draw to get going and thinking or they should use manipulatives first. I noticed that most students benefit from the freeform thinking first; however, I think it should still be the student’s choice. We can present both starting with writing in sentences or in math, starting with numbers, or starting with pictures or manipulatives as valid options. Our brains work in different ways and the more we can share with students how to work WITH their own strengths, the better off they are. I have loved hearing students over time, share with confidence how they approached a problem. I also loved hearing how students might change their strategy day to day. “Today I felt like writing first because I had a great idea…” or “I wasn’t sure what to do first so I started with counters.” I love that the different approaches help students feel more confident in their own learning choices. It is empowering.

#7 We don’t need to talk about that at school.

Replacement: What makes you say that?

When a kid says “That’s gay” or brings up a high-tension subject or mentions someone’s race, I think many educators worry about saying the wrong thing or getting in trouble with a parent or an administrator. While not everyone has the privilege that I do as a white woman in society, since so many teachers are white women, I think it’s important for teachers in particular to take on the challenge of addressing these topics in the classroom. If a student says something that might feel uncomfortable for you to address, instead of shutting it down with “We don’t talk about that at school” or “Talk about that at home, please”, maybe try asking, “What makes you say that?” Your genuine curiosity might help a student reflect on their own word choice. What did they mean when they made that comment?

Help them reflect on whether it was truly kind or whether it comes from a place of knowledge or ignorance. In certain cases, it may help to define a word for a child, The word, ______ means _____. Is that what you mean right now? Can you see how using ____ word does not match what is going on here? If a child is pointing out a race, you can address an assumption head-on on such as, “What makes you say they come from Mexico?” or “What makes you think they are poor?” I can explain to students where someone was born and offer another perspective they might not have considered.

Almost every year I’ve taught I’ve had a student come in as an English learner with little to no English. These students have often gone to school in a home country where it was a very different experience of schooling for them there as it is here. My 2nd graders are particularly excited for new students and love the prospect of teaching someone English, but the lack of English often means in their mind that someone is uneducated.

They will tell me something like, “Wow! ____ did the math game with us and he understood how to add the numbers together!” They were genuinely happy, so maybe my first instinct would not be to chastise them saying, “That’s not nice” which it could be if they were saying he couldn’t play the game at all. I can still approach this interaction with curiosity, though. “Why might he still be able to play the game?” If they can’t answer me, I can explain, “He went to school before and he understands math. Do you think you can help him make more connections to math even without fully understanding English?” This type of dialogue can help students see their classmates as fully human with rich, complex lives they might not always see or understand. These types of conversations also remind me as the teacher of the language I’m using and how I want to talk about students and our classroom community.

#8 Always do your best

Replacement: What is your best today? Is this the best you could do with the time you had? How much time did you work on this? How focused were you during that time? Is this meeting expectations? Let’s look at the rubric/checklist together.

I brought this idea of avoiding the phrase “always do your best” up in a podcast interview I did with Angela a couple of years ago, and she ended up doing a full podcast episode around this idea. As a child, I was extremely perfectionistic. I loved pleasing teachers and doing the right thing. I enjoyed doing work well (and I still do!). I truly appreciate something done to a high standard; however, this can also get me into trouble.

In middle school, I was shifted from all general education classes to “extended” classes (aka advanced/gifted classes). I was quite stressed out by the changes in courses I had; the whole environment of 6th grade was a lot for me as an introverted, fairly shy student. I got an ulcer that year from the anxiety and stress of my school day and had to take medicine for it for a while. In fact, even when I felt better, I remember being anxious about going off of the medication. I would not have let this show to my teachers. I kept it all inside, and there was no way they would have known because my grades were exceptional, and it appeared as if I did all of my work without issues.

Also, I liked challenges so there were times when I was bored of the work I was doing and it would not have looked like I was stressed out over it. The messages I received from teachers were to do my best no matter what, to always raise my standards, to do more than was expected. Considering I naturally have this tendency, I could kick it into hyperdrive if a teacher focused on “doing your best” which to me translated as “do it perfectly and be THE best.” Since I became a teacher, I knew I didn’t want students to have this mindset reinforced by me. Sometimes good enough is good enough.

Instead of asking students for a generic “best,” have them compare their work with the standard. The standard might be a rubric or checklist you have provided. One thing I like to do in class is have students assess mentor papers or projects. They can use the rubric to grade a piece of work I’ve saved from previous years or one I’ve created. Often, students are quite critical of this work so it can help to clarify for them how I graded it. Their views and my views need to be in alignment in order for those evaluative grades to make sense. I would have appreciated this as a student instead of just imagining what I thought the teacher might want.

Some teachers worry this will stifle creativity, but I have not found that to be true. It helps students know where they should focus their effort and energy. Similarly, if I was stuck on something and would not stop my work, I can’t tell you the relief I would have had if someone had talked to me and said, “This is great work for 30 minutes. If you have more time, maybe you could have done more, but I only gave you 30 minutes.” As a student, I was expecting my absolute best at every moment. I panicked over timed writing assessments and timed work in general. If we can remind students that time affects our quality, I think that would be helpful in training students to focus on what matters most in each assignment. This is not just helpful for the classroom but helpful for life. We need to know as adults where to put our time and energy, what to prioritize, and how much time we have to spend on something.

#9 Okay? Right?

Replacement: Make your directions into statements and drop the questions.

One thing I’ve heard teachers say is adding “okay” or “right” onto the end of their directions. For instance, they might say, “It’s time to get out your notebooks, okay?” “You’re going to put that aside, right?” “We need to be nice, okay?” “First, you’ll open up a new Google doc, okay?” I think there are a few reasons why this might be a tendency. Foremost, it might be because teachers are actually looking for affirmation that students are paying attention and following along. I think it projects to students, however, a level of insecurity. It sounds like teachers are always asking for permission. If you’re asking students questions, they actually can say no to you.

When you add okay or right to a command, you’ll lift your voice up in tone and pitch because natural English speakers know this is how you ask questions and show you’re interested in an answer. The problem is when you’re giving a direction, you are not actually that interested in hearing a response. Even if you’re seeking confirmation that students are listening, no is not an answer you want. If you’re not genuinely asking a question, make it a direction and drop your pitch. When giving directions, we want to use a falling intonation where our tone of voice descends towards the end. If you’re not sure what I mean by this, here’s an article with examples of falling intonation.

#10 Silence

Replacement: What makes you say that? Does anyone else see it differently? What else could I say about that? What else might be true? Do you think that’s what _____ thought about it? (Introduce a hidden perspective)

It happens to me fairly frequently that I will hear a student say something or notice a student doing something that truly surprises me or makes me take a second glance or wonder if I actually heard them correctly. It might be easier to just brush these weird instances aside or tell other students, “Don’t worry about it” or just ignore it with silence, but there might be some great moments for conversation in these statements. For example, I was sharing some images with my class this year of American Indian artifacts. One of the images was of a doll. A student called out in the moment, “That’s creepy!” I could have handled this in a variety of ways.

First, I could have reminded the student to not call out and to raise their hand. I could have nodded or made some complicit gesture that showed I understood what they meant. I could have stated, “That is not nice” or “That is a rude comment” which likely would have shut down the comment and conversation altogether. To be honest, with many of these types of comments, I want to jump in and say, “That is not kind.”

A very common solution, though, is to just be silent. If I don’t know what to say, I might just dismiss it. I was extremely tempted to do this, but I asked instead, “What makes you say that?” and then “Does anyone else see it differently?” In fact, several students DID see it differently. They shared connections that it reminded them of other dolls they’d seen, they shared how they made connections between this doll and their doll at home, they explained how it was more difficult to find materials to make those dolls so they thought it was really creative how the American Indians used natural materials to make toys. I didn’t have to have the solution. I didn’t have to defend the ideas I wanted to present; I could let my students speak and allow that discourse to happen. Was this a bit of a divergent topic from my original lesson? Yes. Was it meaningful? Absolutely! It was even something I came back to when we worked on creating our own dioramas of American Indian homes.

“What makes you say that?” has become one of my all-time favorite phrases. I first learned about it through Project Zero as a thinking routine. I use it all day long for responses to correct answers, incorrect answers, puzzling comments, and unkind phrases. I love that it gets students to pause and think. It’s not a command to explain their thinking or justify an answer; it comes from genuine curiosity. It helps me stay focused on the student and where their thinking is because that helps me be a better teacher.

I hope that this article has given you some food for thought and reflection in your teaching practice. I believe this type of reflection on our words is ongoing, and I hope that this is something I continue to practice in my own growth as an educator.

The post 10 things I no longer say to my students appeared first on Truth For Teachers.

I can relate.

When I taught 6th grade, at times I had English learners with limited literacy in their home language or English, and I also had students who were reading above grade level by years and interested in Young Adult literature. That is a huge span of reading levels, but they are all emotionally 6th graders. They typically watch the same tv shows and movies, are interested in the same pop culture trends, are curious about the same current events in the news, and are obsessed with the same YouTubers or TikTok trends.

Most books are written in such a way that they are geared towards the typical aged reader for that level. This works for the “average” reader, but teachers know that classrooms do not merely comprise grade-level readers.

While I would personally say the task of curating a classroom library has been easier as a 2nd-grade teacher, I still have students spanning kindergarten-4th grade reading levels.

I love my classroom library. It is my pride and joy. So, I have put effort continuously each year I’ve been teaching to gather up more books that are windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors to my students, that are highly engaging for book clubs, that are appropriate for all levels of readers. I am an avid reader myself reading 1-3 books per week. While enjoyable, it can be an arduous task to select books for a diverse classroom of readers.

The purpose of this article is to provide a few recommendations for each grade band and give you some tools to support readers within different text bands. I’ll share my recommended lists, including free decodables for students learning to read cvc words, picture books with diverse characters, engaging novels in verse and graphic novels to hook reluctant readers, and more.

Use text bands to broaden a student’s reading “level”

I first heard about text bands at a TCRWP Reunion in New York. The Teachers College Reading and Writing Project promotes a workshop model for reading and writing and has numerous units of study as a curriculum and many resources available for teachers. When I was at a session on reunion day, I heard about using text bands to help select books for readers.

There are certain text levels that are more pivotal turning points than others. Here is an example document of characteristics of different text bands. The levels here refer to guided reading levels. There are multiple ways to level texts and one level does not accurately state everything there is to know about a book. When we look at text bands, though, we can group students within a band together to read for a book club.

For instance, if a classroom has a group of students reading across N, O, P, and Q levels or approximately in that range, they can be grouped together to read, for example, a text labeled as P. The N and O-level students may need some scaffolding and support, but the students can still be reading within the same text band since those book levels are grouped better together due to the characteristics of that level of the text.

If a student is reaching within their text band (at the lower end of the text band) then they may need some extra check-ins with the teacher or stop and think post-it notes planned ahead in their book. This will help the student reach for that more difficult text while still being within a zone of proximal development. Consider how you can work within a range of reading levels for each student versus only one cut-and-dry number or letter designation.

I am not a fan of leveled classroom libraries or leveling books with only one measure (Lexile, Guided Reading, etc.). Levels can however help us get information about a book’s characteristics or writing style even though it’s not going to tell us everything about a book.

A student’s reading level similarly does not tell us everything about a reader. Just because the student’s level J and the book’s level J line up does not mean that that book will be a good fit for that reader. This is another reason why it’s helpful to keep in mind a broader band of options for each reader where they can read within a range of levels. If you want to read more about why I think you should Let Readers Reach you can check that post out.

A word on audio: decoding and comprehension

In this article, I am not going to discuss audiobooks or podcasts. Those are excellent sources for readers, and I am not discouraging them at all. If you’d like to learn more, you can listen to a great interview and Truth for Teachers podcast episode with Angela on Listenwise which details the benefits of integrating listening skills into your classroom.

How to use podcasts in the classroom as a tool for equity and differentiation (with Listenwise)

When we think about reading as comprehension and following a story or synthesizing a main idea, listening is 100% reading; however, we also need to teach students phonemic awareness – how to sound out words, manipulate phonemes/sounds, recognize spelling patterns, how speech and text are connected, etc.

Decoding is a main thread in the world of reading and as teachers, we can’t dismiss this entirely. Therefore, in this post, I’m going to share book recommendations with the idea that students are decoding these words in print and/or decoding while listening to an audiobook concurrently.

In my experience, even readers who are far behind grade level desperately want to read a book in their hands and keep up with their grade level peers. The recommendations I’m sharing are intended to make that experience happen for kids.

Keep in mind that I am grouping grade levels together for ease of skimming for you as the teacher. By all means, look at any grade level and any book; it may be what you were looking for even if it’s not labeled with your particular grade range.

Picture Books

For primary students, picture books can be a great equalizer. While picture books can be great at all grade levels, for independent reading, they tend to be more popular in primary grades.

Many reaching readers will enjoy rereading a text you’ve read aloud in class since they can fill in the gaps they otherwise might have missed independently. I also have found it easier to find picture books with more diverse characters than early reader series. Picture Books also offer rich vocabulary in an accessible package. Here are my favorites.

• Abuela by Arthur Dorros
• All Are Welcome by Alexandra Penfold
• An Egg is Quiet by Dianna Hutts Aston and Sylvia Long (Nonfiction animal series)
• Dreamers by Yuyi Morales
• Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson
• Eyes that Kiss in the Corners by Joanna Ho
• Home is In Between by Mitali Perkins
• Hoop Genius: How a Desperate Teacher and a Rowdy Gym Class Invented Basketball by John Coy (Nonfiction)
• Jabari Jumps by Gaia Cornwall
• Just Ask! By Sonia Sotomayor
• Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Pena
• Over and Under the Pond by Kate Messner (Nonfiction animal series)
• Powwow Day by Traci Sorell, Madalyn Goodnight
• Sam and the Lucky Money by Karen Chinn
• Same, Same, but Different by Jenny Sue Kostecki Shaw
• Saturday by Oge Mora
• Shark Lady: The True Story of How Eugenie Clark Became the Ocean’s Most Fearless Scientist by Jess Keating (Nonfiction)
• The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson
• The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi
• Too Many Tamales by Gary Soto
• What Will You Be? By Yamile Saied Méndez

Decodable Books

For students learning to read, decodable books are those books that can be sounded out easily. They follow predictable phonics patterns and include very few high-frequency trick words/sight words that break rules.

Decodables reinforce word patterns and build confidence in readers. These are essential for students learning to read and are great for those students who need more explicit practice reading word patterns, so they could be used for older students building confidence in reading skills as well.

Decodables for Learning to Read:

• UFLI Toolbox (all free) – also includes lessons in slides to use
• Just Right Readers Decodables e-library (all free)
• Beyond Decodables (all free)
• SPELD SA Decodables (all free)
• UFLI created this Decodable Text Guide which links not only to their decodable passages but to other passages as well from different sites and collections by text feature. Some of the links in the spreadsheet are to reputable companies where you can purchase books (Alphabet Series, Flyleaf, etc.)

Book recommendations by grade level

There are many, many lists out there of which books are the right level for each grade. Below, I am aiming to narrow down that list by doing two things. First, I’m purposely including texts that have more cultural diversity. This is because I find that “Top 10” lists for grade levels and books you may have inherited from retired teachers tend to lack these titles.

