Teaching Unscripted

Today on the Heinemann Podcast, what role does developmental psychology play in teaching?

Susan Engel is an educator, psychologist, and author of the new book The Children You Teach. In it, Susan describes the great need for what she calls a “developmental lens." Often feeling out-of-reach to teachers of young children, Susan explains why and how developmental concepts can be easily used in the classroom.

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Today on the Heinemann Podcast, does the design of an assignment impact the quality of a student’s work?

Jim Burke is the author of The Six Academic Writing Assignments: Designing the User’s Journey. In his book, Jim investigates writing assignments from hundreds of classrooms to identify what’s useful and what’s not. What he found is that the overall design of an academic assignment, from the layout to the words used, is critical to not only how well a student preforms, but how they continue to learn throughout their academic journey. By taking a user approach, Jim suggests that we can design better work for our students.

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Today on the podcast, we’re excited to bring you the second conversation in our Turn & Talk series, hosted by author Ellin Keene. If you missed the first installment, you can find it on blog.heinemann.com.

Turn & Talk is a celebration of Heinemann’s 40th anniversary, hosting conversations between authors who have written for Heinemann since its early years, and those who are newer authors, bringing their unique perspectives to the table. This series tackles issues facing educators today, like: how much autonomy do individual teachers really have; how can we ensure equity for all students, and what it’s like to launch your ideas through books and podcasts into the world of education. Patterned after the New York Times’ Table for Three column, host Ellin Keene poses questions to authors and engages them in a reflective conversation.

In this second Turn and Talk discussion, Ellin is joined by Tom Newkirk (most recently the author of Embarrassment and the Emotional Underlife of Learning) and Kathy Collins (co-author of I Am Reading: Nurturing Young Children’s Meaning Making and Joyful Engagement with Any Book) as they share their teaching journeys, inspiration, and hopes for an equitable future in education.

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How do we encourage students to genuinely engage with challenging or difficult texts?

Today on the Heinemann Podcast, Marilyn Pryle, author of “Reading with Presence” suggests a method of writing and sharing reading responses, which differ from the usual short essay answer. Marilyn says Reading Responses offer students a method of close reading that provides choice while still maintaining a structure that keeps the assigned reading as the main focus. Students are able to write, share, and discuss their unique thoughts and gradually build a deep understanding of a text.

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Today on the Heinemann Podcast, what drives us to read?

In her latest book, “The Book in Question: Why and How Reading is In Crisis,” author Carol Jago highlights the importance of reading, and what we stand to lose when it is devalued. It doesn’t matter so much, Carol says, what students are reading or why, but that they choose to read at all, and that they are confident in their ability to attempt the text in front of them.

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Today on the Heinemann Podcast, how do we have productive conversations that help surface a student’s mathematical thinking?

We confer often with our readers and writers, but these conversations are just as needed in mathematics. What does it look like to talk with students about their mathematical thinking so that their thinking grows? How do we know when to step in and when to nudge? In Jen Munson’s new book, “In the Moment,” she offers educators clear guidance for conferring with your students in math, responding to their thinking, and helping them grow their mathematical ideas. 

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Today on the Heinemann Podcast, how do we become present in our own learning?

We’ve all had students who physically come to class, but when called on to answer question appear to be mentally absent. Maybe you were this student. In her new book “Reading with Presence” Marilyn Pryle tackles the causes of disengaged learning and provides tangible solutions that provide students a safe space to share ideas and engage confidently.

In this read aloud episode, Marilyn shares a story of her own journey from a shy, disengaged student, to a fully present learner.

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Today on the Heinemann Podcast, we’re making sense of comprehension.

In Understanding Texts & Readers New York Times Best-Selling author author Jennifer Serravallo narrows the distance between assessment and instruction. Jen simplifies text complexity and clarifies comprehension instruction. She starts by untangling the many threads of comprehension: Levels, engagement, stamina, the relevance of texts, and more.

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How do you respond to a student’s writing while conferring? And what’s the best way to give feedback? 

This week on the Heinemann Podcast, we’re talking about how to support your students during writing conferences. Writing conferences help students build confidence in their writing ability and find joy in the writing process. While conferring with students can feel daunting, author Carl Anderson says, it’s a skill any teacher can learn with time, practice, and the right resources.

Nearly 20 years ago, Carl wrote How’s it Going, one of the most influential books on conferring.

In his newest book, A Teacher’s Guide to Writing Conferences, Carl takes conferring and distills it down to an accessible, easy-to-implement resource for educators at any level.

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In her newest book, Being the Change, author Sara Ahmed explores the importance of social comprehension in the classroom; understanding those often tricky-to-navigate landscapes of race, gender, politics, religion, sexuality… In July Sara spoke at the Nerd Camp literacy conference in Michigan about the tensions many of us feel during big moments in history.

In her presentation, Sara shared with listeners her experience on September 11, 2001. As we reflect on the events that took place that day, we felt that Sara’s story perfectly highlights both the progress we’ve made, and the great lengths we still have to go as a nation of teachers, learners, and engaged citizens.

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