Teaching Unscripted

Today on the Heinemann Podcast, author Cornelius Minor on how the teacher as superhero narrative can be misleading if we don’t spend time with the imperfections that allow us to be human.  In his new book, We Got This: Equity, Access, and the Quest to be who our students need us to be, Cornelius crafts a better hero story for the profession of education. He writes: “we are allowed to fail, re...

What does it mean to be a writer? And how do we establish routines for our beginning writers? Today on The Heinemann Podcast, co-authors Katie Wood Ray and Lisa Cleaveland on their new book: A Teacher’s Guide to Getting Started with Beginning Writers. In this latest release of the Classroom Essentials Series, Katie Wood Ray guides us through the first days in Lisa’s classroom when writing workshop...

Today on the Heinemann Podcast, we’re learning about creative ways to grow our thinking. Tanny McGregor is the author of Ink and Ideas: Sketchnotes for Engagement, Comprehension, and Thinking. In it, Tanny explains the power behind putting words and pictures together in the method of “sketchnoting.” One of the benefits of sketchnoting is bringing focus and strengthening memory. It also allows for...

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 c...

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 lay...

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...

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 struct...

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 attem...

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 Muns...

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...

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...

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 Ande...

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 li...

How do we go beyond the cosmetic fixes of racial inequality in education and go further? There is no quick fix, and we all need to do the work. Today on the Heinemann Podcast we’re preparing for Social Justice Saturday at The Teacher’s College Reading and Writing Project which will be on Saturday - September 15th (2018). Heinemann author Sonja Cherry-Paul is one of the organizers of the event and...

This week on the Heinemann podcast, how do we create a culture for our classrooms that can last a full school year? Sonja Cherry-Paul and Dana Johansen, co-authors of Flip Your Writing Workshop and Teaching Interpretation: Using Text-Based Evidence to Construct Meaning, are currently finishing up their third book, due out in spring of 2019. Both Sonja and Dana want to help teachers build learning...

Today on the Heinemann Podcast… think back to when you were first taught math. Did you feel engaged? Did you feel you had a deep understanding of the material in front of you? Or, like many students, did you memorize and regurgitate facts that you struggled to explain the meaning of? Authors Patsy Kanter and Steve Leinwand want to change that narrative. In their new book, Developing Numerical Flue...

Have you ever stopped and asked yourself, "what’s the best that could happen?" By turning that old phrase on its head, author Debbie Miller says she’s asked herself a more beautiful question. Inspired by journalist Warren Berger’s book, A More Beautiful Question, Debbie explores how questions help us look beyond the limitations of what we’ve always done and discover powerful new opportunities for...

This week on the podcast we’re wondering, what’s the best that could happen?  Are you familiar with this quote: “The most damaging phrase in the language is ‘We’ve always done it this way!’”? Its credited to the Navy’s Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper. The computer science pioneer also noted “Humans are allergic to change. They love to say, ‘We’ve always done it this way.’ Well, not author De...

This week on the Heinemann Podcast, we're excited to bring you the final of three special minisodes to invite you all into the conversations of the Heinemann Summer Book Study, hosted in the Heinemann PD Teaching and Learning Facebook Group. This year, we are hosting a conversation on two books with intersecting themes: Kids First from Day One by Christine Hertz and Kristine Mraz, and Being the Ch...

Today on the Heinemann Podcast, how do we address the gaps between formal assessments and really knowing our students as readers? In her newest book, Understanding Texts and Readers, NYTimes best-selling author, Jennifer Serravallo, narrows the distance between assessment and instruction. On today’s podcast, Jen shares a story from Understanding Texts & Readers where she worked with a reader w...

This week on the Heinemann Podcast, we're excited to bring you the second of three special minisodes, and invite you all into the conversations of the Heinemann Summer Book Study, hosted in the Heinemann PD Teaching and Learning Facebook Group. This Year, we are hosting a conversation on two books with intersecting themes: Kids First From Day One by Christine Hertz and Kristine Mraz and Being the...

Today on a very special podcast, Heinemann author and lead staff developer with the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, Cornelius Minor sits down to interview NYTimes Best Selling author Kwame Alexander. In a wide ranging conversation, Cornelius asks Kwame about his first teachers, the people who prepared him for the work he does today, and how he connects students to poetry. Kwame Alexa...

This week on the Heinemann Podcast, we're excited to introduce the first of three special minisodes, and invite you all into the conversations of the Heinemann Summer Book Study, hosted in the Heinemann PD Teaching and Learning Facebook Group. In this year's Book Study, we are hosting a conversation on two books with intersecting themes: Kids First From Day One by Christine Hertz and Kristine Mraz...

Today on the Heinemann Podcast, we’re excited to announce a new series of professional books. Joining us to talk about this special series is Heinemann author and editor Katie Wood Ray. Katie serves as the series editor of the forthcoming Classroom Essentials Series, and is also an author on one of the series titles.  In the words of author Carl Anderson, “Good teachers aren’t born good teach...

How do we recognize engagement? Today on the podcast, a special read aloud by author Ellin Oliver Keene from her new book Engaging Children: Igniting a Drive for Deeper Understanding. Ellin says true engagement often takes us by surprise, and is so overpowering, we may not recognize it when it happens! Finding the moments when we are engaged, reflecting on them, and sharing them with our students...