Second, I am trying to give you the titles I’ve seen as the most popular among students I’ve taught. That is not to say it will be the same in your context, but I think it’s a good starting point. Also, I am sure that every person reading this will think, “How could you not include THIS book?!” I might have forgotten it or I might just not know about it.

Feel free to add it in the comments! I’d love to hear other recommendations. Also, I can’t list every single book I love in the lists below (although I think I’ve almost tried!)

2nd & 3rd grade Reaching to Read:

• Dav Pilkey Graphic Novels: Mighty Robot, Dogman, Captain Underpants – graphic novels (F series)
• Dragon by Dav Pilkey (F Series)
• Elephant and Piggie Books by Mo Willems (F series)
• Hi Fly Guy! By Tedd Arnold (F Series)
• J.D. the Kid Barber by J. Dillard (J.D. and the Great Barber Battle – F Series)
• Katie Woo Series by Fran Manushkin and Tammie Lyon (Katie Woo Series – F)
• Katie Woo and Pedro Mysteries by Fran Manushkin (F Series)
• Ling and Ting by Grace Lin (F Series)
• Meet Biscuit! (I can read F series) by Alyssa Satin Capucilli and Pat Schories
• Meet Yasmin! by Saadia Faruqi (F Series)
• Pedro’s Mystery Club by Fran Manushkin (Pedro Series – F)
• Princess in Black by Shannon and Dean Hale (F Series)
• Ruby Lu, Brave and True by Lenore Look (RF Series)
• Sadiq and the Pet Problem by Siman Nuurali (F Feries)
• The Toad: Disgusting Critter Series by Elise Gravel (NF)
• Vivi Loves Science by Kimberly Derting (also available as I Can Read F series)
• Your Friend, Parker by Parker Curry, Jessica Curry (Ready to Read F series)
• Zoey and Sassafras by Asia Citro (Dragons and Marshmallows – 1F Series)

2nd & 3rd grade Strong Readers:

• A to Z Mysteries by Ron Roy (F)
• Amelia Bedelia by Herman Parish (F Series)
• Bad Guys by Aaron Blabey (F series)
• Gone Fishing by Tamera Will Wissinger (RF, Novel in Verse)
• Matilda by Roald Dahl (F, Fantasy)
• One and Only Ivan (and One and Only Bob) by Katherine Applegate (novels in verse) *also great for reaching readers in secondary if you’re doing a novel in verse or poetry unit
• Precious Ramotswe by Alexander McCall Smith (RF Series)
• Spy School by Stuart Gibbs (F Series)
• The Witches by Roald Dahl (F, Fantasy)
• The Year of Billy Miller & Billy Miller Makes a Wish by Kevin Henkes (RF series)
• Wings of Fire by Tui T. Sutherland (F Series)

I Survived Series Lauren Tarshis (HF Series) *also great for reaching readers in secondary if you’re doing a historical fiction unit

4th & 5th Grade Reaching to Read:

• Ada Lace on the Case by Emily Calendrelli (F Series)
• Annie Sullivan and the Trial of Helen Keller by Joseph Lambert (NF graphic novel)
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney (F series, lots of visuals)
• Dory Fantasmagory by Abby Hanlon (F Series)
• Ivy and Bean by Annie Barrows (F Series)
• Jada Jones, Rock Star by Kelly Starling Lyons (F series)
• Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl
• Franny K. Stein by Jim Benton (F Series)
• My Weird School Series by Dan Gutman (F series, humor)
• Narwhal: Unicorn of the Sea by Ben Clanton (F graphic novel)
• Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales by Nathan Hale (HF series, graphic novel)
• The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (Narnia series) by C.S. Lewis (F series, fantasy)
• What if you had Animal Hair? by Sandra Markle (NF Series)
• Who Is?…What Is?…. Series (ex. Who Was Anne Frank? NF series, biography)
• Who Would Win? by Jerry Pallotta (NF Series)
• Zapato Power Series by Jacqueline Jules (Freddie Ramos Takes Off – F series)

4th & 5th Grade Strong Readers:

• Allies by Alan Gratz (HF; other books by Gratz also are great)
• Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston (Fantasy series)
• A Night Divided by Jennifer Nielsen (HF; other books by Nielsen are also great)
• Anne Frank’s Diary: The Graphic Adaptation by Ari Folman (NF graphic novel)
• Big Fat Zombie Goldfish by Mo O’Hara (F Series)
• Crossover by Kwame Alexander (RF, novel in verse)
• Little White Duck: A Childhood in China by Na Liu, Andres Vera Martinez (graphic novel, NF)
• The Devil’s Arithmetic by Jane Yolen (HF)
• The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer (Cinder – 1st book in F series, sci-fi)
• Song of the Sparrow by Lisa Ann Sandell (HF, novel in verse)
• Track Series by Jason Reynolds (novel in verse, F series – Ghost, Patina, Sunny, Lu)
• Voyagers: Project Alpha by D.J MacHale (1st in F series, sci-fi)

Secondary readers

I am not going to list recommendations for stronger readers for middle and high school since I think those are easier to compile for educators. As students get older, there are two genres in particular that I find helpful to keep engagement up: Novels in Verse and Graphic Novels.

Graphic Novels offer picture support for students and can be rigorous for comprehension still. Novels in Verse allow students to read a book that feels big or “grown-up” while still offering bite-sized lines to read. These also tend to get to the essence of a story more quickly which can be engaging for readers. You can read more about why I love graphic novels here & novels in verse here.

Authors

In addition, here are a few authors I’d highly recommend for approachable and engaging books:

• Elizabeth Acevedo
• Kwame Alexander
• Don Brown
• Joseph Bruchac
• Matt de la Pena
• Alexandra Diaz
• Alan Gratz
• Thanhha Lai
• Jason Reynolds
• Angie Thomas
• Padma Venkatraman
• Jacqueline Woodson

More Accessible Texts for 6th & 7th & 8th Grade:

• A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park (NF)
• Anne Frank: The Anne Frank House Authorized Graphic Biography by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon (NF, biograph, graphic novel)
• Behind Rebel Lines: The Incredible Story of Emma Edmonds, Civil War Spy by Seymour Reit (HF)
• Booked by Kwame Alexander (RF, novel in verse)
• City of Ember by Jeanne du Prau (F series, dystopian)
• Drowned City: Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans by Don Brown (NF graphic novel)
• El Deafo by Cece Bell (F graphic novel)
• False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen (F series, Fantasy)
• Girl Who Owned a City by O.T. Nelson (F, dystopian)
• Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins (F series, The Underland Chronicles)
• Hidden by Helen Frost (RF, novel in verse)
• Holes by Louis Sachar (RF novel)
• House Arrest by K.A. Holt (RF, novel in verse)
• Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai (F, novel in verse)
• I Survived Series Lauren Tarshis (NF Series)
• Merci Suárez Changes Gears by Meg Medina (RF)
• Miles Morales: Spider Man by Jason Reynolds (F, fantasy)
• New Kid by Jerry Craft (F, graphic novel)
• Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Birute Galdikas by Jim Ottavani and Maris Wicks (NF graphic novel)
• Refugee by Alan Gratz (HF)
• Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow by James Sturn (NF graphic novel)
• Save Me a Seat by by Sarah Weeks and Gita Varadarajan (RF)
• Taking Sides by Gary Soto (RF)
• Tetris: The Games People Play by Box Brown (NF graphic novel)
• The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora by Pablo Cartaya (RF)
• The Great American Dust Bowl by Don Brown (NF graphic novel)
• The Thief of Always by Clive Barker (F, fantasy)
• The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin (F, mystery)
• Trapped in a Video Game by Dustin Brady and Jesse Brady (F Series)

More Accessible Texts for 9th – 12th Grades:

• All American Boys by Jason Reynolds (F)
• A Time to Dance by Padma Venkatraman (RF, novel in verse)
• Brief Histories of Everyday Objects by Andy Warner (NF graphic novel)
• Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson (novel in verse, memoir)
• Dreamland Burning by Jennifer Latham (HF, RF – two timelines)
• Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City by Guy Delisle (NF graphic novel)
• Listen, Slowly by Thanhha Lai (F)
• Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson (novel in verse, RF)
• Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds (F, novel in verse)
• March: Book One (and Two and Three) by John Lewis (NF graphic novel)
• Marcus Vega Doesn’t Speak Spanish by Pablo Cartaya (RF)
• Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy by Rex Ogle (modern Little Women graphic novel)
• Messi: The Inside Story of the Boy Who Became a Legend by Luca Caioli (NF)
• Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga (RF, novel in verse)
• Overturned by Lamar Giles (F)
• Santiago’s Road Home by Alexandra Diaz (RF)
• Survivors of the Holocaust: True Stories of Six Extraordinary Children by Kath Shackleton (NF graphic novel)
• The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives by Dashka Slater (NF)
• The Disappearing Spoon and other true tales of rivalry, adventure, and the history of the world from the periodic table of the elements by Sam Kean (NF)
• The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo (RF, novel in verse)
• The Unwanted: Stories of Syrian Refugees by Don Brown (NF graphic novel)
• T-Minus: The Race to the Moon by Jim Ottavani (NF graphic novel)

If you teach High School English, I also recommend Betsy Potash from Now Spark Creativity for lots of ideas. Some of her posts about choice reading include “What To Do When a Student Says I Hate Reading”; “Got Reluctant Readers? There’s help”; “How to Match Readers with Books”.

Where to find more appropriately-mature books

It would be ideal for us to read every single book we put in front of students but that is impossible. It’s not a goal we could ever achieve. Apart from taking advice and recommendations from fellow educators, another great resource is Common Sense Media.

This website is great for educators as they’re scanning books to see if it’s appropriate for students. The site rates positive messages, positive role models, diverse representation, violence and scariness, sex, romance, and nudity, language, products and purchases, and drinking, drugs, and smoking for each title.

Common Sense Media is also great for parents and has meaningful information for them. I find that parents sometimes enjoy their child reading a “challenging” book but they don’t necessarily realize all the mature aspects that go into that novel.

Final tips on using hi-lo texts and text bands

1. Equity not equality

You will not be able to spend equal time with each reader or writer. This is not only unrealistic to expect but also not beneficial to all students. If a student is confident in reading and writing, sometimes they just need the time to practice those same skills and become fluent.

Also, not every student will get the same level of enjoyment out of your class. You’re aiming to give students what they need within the constraints of your time and energy, not create an identical experience and level of enjoyment for every student.

2. Opportunities, not perfection

Your goal is not to make sure that every student has the perfect book for them all the time; your goal is to provide reading opportunities that are within a reasonable range for each student. Your goal is to set students up for success in reading, but you cannot make the stars align for every book and every unit for every kid.

There will still be books kids don’t like; that’s just life. I personally sought to get kids to LOVE at least one book in my class so much that they raved about it at home and school. That one really positive experience can propel growth in multiple areas.

3. Use themes to tie a classroom together

Whenever I am in a unit that is centered around a genre (nonfiction text features, literary nonfiction picture books, science fiction and fantasy, historical fiction, etc.), I try to find books that are appropriate for different leveled readers within each genre.

What I typically do if everyone is reading in a book club is create a google form with book trailers or at least images of books. Each question is a duplicate. The first question they select their first choice, the second they select their second choice, and the third they select their third choice. I also have the books out physically to flip through.

I personally found that students are excellent at selecting books that are appropriate for themselves, but even if they reach too high or too low, I can usually find one of their top 3 choices that lines up with my assessment of their skill. After a book club unit, the books are available for independent reading, so they are not cut off from their first choice in any case.

If a student really wants to read something, I’ll have an honest conversation with them that it might be hard, so they’ll have to put in extra time and energy to keep up with the group. If they think they can do it, great; if that makes them nervous, I tell them it’s a “not right now” book. It’s something they can try later.

4. Set up a positive climate towards all books

Some of the things I did that seemed to support my reaching readers were to read aloud different types of books. When I finished reading aloud a picture book, I’d raise it up asking who would like to read it. The more I did this, the more popular it became to read picture books. I would create book clubs for just graphic novels and just novels in verse towards the beginning of the year to establish that these were real genres with lots of options that I valued.

5. Privacy matters

Even as young as 2nd grade, I notice students who are struggling become self-conscious about their reading abilities. They deserve some discretion on your part. Group them with students who need the same skill work so they feel on par with peers. Give them opportunities to listen to you read aloud from a popular series that on-grade-level readers are experiencing. Then, they may be able to reread that book again on their own.

Give them hidden differentiation where everyone has the same type of decodable book/same genre or worksheet or word work choice board but they might have different activities, an easier text, or different words to choose from. If you have an older student working on primary activities such as letter and sound matching, word sorts, or books that look geared towards very young readers, let them work in a quiet, private corner or in the hallway.

Just a little move might make them feel more at ease to work on their skills in confidence. I write about a few more of these strategies in my blog post, “How I teach reading to a class that spans 7+ grade levels.”

18 manageable ways to differentiate when kids have gaps in their learning

I hope this article gave you some resources for building up your classroom library and/or selecting books for book clubs for students that will be both age and level appropriate. This is not meant to be comprehensive, but I hope that some of these ideas will support you. I know that finding engaging books for struggling secondary readers was a huge challenge for me, and the more we share as educators, the more opportunities our readers have to thrive.

The post Hi-Lo Texts: Reaching fringe readers with text bands appeared first on Truth For Teachers.

Here are 24 different games and structures you can use that will infuse laughter and joy into your classroom. No matter the age of students or context you teach, there should be something here for you!

But first — let’s talk about student impact, and the direct benefit for your students (and you!) when games are incorporated into learning.

Why play games?

1. It prevents burnout.

It seems that the general public is waking up to the fact that teachers are burned out. Some of the systems that could be changed in order to support teachers (many of which are described in this 2021 NEA article on teacher burnout) are being doubled down vs. released. When testing and data seem to rule over the day-to-day life of a teacher, we need to remember what power we do have to create the classroom we want.

For me, this is one where I’m enjoying moments with my class and reminding myself why I wanted to be a teacher. I love it when kids are laughing and learning. One of the best ways to beat burnout is to a) recognize what is within our realm of influence and focus on that and b) consider what gives us energy and do more of that. For me, that’s a lot of art, creativity, and games.

2. It meets the need for students to have fun and to belong.

In a previous article on student behavior, I discussed how the philosophy of Responsive Classroom asks you as the teacher to consider how we prioritize the needs of safety, belonging, and fun. We want all students to feel safe, like they belong, and have fun! These are needed in the classroom, not just nice-to-have. There are many things we can’t control in the classroom but there are several things still under our control.

When leading a whole class game, students can bond as a classroom community. You create a shared experience for them. These joyful moments create memories for students that also help them attach positive emotions to their learning which helps the learning stick. The games below tend not to be competitive in a “you’re out” kind of way. There are some restrictions on time which I find creates urgency and enthusiasm, but generally these are not games that will result in a heartbroken loser.

3. It reinforces academic concepts through retrieval practice.

When we think about games in the classroom, I think teachers often think about board games, card games, partner games for math, small group games that can be used as a station, indoor recess games, and so on. Below I am sharing only whole class games that enforce academic learning although some could be done with just a small group.

