Spring is upon us, and the season provides unique opportunities for cultural exploration. The spring season is bursting with festivities around the world, each rooted in unique histories and cultural practices. Teaching traditional spring festivals provides an opportunity to explore themes of renewal, community, and the natural world across diverse cultures. Key spring festivals to teach include Holi (Festival of Colors in India), Nowruz (Persian New Year), Passover (Jewish tradition), Khmer New Year (Cambodia), and…
Dysgraphia is a language-based learning difference that affects a student’s ability to produce written language. In the early grades, students with dysgraphia may have difficulty with consistent letter formation, word spacing, punctuation, and capitalization. In later grades, they may have difficulty with writing fluency, floating margins, and legible writing. Students with dysgraphia are often labeled “sloppy,” “lazy,” or “not detail-oriented” in a classroom setting, but students with dysgraphia are often trying very hard (if not…
Are you planning St. Patrick’s Day activities for your classroom? Wearing green is fun, but this holiday also opens up doors for meaningful lessons across subjects. With the right resources, you can turn March 17 into a day of learning, not just celebrating. From Irish history and folklore to symbolism and science, St. Patrick’s Day is a natural fit for all kinds of lessons across many subjects. These lesson plans from Formative help you build…
In a 2018 study, researchers asked elementary students about their experiences as “curious learners” at school. But many students expressed surprise. “No one is curious about what we learn in class. We just need to do whatever the teachers tell us to do,” one said. In fact, children in this study didn’t necessarily see the link between curiosity and learning in the first place—even perceiving their own questions to be disruptive and unwelcome. Despite the…
The teaching profession is one of the most female-dominated in the United States. Among elementary school teachers, 89 percent are women, and in kindergarten, that number is almost 97 percent. Many sociologists, writers and parents have questioned whether this imbalance hinders young boys at the start of their education. Some advocates point to research that lays out why boys ought to do better with male teachers. But a new national analysis finds no evidence that…
Presidents Day, officially Washington’s Birthday, is a holiday in the United States celebrated on the third Monday of February. It is often celebrated to honor all those who served as presidents of the United States and, since 1879, has been the federal holiday honoring Founding Father George Washington. Washington led the Continental Army to victory in the American Revolutionary War, presided at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, and served as the first U.S. president from…
There’s a difficult reality students and teachers are contending with in classrooms: there’s no foolproof tool to detect a student using artificial intelligence (AI) as a form of cheating on an assignment. Some students are using AI to cheat. But many insist they are not, even when software flags their assignments as AI-generated. While detection software is marketed as the solution to singling out cheaters, a chorus of educators and students insist that it doesn’t…
Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) Day is a U.S. federal holiday on the third Monday of January, honoring the life and legacy of the civil rights leader by recognizing his fight against racial discrimination through peaceful activism, and it’s also designated as a national day of service to encourage community volunteering and building Dr. King’s “Beloved Community”. It falls near his January 15th birthday and became a federal holiday in 1986 after a long campaign.…
It’s been more than a year since ChatGPT’s ability to produce astonishingly humanlike writing sparked fundamental questions about the role of artificial intelligence in K-12 education. Most school districts are still stuck in neutral, trying to figure out the way forward on issues such as plagiarism, data privacy, and ethical use of AI tools by students and educators. Glenn Kleiman, a member of the advisory committees for the TeachAI initiative and the Consortium for School…
Students with ADHD can have a hard time focusing in class. They might also have trouble remembering directions or act impulsively even if they know the rules. But there are teaching strategies you can use to help students with ADHD — and all students — thrive in the classroom. Here are some strategies that can help students with ADHD focus and do better in the classroom. 1. Break directions into chunks. Students with ADHD can…
