Dan Willingham on phonics instruction
Jasmine Lane and Jon Gustafson on training teachers to fail
Howie Knoff on “trauma informed” schools
Joanne Jacobs on stop scaring students
Burgoyne et al on “growth mindsets”
Schlosser et al on no evidence for the Rapid Prompting Method of Facilitated Communication
An amazing trip down memory lane from Mom of 4:
When I was at my flagship state college, in the 60s, every English major in the College of Arts and Sciences had to earn at least a B in (1) Structure of the English Language and (2) Stylistics, in that order. The professor was outstanding, demanding – I had her for another class – and widely considered to be the toughest grader in the department. I don’t think re-taking the class was possible, and I had a number of English major friends. I do know that many prospective majors bolted to the ed school, over the requirement. The ed school required neither class, although some of the top students did take Structure.
Back in the 80s, my younger kids had a new grad (different state flagship) who practically boasted – as an English teacher – that she had never diagrammed a sentence and thought it both useless and ridiculous. She might have been a better writer if she had; I was tempted to correct her communications and send them back, and my major was not even in the humanities. I spent a lot of time supervising my kids’s work…
Catherine & Katharine 