These games enforce academic learning because they are a method of formative assessment that is not a paper quiz. Quizzing is helpful for students because they need to learn to recall certain information and strengthen pathways in their brains in order to thoroughly learn the material. This strengthening of pathways is done through recalling information (even just attempting to recall information) which is called retrieval practice.

You can get a more thorough understanding of retrieval practice from this Cult of Pedagogy article/podcast here. These games and structures are flexible and can be done many times in many different ways without getting old. If you haven’t been exposed as much to the benefits of retrieval practice and how the brain learns, there’s so much interesting research out there especially from The Learning Scientists.

Ready to learn some game idea? I’ve organized them into three categories below:

• Any K-12 grade level/subject area
• Best for elementary (grades K-5)
• Best for secondary (grades 6-12)

I encourage you to check out ALL of the ideas here so you can make a final call as to which games best fit your context. I think these are fairly flexible structures and could be adapted to meet various age groups, but I wanted to provide examples for age groups that I knew had been successful.

Games that are adaptable to any grade or subject

1. Act it out / Show Me

Preparation: List of words or phrases for students to act out.

How to play: The teacher calls out “Show Me…” and then the word such as “Show Me a Triangle,” “Show Me the letter R,” or “Show Me something that starts with /b/ (sound)”. You can have students act out a situation with the phrase “Act out…” This could sound like, “Act out the way [character] felt at the beginning of the story,” “Act out adding 2+3,” “Act out helping a classmate.” These are quick call outs by the teacher.

Examples: When reading a poem about leaves falling and twirling, students can act out the visualization of the leaves. When reading about a character that feels frustrated, they can show that expression on their face. This can also be a mini-project such as modeling cold fronts, warm fronts, occluded fronts, and stationary fronts in weather where different people have labels like “rain”, “cloud,” “cold air,” and “warm air.” These simulations can really help learning stick.

Variation: A favorite purchase of mine for the classroom (that luckily was bought by my school with some STEM money) was Exploragons. Magformers are another favorite which stays together in shapes much better than many other magnet shapes I’ve tried. All of those are somewhat expensive, but they are super cool for Geometry. These are fantastic for showing specific shapes to partners.

I handed these out to my students and had them show me “right, isoscles triangle” or “2 similar squares” or “a right trapezoid.” You can be really specific with Exploragons in building shapes, and I think I would have been over the moon in high school geometry if I’d had these at my fingertips. They also come with protractors so you can specify “a scalene triangle with one angle at 120 degrees”.

2. Simon Says

Preparation: In order to play this as an academic game, you need to come up with a set of movements that correlate to the vocabulary words you teach. While this may seem like a primary activity, it can work well with older students.

How to Play: Students move to the motion when you say “Simon Says” (or you can use your teacher name “Ms. Stohs Says”) and do not move when you don’t say the magic words.

Examples: My favorite version of this was an idea I got from a colleague that I elaborated on over time. I actually called it “Sun Says” and it was for astronomy. I was the sun, but later I chose students as the leader. The directions were all specific to our astronomy unit: rotate was spinning around yourself, revolve was walking in a little circle, rotate and revolve was doing both, day was facing me, night was facing away, tilt was showing me the tilted earth, etc.

I also taught them seasons, so I had them tilt their body and show how the northern hemisphere was in summer if it was tilted towards me or if it was fall or spring if they were flat towards me but still tilted. I also added in sunrise and sunset. A teacher in a professional development class of mine did this for architecture terms related to his tech ed class (tension, balance, facade, etc.). He found that he could refer to the movements to help students learn the terms after the game and it helped the terms stick.

3. Flip It with Whiteboards

Preparation: Students need individual whiteboards and dry-erase markers. You can have them work as partners if you want them to talk it out with someone, but I like this as a formative assessment tool.

How to Play: I call out a math problem, a word students will mark up within our phonics program, a vocabulary word attached to an image (polygon, quadrilateral), and then students flip their board to me and show me their answer. I do this with mental math, phonics work for words, and drawing for things that can be visualized (triangle, acute angle, something alive, something that weighs more than a pound, a closed figure, etc.).

I like to keep it quick and simple so that students can quickly show their work, get feedback, and move on to the next one. I just give students a thumbs up if they’re good or I’ll spin my finger in a circle to say “try again.” I keep this to a quick activity so I don’t run out of things to say and start pausing too long or let the kids get tired of it.

Examples: Open-ended prompts work well for this too (an ordinal number, a president, a word with a blend, a word that rhymes with play, a rational number, etc.).

Variation: Back-to-Back Game

Instead of students facing their board to me, students stand back to back with a partner. I can give a definition for a vocabulary word, a number sentence, or something else with a definitive, short answer, and then students flip their whiteboards to face one another on my count as opposed to flipping it to me. This is a great way for them to check their work with a partner. I can then provide the correct response just in case, and they turn back to back again.

4. Charades

Preparation: Select vocabulary words, people you’re studying, characters from books, geometric shapes, and symbols, shapes of letters, etc. You’ll need to put these on slips of paper preferably and into a container or bowl of some kind.

How to Play: An individual student selects a paper and tries to act out that word or phrase. I like to allow them to request a friend to help them act it out since this can create a  little bit of buy-in. You may also allow them to share which unit of study or book or general topic this word came from before they start acting. Then, other students can call out guesses or raise their hand to make guesses.

Examples: If you have a 5-minute buffer, someone can act out an idea, people can guess, then we can move on to the next activity. It can be a great time filler and break since charades can feel quite long if you play for more than a few rounds.

5. Beach Ball Questions

Preparation: You will need some kind of large ball to toss around. Beach balls are great for this because they won’t cause injury to people or stuff if they get tossed too roughly. You will also need to consider a topic to review with students.

How to Play: Students pass the ball around in a circle and when you get the ball you say something related to the category: “List words that have to do with geography”, or “List number sentences that add up to 10”, or “List synonyms for good”. It can help to establish a pattern of the ball for students by saying names and tossing the ball around randomly.

Just start with yourself and say “Good morning/afternoon _____” then pass it to them. They do the same for another student until the ball makes it back to you. Then, have students point to the person they threw it to. That’s what they need to remember. The second time try to recreate the same pattern with only names. This way you can make sure that everyone gets the ball once, everyone is included, and the ball gets passed more efficiently.

You can repeat the pattern with an introduction of names, a sharing of their favorite candy or tv show, etc. This is great for building community, and then it can be used to share academic information.

Examples: Have students share one thing they learned that day as a closing, list one thing out of a category that you’re learning about (elements from the periodic table, Civil Rights icons and leaders, compound words, etc.). If you keep the categories broad enough, it will allow lots of students to share before you need a new category and it will also serve as an assessment tool for you.

Variation: Students can also share 2 things so that the person they toss to needs to match it. For instance, I could start by saying ½. The person I toss it to needs to state an equivalent fraction. They might say 2/4. Then, they can switch to 2/10. The person who receives it after them can say 20/100. Then, they’ll pick a new number ⅓.

A teacher I know did this by matching WWII leaders and countries. I say “Germany” then the person I toss it to needs to say “Hitler.” Then, they can say the name of another country such as the United States. Allow students to have a lifeline if needed to reduce pressure. If you prompt kids to raise their hand if they have an idea, then the person holding the ball can toss it to anyone with their hand up.

6. Concentric Circles

Preparation: Prepare a set of questions for students or a set of images you can project for students to discuss. These can be as quick as would you rather questions for fun (or would you rather math prompts) or it can take a little longer with a thinking routine such as See, Think, Wonder or a number sense routine prompt such as WODB or Same but Different.

How to Play: The way to get this set up is to split the class into 2. If there is an odd number, you can participate. Once everyone is assigned 1 or 2 have 1s stand in a circle facing outward. Then, have all 2s go stand in front of a 1. If kids purposely go to their friends, it does not matter because they will move anyway. Choose if you will always have students go to the right or left. As long as you stick to one direction, you can alternate whether the inner or outer circle moves.

I like to change it up, so I might start with inner circle moving 1 to the right then outer circle moving 2 to the right then inner circle 2 to the right and close with outer circle moving 3 to the right. This keeps them guessing who they will talk to and forces a lot of connections that might not otherwise happen.

Examples: Students could also hold quiz questions they ask one another, share book recommendations, their highlights of the day, or goals for tomorrow.

7. Speed Dating/Line Dance

Preparation: Similar to concentric circles, this is best done with short prompts. Prepare a set of prompts either on cards students will hold or ones you will project on a screen. If your classroom makes it difficult to have everyone fit in one long line, you could do this activity in a hallway or outdoors which could be fun.

How to Play: The setup for this is to create 2 groups. Have group A line up in the largest span of space you have. This also works in a hallway. Then, have group B find a person to stand across from. Pick one line to stay and one line to move. If line A is moving, the farthest person at the end will walk all the way back to the beginning as everyone else slides down one person. It’s easiest to keep one line in order to maintain the places where partners should stand. The very first person or two might need a little guidance from you but otherwise, even young children can catch on quickly.

Examples: Because students could end up talking with anyone in the class, I find it’s best to keep the questions opinion-focused so that it lowers some stress, especially at the beginning of the year. The opinions might be content focused as well such as, “Do you think [this character] is being helpful or are they more annoying?” You might also select literal comprehension questions such as “What is the setting of the novel?”

Variation: You can use a Kahoot! quiz without the computers and allow them to chat about the answers until the timer is up. This could be fun as a practice quiz.

8. Museum Statues or Tableaus

Preparation: Consider a scene or character or famous figure you’re studying that you can use as inspiration for a statue. Using a famous painting or sculpture might help for guidance. Splitting up a book into specific moments of conflict may also be helpful. You may want to gather some props to add a bit to the scene; maybe see a theater teacher to borrow a few things!

How to Play: Split the class into groups for this activity. You can give each group a scene from a book, a painting to recreate, an idea to represent, etc. Then, allow students to create a statue or tableau. One way to do this is to have one student be the statue. Other students in the group can give guidance as to how the statue should look, can use props provided to add depth to the scene, and work as a team to help the one “statue” be the best model they can be.

Another way to do this is to give each group a scene to create together. This is a tableau where the group creates a whole visual scene together. Usually, with tableaus all of the parts are touching so each person has a hand on another person to connect the group together. This requires a certain amount of trust in the classroom community; it looks really cool when it comes together!

Variation: Depending on class size, you could have the entire class or half of the class try to create a tableau within a time restraint. You can give them 30 seconds or 1 minute to work together to create a scene that shows “hope” or “fear” or a scene that’s been discussed in class. This doesn’t have to be an ideal scene; it’s a fun way to be playful and experiment with how you view a situation or feeling.

Games best for elementary grades

(Scroll down for secondary games)

9. Stand Up/Sit Down (This or That)

Preparation: There are so many ways to use standing vs. sitting, so this is a go-to game for me. I can use this game on the spot without prep to fill time or give a movement break. Assign one type of response to standing and one type of response to sitting. You also can pull out one response for standing and then anything else that doesn’t fit that is for sitting. You just need to decide your two categories.

How to Play: Studying two different people? Stand up if the fact is about George Washington. Sit down if it is about Abraham Lincoln. Studying different sounds for phonological awareness? Stand up if the word has a blend. Sit down if it doesn’t. Stand up if it’s a short e sound. Sit down if it’s any other vowel. Studying even and odd numbers? Evens stand and odds sit.

Examples: Sometimes I will do more complicated, planned versions of this. For instance, I compared metric vs. customary units in this slideshow for my sixth graders. I also compared customary units of measurement with my second graders in this slideshow. You can use these as a template and make a copy of these slides and just swap out the comparisons for whatever you wanted. You can change the comparison or question more easily each time with slideshows like these since the left vs. right determines the standing or sitting not the content itself. If you’re worried about students memorizing a pattern, just switch the order of the slides around by dragging them.

10. Musical Chairs

Preparation: First, you need some kind of music. Then, you need a list of discussion questions or prompts for students. You also can prepare physical pieces for students to use that require interaction but are not actually questions (3-digit numbers, words, etc.)

How to play: Students should understand that every time you stop the music, they need to find a partner. I do this as a greeting for morning meetings with the 2nd grade often, and kids love it. If students have a card, they also need to use that card when you stop the music.

Examples: You could give students cards with 3-digit numbers. When the music stops, they compare their card with the person closest to them and decide whose is larger. You can hand out base words and suffixes. Then, their job is to try to make a real word out of the cards they have with their partner or small group of 3 if you’re worried about them finding the right pair.

Another option is to give everyone numbers or expressions. If every kid has a 2-digit number they are holding onto, then they can add or subtract their number with the number of their partner. In these cases, students keep their cards and the quizzing is more synchronized.

Variation: You can plan ahead to differentiate which number or word is for different students. For example, a student can have the number 10 or 20 and still participate confidently each time, but if a student has 83, that might be more difficult for them as they meet up with partners. It will create different challenges for different students.

11. Human Calculator

Preparation: You will need to decide the range of numbers for play. Are you working on 0-10, 0-100, adding, subtracting, fractions? You will want to decide if you will state just a number or fraction or if you will require students to do a computation problem to play.

How to play: Students treat the low floor to standing up tall as a scale. You can also have students literally calculate numbers. I suggest keeping lower numbers towards the floor and higher numbers towards the ceiling. If adding numbers up to 50 where 0 is at the ground and 50 is standing tall, say, “Show me 10. Show me 45. Show me 30.”

Examples: You can give students chances to respond on a 1-10 scale for a variety of things (how much they understand, how much more time they need, how strongly they agree or disagree with a statement). You can call out “15 divided by 5” and then students show you what 3 would look like. You can use this to practice fractions such as “Show me ½” or “Show me “1/10”. The responses of students will really show you who is able to do this number sense activity independently and fluently.

Variation: Play Human Protractor if you teach angles. Students can move their bodies to show you a 90-degree angle or use their arms to create angles. You can use vocabulary such as “acute” or give specific degrees (60).

12. Pictionary or Building in Partners

Preparation: If your students cannot yet read fluently, be sure you’re using picture support and words you know they could decode, or maybe skip this one. You’ll need to decide if students will be using some kind of math manipulative, building blocks, play-doh, whiteboards to draw, or different coloring utensils and paper. You can also decide if students will have different options available, but I would avoid giving too many choices since this is a timed, whole-class activity.

How to Play: You as the teacher will SHOW a vocabulary word, a famous leader you’re studying, a geometric shape, criteria, etc. I suggest having students sit with one student in a chair facing you at the front and one student facing away from you towards their partner. This way you should see the faces of half of your class and the other students are facing away from you. If you require a group of 3, I’d have 2 guessers facing away from you. The person facing you will be drawing or creating clues. The person facing away from you will be guessing.

Get the attention of all of the people who are clue-givers (you can encourage others to cover their eyes to reinforce they shouldn’t peek) and show them a word or image that they need to draw or create. Only show it for a few seconds and then let them get started. You can decide if you’ll want to time them for 1 or 2 minutes. Another strategy is to have both partners raise their hands when they “got it” and then you’ll know the progress of the whole class. If someone is stuck, you can ring a bell or use an attention-getter to reveal the answer and move on.

Variation: Instead of having students draw or build, you can play this like Taboo. That’s great if you have older elementary students. You can put the word that students are trying to get a classmate to guess, they have to use words to describe it to a friend until they understand the concept, but they can’t use ____word to describe it.

