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Teaching math through inquiry can be excellent. It's a goal to aspire to. But for many struggling students, jumping straight into pure inquiry without any explicit instruction first can be paralyzing. Juliana Tapper's Math Wars model helps teachers find the happy (gray) medium. The post Be a Shade of Gray in the Either/Or Math War first appeared on MiddleWeb .

Artful AI in Writing Instruction models productive and reflective approaches to using AI where student voices are centered and human thinking trumps artificial intelligence. The book is a roadmap for teachers with examples, lessons, and moments of reflection, writes Michele Haiken. The post A Human-Centered Approach to Using AI first appeared on MiddleWeb .

Productive struggle is part of classroom instruction, building a structured task into the flow of learning so that students can apply what they know in new and novel ways, writes consultant and author Barbara Blackburn, who explores myths, student dispositions and more. The post 4 Ways to Encourage Productive Struggle first appeared on MiddleWeb .

A "snail mail" pen pal project may seem outmoded for middle schoolers, with their brains wired for the instant gratification of texting and social media. And yet, as Scott Bonito discovered, having a mystery pen pal can make eyes light up and adolescent brains go into overdrive. The post Writing Middle School Mystery Pen Pal Letters first appeared on MiddleWeb .

In "Prepared Classroom" Gail Boushey and Allison Behne illustrate why a well-planned classroom is a powerful tool for teachers to foster positive environments and support student learning. Stacy Haynes-Moore appreciated the detailed descriptions of routines and procedures. The post An Insightful Guide to the Prepared Classroom first appeared on MiddleWeb .

Teacher fatigue at the end of the year is real and well earned, writes middle grades veteran Megan Kelly. "Still, you and your students have spent a significant amount of time together and it merits celebration." Kelly shares three favorite "final days" activities at her school. The post Have Fun and Celebrate as the School Year Ends first appeared on MiddleWeb .

When we over-guide our math students, we don't build understanding, we replace it, writes veteran teacher, author and math coach Pamela Seda. "We want students who, after leaving our class, can find their way – not students who are dependent on a voice telling them where to turn." The post Are You “GPSing” Your Students in Math Class? first appeared on MiddleWeb .

Using personal anecdotes, educational research, and practical strategies, Kelly Gallagher offers both a call to action and a guide for educators invested in students’ literacy development as he explores the connection between background knowledge and reading comprehension. The post Helping Students Build & Use Prior Knowledge first appeared on MiddleWeb .

Whether they're annotating for current engagement or as preparation for discussion and writing assignments, students benefit from knowing the purpose of their notes. Seventh grade teacher Laurie Miller Hornik shares steps to help students understand the power of annotation. The post Teaching ELA Students to Annotate with Purpose first appeared on MiddleWeb .

After her close study of insights from three leading math educators, Kathleen Palmieri took "a deep dive into what I had been doing in my classroom and flipped the stage to create a Thinking Classroom for my students." See examples of how she's moved from theories to practice. The post Engaging Math Students in a Thinking Classroom first appeared on MiddleWeb .

Teaching Storytelling in Classrooms and Communities calls on educators to trust in the power of student narratives and to create learning environments where stories become a launching pad for critical reflection, social change, and community-building, writes Melinda Stewart. The post Amplify Student Voices & Inspire Social Change first appeared on MiddleWeb .

What We Can Do When Students “Skim Read” By Holly Durham Walk into almost any middle or high school classroom and you’ll see a familiar scene. A student is asked to read silently. By the third sentence, their attention has already begun to drift. Their eyes move, but not always in order. They skip lines, glance up, look back down, and eventually arrive at the end of the paragraph. When asked what…

Creating a Classroom of Young Problem Solvers Word Problem Workshop: 5 Steps to Creating a Classroom of Problem Solvers By Mona Iehl (Routledge, 2026 – Learn more) Reviewed by Kathleen Palmieri Mona Iehl’s Word Problem Workshop offers a practical framework designed to ignite how elementary learners engage with math. The book outlines a structured, daily routine that makes word problems less scary…

AI Help with Assessment Saves Me Valuable Time By Katie Durkin What I love most about teaching is it’s a profession of collaboration and inspiration. At any time, you can see a colleague’s lesson or have a brainstorming session, and your work is transformed. But it is also a profession where there is a lot on teachers’ plates, and there often is not a lot of time in the school day to do everythin…

Everything I Knew about Grading Was Wrong By Stephanie Farley When I was first introduced to competency- or mastery-based grading in 2017, it was an exceedingly undignified experience because it felt like everything I knew about grading was wrong. I had been asked by my school to attend a conference of what was called the Mastery Transcript Consortium (MTC, now owned by ETS), as the school was co…

Integrating AI Into the Human Act of Teaching The AI Assist: Strategies for Integrating AI into the Very Human Act of Teaching By Nathan Lang-Raad (ASCD, 2025 – Learn more) Reviewed by Ralph Covino As someone who is invested in AI literacy at the middle school level, I was hooked immediately by the title of this book. Succinctly, it captured something that I had been struggling to put into words …

We Need to Rethink How We Teach Research A MiddleWeb Blog For years, many of us have assigned research projects assuming students already know how to do the work involved. When students turn in copied paragraphs from a website or shaky AI summaries, it’s tempting to see it as laziness. More often, though, it reflects something else entirely: the actual ‘work’ of research – the searching, vetting,…

Cozy Classroom Tweaks to Make Kids Welcome A MiddleWeb Blog I hear this at least several times a week from kids who wander in from the hallway, and it’s always gratifying. It’s also a side effect (but we’ll get into that a little later). My English as a New Language (ENL) students these days are often stressed, sad, and have hard work to do. So do most of our students, who are among the most depr…

3 Ways to Help Students Make Sense of Fractions By Mona Iehl Fractions are divisive. You either love them or hate them, but people rarely feel like they truly understand them. My husband and I were renovating our house when he said, “We need a board that’s 48 ⅔ feet, and we’ll need to screw it every 1 ¼ feet.” My brain immediately fizzled. But then I grabbed a tape measure, and suddenly… it start…