MiddleWeb's October Articles
Browse recent posts about media literacy, STEM projects, collaborative teaching, leader self-trust, mapping our learning, and more.
Who can keep up with anything these days?! Once a month we’re making it easy for MiddleWeb Substack subscribers by sending you brief descriptions of last month’s new MiddleWeb.com articles and reviews – written (as always) by educators who are doing the work. Just click on a title to check it out!
Articles
Teaching Kids about AI and Other Media Risks
Whose job is it to teach students what they need to know about deceptive social media, algorithmic advertising, and deep-fake artificial intelligence? Media literacy educator Frank W. Baker offers advice, resources, and a sense of urgency “in an increasingly deep-fake world.”
Design STEM Projects Using the Plastics Crisis
Discarded microplastics are everywhere, including inside humans. To advance students’ awareness of the effects of plastics and the options for decreasing them, author and science educator Anne Jolly shares STEM project ideas that focus on recycling, reusing and reducing plastic.
Teaching with Colleagues Expands Kids’ Learning
Teacher Lauren Brown smiles when her history students eagerly make connections with content they’re studying in another class. Recalling a time when interdisciplinary teaching was common, she suggests ways teachers might revive a practice that emphasizes knowledge-based learning.
4 Simple Ways We Can Pre-Assess Students
To teach a more effective lesson, you can use quick and easy pre-assessment strategies. Author and consultant Barbara R. Blackburn suggests 3 Alike/Red Herring, Word Sorts, If/Then, and Analyzing Web Content to gauge the readiness of your students and adjust your plan as needed.
Self-Trust: A Leader’s Most Valuable Tool
Self-trust isn’t something school leaders can just turn on or off. It’s a skill they build through conscious action. Veteran educator and leadership author Jen Schwanke shares her “skill and will” model of personal trust-building with four action steps leaders can take today.
Invite Students to Map Their Lives and Learning
There’s something pleasingly counter-cultural about going analog with map construction, writes teacher Stephanie Farley. It helps students make connections they wouldn’t otherwise make, provides an entry point to deep conversations, and invites them to exercise their creativity.
Authentic Inquiries Using Gummy Bear Science
Kathie Palmieri’s fifth graders loved her gummy bear activity. It transformed a standard lab into an opportunity for authentic inquiry. It shows that even the simplest materials can lead to big scientific thinking – especially when paired with a question that invites wonder.
Up Your Student Trust Quotient in Math Class
Helping math students doesn’t mean showing them the next step – it means giving them the confidence and space to find it. If our goal is to create independent problem solvers, we cannot always be the ones doing the solving, writes teaching coach Mona Iehl, author of Word Problem Workshop.
Book Reviews
Critical Reading Skills to Counter Disinformation
Aimed at middle and high school educators, 5 Questions for Any Text by Marilyn Pryle presents a structured yet flexible approach for helping students move beyond surface-level comprehension toward deeper analysis, reflection, and awareness, writes Melinda Stewart.
Unlocking the Magic of Independent Reading
In Just Read It, Jarred Amato “does a fabulous job” explaining how to structure an independent reading program in a middle to high school classroom. He not only explains the process well but also gives concrete examples of how to do activities and writing prompts, writes veteran literacy teacher Beth Hippen.
Affirming Neurodiversity to Support Every Student
Neurodiversity Affirming Schools by Emily Kircher-Morris and Amanda Morin serves as a valuable call to action, encouraging all educators to reevaluate our practices and treat neurodiversity as an essential part of equitable education, writes behavior analyst Rachel Poirier.
Coaching Practices that Empower Multilinguals
In Enhancing Instruction for Multilingual Learners, Paula Polk positions coaching as a dynamic, collaborative process using concrete strategies that not only enhance the instructional skills of educators but also directly impact the success of MLs, writes Melinda Stewart.
A Math Framework for Students Who Struggle
Juliana Tapper’s book Teaching 6-12 Math Intervention describes her ‘Math War’ instructional strategies to reengage students who’ve turned away and to teach them the math they need to know. It’s written for math intervention teachers and useful to any math educator, says teacher Andrew Krasnavage.
Positively Leveraging Learning and Behavior
In The Tactical Teacher, Dale Ripley helps readers delve into crucial methods for positively leveraging student learning, classroom behavior, and relationship development with tactics including handling bias, influence and motivation. The book offers many reflection opportunities, says Trishauna Pulos.