This whole activity would not even have to be a timed competitive game. Have students choose a word to represent in a sculpture, then they can share with their table group/someone nearby. Aluminum foil is also cheap and great for building.

13. Four Corners

Preparation: Choose a category that you will use for formative assessment. The questions should have 4 answer choices. These can be the same 4 choices each time where students have to sort options between them or you can change the 4 answer choices. If you have a quiz already prepared that has 4 answer choices, that can be used too. Assign one corner of the room to be A, one to be B, one to be C, and one to be D.

How to Play: The game works where students move to the corner of the room that represents the best answer choice. I prefer to play this game without “outs” but you could make it more competitive by allowing a group in a wrong corner to get cut. This game is also great for the ‘Which One Doesn’t Belong?’ number sense routine which does not have a “correct answer” so that lowers the pressure of movement a bit. 

Examples: Here is a template you can use in google slides which allows students to visually see which corner is associated with which answer. The top left on the slide is the front left of the classroom. Once you have a template, you can just swap out the content.

14. Guess the Object

Preparation: Gather items in an opaque bag such as:

• Recess Equipment such as soccer ball, frisbee, jump rope, basketball
• Toys such as legos, stuffed animals, Barbie dolls, Matchbox cars
• Different objects of the same shape such as
  • rectangular prism: tissue box, eraser, notebook, DVD case
  • cylinder: chap stick, water bottle, candle jar, marker

How to Play: Put all the objects in a pillowcase or other bag. You as the teacher can reach in and describe an object. Have students guess the object or geometrical shape based on your clues. You also can have students take turns describing the object which is great for oral language development and word choice skills.

Examples: This can be a great opportunity to describe something mathematically using inches, number of faces, etc. Students can also guess the category you’ve used if you don’t say that at the start.

Variation: This can lead to a fun activity of writing Who Am I? poems. Students write out the descriptions as lines of a poem, and the last line of the poem reveals “I am…”

15. Make 11 (or any number)

Preparation: Select a number no more than twice the number of students.

How to Play: All students can choose to make a fist (represents 0), or hold out one finger (represents 1) or hold out two fingers (represents 2). You start with hands behind backs. On the count of 3, everyone reveals their hand. You go around the circle and add up all the numbers. 0 + 2 + 1+ 0 + 1 …The goal is to make 11 (or whatever number you have set). You keep trying as a class to make the number.

Examples: You can change the number and/or allow students to use up to 5 fingers. This just makes counting around take a little longer.

16. Alphabet Game

Preparation: This game can be done without preparation.

How to Play: Establish a pattern of moving around a circle or across desk rows. Choose a letter of the alphabet to start with and have students share a word that starts with that letter. The words continue in order of the alphabet.

Examples: You can allow the words to be anything at all or you can encourage a category such as food or more specifically, fruit, depending on your students.

1  – Apple

2  – Banana

3  – Cherry

4  – Donut

5  – Egg

Variation: Give a scenario to 2-4 people who will act out in front of others. For this, you’ll need to prepare a scenario idea that students would be familiar with. Each person in the group only says 1 line. Each line starts with the consecutive letter in the alphabet. You can start with A or any letter.

After you cycle through all people once, it goes back to the first person. This would embed some fun storytelling and is so enjoyable as an audience member, too! For example, the scenario could be going on a camping trip. If you start with Y, it could go:

1 – You always forget to pack socks.

2 – Zzzz. There are too many mosquitos already!

3 – And I only brought one pair of shoes.

1 – Boy, I’d go for some air conditioning.

2 – Can’t we just buy socks?

And so on back to Y.

You could also have students do only 6 back and forth conversations and not run through the whole alphabet depending on the age and maturity of students.

Games best for secondary grades

17. Yes, No, I

Preparation: You will need to pick a topic of study to discuss. A good idea might be to have a few ideas on hand or present the topic as a question for discussion. I know a high school teacher who taught a business class and had students discuss a few famous, modern businessmen: Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos.

These people solicited some opinions so they could keep the conversation going. As students got better, she also required them to use certain vocabulary they’d learned in class so they could earn extra credit points. You can decide if you’d like to create some kind of system. Whatever topic you choose, make sure it’s something they can talk about.

How to Play: The goal of this game is to have a conversation about a topic you’re studying without using the words yes, no, or I. Students stand in 2 lines to start. The 2 people at the front of the line start off a conversation. If someone says yes, no, or I, they move to the end of the line and their line moves up one person. One classmate may talk to a few people before they too make a mistake.

Examples: It will likely help to use a silly example to start out to teach how to play the game.

A: How are you doing?

B: It’s okay. The weather could be better.

A: It rained all week, didn’t it?

B: Yes, it did.

Person B said yes. Typically if someone says “yeah” or “nah” instead of yes or no, I still would count it as against the rules. It often happens that right off the bat someone starts with “I” and then they just send themselves to the back. If everyone has a lighthearted mood about it, it’s really fun and encourages acceptance of mistakes.

18. Questions

Preparation: This is really similar to the previous game, Yes, No, I. You will need to prepare a topic for discussion. You might ask students to think about their opinions of characters in a play you’re reading together or an event in history you’ve been studying.

How to Play: In this scenario, students can ONLY speak in questions.

Examples: Students stand in 2 lines to start. The 2 people at the front of the line start off a conversation. If someone makes a statement instead of a question, they move to the end of the line and their line moves up one person. One classmate may talk to a few people before they too make a mistake.

For example:

A: Where are you going?

B: Why do you need to know?

A: Why can’t you tell me?

B: Do you even know what my job is?

A: Are you a spy?

B: Why would I tell you if I was?

A: Pause….

If someone cannot keep up the questions and pauses for longer than 2-3 seconds or makes a statement instead of a question, they’re out and the next person in line takes their spot. Here’s an example of a group doing this as an improv performance.

Variation: Give students some key words or phrases that you’re hoping they try to use throughout the game that relate to your content area. These can be collected as points.

19. Quiz Quiz Trade

Preparation: Each student has a “quiz” question. These can be open-ended discussion questions or questions with correct answers that might be listed on the back. You could prepare these questions yourself; you can even pull them from a quiz you’ve created in the past as a practice test.

One of my favorite homework assignments or entry tickets is to write a question on one side of an index card and put the answer on the back. I can quickly check through the cards at the start of class or as they are creating them, and then we get to play with them!

How to Play: Students hold their question card and mill around the classroom. Then they find a partner, take turns quizzing one another, then trade their cards. When they’re finished, they find another person who wrapped up with their partner and quiz them. After both people take turns quizzing and being quizzed, they trade and move on again. Students might end up seeing the same question a couple of times, but if all of the questions are unique, this does not happen much.

Examples: The questions the first time you play can all be get-to-know-you questions such as “Do you have a pet at home?” “What’s the best streaming service?” “What’s a movie you’ve seen in the last month?” Then, the questions can be true/false, multiple choice, short answer math calculations, really almost anything.

20. Freeze Tag

Preparation: Typically, 2 people play this game together at a time while everyone else watches and waits to jump in. What’s nice about this game is that it is entertaining for an observer. Those 2 people act out something together. It can be helpful to give a scenario to start.

You may introduce this game with low-stakes, non-academic scenarios: eating dinner, playing hide and go seek, at prom, lost in the woods. Then, you can move into scenarios that are scenes from a book you’re reading, historical events, etc.

How to Play: 2 people just talk and act as if they were in that scene. The teacher (or another person in the group if you choose) can call out “Freeze!” Then, someone will go in and swap with another person. Often, this is done by “tagging” a person in their pose, but I would suggest saying the person’s name you’re swapping with.

Once someone is swapped out, they have to change the way that scene is perceived. For instance, if the people were sitting down and pretending to eat a burger at dinner. A person could freeze, swap in, and turn that “eating a burger” into playing a harmonica.

Variation: A thinking routine that works well embedded in this game is Claim, Support, Question. For example, the leader/teacher can call out “Freeze” for 1 person (or 2 people) acting out a movement. Ask students what their “Claim” is for that movement then ask for explanations to justify that thinking. For example, if I’m standing with my legs spread out and my arms to my side, possible claims could be that I’m doing warrior pose in yoga, going surfing, riding my skateboard, ice skating, etc.

Then, you can ask questions that would clarify the pose. “Are you in the water?” “Are you working out?” After that, someone can take the same position then start acting it out and transition it to another scene. I used this to introduce the thinking routine in the realm of persuasive papers. My point was that each claim you make in persuasive papers must be supported with explanations and research. Every claim can be interpreted multiple ways, and people can make different claims based off of the same evidence. It’s important that you as a writer support your claims with more details or else your argument could be misinterpreted.

21. Line up

Preparation: First, you need to prepare some cards for students that have a clear order or sequence. These could be math number sentences to solve, events of WWII, practice measurements, plot points from a story, the steps in the water cycle, etc.

You can create duplicates of the same sets of cards or you can do different cards for different groups. Make sure that your groups are the same number of people and divide up the cards accordingly. When you go to play in class, have students set up their chairs in lines. It’s best if desks are a little out of the way so that students can walk around and in between chairs.

How to Play: Assign students to groups and assign those groups to a row of chairs. You will pass out cards to each student face down making sure that each group is already in their correct row. Also make sure you have established the front chair is the smallest number or first event, etc.

When you give the cue, each person can look at their card and get themselves in the correct order. Once a group has everyone sitting down in the correct order, they win! The competition for this game can get fierce quickly but it is great for allowing students to quickly assess their card and compare it to others. If they can do this quickly working together, they have really mastered that skill or content.

Examples: You can do this with ordering numbers such as -50, 5, ½, -201, -1, 0, 3, 3 ¼. The variety of numbers will really force students to talk it out with each other.

Variation: Instead of students actually moving themselves with their card, you can have students merely arrange cards on a desk or on the floor. The downside to this is that one person can more easily take over and determine the sequence for the whole group.

22. Continuous Sums

Preparation: Use a set of index cards on which you’ve written numbers, playing cards (remove face cards), fraction strips, or decimal cards. Give each student one card face down. Establish an order for sharing numbers such as around in a circle or down the line of desks in a classroom.

How to Play: One at a time, students will flip over their card and say their number. When the next student reveals their card, they add the two values.

Examples: For example, if the second student’s card reads 3/4, they should announce that the total is 1 1/4. The third student reveals a card (ex. 1/8), adds the value to the running total, and announces the new total (1 3/8). The deck continues around the circle until it is exhausted. Students can use a “lifeline” by asking a friend. To make this easier, you can use whole numbers and/or minimal variety in denominators (only 1/2s and wholes). You can use integers where you’ll flip back and forth across 0 or any other numbers.

23. Punch It!

Preparation: You’ll need plastic cups, tissue paper, and rubber bands. You’ll also need to prepare questions or problems to solve. Hide a problem on a piece of paper inside a plastic cup. Cover the plastic cup with tissue paper and hold it in place with a rubber band. You can set this up like jeopardy where each row or column has a theme and each cup has different levels of points, or you can just let lay the cups out on a table.

How to Play: Once the cups and paper are lined up in a grid, students can walk up one at a time, punch through the tissue paper, and get the question. If they get the question right, their team gets points. If they don’t, they could ask a team member for help and get partial credit. Students can be in teams this way without actually communicating; they can just rack up points as a group.

24. Heads Up

Preparation: Have a stack of index cards or a similar size on which you’ve written concepts, vocabulary, famous people, etc. You could also have students write down information but you’d need to be careful of repeats. This is just like the app/game, Heads Up, by Ellen. You can watch a video of her playing if you’re unfamiliar. I did this as an icebreaker at a professional development where the cards were celebrities. You can put almost anything on these cards: People, events, dates, vocabulary words.

How to Play: Have students be in groups of 4-5. One student holds the stack of cards in front of their forehead. The other students try to get the student with the cards to guess as many as they can correctly in 1 minute. The guesser can “pass” if they’re stuck. After 1 minute, the stack passes to the next person in the group. The group that has the largest correct stack at the end wins the round.

Examples: I used the math vocabulary word wall sheets for our state test which has pictures as well as words and printed them 4 to a page on cardstock to use.

The post 24 classroom games to make student learning FUN appeared first on Truth For Teachers.

One of the best ways to maintain health, both physical health and mental health by being able to foster bonds with those we live with, is to eat at home. I am excited to share with you the ways that cooking has been an everyday part of my life and how I’ve made that happen. For reference, all of the recipes detailed in this article are available in this google document if you want to print any out in an easier format.

Why cook at home?

This Eating Well article explains why cooking at home is better for your body with multiple details. It references this study from Johns Hopkins University which reveals how people who cook at home eat healthier overall even if they’re not trying to lose weight. Those articles mostly discuss physical benefits.

Eating as a family also has enormous benefits for social and emotional health. This interview through the Harvard EdCast Podcast goes into detail about the benefits of eating communally, something that seems to be rarer in many metropolitan areas where after-school activities and work schedules can prevent connections among families. Multiple studies are referenced also in this article in Parents Magazine supporting the benefits of eating at home.

Personally, I love cooking and baking. I grew up in an environment where my mom cooked almost every single night. We had homemade bread around for the holidays and other times if she was up to it. There often were chocolate chip cookies or banana bread around for the taking. I remember taking snickerdoodle cookies into my 4th-grade class one day, and everyone loved them so much that my mom made copies of the recipe and handed it out to my class in the cafeteria.

Snicker Doodles

Ingredients: 

1 C butter
1 ½ C sugar
2 eggs
2 ¾ C flour
2 t cream of tartar
1 t baking soda
¼ t salt

Procedure:

Mix the butter and sugar together with a beater. Mix in eggs. Mix dry ingredients together (flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt) then add into the butter, sugar, and egg mixture gradually.

Mix in a small bowl:
2 T sugar
1 T cinnamon

Roll the cookie dough into 1 inch balls and roll them in the sugar and cinnamon mix.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Place on ungreased cookie sheet for 8-10 minutes.

Luckily for me, I picked up on these habits. Whenever I share that I cook almost every meal and eat out usually one meal per week, many neighbors and colleagues are in disbelief. Even more so, they are in disbelief that I’m happy with this arrangement. I love cooking and while I know not everyone finds it as relaxing or enjoyable or relatively easy as I do, I think there are ways to make it easier and more enjoyable. That’s what I want to share with you in the hopes that the burden of cooking is lighter, yet you can still glean the benefits of it.

Each strategy below is a direct response to a protest I hear from people whenever I talk about cooking or baking with a colleague, friend, or neighbor.

Protest #1: I’m not a chef. I just can’t come up with good ideas. I can’t plan that many good things.

Solution #1: Relax your standards to a level no one else will notice but you.

If you’re a member of the 40 Hour Teacher Workweek Club or you heard me on Episode 240 of the Truth for Teacher Podcast, you’ll know about the Big 5. This phrase comes directly from the Big 5 Tips for Teacher Productivity. In chatting with other people, they often dismiss their cooking abilities as simply not good enough to cook at home. There are many things you can do with a minimal level of skill in the kitchen.

