David Ginsburg has served over 20 years as a math teacher, instructional leader, and PD provider. He leads a Philadelphia-based team of consultants that specializes in instructional coaching, leadership coaching, and common-core implementation. Follow David on Twitter, and connect with him through email and LinkedIn. This blog is no longer being updated, but you can continue to explore these issues on edweek.org by visiting our related topic pages: teaching strategies.
Assessment
Opinion
Assess All Students Before Assisting Any Students
Forget about standardized tests. Forget about weekly quizzes. Forget about homework. The most critical time for assessment is during daily in-class practice, when you can see sooner rather than later what students are struggling with and why they're struggling with it. It's only then that you can provide timely, differentiated feedback and remediation. (See Differentiated Instruction: A Practical Approach.)
Mathematics
Opinion
Prevent Confusing Language From Confusing Students
In Academic Fluency: A Key to Academic Proficiency, I wrote that proficiency in an academic subject depends in part on fluency in that subject's language. Now, here's a key to helping students achieve such fluency: anticipating and alleviating confusion when words have different meanings in academic subjects than they have in everyday language.
School Climate & Safety
Opinion
Bad Students or Bad Situation?
At last month's Education Week webinar, Addressing Diverse Student Learning Needs, I stressed the importance of breaking from classroom traditions that are no longer--and may never have been--in students' best interests.
Teaching
Opinion
Responding--or NOT Responding--to Misbehavior
It's hard--really hard--not to respond to misbehavior as soon as you notice it (something I've experienced as both a teacher and parent). Often, however, the best response is a delayed response or no response at all. Here are a few guidelines:
Assessment
Opinion
Assessment Over Grading and Effort Over Accuracy
"No, you keep it," I told students, as they tried to hand me their papers at the end of class. "Why did I do it if you're not even going to collect it? What kind of teacher are you?" students replied, before balling up their papers and throwing them on the floor.
Teaching
Opinion
No More Timeouts for Tardiness
Some teachers greet tardy students with shame: "That's your third time this week, Charles!" Others prefer sarcasm: "Nice to see Erica has decided to join us." Then there are those who are welcoming: "Good morning, Mario. Take off your jacket, and please join us." And in many cases, teachers follow up their greetings--regardless of tone--by catching latecomers up on what they've missed.
School Climate & Safety
Opinion
Motivation or Manipulation?
A common yet misguided motivational tactic involves praising some students for the purpose of redirecting other students. A classic example of this is when teachers call out, "I love the way Groups 1 and 4 are sitting," when what they really mean is "I hate the way Groups 2, 3, and 5 are stirring."
School Climate & Safety
Opinion
Connect With Kids in the Context and Confines of the Classroom
I may not have survived my first year in the classroom if it hadn't been for basketball. Many of my students lived and breathed it (this was the west side of Chicago during Michael Jordan's heyday), and I was pretty good at it. So when I was unable to connect with kids in the classroom, I tried to connect with them on the court.
Mathematics
Opinion
Fractions: Divide and Conquer
A lot of students begin by finding a common denominator for the dividend and divisor when dividing by a fraction. And a lot of teachers intervene by saying, "Remember, you only need a common denominator for addition and subtraction. For division, just flip and multiply."
Teaching
Opinion
Behavior Management ≠ Classroom Management
"The reality of education is that people learn from people they love," says New York Times columnist David Brooks.
Teaching
Opinion
The "Do Now" or "Do Never"?
It's common--and good--practice for teachers to have a short activity, often called a "Do Now," on the board for students to work on as soon as they enter class. Many teachers use the "Do Now" time to handle administrative tasks like taking attendance or organizing lesson materials. Then, after five or ten minutes, they say, "Ok, time's up," before taking another five or ten minutes to review the "Do Now" at the board.
Teaching
Opinion
When Helping Students Hurts Students
We educators are giving, helpful people. That's what drew many of us to teaching in the first place: a genuine desire to help children. And yet it's our helpfulness, I've found, that often hurts kids more than it helps them.
Mathematics
Opinion
Pi Day Pointer
Just a quick Pi Day pointer, math teachers: be sure to remind students that Pi is a constant rather than a variable. The misconception that it's a variable comes in part from the fact that we often express circumference and area in terms of Pi. I especially notice confusion when students work with the formula, Circumference = 2πr (there's something about multiplying the two outer factors, r and 2, and leaving π alone that gives students the impression that π is a variable).
Teaching
Opinion
Let Kids Express Themselves Rather Than Exasperate You
I previously wrote about my student James whose selective sneezing--always during whole-group instruction, never during small-group activities--gave new meaning to attention-seeking behavior. Yet as strange as the manifestation of James' need for attention was, the cause of it is quite common: teachers not calling on students when they want to be called on.