Effective Review is Not Telling Again, but Asking Again
While designing a lesson with a very good high school ELA teacher we got to the Review portion of the lesson. Responding to the...
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Gene Tavernetti
- Apr 28, 2015
- 2 min
Yada, Yada, Yada
One of my favorite Seinfeld episodes was "The Yada Yada” episode. The premise of the show was people would be telling a story and leave...
9 views0 comments
Gene Tavernetti
- Apr 21, 2015
- 3 min
Providing Teachers Feedback in the Art and Science of Instruction
Recently I watched a portion of an interview of Nanci Atwell, the teacher who won the Varkey Foundation’s $1 million prize as the Global...
34 views0 comments
Randall Olson
- Apr 15, 2015
- 2 min
Celebrate Your Journey
All schools, as well as all classrooms, are busy enterprises. There are the daily issues, the weekly schedules, the semester goals, and...
24 views0 comments
Gene Tavernetti
- Apr 8, 2015
- 3 min
TOTS: Has Your District Been Infected?
Is your staff suffering from Trainer of Trainers Syndrome (TOTS)? What is TOTS: The disappointment/discouragement felt by administration...
3 views0 comments
Carin Contreras
- Mar 10, 2015
- 2 min
Clarity: The Key to Common Core
In my office I had a sign above my desk that read, “Clarity Precedes Competence”. During the three years I occupied that office, in my...
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Janae Tovar
- Feb 28, 2015
- 3 min
Close Reading: How Many Guiding Questions?
When I search the internet for Close Reading planning tools I wonder how many teachers are actually accessing these resources which are...
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Janae Tovar
- Feb 10, 2015
- 2 min
When a Checklist Won't Do the Job
“My students do Close Reading every day at the start of the day. It has really been a great routine for my class”. In a room full of...
269 views0 comments
Gene Tavernetti
- Feb 6, 2015
- 2 min
Who needs this lesson? Everyone
“Checking for Understanding” has become a misunderstood educational catch phrase. The one thing that can be agreed upon is that “CFU” is...
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Gene Tavernetti
- Jan 21, 2015
- 2 min
'What Did I Miss?' How to Tell Effective Stories
Do you have a favorite TV show? Downton Abby? Breaking Bad? The Wire? What all these shows have in common is the serial telling of a...
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Gene Tavernetti
- Jan 6, 2015
- 2 min
Must Teaching Really Change in the 21st Century?
Maybe I am just a cranky old man, or maybe I do not understand what others are talking about, or maybe both. I recently read an article...
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Randall Olson
- Nov 13, 2014
- 2 min
What Should Be the Core of the Common Core?
As all new attempts at curriculum reform, the Common Core has generated its’ share of criticism. Looking back at Whole Language, New...
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Gene Tavernetti
- Nov 12, 2014
- 2 min
Why Parents Are Frustrated
This is the second installment in the series, What are we doing to ourselves? Over the past several weeks parents, college educated...
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tovarjanae
- Oct 24, 2014
- 2 min
What are We Doing to Ourselves?
This is first in a series of blogs about how our baby-bathwater/forest-trees mentalities are making us crazy. One of the ways students...
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tovarjanae
- Oct 14, 2014
- 2 min
Modeling Thinking
Q: How do I get my students to be meta-cognitive? It is difficult for my students to explain their thinking. A: Nearly all of us have a...
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tovarjanae
- Sep 15, 2014
- 2 min
I Have Seen This Movie Before
Let me tell you how this latest educational movie, “Effective Instruction in the Common Core,” ends. The movie ends with a predictable...
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tovarjanae
- Sep 9, 2014
- 2 min
Be the Boss
With the implementation of the Common Core Standards the publishers are at it again. Materials are merely being relabeled as “For Common...
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tovarjanae
- Sep 7, 2014
- 1 min
Adequate Teacher Training
An article published in Education Week, August 14, 2014, reports teachers feel inadequately prepared for Common Core, even after...
3 views0 comments
tovarjanae
- Aug 15, 2014
- 2 min
The Research Supporting TESS (part 2)
A continuation of The Research Supporting TESS (part 1) The second great influence on the development of what we now know as direct...
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tovarjanae
- Aug 15, 2014
- 2 min
The Research Supporting TESS (part 1)
Often, when doing teacher training in direct instruction, we are asked about the research behind the model. It is an honest question...
10 views0 comments
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