The “Big 5” tips for teacher productivity to reduce overwhelm

A friend of mine is a mother of 4 (all of whom are fairly picky although some are more limited than others) who consistently cooks the same set of 5 meals every single week. On Mondays, they have a meal such as mac and cheese and apple slices. Tuesdays they do chicken nuggets and fries. Other nights are buttered pasta and veggies, breakfast for dinner (pancakes), grilled cheese, pizza, etc. She cooks what they will eat and the routine of planning simplifies her life.

She usually makes a modification for herself such as putting the chicken tenders she made for the kids over a salad for herself. She does not post these meals on social media or search for new recipes constantly. I know from talking with her that this was not her vision. She truly saw herself as the one who would make more elaborate dinners and roasts on Sundays, and this is not her reality, but she is successful with cooking dinners for her family.

Her success is in the consistency of her meal prep. No one is analyzing those meals or comparing them to the vision she had when she was younger, and she can feel good about the fact that she is preparing food for her family that they will eat and that’s working for their life. If you’re thinking that someone is judging you for how you feed your kids because it’s not a plate of rainbows, take a deep breath and remember that no one is looking over your shoulder to rate your meal. Relax your standards to a level that no one else will notice but you.

Protest #2: I can’t cook. I know nothing. I didn’t grow up with a parent who cooked.

Solution #2: Know how to do essential skills. Practice how to prepare a bunch of simple things.

Although I’ll be sharing a bunch of recipes below, the secret to my success (I think) is not following a recipe or making an official meal from a recipe each night. Cooking is really just a rearrangement of multiple different ingredients and skills.

Here are some essential skills to know how to do in a kitchen:

• Season food with salt and pepper
• Boil pasta
• Hard boil eggs, fry eggs, scramble eggs
• Chop an onion
• Chop vegetables
• Saute chicken breast
• Saute onion and ground beef
• Roast vegetables in an oven
• Use a meat thermometer to check done-ness
• Keep surfaces clean and separate (separate raw meat and veggies for example)

Once you know how to do basic preparation, you can follow a multitude of recipes if you want to venture out and you can rearrange the same dish in countless ways.

Let’s take pasta dishes, for example.

You can change a pasta dish in so many ways:

• Change the sauce (tomato, alfredo, pesto, lemon cream, butter, and parmesan)
• Add vegetables (peas, spinach, broccoli, edamame, bell peppers)
• Add meat (chicken, ground beef, salmon)
• Change the pasta itself (use half zucchini noodles/half linguini, change the noodle type, use an alternative pasta, etc.)

From the same basic preparation of boiling water to make pasta, heating up some vegetables and sauce in a saute pan, then mixing the pasta with a little bit of pasta water into the other ingredients, you have a different dish almost every time. You get lots of variety at the table even though the procedure for preparation is the same.

Here is one vegan pasta recipe I enjoy that could be easily modified.

Roasted Cherry Tomato and Asparagus Penne

Ingredients

12 oz cherry or grape tomatoes
2 t thyme
1 t salt
½ t sugar
8 oz asparagus cut up into 2-inch pieces
1 lb penne pasta (or rotini, etc)
2-3 T Olive oil

Procedure:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. On a large sheet pan, place the tomatoes and asparagus with olive oil, salt, thyme, and sugar. Toss to coat. Place in the preheated oven and set a timer for 20 minutes.
3. Place a pot of boiling water on the stove. Salt liberally. Once boiling, cook the pasta according to package directions.
4. After the pasta is cooked, reserve 1 C of pasta water. Drain the pasta.
5. Check the tomatoes and asparagus for doneness. If the tomatoes are starting to burst, it’s ready. Place them back in for 5 minutes or so if they need longer.
6. Pour the tomatoes and asparagus into the pasta once finished cooking. Stir everything together, bursting the tomatoes to create a sauce. Add some pasta water to add to create the sauce. Drizzle with olive oil to finish.
7. Optional modifications: add leftover chicken, cook shrimp with the vegetables in the second half of time in the oven, add slices of sausage, and use fresh spinach instead of asparagus at the end which will wilt when stirred in the pasta.

Protest #3: I don’t mind cooking, but I hate shopping.

Solution #3: Have a set grocery list that meets those stock preparations.

I keep my grocery list in the Notes app on my phone with checkboxes. I check it off when I get it at the store and I’ll uncheck it when I’ve used up enough to need it at the store again. When I’m at the store, I just buy the things that are unchecked. If you’re making similar types of meals and rotating through those on a weekly basis (see more about that below), you can keep your list pretty much the same all the time.

Modify your own list to suit your own tastes and what you keep around most often. Here are a few ideas to get you started.

Protest #4: You probably have all the gadgets and use all this fancy stuff. I don’t have time for that. I don’t even know what the things I have are for.

Solution #4: Have a small set of tools that make cooking easy to do. Get rid of (or set aside) anything you don’t know how to use.

I think this is not a huge stumbling block for most people. Most people have sheet pans, frying pans, and some pots, but if not, get those few things. The biggest thing I’ve seen that gets in the way is not having sharp knives. If you are struggling while cutting meat or vegetables, you need to sharpen your knives or just buy some new ones. You can get decent knives at the grocery store for a great price. You do not need to invest in the best of the best; just get something that will make it easier for you to do the job of cooking.

Also, above I mentioned using a meat thermometer to check for done-ness, so a meat thermometer can be a great tool especially if you’re not sure when something is cooked until you’ve already cut into it. This gets easier to tell over time the more you cook, but if you’re less experienced, purchasing a meat thermometer for $10 online will give lots of peace of mind that you’re cooking meat thoroughly and safely.

Here’s a short list:

• Large frying/saute pan
• Large sheet pan
• Large pot for soup and boiling pasta water
• Cutting boards (at least 2)
• Sharp knives (large chopping one often labeled “chef’s knife”, serrated knife for meat, a smaller paring knife for small fruits and vegetables)
• Cheese grater (a box grater with zester and large and small size holes is perfect)
• Colander for pasta or rinsing vegetables
• Vegetable peelers (for root vegetables such as potatoes and carrots)
• Meat thermometer
• Spatula (flexible rubber for softer things and harder plastic for sauteing/flipping)
• Large plastic spoon for stirring
• Measuring cups and spoons (more for baking; I rarely measure things when cooking)
• Rice cooker (makes this task a million times easier)
• Electric mixer (handheld works great!) for baking tasks

Protest #5: I am not creative enough to come up with all those ideas. My family would get bored if I cooked all the time.

Solution #5: Have a rotating list of meals that everyone (or mostly everyone) likes.

Routine is often welcome. If you’re eating seasonally, then every few months you can also change the fruits and vegetables that are offered, have more soups in the winter, more grilled meats in the summer, etc. It might surprise you how little variety is needed.

As I mentioned in the first part of my post, consider a weekly rotation of meals that works for you. I am including 6 themes with the idea that one night is likely to be leftovers or dining out. I find having theme days like this allows me to plan meals on a weekly basis more easily since I can always swap my pasta and salad nights depending on my mood or time. This also keeps more variety for me than choosing to have the same meal every Monday which I personally enjoy.

The added benefit of these meal themes is limiting the dishes. I hate doing dishes, luckily my significant other does them and doesn’t mind. Still, I don’t like to have a ton of dishes and containers around anyway.

For pasta dishes, I typically need a pot to boil water and a large saute pan. For oven meals, 1-2 sheet pans are great. I love extra large sheet pans where you can do half of a meal on one side and half on the other. For crock pot meals and soup, hopefully, it’s just the crock pot or large pot you’re using. By repeating the same types of meals over and over, you can keep using the same materials to cook and reduce the accumulation of different types of dishes constantly.

Below are some recipe ideas for each category or theme I’ve listed.

Pasta Ideas

• Spaghetti and Meatballs (see below for my favorite meatball recipe)
• Chicken and Alfredo Pasta (use pre-made alfredo sauce and rotisserie chicken to keep this fast; add vegetables such as frozen broccoli or spinach for greens)
• Roasted Cherry Tomatoes and Asparagus Penne (earlier in the article)
• Shrimp Scampi (see next section in the article)
• Beef Stroganoff (below)

Meatballs

Ingredients

1 lb. ground beef
1 egg
4 slices of bread ripped up and soaked in a little milk until soft
grated parmesan cheese (couple handfuls)
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp oregano
salt and pepper (½ tsp each)

Procedure

Mix everything together and form into balls. Add breadcrumbs if too wet. Fry in oil in a saute pan until brown. Turn as each side gets brown.

Beef Stroganoff

Ingredients:

8 oz egg noodles
1 garlic clove
2T salt
1 T paprika
1 medium onion, chopped
2 T oil
½ lb. – 1lb. ground beef
1 can or box of cream of mushroom soup
6-8 oz mushrooms, sliced (can add more if you use less beef)
Heavy whipping cream, plain yogurt, or sour cream

Procedure:

1. Put water on to boil. Salt liberally.
2. Brown garlic, onion, and beef in a large saute pan.
3. Add the salt, paprika, and mushrooms. Add cream of mushroom soup and simmer. Cook on low flame under boiling point for about 10 minutes.
4. While it is thickening, cook egg noodles in the now boiling water.
5. Mix into the beef mixture ½ C sour cream or greek yogurt or ¼ C whipping cream. If using whipping cream and it is not creating a thick enough sauce, add 1T flour to thicken.
6. Serve the beef stroganoff over the noodles

Note: While traditionally this uses sour cream and much more of it, I have found multiple substitutes work to create a creamy enough sauce while limiting calories.

Stovetop Meal Ideas

Tacos (don’t be afraid to rely on spice mix or taco sauce – I like the brand Frontera)

Peanut Thai Salmon (below)

Shrimp Fried Rice (many recipes are online and you can just mix the rice with any frozen vegetables you want along with soy sauce and oil to toast)

Pork Chops and Spanish Rice (you can buy rice mixes with seasoning which are typically prepared

Peanut Thai Salmon

Ingredients

Salmon (about a 4 oz portion for each person)
Edamame (frozen and shelled is best)
Pappardelle egg noodles (often come in little nests; fettucini is also fine)
2 Tbsp Soy sauce
1/2 cup Peanut butter (preferably smooth)
1-2 Tbsp brown sugar (or other sweeteners)
1 tsp ground ginger (you can buy it in a jar and it will keep in the fridge a long time)
2-3 garlic cloves, grated
3 Tbsp sesame seeds
Salt and pepper
Optional: chili garlic sauce or red pepper flakes or sriracha

Procedure

1. In a large saute pan, put some oil on medium heat.
2. Place the salmon skin side down in the pan with some oil. Season with salt and pepper and cover with a lid.
3. Place salted water in a pot to boil.
4. Prepare the Thai peanut sauce in a small bowl by mixing together the peanut butter, soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger, and garlic. If it is too thick, you can add a little warm water or vinegar or lime juice if you like more acidity. Feel free to taste and add more sweetness or saltiness as you prefer.
5. Add the frozen edamame to the pan with the salmon and let them cook in the pan. If the salmon is thicker, flip it to cook the top some, and then you can flip it back skin side down later. Leave the top off unless it looks as though it needs much more time.
6. Cook the pasta according to package directions once the water is boiled.
7. Take the salmon out and set it aside. (the other option is to break it up and just mix it all together)
8. Put the pasta into the pan with the edamame. Add the peanut sauce. Stir everything to coat. Add most of the sesame seeds into the mixture.
9. To plate, put the edamame and pasta mixture in a large, shallow dinner bowl. Then, place the salmon on top and sprinkle it with sesame seeds and any extra sauce if you happen to have some.

Sheet Pan/Oven Meal Ideas

Roasted Vegetables with Decadent Chicken (below)

Baked Herbed Salmon and Rice (tuck the salmon in an aluminum foil pocket with a little oil and any herbs you like such as rosemary or Herbes de Provence)

Lemon Infused Fish and Rice (layer lemon slices over a white fish such as haddock or tilapia with salt and pepper. Savory leaves are a nice touch if you can get them. Other herbs are also great)

Homemade Fries and “Fried” Chicken (below)

Breaded Asparagus with your choice of meat (bake asparagus with ½ parmesan and ½ breadcrumbs on top)

Roasted Vegetables and Decadent Chicken

Ingredients

Decadent Chicken Breasts
Mix ½ C mayo and ½ C parmesan cheese. Spread on top of chicken.
Shake breadcrumbs on top of the mixture.
Bake 350 for 40-50 minutes.

Procedure

For roasted vegetables, chop into 1” cubes any kind of vegetable that works for you such as potatoes, carrots, squash, zucchini, broccoli, etc. Roast for up to 45 minutes (especially for potatoes) at 400.

Homemade Fries and “Fried” Chicken

Ingredients

Chicken legs and/or thighs (or another part of the bird with skin and bones) – enough for 1-3 pieces per person depending on the cuts chosen
3 cups Flour (approximately)
Buttermilk (can use an egg with some milk instead in a pinch) – 2 Cups (approximately)
Salt and Pepper
Potatoes (1 per person)
Safflower or Canola oil

Procedure

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Pat dry the chicken with paper towels.
3. Pour some flour into a large Ziploc bag or large, shallow bowl/container. Add salt and pepper and any other seasonings you might like such as thyme or paprika.
4. Also prepare another shallow container with buttermilk.
5. Toss the chicken in the flour to coat.
6. Then, put the chicken in the buttermilk to coat. Let any excess drip off.
7. Place the chicken back into the flour and toss to coat again.
8. Coat a large sheet pan with oil (preferably safflower or canola which can tolerate higher temperatures than olive oil but olive oil is okay or a spray can of oil is fine) and place the chicken in the oil. Roll the chicken around a little to lightly coat it with oil.
9. Put the chicken in the preheated oven with a timer for 45 minutes.
10. Cut up the potatoes (typically ½ – 1 potato per person) into wedges or small fry sizes.
11. Place the potatoes on a large sheet pan ensuring one layer of fries. Toss to coat in olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and any other seasonings you like such as rosemary or paprika.
12. Place the potatoes in the oven. When you do this, turn the chicken. Hopefully, this is about ⅓-½ way through cooking time.
13. Turn the fries when there are about 10 minutes remaining so that another side can get browned. Test the chicken and adjust the timing accordingly. They can be removed as the fries keep cooking and rest outside the oven. Breasts will take longer to cook while legs will take less time.

Crock Pot Ideas

Taco Meat (makes it easy to prep ahead)

Chicken Noodle Soup (below)

Barbecue Pork or Chicken (this is great to make sandwiches)

Beef and Potato Stew (use a large piece of beef such as a chuck roast and place on top of large carrot chunks, celery sliced in 2-inch pieces, quartered potatoes, add salt and pepper, and cook up to 8 hours)

Moroccan Stew (below)

Moroccan Stew

2 t curry
2 onions
2 carrots
2 t ginger
1 t cinnamon
2 t cumin
½ t paprika
½ t turmeric
2 cans chickpeas
2 cans tomatoes
4 C vegetable stock
2 T lemon juice
salt and pepper
2 zucchini chopped
2 cans kidney beans

Onions and oil and spices first
Then add everything else
Low 6 hours
Possible toppings: dried fruit, olives, yogurt, cilantro, hot peppers

Chicken Noodle Soup

1 onion chopped
3 carrots, sliced
3 stalks of celery, sliced
2 garlic cloves
4 C chicken broth/water
1-2 chicken breasts or 4 thighs (depending on size)
½ t salt
¼ t pepper

1 C egg noodles added towards the end

Can be done on the stovetop (sear chicken first then add vegetables then broth) or in a crock pot

Salad Ideas

Curry Chicken Salad (below)

Egg Salad (I like to add paprika with onion, mayo, celery, and paprika)

Pasta Salad with Spinach and Arugula (I like to use a salad dressing such as lemon juice and olive oil or mustard and white wine vinegar and olive oil and orzo for the pasta)

Bowtie Pasta Salad with Hard Boiled Eggs (I love ranch dressing or poppyseed dressing and romaine lettuce for this salad)

Curry Chicken Salad

Amounts can be easily adjusted to suit your desires.

