Joanne Jacobs
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....
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Joanne Jacobs
May 3, 20181 min
Tried-and-true vs. innovation
Educators are obsessed with innovation, while ignoring the tried and true, writes Mike Schmoker in Education Week. For example, “ongoing...
Joanne Jacobs
Feb 14, 20181 min
We know what works, but don’t do it
“Direct Instruction is the Rodney Dangerfield of education,” writes Fordham’s Robert Pondiscio. Despite 50 years of research showing its...
Joanne Jacobs
Dec 14, 20172 min
Roll-your-own curriculum is overrated
Letting teachers choose their own curriculum is a bad idea, writes Kathleen Porter-Magee, who taught middle-school science as an...
Joanne Jacobs
Nov 30, 20171 min
To teach reading, teach history, science …
Reading isn’t a “general skill that can be applied with equal success to all texts,” writes cognitive scientist Dan Willingham in the New...
Joanne Jacobs
Nov 7, 20171 min
Is personalization a fad? Curriculum matters
If students choose what to learn, pursuing their own interests, they’ll be engaged and active learners, say some personalized-learning...
Joanne Jacobs
Aug 5, 20172 min
Why Learn Languages?
Yes, but what does this take? A language towers over the best of minds. A few years of high school study won’t get you far, unless the...
Joanne Jacobs
Aug 1, 20173 min
Teacher Education and the Curricular Slice
We have a manifold problem. American schools (and their constituents) generally resist a common curriculum, for all kinds of reasons. In...
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