Teacher Formation Podcast

Teacher Formation: Talk Moves for Classroom Discussion

In this episode, we chat about how teachers can use "talk moves" to facilitate classroom discussions. Talk moves are great for formative assessment and for improving writing. The article we reference can be found here: https://my.nsta.org/resource/?id=10.2505/4/sc16_053_08_24 or by googling Talk Moves by Page Keeley, 2016.

Trauma-Informed Teaching and COVID

We discuss Kara Newhouse's MindShift article: Four Core Priorities for Trauma-Informed Distance Learning. https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/55679/four-core-priorities-for-trauma-informed-distance-learning For more about Trauma-Informed Teaching, we recommend this site: https://www.transformingeducation.org/trauma-informed-sel-toolkit/ We also mentioned the great Catholic resources on this site: https://www.looktohimandberadiant.com/2016/02/from-kids-for-kids-practical-ideas-for.html Thanks for listening, and thanks to our sound editor and music composer, Joe Stone.

How to Teach Reading

Today we chat about how we approach the teaching of reading as we read Lucy Calkins' article "No one gets to own the term 'The science of reading.'" We talk about the history of the "reading wars" and how we both endorse a balanced literacy approach. We also discuss how to support older students who are lacking foundational reading and decoding skills. Read along with the article here: https://readingandwritingproject.org/news/no-one-gets-to-own-the-term-the-science-of-reading Special thanks to our sound editor and theme music creator, Joe Stone.

The Role of Competition in Classrooms

In this episode, we discuss the article "No one wants to be a loser: High school students' perceptions of academic competition" by Kowalski and Christensen. The article can be read here: https://www.mwera.org/MWER/volumes/v31/issue4/V31n4-Kowalski-FEATURE-ARTICLE.pdf Are students motivated by competition? You may be surprised at the results of this study. How should teachers use competition in their classrooms? Spoiler alert: they shouldn't!

Starting the School Year Strong

We discuss 2004 Elementary School Journal article The First Days of School in the Classrooms of Two More Effective and Four Less Effective Primary-Grades Teachers by Bohn, Roehrig, and Pressley. The article can be accessed here: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3202942?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents In a nutshell? Teachers practices in the first few days of the school year set the foundation for subsequent student motivation and achievement throughout the year. Special thanks to Joe Stone for sound editing and intro music.