2-3 C cubed cooked chicken
5 oz can, sliced water chestnuts
1 T curry powder
⅔ C mayonnaise
1 t salt
1 t soy sauce
½ C sliced almonds
½ c chopped celery
½ C halved seedless grapes (apples are a good alternative as well)

Breakfast Ideas

Buttermilk Pancakes (recipe below)

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Pancakes (recipe below)

Omelets (Cook the filling separately and keep the heat low for the eggs)

Egg Sandwiches or Egg Burritos (so many ideas for this to swap out bread, cheese, meats, etc)

Cinnamon Rolls or Biscuits and Scrambled Eggs (I love using Annie’s cinnamon rolls or biscuits that are easy to pop in the oven and serve with eggs in any style)

Crepes with Fruit and Yogurt (easy recipes online, never worry about the first crepe being bad)

Buttermilk Pancakes

Ingredients

1 ¾ C flour
1 t salt
1 t baking soda
2 C buttermilk
2 beaten eggs

Procedure

Beat eggs into the buttermilk then add to dry ingredients. Do not overmix.

Cook on medium-high heat using butter.

Optional: add blueberries, chocolate chips, or serve with maple syrup or jam.

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Pancakes

In a bowl, combine: 1 C regular or quick oats
1C whole wheat flour
¼ C wheat germ
1t baking soda
¼ t salt
1 T brown sugar

In another bowl, combine:
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 C buttermilk
4 T canola oil

Add all at once to dry ingredients and stir until well blended.

Cook at 325 degrees. Good with vanilla yogurt and fruit on top.

Protest #6: I make the plans but then I’m too tired to do it. I end up wasting food.

Solution #6: Have backup meals that are easy and require little effort.

These backup meals are actually faster than ordering take out or even delivery of something. These options are always available for me so I know that I can rely on them if I’m too tired to make my original plan, running behind on time, or had to rearrange for any number of reasons. The best way to ensure the default is cooking vs. the default being to dine out is to have backup plans in place.

My backup meals include:

• Omelets (you need eggs, milk, cheese, and then it’s great to have some veggies or lunchmeat/breakfast meat to mix in based on preference)
• Frozen ravioli with pasta sauce or just olive oil and parmesan
• Shrimp scampi (below)
• Macaroni and cheese from a box (often I’ll add fresh spinach or leftover ground beef or peas)
• Salad Mixes (I’ll sometimes add a hard-boiled egg or leftover chicken or steak)
• Sandwiches (I like grilled cheese because I always have cheese and bread)

Shrimp Scampi

Ingredients

½ C butter (1 stick)
1 lb angel hair (or spaghetti or linguini)
2 or more garlic cloves
1 tsp oregano
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper

Procedure

Boil a pot of water. Salt liberally. While waiting for the pasta to boil, melt the butter in a saucepan. Add the shrimp, garlic, and seasonings. Cook the pasta according to the package directions. Drain the pasta and mix it into the shrimp and butter. Use some pasta water if you need to thin the sauce.

Protest #7: I’m trying to do too much at once when I cook. I can’t do it. And when I do it well, it takes me hours to follow the recipe I want.

Solution #7: Focus on the act of cooking.

Another Big 5 tip is to Avoid Multitasking unless the work is mindless. You may get to a point where some meals are fairly mindless or parts of meals like boiling pasta or waiting for something to cook in the oven is pretty easy. You can do other tasks while you wait for a timer or talk to your significant other or kid while you chop veggies.

Don’t let yourself set an expectation that’s so high that the house would have to be on fire for you to look away. At the same time, don’t assume you should be able to do all the things all at once. That is not realistic! Cooking takes time and focus and energy. It’s not something that can be done at the same time as a million other things. There is joy and satisfaction in completing a task.

Worry less about whether your meal is ideally healthy and focus on the fact that you made it. If you can’t tell by this article, I am obsessed with the Food Network and the Cooking Channel. One show I used to watch as a child (yes, as a child I loved watching cooking shows!) was Semi-Homemade with Sandra Lee. (This was 2nd in line behind Everyday Italian with Giada de Laurentiis).

The idea of semi-homemade was that it was still better to focus on making the meal yourself and eating with friends and family at a table than to make the default to eat out. It was better to bake your own cake out of a box and add your own little touch of decoration than to merely buy one. The personal touch mattered.

When you are trying to cook at home, especially after a period of not taking on that task, try to take steps toward semi-homemade. It’s okay to buy some things pre-made and make another part of it.

Protest #8: My food just doesn’t taste as good as a restaurant.

Solution #8: Season your food. Don’t be afraid of oil and butter, salt and pepper, herbs, and sauces.

This is my last addition because I know so many people who said that their parents didn’t cook that well. My dad used to hate spinach with a passion until he ate some that were salted and not out of a can. Restaurant meals have more fat/butter/oils, seasoning such as salt and pepper, and sauces or herbs. This often means those restaurant meals can have excess salt and butter, but it is acceptable that your meals at home have butter and salt. Just because you are trying to cook healthier at home does not mean you need to avoid all of those things.

If you think that all vegetables you make at home taste terrible, add a little butter and salt, and you might change your mind! Using frozen vegetables are as nutrient-rich as fresh, but sometimes the texture of fresh might win you over. Not everything you make at home needs to be the epitome of health. Your meal is very, very likely still going to be fewer calories than what you would eat out at a restaurant so don’t beat yourself up for not making an ideal meal.

Choose what you tell yourself about your meals. It is more important to be cooking for and with the family than it is to have the “ideal” meal. Consider the meal that’s best for you and your family, not an elusive ideal that might not even suit you!

Make your standard attainable by focusing on the goal of cooking vs. the goal of being the perfect chef. Focus on the process and that will achieve your goal.

Bon appetit!

The post How to make weeknight meals less stressful (even if you’re not a planner, good cook, or creative in the kitchen) appeared first on Truth For Teachers.

When you have an infant, you’re looking for signs that they’re developing normally at the appropriate, expected pace.

You’re watching for the first smile, first crawl, first word, first tooth, first bites of food, first step. You’re trying to see if every day they’re moving closer towards the development you expect. There are changes week to week, sometimes day to day, certainly year to year as they grow up.

As a teacher, we also look for signs of “normal” development. We look for kindergarteners that skip and play showing gross motor skills and controlled fine motor skills of handwriting grips. We assess young students for phonemic awareness and if they can rhyme words and segment and blend sounds. Anyone who has studied early childhood development knows that there are milestones we want to meet.

But as the years get further away from infancy and clear-cut 6 months vs 9-month goalposts, it becomes difficult to say what this 10 year old child *should* be doing. What about when an entire class of 10 year olds seems to be “not normal” or “not on pace”? They seem immature or just “all over the place” as I’ve heard so many teachers describe groups of students. How do you manage a classroom where “average” feels like it’s lost meaning?

Principal Gerry Brooks has a popular video on Facebook, Paradigm of Education, that describes how many students in a “normal” classroom will be economically disadvantaged, below grade level expectations, and have mental health difficulties or trauma. As he says in his video, “This is reality.”

Differentiation is not something that is nice to do as a teacher; it is necessary in order to meet students where they are and support each student in growth, not just the 5 per class that are showing textbook development. These gaps often grow as students get older even though “closing the gap” is a goal of almost every school district.

My 2nd-grade classroom can span K-3rd grade reading levels while my 6th-grade classroom would usually span 2nd-8th grade. Each group of students is different so each class I’ve taught has had different collective strengths, needs, and concerns, but I’ve never had a class where everyone was just moving along at the same pace all year, came in at the same levels, had the same support at home, had the same languages spoken at home, had the same needs from me, or anything else the same.

People are different, and that shows up in our classrooms now more than any other time in US history due to the fact that now is the time we have made education the most open and accessible to more of the population. This is a good thing! This is not an easy thing. And in order to keep working towards educational equity, we need to create systems that work to meet these students when their needs and abilities feel scattered.

Part One: Differentiate the way you ASSESS

We often think about planning when it comes to differentiation, but I want to start with thinking about how to differentiate assessment. I think teachers often get frustrated because as much as we are told to differentiate in the classroom, all students have to take a standardized assessment anyway – either at the district, state, or even nationwide level. After all, isn’t it only fair if everyone gets the same test? I don’t think it is actually, particularly for English Learners.

Through IEPs, students receive accommodations for standardized testing such as extended time, flexible schedule, read aloud, dictate to a scribe, and so on. Often, ELLs (English language learners) are not provided the same types of differentiation in assessment. It’s often simply expected that they will perform badly because they are not fluent in the language.

While you may not have control over a district or state assessment, why not change classroom assessments so that you can actually see what they know related to the curriculum? 

I’ve heard some teachers respond, “They won’t get that on the district/state test, so it doesn’t matter.” I think it matters a great deal.

A student who scores highly on a test with a few modifications or accommodations is going to feel awesome about their ability to learn and is going to keep working towards it. If they still fail that state-level test, at that point, the student will know it was the test and not them that is a failure because they do know the material and they have demonstrated acquisition of knowledge and skills in the classroom setting.

In addition to that, this differentiation of assessment could have a huge impact on their classroom grades. For many classes, our job is to assess their content area knowledge, not their spelling or reading comprehension, so you can assess what you need to assess and let go of what might be holding a student back from demonstrating that knowledge. This makes a huge difference to me, and I’ve seen how students feel empowered by getting good grades on assessments with accommodations.

1. Read Aloud

I think the easiest way to differentiate is to just read aloud a test to a select group of students. Also, if you like, you can read aloud a multiple-choice test to all students as a class, allowing some to go at their own pace if they like and others to follow along with you. You could have students raise their hand and you go to them individually or have them come to you with a question.

A certain feeling of safety needs to be built up between teacher and student, especially with older children, for this to work in a way to truly provide the accommodation, but all it takes is a couple of brave kids to ask how to read a vocabulary word and soon everyone will feel that sense that they are allowed to ask. Even if this doesn’t go that well right away on the first formal assessment, try it again. They may feel more comfortable with you later.

2. Simplistic Language

One fairly easy way to differentiate assessments is to just use a version of the test with more simplistic language. Read through your assessment and see if you can make any words a little more basic, easier to read, less nuanced.

I understand your hesitation if you’re an English teacher, but you can likely make directions a little simpler. Removing a step, reducing or condensing the language, spreading out questions, and adding more space to a page are all ways to differentiate a test that doesn’t require a huge amount of effort on your part.

If you struggle with reading, sometimes too much text on a page is just overwhelming. Is there a way you can break it up? Physically add more spaces between questions? Use a table to make the directions for what to do more obvious? Double-space and give a window cut out to read a line or paragraph at a time?

3. Adding Images

This was my favorite way to differentiate for science assessments. All I did to my test was add pictures. For instance, on a test about which cloud goes with which weather, I added a picture of a cirrus cloud. Then, I added a picture of a cumulus cloud for the next question.

Why might I “give it away”? Well, if you’re an English learner, maybe cirrus and cumulus are difficult for you to differentiate. Or if you have dyslexia, maybe those words keep getting flipped in your mind and it’s frustrating.

If you have a photograph to anchor you, you’re more confident to answer the question. It’s not that you didn’t know which type of weather was associated with which cloud, it’s that you’re constantly second-guessing yourself because of a vocabulary word. If the goal is to predict weather based on cloud formations, I think an image is a great way to measure that skill and standard.

These are screenshots of Google Forms quizzes I have given. The standards assessed on the left and right are the same but the presentation of the information has been adjusted to accommodate students.

4. Verbal response

Tracking can be difficult for some students with disabilities. I have watched students circle “D” on #9 right after reading #8 when they meant to mark that question. Then, they get confused as to what they read and what they’re marking and have to start all over again.

Sometimes it can be more efficient to accept a verbal response to a question if a student is losing track of what they are reading. I often combine this with a read-aloud accommodation. The fascinating thing I’ve noticed is often if I’m reading a multiple-choice test, sometimes students will tell me the answer before I’ve even read the choices because they know the material!

The problem is that when they go to take the test on paper, it’s so taxing they miss half the questions! This truly has happened to me as a teacher, and it’s convinced me that I should accept verbal responses. 

5. Dictate to a scribe

Unless it is a writing assessment, if a student significantly struggles with writing and spelling, I will allow them to talk to me, and I will write their words on paper for them. This is an accommodation on many IEPs so sometimes it’s mandated that I do this, but sometimes it’s not. I think you would know as a teacher who would truly benefit from this and need it. 

6. Allow for drawing and make it more accessible to all

Consider how you could make an assessment a little bit more equitable. Instead of asking students to list 3 reasons why they would prefer to explore a Pueblo, Powhatan, or Lakota home, have them draw one of those homes and label the 3 things that are important to the tribe they chose. You are getting the same information but you’ve allowed students to show what they know in a way that doesn’t require a whole paragraph of writing.

If you don’t have to have an essay as a response, consider how you might incorporate some form of drawing or expression. Perhaps you can embed matching or sorting or putting images in sequence instead of words. Is there simply a way you can make the assessment more accessible to everyone. Many teachers typically provide word banks to support spelling and writing, but perhaps there’s a way to assess entirely differently (although word banks can be great!)

When I taught 6th grade, kids knew if they were getting a test with pictures vs. a test without. About halfway through the year, they would ask me if they could take the “regular” test. I always said yes, but I told them to take the one with pictures first. Then, they would feel more confident going into the other test. I told them I would take the better score of the two tests. I think that’s totally fair since they were doing more work.

This often meant these kids were some of the last to finish because they took it twice, but they worked so hard and immediately wanted to know how they did. This is the type of motivation I want to see related to assessments. They were looking for growth and they were seeking a personal challenge.

It wasn’t that they were obsessed with getting a perfect score; they were thrilled to see improvement over time. I cannot express what a joy it was to see students thrive like that – it’s exactly what we study in education classes about the zone of proximal development and moving a student towards their goal.

Part Two: Differentiate the way you TEACH

Now let’s consider what people usually mean by differentiation, that is, in terms of lesson planning and creating different materials or tasks for different students. For me, the easiest way to differentiate my planning was to group students into small groups and teach a majority of the content that way.

Here are some ways to differentiate between small groups. You can group students flexibly and change as often as needed. I often keep groups the same for an entire unit or more simply to help students foster relationships and have a “go to” person if they get lost or need support.

1. Change the content in small groups

Teach what students need based on pre-assessments or reteach based on any current assessments. I think this is the default for many when they consider the word “differentiation.”

