We talk a lot about differentiating instruction, measuring growth, and preparing students for the real world, but how do you actually do that in a system still driven by grades? Maybe you need a new model altogether. In this episode, we're exploring an approach to school called competency-based learning. I’m joined by three educators — Susie Bell, Heather Messer, and Beth Blankenship — who show us what this model actually looks like in classrooms. They share real teaching examples, how they assess growth over time, and how the Mastery Transcript Consortium supports this work.

Thanks to Zearn and EVERFI for sponsoring this episode.

To read a full transcript of this episode and get more resources on competency-based learning, visit cultofpedagogy.com/competency-based-learning.

Grammar has never been an especially popular area of study, and teaching it has frustrated many English teachers throughout time. It seems like no matter how hard we try, the concepts just don't stick as well as we'd like them to. In this episode, I'm talking to Matthew Johnson, author of the new book Good Grammar: Joyful and Affirming Language Lessons That Work for More Students, about some truly fresh approaches he takes to grammar instruction (I definitely never tried them!). They have worked so well that his students now say grammar is their favorite part of his class — definitely worth a listen! 

Thanks to Zearn and EVERFI for sponsoring this episode.

And to learn more about Grammar Gap Fillers, go to cultofpedagogy.com/grammar.

To read Matt's article and get links to his book, visit cultofpedagogy.com/grammar-stinks/.

Research shows that adding physical or hand gestures to a learning experience, especially ones that have some meaning to them, can significantly boost how well students understand and remember the content. 

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Thanks to Class Composer for sponsoring this tip. You can find written and video versions of these at cultofpedagogy.com/edutips.

This episode is for everyone and anyone. In it, I'll share five techniques that will encourage any person you’re talking to to go a little more in-depth, share a little bit more, and most importantly, feel seen, heard, and understood. 

Thanks to Boclips Classroom and EVERFI for sponsoring this episode.

For a written version of this episode, visit cultofpedagogy.com/listening-skills.

If you're doing an activity that requires students or participants to volunteer to participate, this is a fun way to choose them.

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Thanks to Class Composer for sponsoring this tip. You can find written and video versions of these at cultofpedagogy.com/edutips.

Recent executive orders have launched an attack on teaching for diversity, equity, and inclusion. How do you teach at this precarious time in history when so much work has been done to weave these values into so many of our materials and practices? The more I think about it, the more I think you may not have to change as much as it might seem. When I look over the years of articles and podcast episodes I have done in the service of supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion, so many of the practices I've had the privilege to share would never get flagged by these directives. I thought it might be helpful for me to curate some of the most important teaching recommendations that have come through my platform for addressing inequities in schools.

Thanks to Listenwise for sponsoring this episode.

For links to all the resources mentioned in this episode, visit cultofpedagogy.com/dei-under-attack.

You can create the most spectacular lesson plans, but if all of your students aren't in the room when those plans are executed, catching them up can be kind of a nightmare. And despite the fact that this has been a problem for generations, few teachers have ever figured out a foolproof plan for solving it. My guest today has an approach that can help. Robert Barnett is co-founder of the Modern Classrooms Project and the author of a new book, Meet Every Learner's Needs: Redesigning Instruction So All Learners Can Succeed. In this episode, Rob is going to explain how his approach, which ultimately evolved into the framework Modern Classrooms uses, helped him solve the problem of student absences in his own classroom. And he'll show us how any teacher can get started with it in a very simple way.

Thanks to Boclips Classroom and Zearn for sponsoring this episode.

To read a full transcript of this episode and get links to Robert's book, visit cultofpedagogy.com/absent-students.

One of the best-kept secrets in teaching is that frequent quizzing leads to better learning. If you can incorporate more ungraded or low-stakes quizzes into your instruction, there's a good chance your students will start remembering more of what they're learning. Learn about the research behind this phenomenon in this EduTip.

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Thanks to Explore Learning for sponsoring this tip. You can find written and video versions of these at cultofpedagogy.com/edutips.

When we make certain choices, often without even realizing it, we can turn a teaching moment from one that should be clear into one that's confusing. Luckily, these choices are pretty easy to spot and fix once we know what to look for, and cognitive science can help us understand what's going on. In this episode I'm going to talk about three of these with Blake Harvard, who writes the Effortful Educator blog and has just published a new book, Do I Have Your Attention? Understanding Memory Constraints and Maximizing Learning.

Thanks to Boclips Classroom and Brisk Teaching for sponsoring this episode.

To read a full transcript of this episode and get links to Blake's book, visit cultofpedagogy.com/cognitive-overload.

In a classroom that is emotionally "cool," no one is preoccupied with any kind of anger, hurt feelings, anxiety, or fear, and this frees them up to concentrate on academics. One way to make that happen is by using neutral language: By choosing words that are less judgy and more neutral, we keep things professional, calm, and cool. 

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Thanks to Explore Learning for sponsoring this EduTip!

You can find full written versions of these tips at cultofpedagogy.com/edutips.

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