The author, a former early grades teacher, recounts how she overcome erratic curriculum implementation to find her own way to effective reading instruction. What worked for her was an emphasis on explicit phonics in the context of providing engaging and relevant reading material for her students. "As a matter of educating the whole…

If students are explicitly taught about their brain's capacity to change, their motivation to learn can greatly increase. Marcus Conyers and Donna Wilson, author of "Developing Growth Mindsets," share examples from elementary to high school classrooms where students who are taught about brain plasticity show a greater potential for…

Educators need collaborative opportunities to renew their love of learning, not just to review data and rework lessons. Researcher Ian Parker Renga and coauthors examine the power of Math Teachers' Circles--a group of educators that get together to play math games and solve problems just for the joy of it.

Black youth deserve rich opportunities to cultivate their own reading identities, says Kimberly Parker, cofounder of #DisruptTexts. In connecting them to their reading identities, teachers must cultivate these students' ability to see themselves as deserving of literacy and the freedom that being literate brings. Writes Parker, "We can ask…

Building a culture of reading in secondary schools is "like training for a marathon or losing 50 pounds: Every big shift is built--and sustained--by small, incremental steps." In this article, "Book Love" author Penny Kittle describes specific strategies that middle and high school educators can use to set the conditions for…

Reading workshop is a way for students to find what kinds of books they love, practice reading independently, and move up to higher levels of reading with teacher guidance. This type of workshop can develop a lifelong love of reading in children. But several conditions need to be met to make it successful. The authors discuss those conditions,…

In the last 50 years, research in psychology has informed educational practice, and recently educational neuroscience has also become a source of research-based guidance on education. The authors discuss four significant examples of how combining findings from psychology and neuroscience gives us insight into which approaches are most effective in…

What if, despite good intentions, the words you are using to involve students in discussion are actually shutting them out? Education consultant Mike Anderson presents three common errors that teachers use in posing questions and making comments and offers a few simple shifts that can make all the difference.

Students with anxiety are prone to giving up a difficult work assignment before they even start it. So how can teachers help these students develop skills to successfully start and finish assignments and succeed in school? Behavioral analyst Jessica Minahan offers some practical solutions that teachers can implement in the classroom to motivate…

Do your students occasionally seem bored? That's ok, says John Spencer. Doing tedious tasks or spending some time without stimulation can actually be great for creativity, freeing up your brain to make connections it might not otherwise have made. Spencer walks us through why our modern culture is so resistant to boredom and how we can cultivate…

Personalized learning has the potential to greatly improve student achievement--but realistic teachers know that any instructional strategy will only be effective if students are willing to do the work. That is why Larry Ferlazzo emphasizes the importance of weaving intrinsic motivation into every personalized learning classroom. Four key elements…

Hart shares the story of a high school student who was unmotivated by traditional academic work and on a downward trajectory--until he enrolled in a program that allowed him to take vocationally oriented classes at a community college while in high school. Content that was relevant and meaningful to him (EMT and firefighter training) led Max to…

Jones, an instructional coach, shares ideas for how to make changes in how PD sessions are offered to teachers. PD that empowers rather than bores teachers puts flexibility first, encourages teachers to be active within each session, and provides both sessions tied to specific school priorities and space for teachers to pursue many learning…

Deeper learning is great for exploring a topic in great depth, but it will fail if student motivation isn't taken into account. Researchers Eric Anderman and Adriana Calvit discuss how to align your deeper learning curriculum with motivational strategies for successful lessons.

This article shares what "Educational Leadership" authors have to say about doing data right, which is the theme of this issue. The following questions are addressed in this article: (1) Are you using data to guide improvement?; (2) Are you looking at the right kinds of data?; (3) Are you using data to motivate students?; and (4) Are you…