I use quizzes and tests to group students by what they missed. Then, we can go over mistakes together and each group has similar needs. Then, no one in the class feels like their time is wasted because I’m only going over the content they missed on an assessment. If you group a quiz by standard or skill, this sets you up for that.

For any students who made very few mistakes, you can just group them together, ask if they have any questions, then do an enrichment task. You do not even have to do this as a small group station. You can also allow students to work on an independent task then call over students by part of the quiz/test so that everyone is working on something and you can see some kids for most of the time while others you might not see at all.

2. Change the pace

Teach the same content slower or faster to different groups. You can provide more time to take notes, ask questions, or process information. You could do more or fewer problems with different groups of students and adjust your pace in response to a smaller group. You could repeat the same problem or task to solidify the learning or backpedal as needed.

The goal is to do the same basic task with all students. If you’re working through some sort of designated program and they’re understanding one “level,” you can skip ahead and move onto the next part without worrying if you’re leaving someone behind.

3. Change the level of the work (but keep the content the same)

• Choose multiple levels of the same text or select texts all on the same topic or within the same genre that are at different levels. You can find leveled texts through a platform like Newsela and many reading sites. Guided Reading typically follows this structure where you’re doing a similar lesson but using a different text that is at the instructional level of students.
• You can choose different leveled problems such as 2 digit no regrouping, 2 digit with regrouping, 3 digit addition without regrouping or 1 step vs. 2 step problems. You can also change the numbers in word problems. You can do the same word problem with students but one group uses simpler numbers while another does larger numbers.
• You change your expectations slightly so that one group is expected to write 3 sentences while another group writes 6 sentences. Of course, students can always do more and may surprise you, but the expectation is adjusted to be an attainable goal that will result in a feeling of success.

4. Add a modification

You can offer some students manipulatives while others are not required to use them but might still have them in view. You can draw a picture for some students to follow along. You can read aloud a passage with some students while with another group you let them read it on their own. You can pre-teach a few vocabulary words before a passage only with one group that might not have the background knowledge yet.

Pull up some google images of “rainforest” before reading the book to prep students who might not have had that exposure and can’t predict anything in the story. That type of modification can be 100% responsive and in the moment; it’s not something you have to plan. I’ve often pulled up images on my computer to show students in guided reading when I realized they couldn’t make the connection or prediction I thought they would be able to make.

Whatever you choose to do to differentiate for small groups I recommend that you:

Use data: It can help to group questions on a quiz/test by standard or skill so that you can easily group students by the part they missed or the part they missed that is most essential to moving forward. You can use a standardized assessment or reading diagnostic to prioritize which strategy to teach students.

Stay flexible: Groups are not meant to be static. My favorite way to differentiate is actually purely by pace. Something that could be taught whole group goes ten times better teaching it small group because I can be more efficient and responsive.

Some might argue this is a waste of time because I could just teach it whole group in ¼ of the time. Time is not the only factor here; students often understand better in small group and require less reteaching over time.

In small group, I can catch misconceptions in real-time, reteach as I need to, and provide a more challenging problem when I see they have it. It also allows me to see who is falling behind or moving ahead in a small group so that I can rearrange the next week fairly easily.

There are many benefits to consistency in groups and I enjoy heterogeneous small groups sometimes, too, just to allow kids to work with different people. Groups are meant to be intentionally created, but you can change your intent.

5. Differentiate whole-class lessons

Often teachers rely on small group instruction to be the time for differentiation, but consider these possibilities for how to differentiate a whole class lesson:

• Use 2 sample texts that are different reading levels so that you’re using 2 different mentor texts to teach the same point.
• Allow students to choose which word problem to solve and share out loud.
• Read aloud the passage or allow students to read at their own pace.
• Provide visual support.
• Have supportive charts such as sentence frames, vocabulary words, familiar diagrams or procedures.
• Use partnerships for students to talk to one another; you can also use triads to support students – one lower-level English learner with more verbal students so they can hear the language modeled.
• Make use of proficient dual language speakers (for example they can repeat directions in Spanish and English).
• Have different types of paper available that are borrowed from primary levels of school – some with a space for pictures to draw and some with only lines.
• Use captioning/subtitles for videos you play in class.

Part Three: PLAN with a structure for differentiation in mind

1. Differentiate independent work

When students are doing independent work, provide work that is meaningful for students working on primary or foundational skills. This might mean an online program that is set at the right level. But more often, this will mean just-right books for reading, math practice that has multiple levels of difficulty so that students can do different levels of work to meet their needs. Or offering listening to speaking as an alternative to reading, etc.

In a personal blog post, “How I teach reading to a class that spans 7+ grade levels”, I shared how I taught reading to my 6th graders, where I give some recommendations for how to keep work age appropriate even when students are working on basic skills.

2. Provide choices to allow for self-differentiation

When I was in college, we learned about differentiation from the model of Carol Ann Tomlinson who explained how you could differentiate process, product, and content (see page 288 for a simplified diagram). Often I heard this explained in a way that fostered self-selected differentiation.

For example, as a student, I could choose to make a trifold or a PowerPoint (product). I could choose to research Ancient Greek Gods or the history of the Olympics (content). I could choose to read or watch a video to learn information (process). These types of choices are incredibly valuable in the classroom.

While this was often discussed within the context of gifted students, all students benefit from choice. Choices often elicit buy-in from students and provide interesting variety. While I can assign different levels of text to different students based on assessments of reading level or assign projects and tasks to students based on my belief in their ability to handle specific tasks, students will often self-select very accurately to their level of challenge.

I would even say that often students can self-select more accurately than we can assign for them.  Abilities are flexible. I have had the experience over and over again of seeing a struggling reader devour a novel that they loved and understand it when they couldn’t pass a grade level comprehension test. Or hear a student use advanced vocabulary describing sea turtles and climate change without being able to write 1 sentence about it.

In one episode of “The Office,” Kevin makes calculations regarding pie even though he cannot do any math computations outside of the pie scenario (despite being one of the accountants). While this is extreme because it’s a comedy show, the same thing can be seen on a small scale when I make the word problem in math about buying soccer equipment instead of buying apples.

Motivation can strengthen abilities and make weaknesses practically dissipate. This is not always true, of course, but it happens often enough that teachers know how valuable motivation is! This type of differentiation based on choice and pleasure is not something that we can manage all the time, but we can plan ahead for it in many situations. Even offering 2 choices of which article to read or which worksheet to do can be powerful.

You might be thinking, “With so much choice and so many accommodations, what is even the same? What is holding a classroom together? What needs to be the same for all students?

I’ve heard a teacher say before, “My job is to teach ____ grade level math. That’s what I’ve been assigned to teach.”

You might assume this teacher did not differentiate or reteach concepts to students; however, I happen to know that this particular teacher had a huge heart for struggling students and worked to get them to understand grade-level material by filling in gaps. This statement was made in response to the frustrations of a parent who wanted this teacher to teach the next grade level of math curriculum to their child.

Even though I empathized with this teacher’s frustration, I thought the statement was interesting and still slightly problematic. Is that what I’m hired to do? Teach 5th grade math or Biology or AP Literature or 2nd grade?

Someone might counter, “You were hired to teach these students.” I want to agree with that, but is that all? On some level, you ARE hired to teach Biology. You are expected to teach a set of curriculum. That is where the struggle comes in for us as teachers. We want to abandon the curriculum sometimes and just teach what students need and sometimes we want to teach a unit on dinosaurs because it’s fun! Standards cannot be completely abandoned or we really are going to be accused of not doing our jobs, even if we think we’re doing what’s best for students. So what can you do?

3. Focus on essential standards for equity

Not all standards are created equal. Understanding the differences between the author’s purposes to entertain, inform, and persuade is not as important as being able to read fluently. Knowing the names of geometric shapes is not as important as fluently adding and subtracting within 20. Being able to identify personification is not as important as being able to write a paragraph with a topic sentence.

When you look at the standards that you are supposed to teach, think about which ones students really need to master for their success in the long term – not for a test, not for this month – but in order to move on to the next grade level with a foundation.

Which standards will have the best use over time? It is our responsibility to teach both students and standards, but which standards we prioritize is our choice as educators. This is an important discussion to have with a grade-level team of teachers and even through vertical articulation by talking to future grade-level teachers.

What is vital to the student’s success? Can you and a team of teachers select a handful of standards for each unit or content area that are MUSTS? These are the ones you’re going to relentlessly reteach throughout the year whether or not the unit has passed, whether or not you’ve “covered” it in the time allotted. And if students are missing foundational skills needed to reach these standards, those are the ones you’re going to go back to in order to get them to a point where you can teach the grade-level standards.

You are not going to do this for every standard you’re expected to cover; you’re going to select and prioritize with the idea that when a student leaves your class, they will be able to do these things. In fact, for many standards, go ahead and “cover” them; do a quick lesson and move on. Everything we teach is “good to know” and “useful” but not everything is vital.

4. Use low floor, high ceiling tasks

For whole group lessons, choose tasks that are open-ended. Use thinking routines such as “See Think Wonder” where students can share what they notice and wonder about an image or from a video. This piques the interest of the class and allows for self-differentiation. Students will share answers that are at their own level; meanwhile, all answers are valid.

If you’re having students share ideas that could be correct or incorrect in your context, ask “What makes you say that?” indiscriminately so you can gather information about how students are thinking without judgment. If you scroll to #8 in this article on 8 Ways to Stay Ahead in Lesson Planning, you’ll see lots of ideas for thinking routines for any content area and number sense routines for math.

5. Consider self-paced learning

In some classes, there might be a diverse difference in how quickly students can move through material. In this post “How to Create a Self Paced Classroom” from Cult of Pedagogy, you can read about the Modern Classrooms Project which might be a great fit if you really do need students to master many pieces of curriculum in a certain sequence. This will allow you to support the students going slower, build in some opportunities for peer coaching, and allow you to still cover the curriculum in the sequence you desire.

6. Use themes for unit planning

Use a throughline for a unit to allow all students to participate even if the work they are doing is different. This allows you to find materials for different levels of readers or provide guidelines that allow everyone to meet the end goal even though those end products may look different.

For example:

• Everyone is reading fantasy, just different books at different levels of text
• Everyone is learning about explorers but focusing on different ones
• Everyone is discussing “change” in response to their appropriate task
• Everyone is writing poetry and considering what poetry is but topics vary
• Everyone is writing a research paper but has a choice of a few topics
• Everyone is creating a project that answers the same guiding question
• Everyone has the same set of required pieces to do but there are multiple extensions

7. Plan multiple content areas holistically; search for cross curricular connections

If you teach elementary, consider how you can lessen your planning workload by overlapping content areas. You can arrange your curriculum in a way that looks for connections and cross over.

If you teach secondary, perhaps you can buddy up with a teacher that has the same students as you teach. You can both work on a project teaching different aspects. For example, a math teacher could work on fractions by having students change a recipe that feeds 4 people to multiplying it to feed the class of 24. Then, an English teacher could have them write directions for the recipe and a meaningful poem or memoir that explains why that recipe is important to their family or culture.

Here are some other ways you could make connections between curriculums that help everyone feel a part of the learning experience. For example, students might:

• read science books as a station in language arts
• write a script for a video teaching about economics in writing
• practice writing “how to” style directions in science class for growing plants
• create symmetrical shapes in art class to reinforce geometry

Often, this practice helps to solidify concepts for students because a fact or concept is not taught in isolation. I teach elementary and most of the specialists in my school actually love connecting to the content in class and appreciate knowing what I’m doing. This also reinforces the idea that school is helpful in the real world where “math” is not a separate activity of life. It is a part of measuring temperature, estimating where to put my dresser and bed in the bedroom, buying groceries, making a budget for my future dreams, etc.

There are many ways to adjust to meet the needs of students. Choose one of these ideas that you’d like to try and start there! No one is doing all of these things all of the time, but every teacher can make mindful choices to meet the needs of their students.

Start with what your students need and then take a step where their needs are leading you.

The post 18 manageable ways to differentiate when kids have gaps in their learning appeared first on Truth For Teachers.

We also want to be responsive to student needs. We think it would be great to have the year mapped out, but we silently judge teachers who do that because we think they must be crazy or overly rigid. Sometimes teachers are anxious to plan too far in advance. They believe that this disregards student needs and won’t allow them to be flexible when the time comes. The opposite is true, though. Reducing your own anxiety and stress around planning and ensuring that you have paced out the most important skills over the year is what allows you to teach students in the moment with what they need at their own pace as opposed to always feeling like you need to get to the next lesson and the next skill. You know when those things are coming because they’re on your calendar already. Here are 8 ways you can stay ahead in lesson planning that still allow you to meet student needs every step of the way.

Sketch out the year. Consider end goals for each unit of study.

Why? If you’ve ever felt the anxiety of not being sure what to do the next day or started out a morning scrambling for something to pull together or wondering how you got so far behind in pacing, then imagine the opposite of that. Imagine knowing that today you’re talking about adding integers on a number line or today you’re teaching the parts of a plant or today you’re working on writing theme sentences. Even if you don’t have official lesson plans for any of those topics, you can start with the lesson objective. Teachers who plan out their year in advance are not planning entire lessons and activities in advance. They are planning the focus of the day. The reason for this is to ensure that the most important skills and standards are taught throughout the year. This means dedicating more time in the calendar to the most important skills and pacing out standards in a way that ensures students move on into future grade levels (and life!) with the most meaningful learning targets mastered. Other skills and standards can be placed into the pacing guide to take up less time.

How? This concept of planning out with the end goal of a year in mind is backwards design. When you’re planning out your year, consider what the most important skills and standards are that require mastery. Of course, you would love students to master everything you teach them. That is not realistic. There will be things they learn that are unexpected and surprising that you did not plan in addition to things they can learn more thoroughly in coming years. Decide the most important units and block out a little bit more time for those while shortening others. Consider how some units may say “3 weeks” but the three weeks on the calendar line up as having a 3 day week, 2 half days, and a Friday school assembly. You might need to block out 4 weeks in order to ensure those learning targets receive the attention needed and shorten another unit to compensate depending on how much value you place on that unit. The goal of pacing out units ahead of time is so that you know going into each unit how many true class days are allocated to each unit. I like to do this long term planning on a calendar that has all the important information of a school year calendar on it. The only thing that needs to be paced out are the essential learning targets for each day. If there is a special activity or event you want to do, mark it in the calendar as a placeholder. It could always be moved, but if it’s on the calendar, you’re making the time for it now.

See this document for links to example year long calendars by day (more detailed) or by week (general unit names only).

Connect lessons from one day to the next.

Why? As you do long term planning, think about the end goals of each unit. This way, you can carry over from one day to the next as opposed to planning each day on its own as an individual lesson. This helps you because it provides more flexibility within each unit while still staying within the timeline boundaries you’ve dedicated to these learning targets. This plan also helps students retain information because they are constantly connecting ideas from different lessons. They have multiple opportunities to latch onto skills because the skills get re-addressed throughout the unit even if only as informal reminders.

How? Consider how you can create throughlines for each unit.  There are many ways to do this:

• Guide a unit towards a final product using project based learning where the lessons feed into what is necessary to complete the project
• Use concept based instruction to keep a motif in mind throughout a unit such as “change”
• Focus your instruction on a topic that could be interdisciplinary such as chocolate
• Use problem based learning to consider a problem that needs to be solved over time
• Ask a question throughout a unit such as “How have these civil rights leaders improved the lives of US citizens?”

