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First Year Highlights: Instructional Strategies

By Larry Ferlazzo — July 09, 2012 3 min read
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I’m taking the summer off from answering new questions while I work on my next book.

Instead, I’ve been posting “collections” bringing links together from previous posts on common topics (classroom management, reading instruction, student motivation, etc.). I’ve published almost fifty separate “answers” over the past year, and thought that readers might find these summer compilations more accessible.

Today, I’ll be bringing together all my posts on “instructional strategies.”

Over the summer, of course, I’ll also be preparing future responses, so keep those questions coming!

You can send them to me at lferlazzo@epe.org.When you send it in, let me know if I can use your real name if it’s selected or if you’d prefer remaining anonymous and have a pseudonym in mind.

You can also contact me on Twitter at @Larryferlazzo.

Here are this year’s posts on instructional strategies -- I’m posting them in order of popularity (based on their number of “tweets”):

1. Several Ways We Can Help Students Develop Their Creativity

This post features guest contributions from Jonah Lehrer, staff writer for The New Yorker and author of Imagine: How Creativity Works, and from Ashley Merryman co-author of NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children.

2. Several Ways To Help Students Become Better Listeners

Middle School teacher Heather Wolpert-Gawron, author of ‘Tween Crayons and Curfews :Tips for Middle School Teachers and I share our ideas...

3. Several Ways To Teach Critical Thinking Skills

Three guests share their recommendations: Ron Ritchhart, author and researcher for Harvard’s Project Zero; educator Todd Stanley, co-author of Critical Thinking and Formative Assessments: Increasing the Rigor in Your Classroom; and Robert Swartz, Director of The National Center for Teaching Thinking.

4. Several Ways We Can Teach Social Studies More Effectively -- Part One

Three educators share their thoughts on this topic: Stephen Lazar, a National-Board Certified social studies teacher in Brooklyn, N.Y; Bill Bigelow, the curriculum editor of Rethinking Schools magazine, and co-director of the Zinn Education Project; and California teacher Sarah Kirby-Gonzalez.

5. Several Ways To Differentiate Instruction

I was lucky enough to get both Carol Tomlinson and Rick Wormeli to contribute their ideas here!

6. Thoughts On The Meaning Of “Rigor”

Barbara R. Blackburn, author of Rigor is NOT a Four-Letter Word; Cris Tovani, author of So...What do They Really Know?; and “Senior Provocateur” Ira Socol provide diverse guest responses, and I throw-in an intriguing chart.

7. More Ways To Differentiate Instruction -- Part Two

This post features contributions from Megan Allen, Florida’s 2010 State Teacher of the Year and Dr. Kimberly Kappler Hewitt & Daniel K. Weckstein, co-authors of Differentiation is an Expectation: A School Leader’s Guide to Building a Culture of Differentiation.

8. Helping Long-Term ELL’s & Evaluating ELL Teachers Fairly

Katie Hull Sypnieski, my colleague and co-author (with me)of The ESL/ELL Teacher’s Survival Guide: Ready-to-Use Strategies, Tools, and Activities for Teaching English Language Learners of All Levels, writes about her recommendations on how to help long-term English Language Learners.

9. Ed Week Readers’ Ideas On How We Can Teach Social Studies More Effectively

Many readers and I contribute our suggestions....

10. Additional Ways We Can Teach Social Studies More Effectively -- Part Two

Social Studies teachers Eric Langhorst, Beth Sanders and Russel Tarr all write about what they’ve learned from experience.

11. Several Ways To Apply Social-Emotional Learning Strategies In The Classroom

Two guests with a great deal of experience with Social Emotional Learning write responses -- Maurice J. Elias, director of the Rutgers Social-Emotional Learning Lab and Tom Roderick, the executive director of Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility.

I hope you’ve found this summary useful and, again, keep those questions coming!

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.