Opinion Blog

Classroom Q&A

With Larry Ferlazzo

In this EdWeek blog, an experiment in knowledge-gathering, Ferlazzo will address readers’ questions on classroom management, ELL instruction, lesson planning, and other issues facing teachers. Send your questions to lferlazzo@epe.org. Read more from this blog.

Teaching Opinion

How to Avoid Making Mistakes in the Classroom

By Larry Ferlazzo — September 07, 2022 5 min read
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During the summer, I am sharing thematic posts bringing together responses on similar topics from the past 11 years. You can see all those collections from the first 10 years here.

Today’s theme is Mistakes in Education.

You can see the list following this excerpt from one of the posts:

oneofthebiggestmistakes

1. The Pandemic’s Glaring Lessons for District Leaders

A lack of transparent decisionmaking and clinging to concepts like “seat hours” are among mistakes districts have made during the pandemic. Read more.

2. 7 Mistakes Districts Have Made During the Pandemic

Arrogance and looking at students through the lens of deficits, instead of assets, are among the blunders. Read more.

3. 12 Common Mistakes Made by Teachers of English-Language Learners

Don’t assume students who are paying attention understand what’s being taught and support learning in students’ home language, especially for young children. Those are among the ideas six educators share for helping ELLs. Read more.

4. Don’t Make Assumptions About Your ELL Students

Seven educators offer their nominations for the most common mistakes made by teachers of ELLs, including making background-knowledge assumptions and not providing enough scaffolding. Read more.

5. Teachers Must Create Ways ELL ‘Students Can Show Us What They Know’

Four educators share common mistakes made by teachers of English-language learners, including not being creative in how ELLs can show us what they know and by translating “everything.” Read more.

6. Teachers With ‘Deficit Perspectives’ Do Not Help English-Language Learners

Four educators share what they think are mistakes often made by teachers of ELLs, including overusing technology and operating out of a deficit perspective. Read more.

7. Nine Mistakes Educators Make When Teaching English-Language Learners

Confusing lack of English proficiency with lack of intelligence is among those mistakes five educators cite. Read more.

8. ‘We Need to Face Our Own Discomfort’ About Discussing Racism

Marian Dingle, Sydney Chaffee, Raquel Rios, Rinard Pugh, and Kimberly N. Parker talk about mistakes that are often made when trying to tackle race and racism in the classroom and explore what we teachers can do instead. Read more.

9. Race & Racism Are Not ‘Merely Curricular Topics’

Tehia Glass, Erin Miller, Eddie Moore Jr., Ali Michael, Marguerite Penick-Parks, Chezare A. Warren, Brian L. Wright, Ph.D., and Leah Wilson share their thoughts on the biggest mistakes made when approaching race and racism in the classroom. Read more.

10. Teachers Can’t Ignore Racism Issues and Hope They ‘Will Go Away’

A three-part series approaching race and racism in schools is wrapped up by Larry J. Walker, Jaime Castellano, Mara Lee Grayson, Ashley S. Boyd, Jennifer Orr, and Kelly Wickham Hurst. Read more.

More Q&A posts about mistakes in education:


Explore other thematic posts:

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The opinions expressed in Classroom Q&A With Larry Ferlazzo are strictly those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Editorial Projects in Education, or any of its publications.

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