Choose a daily structure.

Why? Keeping a class structure as consistent as possible lowers anxiety and saves time. It lowers anxiety for students because they know what’s typically happening and can adjust to the flow of your classroom. It lowers anxiety for you as the teacher because it means you are only inserting different tasks into a pre-decided format. This saves planning time because you’re always just filling in blank spaces that are contained within a structure so you never start from scratch.

How? Look below at these possible lesson structures. When you write or type into a planbook (or use an online version such as planbook.com) you can keep the following as a template. Then, you only have to type in specific details. You may end up alternating between 2-3 different structures depending on the unit you’re in or if you’re working on a project vs. in a unit that heavily relies on lab work. If you teach elementary, you’ll likely have different structures for different content areas as well. When looking at these structures, think about the essential parts of your day. This could include an anticipatory set, number sense routine, read aloud, mini lesson, work period, small groups, stations, etc.

Example 1: I almost always (except on assessment days) start with a number sense routine in math. The number sense routine changes based on units, but I cycle through the same predictable discussion based prompts. The expectations surrounding these number sense routines are always the same. These are also all linked in slideshows so when I link it to my lesson plan, I just note the slide number but can use the same attachment/link nearly every day.

Example 2: My reading or writing workshop starts with a mini lesson on the carpet. The expectation for students to bring their pencil and a notebook and sit facing me and my easel is the same every time. This routine saves class time since students can anticipate transitions and it lets them know when they need to focus intently vs. when they can work at their own pace.

See this document for example lesson plans for primary, upper elementary, and secondary using the following templates/structures.

Consider a weekly or biweekly pattern.

Why? Similar to choosing a daily structure, a weekly or biweekly pattern can relieve you of decision making. If you always do stations on Wednesday and Thursday or start each Monday with a socratic seminar or always do labs on Tuesdays because you have a group of kids that can assist you Monday afternoons to prep, then you are relieved of the decision making needed to pick a day. While it may not seem like a big deal to decide which day you’re going to do a review activity or which day you’ll do a lab, any decisions you can streamline save your energy for other, more important decisions.

How? Each day of the week could hold a different type of mini lesson for you to teach, a different number sense routine, a different exit routine, etc.

Options:

• Community Builders: Monday Motivation, Would You Rather Tuesday, Wednesday Wisdom, Thoughtful Thursday, and Friday Fun Games.
• Focus Daily Bell Work: Grammar, Vocabulary, Greek and Latin Roots, Famous Quotes, and Spelling Patterns.
• Assessments on Fridays: I used to do a quiz in math every other Friday. The Fridays when we did not have a quiz were days when quiz corrections were due.
• Alternate Day A Stations on Monday, Day B Stations on Tuesday, Day A Stations on Wednesday, Day B Stations on Thursday, Review or Assessments on Friday
• Group by week for activities: Week 1 of the month is Estimation, Week 2 is Logic Puzzles, Week 3 is Test Prep Games, Week 4 is Visual Math

Changes happen to schedules, but those are just a deviation, and it’s easy to get back into a rhythm.

Embrace the MINI lesson and increase the time for students to read, write, work, and do.

Why? The younger your students, the more important it is to keep lessons mini, but high schoolers need focused, short lessons as well. We know the adages “the one who is doing the talking is the one who is doing the learning” and “we remember 10% of what we read, 20% of what we hear,…” and so on. The reason these are adages are not because they are foolproof facts of life but because they reflect what we know as educators that students need time to process learning and interact in order to actually understand the material in our classes.

How? Shorten your teacher directed instruction to the most important 10-15 minute segment so that each lesson is focused and directly applicable to the day’s activity. Focus on what you are going to teach in that amount of time and explicitly state “Today I am going to teach you how to….” or “Today you will know you’ve got this lesson when you can…” If you can’t narrow down your lesson focus into a sentence, break it down more. Think about the underlying skills that are needed to get to the goal you have in mind or consider teaching the lesson over 2 days. During this mini lesson time, you may have stricter expectations for students that they don’t take a break or use the restroom and that they fully demonstrate appropriate listening skills with undivided attention. If students know that this is the time you expect to have their full focus and that it will be directly applicable to the day’s task, they will be more likely to follow through on these expectations. In addition, it is easier for you to hold them accountable when you know you’re only expecting this level of lecture-style focus for a short time.

Build in a workshop time where students can do a meaningful task and you can support students as they work through it. There are many ways to embed student work time in a way that allows you to be responsive to student needs and more easily differentiate the pace, content, or task.

Options:

• Allow students to choose if they do the task on their own at their desk or with you in a more centralized spot/carpet area. You could always “invite” certain students to join you.
• Move around with a clipboard and take notes of what students are doing as an observer only. This will let you know what to bring up at the closing reflection time or for the next day’s mini lesson.
• Move around with a clipboard and interview each student about “How’s it going?” with their project or task and take notes afterwards about their progress. Use a different color pen each day so that you remember which kids you talked to when.
• Set up a rotation of 3 different stations and go through all 3 in one day.
• Set up a rotation of 4 different stations and alternate 2 on one day and 2 on another.
• Do the same task with each small group but do fewer problems with some groups and more with another.
• Do the same task with each small group but go more slowly and provide more scaffolds with some groups than others.
• Plan to review mistakes from a quiz with each small group and group students based on the type of mistake/content missed.
• Have students swap out a station for an intervention task; if this is undesirable, perhaps they can pick which task they swap out as long as they complete the intervention assignment.
• Pull one small group each day and do a short lesson with them. Spend the rest of your time checking in with individual students and/or answering questions.
• Allow students to sign up for conference times with you for whoever feels like they need help today and go down the list. If you don’t get to someone, pick up where you left off last class.
• Work with ½ the class on a task while the other ½ works on something else more independent. Then, switch groups halfway through the period or the next day.

All of those structures are more desirable than a structure where each student is doing the exact same thing at the exact same time all day. People work at different paces and the workshop model, stations, conferences, and small groups all provide the structure for allowing that natural differentiation of pace, content, and style.

Build in buffer time and spaces for responsive instruction.

Why? The first note was to plan out your year so that you can keep track of what is essential for students to know over the course of a year. You also want to think as you approach each unit what is essential to the unit. As teachers we must be ruthless in cutting things that will not be the very best and highest use of our instructional time. When we schedule in buffer time, it allows us to ensure we are doing the most important things with our time and that we are providing the time needed to do those things well as opposed to just finishing a task as quickly as possible. It also means that we can stay on schedule when disruptions occur because you can shorten a lesson to combine it with another day’s lesson without panicking. It means rearranging schedules to accommodate for an unexpected assembly doesn’t break you into a sweat about how you’ll possibly still be ready for that district assessment next week.

How? Leave blank spaces, buffer time, and spaces for responsive instruction. This can be just planning a little bit more time than you think is necessary for a task or setting aside entire days without plans if you feel like you’re always running one day’s plans into the next. The goal is that you’re giving yourself buffer time within the day. If you’re stressed thinking, “What if they finish early?” have a plan for early finishers that’s evergreen and not something new you create, such as independent reading, math challenges they can work through at their own pace, online programs vetted by you, etc.

Examples of whole days I could plan as buffer time:

• A day to just check in on student rough drafts so you don’t plan a separate lesson
• A whole day for a math task that maybe could be finished in a half period
• A whole day for an assessment; if students are finished early, you can do a review activity
• A whole day to let students pick out books for an upcoming book club unit
• A whole day for review games
• Time for questions halfway through a project
• Gallery walk day for peer feedback
• Mini lesson that is focused only on reflection not new material
• Reteaching period to catch kids who need to do test/quiz corrections
• Day for missing work completion and 1-1 conferences for kids who need to redo work

Let’s say I planned out the first day of my new fantasy unit as looking through novels and doing a book tasting. I gave myself the whole 45 minutes to do it. As I end my previous literary essay unit, I realize that kids needed to do a bit more self assessing. I now have time to hand out an editing checklist and we can spend the first 15 minutes of class going through that checklist before they switch to picking out books. We have time for both because I allowed that buffer time. Alternatively, we have the whole day to pick out books and I’m on pace. I could use the last 15 minutes of the day to get a head start on the lesson for the next day (and because I planned my unit in advance I know what I’ll teach tomorrow) or I could read aloud the anchor short story for our unit which I was going to do on Friday. Any of those ways give me the chance to ensure best work from students and feel on top of my lesson plans versus behind and stressed.

Keep special days special.

Why? Think back to lesson plans you may have created in your imagination – the ones where your classroom is transformed into a jungle or kids perform a play with all sorts of props you have painstakingly gathered, or you set your room up as a crime scene and kids have to follow the clues in the stories they read to solve the murder. All of those creative ideas are amazing! Some teachers embrace these more than others. These activities are memorable and fun for students, and I would never dissuade a teacher from doing something that was fun for them, too. These types of activities require a lot of preparation, though, and they should not become the norm. Even if you did have endless hours to devote to this, the constant uncertainty of there always being a special day would be anxiety-producing for many students. Kids like to know where their desk will be and what is happening next and if they are supposed to act like a book character one day. Keep the special days as special treats.

How? Plan days that require a lot of preparation on your part rarely and solicit students and/or parent volunteers to help you. Many students want to do extra jobs over a lunch period or come early or stay late to gather materials.  It will make them feel ahead when they get to class as well. I’ve had the experience of some kids who struggled with directions doing immensely better in class following a lab because they already had a preview. Also, many kids encourage their peers to use the supplies carefully or clean up after themselves when they already invested time into setting it up. Many parents are willing to donate supplies, organize materials, prepare things at home and send it in, or even be in the room to help monitor. You want eager volunteers so don’t pressure someone to join you. Leave requests vague so that you could always adjust your own expectations and plans based on how much support you receive. Release yourself from the expectation that these are the types of lessons you should always plan and allow them to be treats. Solid, reliable instruction is more important in the long run than a few fun days. Fun activities are memorable for students, but the lasting impact will be felt in the day to day lesson plans.

Use resources that allow you to merely plug in high quality elements spontaneously without deep planning.

Why? As I mentioned above when describing how to choose a daily plan, your lesson plans will be immensely faster to create if you have a routine structure every day. You can create a bank of resources for each part of your typical lesson plan and then draw from that pile of resources for each part of your day.

How: See if any of the following ideas grouped by content area work for your context.

Science: Create a slideshow of images for science or wonder day images/videos that can kick off a discussion. Check out the Smithsonian Open Access Resources and Image Library. You can increase this slideshow in volume over time. Thinking routines that could be used with these images are suggested below.

Social Studies: Create a bank of images of historical figures (such as paintings and artwork from the Library of Congress or Smithsonian Image Library) that can be used for thinking routines to start a discussion. You can also create mini-stories with historical scenarios but change the names so that students can think about relationships between historical figures or dynamics between countries without preconceived notions. Thinking routines that could be used with these images are suggested below.

Math: Put a bunch of math number sense routines that work for your context into a slideshow and run through different slides on different days. Link anything you put there so you could go back to a particular resource if needed. See below for many links to resources.

Language Arts: Collect picture books that are great for read alouds and teaching multiple skills so you can revisit the same text throughout the year. One of my favorites, for instance, is Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson which is great for unexpected endings, repeated phrases, sentence structure variety, characterization, and theme/author’s message.

Any class: Think about structures that work in any context and create a box of tricks for yourself – things with which you have experienced success and you’re comfortable delivering. This could include gallery walks, jigsaw discussions, socratic seminars, certain thinking routines, and so on.

Further specific resources to support your planning:

1. The Reading Strategies Book and The Writing Strategies Book by Jennifer Serravallo

These books are completely filled with one page lesson plans that are organized by reading level and strategy type to make it an incredibly useful resource. These are not your average professional development books.

2. How’s it Going? by Carl Anderson

This is a book specifically for writing conferences but includes information on how to do any kind of 1-1 conference with students that would allow for formative assessment.

1. Number Sense Routines and Math Tasks: These are all FREE
   1. Steve Wyborney’s Website with Esti-Mysteries, Splat, and so much more!
   2. Would You Rather Math
   3. Same but Different Math
   4. Which One Doesn’t Belong
   5. Mash Up Math Algebra Picture Puzzles
   6. Estimation 180
   7. 101 questions (Penny Pyramid example with questions)
   8. 3 Act Tasks
   9. Clothesline Math (Kristen Acosta and Daniel Kaufmann)
   10. Open Middle
   11. Array Chats (or Unit Chats) search #arraychat on Twitter to see images
2. Thinking routines through Project Zero: The instructions for each routine are FREE. Below are recommended by me for their versatility.
   1. Chalk Talk: students respond to short quotes, word problems, images, passages on chart paper, connecting to other ideas as they move around the room to different chart papers.
   2. Connect, Extend, Challenge: students respond to a text or another student’s response by making a connection, explaining how this extended or affirmed their thinking, and explaining how it challenged or changed their thinking
   3. See, Think, Wonder: students look at an image and explain what they see (direct observations without inference), what they think (inferences), and what they wonder (questions they have)
   4. Color Symbol Image: students encapsulate a character, chapter of a book, or broad idea with a color, a symbol (such as a street sign where you know what it means without much explanation), and an image (more complex visual)
   5. Parts Purposes Complexities: students analyze a concrete object or abstract system by describing its parts, the purposes of each part, and how complex the relationship is between parts
   6. I used to think…Now I think…: students reflect using these sentence frames
   7. What makes you say that?: The go to response as a teacher for any statement a student makes which draws out reasoning and deeper thinking or explanation – use for correct and incorrect answers indiscriminately
   8. Think, Feel, Care: Look at a person – real or fictional – and imagine “What do they think? What do they feel? What do they care about?” It can be great to stand in the physical posture of the person and imagine physical as well as emotional feelings (heat and breeze as well as anxiety).
   9. Compass Points: North – Need to Know list for a unit or project, East – what are you excited about?, West – what are you worried about?, South – suggestions for the unit or project or stance/opinion on it at present
3. Teacher Box of Tricks by Angela Watson – a pre-made set of ideas that can be used for almost any teaching context. This could help you build your own teacher box of tricks and get you started.

Final Thoughts:

Overall, lesson planning in advance allows you to meet student needs in the moment because it relieves the stress of knowing which learning targets are the most important, which have been covered, which will be covered in later units, what the parts of your day look like, and what resources you have available and ready to go already. If you can plan in advance your mini-lesson and your learning targets for each day, then most of the class period is available for you to be the best version of yourself as a teacher and guide students through tasks, problems, creative projects, experiments, and more. If you always have a teacher-led station for small groups, you can plan that the day before to be most responsive to student needs.

Teaching in small groups naturally allows you to differentiate the pace even if you do the same task with each group. It also allows students to open up to you; they’ll be far more willing to admit difficulties and ask for help in small group situations. Teaching in 1-on-1 conferences allows you to respond to each student and give them individualized feedback. You will have the freedom to interact with students freely if you plan the framework in advance. There is freedom in structure. The structure that yearly and daily plans provide is what allows you to do what you know is best in the moment for your students. Just like finding the corner pieces and edges to a puzzle first, the rest of the picture becomes clearer once you have a few boundaries.

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