Thinking and Linking

Joanne Jacobs

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    It's too noisy for kids to learn
    Joanne Jacobs
    • Jul 23
    • 2 min

    It's too noisy for kids to learn

    It must be 45 years ago that I visited my first classroom as a reporter. I was shocked at the change from my school days. Students got up...
    1 comment
    'R' is for reading -- and race
    Joanne Jacobs
    • Jul 22
    • 3 min

    'R' is for reading -- and race

    K-2 teachers won't be switching to a new research-backed, phonics-based literacy curriculum this fall, reports Dana Goldstein in the New...
    4 comments
    Tennessee rebounds: Is it tutors?
    Joanne Jacobs
    • Jul 12
    • 1 min

    Tennessee rebounds: Is it tutors?

    Reading scores have rebounded to pre-pandemic levels or better in Tennessee, according to a new analysis, reports Beth Hawkins on The 74....
    5 comments
    ‘Proud Boys’ interrupt Pride event
    Joanne Jacobs
    • Jun 14
    • 1 min

    ‘Proud Boys’ interrupt Pride event

    Drag Queen Story Hour was starting at a Bay Area library when a group of men entered shouting homophobic and transphobic slurs, reports...
    0 comments
    No learning loss in Sweden
    Joanne Jacobs
    • Jun 13
    • 1 min

    No learning loss in Sweden

    Photo: Andrea Piacquadio/Pexels In Sweden, which kept schools open throughout the pandemic, first- through third-graders made normal...
    0 comments
    More Michigan 3rd graders fail reading test
    Joanne Jacobs
    • May 31
    • 2 min

    More Michigan 3rd graders fail reading test

    Third graders who are a year behind in reading are supposed to repeat the grade under Michigan’s “read by grade three” law, but few are...
    0 comments
    Want to be antiracist? Teach kids to read
    Joanne Jacobs
    • May 31
    • 2 min

    Want to be antiracist? Teach kids to read

    Education Week reports that a growing number of school districts are asking would-be teachers: “What have you done personally or...
    0 comments
    Are reading wars over? ‘Balanced literacy’ is a loser
    Joanne Jacobs
    • May 23
    • 2 min

    Are reading wars over? ‘Balanced literacy’ is a loser

    Teachers were trained to teach students how to guess words they couldn’t read. The reading wars are over, writes Dana Goldstein in the...
    0 comments
    School board loses focus on academics
    Joanne Jacobs
    • May 11
    • 2 min

    School board loses focus on academics

    Shanthi Gonzales “Schools aren’t meeting students’ needs” in Oakland, California, writes Shanthi Gonzales, who’s resigning from the...
    0 comments
    What’s ‘age appropriate’ for young students?
    Joanne Jacobs
    • May 10
    • 2 min

    What’s ‘age appropriate’ for young students?

    Parents and teachers want lessons to be “age appropriate,” but disagree on when children are ready for painful topics, writes Marta W....
    0 comments
    School librarians: Dump ‘Mockingbird,’ ‘Gatsby’ …
    Joanne Jacobs
    • Apr 25
    • 2 min

    School librarians: Dump ‘Mockingbird,’ ‘Gatsby’ …

    — Summer Reading Survey School librarians want to drop To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby and Huckleberry Finn from summer reading...
    0 comments
    Joanne Jacobs
    • Mar 17, 2020
    • 2 min

    “Restructuring” Public Education

    This author invites a total restructuring of K-14 education: Any restructuring effort must start with getting the funding right, which...
    0 comments
    Joanne Jacobs
    • Dec 30, 2019
    • 2 min

    Education Reform

    Forbes has an excellent “decade retrospective” on education reform and suggests where we might look for results in the next decade: Now...
    0 comments
    Dean, you didn’t prepare me to teach reading
    Joanne Jacobs
    • Oct 11, 2018
    • 2 min

    Dean, you didn’t prepare me to teach reading

    “Schools aren’t teaching reading in ways that line up with the science,” concludes American Public Media’s Emily Hanford in Hard Words....
    0 comments
    Catching up in ‘grade 2.5’
    Joanne Jacobs
    • Sep 27, 2018
    • 2 min

    Catching up in ‘grade 2.5’

    “Like many high-poverty middle schools, Oakland’s Elmhurst Community Prep is trying to reach students who are academically all over the...
    0 comments
    Michigan 3rd graders must ‘read or flunk’
    Joanne Jacobs
    • Sep 24, 2018
    • 2 min

    Michigan 3rd graders must ‘read or flunk’

    Justin Jennings went to Purdue with a basketball scholarship — and third-grade reading skills, he recalls. With intensive tutoring help,...
    0 comments
    If schooling was as important as football
    Joanne Jacobs
    • Sep 18, 2018
    • 1 min

    If schooling was as important as football

    Vesia Hawkins loves football, she writes on Volume & Light, which follows Nashville schools. This year, she’s taking her young cousin to...
    0 comments
    New teen fiction genre: School shootings
    Joanne Jacobs
    • Sep 4, 2018
    • 2 min

    New teen fiction genre: School shootings

    Lilia Martinez, 15, a student in Michigan “estimates that of the 28 books she read over the last school year, both for pleasure and...
    0 comments
    Digital readers crave excitment
    Joanne Jacobs
    • Aug 22, 2018
    • 2 min

    Digital readers crave excitment

    She cites cognitive scientist Daniel T. Willingham, author of The Reading Mind: A Cognitive Approach to Understanding How the Mind Reads...
    0 comments
    For teens, texting crowds out books, TV
    Joanne Jacobs
    • Aug 21, 2018
    • 2 min

    For teens, texting crowds out books, TV

    For today’s teens, “time on digital media has displaced time once spent enjoying a book or watching TV,” concludes Jean Twenge, author of...
    0 comments
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