Teaching Strategies
Recent Newsletter Articles
Coherence: The Path to the Whole Picture in Math Instruction
Helping students make connections among concepts – both building within and across levels within a domain as well as building across domains – is crucial to their ability to become proficient, independent mathematical thinkers. Read More
Strike Lesson Planning Gold with the CareerKit Project
The CareerKit Project consists of lessons and materials that introduce learners to careers in ten sectors. The kits were developed to introduce learners to careers in each sector, while also building core reading, writing, research and math skills. Read More
Facilitating 12 Math Groups Got You Feeling Down? Try a Little Coherence! (continued)
Our road to more coherent CCRS math instruction has not exactly followed the geometric definition of a line, but it has led us to much more coherent instruction for our students. Here are four big takeaways that will continue to inform our team’s journey. Read More
Facilitating 12 Math Groups Got You Feeling Down? Try a Little Coherence!
Planning instruction in light of the CCRS shift of coherence poses some challenges but offers great rewards. Following from Part 1, this article is Part 2 of a series describing Metro North’s experience with piloting program changes to move toward more coherent math instruction. Read More
Free Citizenship Resources for Teachers and Programs
The Minnesota Literacy Council website offers a number of free resources to programs that are interesting in starting to offer citizenship classes at their site, whether classes are led by professional teachers or volunteers, in a formal classroom setting or one-on-one tutoring, or anything else in between. Read More
A CCRS Star is Born! Third CCRS Classroom Video Now Available
In the third and final video of the CCRS in the ABE Classroom series, Dan Bruski of Hopkins ABE skillfully integrates a variety of teaching standards into his beginning level ESL class. During the lesson, learners work on strengthening their vocabulary, developing grammar and critical thinking skills, and using language in a communicative context. Read More
Tutor Tips to the Rescue!
Your learners are showing up in 20 minutes, and you need an activity idea fast! Check out the Tutor Tips blog on the Minnesota Literacy Council website to find hundreds of activity ideas with detailed instructions for yourself or your classroom volunteers to follow. Use tags to easily search for activities by level or language skill. Read More
What is a Toobaloo?
Did you know PANDA has a lending library of adaptive equipment available for loan to ABE teachers for students with disabilities? The Toobaloo is an item PANDA will send if a student is having fluency, speech, comprehension or pronunciation challenges. Read More
Diana’s ELL Writing Routine: Days 6-10
A small body of writing research supports a set of principles for effective writing instruction. In this final part of the Writing Routine series, learn how to combine explicit writing instruction with extended and varied writing experiences for a purpose. Read More
Word-Level Focused Activities to Help Low-Literacy ESL Learners Decode: PART 3
Focusing on word beginnings and word families can help learners recognize patterns, which can improve their ability to decode words. Help your adult ESL learners with writing and speaking production in Part 3 of this alphabetics routine. Read More