Show Notes
Teaching students to write well has always been challenging, and newer developments have made it even more difficult: The internet offers unlimited text to plagiarize, standardized testing has pushed us to teach more formulaic writing, and AI constantly offers to do our writing for us. Frustrated with her students' lack of confidence and the robotic style of their writing, language arts teacher Nashwa Elkoshairi tried adding freewriting before and after her inquiry-based units. The results, she says, were dramatic: Students became more confident as writers and their writing developed far more depth and complexity than she'd ever seen before. In this episode, she joins me to talk about how she weaves freewriting into her classroom practice. ___________________________ Thanks to Renaissance and SchoolAI for sponsoring the episode. To read Dr. Elkoshairi's article about how she uses inquiry-based freewriting, visit cultofpedagogy.com/inquiry-based-freewriting. To learn more about Grammar Gap Fillers, visit cultofpedagogy.com/grammar.
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When teachers push back against coaching, professional development, or a new initiative, they often get labeled as "resistant." But that label can keep us from seeing what's really going on. In this episode, author Elena Aguilar shares insights from her new book, How to Coach Resistance. We talk about how coaches and leaders may unintentionally contribute to the pushback, practical ways to respond to emotions and identify barriers to change, and what to do when a teacher's objections have merit. Thanks to Highfive for sponsoring the episode. To read a summary or a transcript and find links to the book, visit cultofpedagogy.com/teacher-pushback. To learn more about Mastering the Lesson Plan, visit cultofpedagogy.com/teaching101.
Schools are constantly trying to improve, but too often, big improvement efforts don't lead to the changes people hoped for. In this episode, I talk with Jal Mehta and Max Yurkofsky, authors of A Chance to Solve Their Own Problems, about what gets in the way of meaningful school improvement, what needs to be in place for it to work, and how leaders can create the conditions that allow educators to solve problems together. Thanks to Brilliant and Listenwise for sponsoring the episode. To read a summary or a transcript and find links to the book, visit cultofpedagogy.com/continuous-improvement. To learn more about Mastering the Lesson Plan, visit cultofpedagogy.com/teaching101.
In Part 4 of our Back to Basics series on unit planning, we're taking our sample unit and building in more differentiation. I'm putting out this series as an introduction to my new online course, Mastering the Lesson Plan. These four episodes will give you the big picture, but the course takes a much deeper dive into each step of the process and gives you practical tools you can use to plan stronger instruction. To learn more about the course, visit cultofpedagogy.com/teaching101. ___________________________ Thanks to Brilliant and Notability for sponsoring the episode. To read a written version of this podcast, visit cultofpedagogy.com/realistic-differentiation.
We've reached part 3 of our Back to Basics series on unit planning! Last episode, we built the assessment plan for our sample unit that included diagnostic, formative, and summative assessments. Now it's time to choose the learning activities that will move students toward success on those assessments: the daily lesson plans. I'm putting out this series as an introduction to my new online course, Mastering the Lesson Plan. These four episodes will give you the big picture, but the course takes a much deeper dive into each step of the process and gives you practical tools you can use to plan stronger instruction. To learn more about the course, visit cultofpedagogy.com/teaching101. ___________________________ Thanks to Brilliant and Notability for sponsoring the episode. To read a written version of this podcast, visit cultofpedagogy.com/how-to-write-a-lesson-plan.
It's part 2 of our Back to Basics series on unit planning! Last episode, we looked at the overall process and started by setting measurable objectives for a sample unit. Now we're going to design a unit assessment plan that includes diagnostic, formative, and summative assessments. I'm putting out this series as an introduction to my new online course, Mastering the Lesson Plan. These four episodes will give you the big picture, but the course takes a much deeper dive into each step of the process and gives you practical tools you can use to plan stronger instruction. To learn more about the course, visit cultofpedagogy.com/teaching101. ___________________________ Thanks to Brilliant and Notability for sponsoring the episode. To read a written version of this podcast, visit cultofpedagogy.com/how-to-create-an-assessment-plan/.