Ms. Best

           Today’s blog will focus on small ways to make our students higher achieving student in the area of English Language Arts. These are a few tips from Arthur Applebee’s book entitled Toward Thoughtful Conversations: Fostering Discipline-Based Conversations in the English Language Classroom (2000). First, try not to have too much material in a single class period. Too much material may result in you the teacher spoon feeding the students what they need to know. It is important to give the students limited amounts of material so they can create their own interpretations and interact with each and you the teacher on such matters. Second, if there is class discussion on the material make sure that all contributions are “true and accurate”. Lastly, make each day’s material connect with the rest. The curriculum must be related in some way that students can create their own perspective of the whole class. Your students will become higher achieving students who include all the diverse texts read in class to create a higher meaning. I hope these tips will make their way into your classroom someday.