PEBC BLOG
Wendy Ward Hoffer
Supporting Math Equity in Denver Public Schools
“Numeracy is a civil right. Agree?” PEBC facilitator Jailyn Jenkins points to one side of the open auditorium, “or disagree?” She points to the other. More than fifty teachers, instructional coaches, school administrators and district personnel of diverse backgrounds shift towards the “agree” wall with various degrees of certainty. “Turn […]
Read MoreOverview of the PEBC Teaching Framework
PEBC’s Teaching Framework represents over three decades of research and practice in classrooms across the country in pursuit of teaching each and every student for agency and understanding. Reflective, humble, and striving teachers have led the way in pioneering the instructional approaches described here. It’s not magic, and it’s not […]
Read MoreNew legislation to boost math achievement and support for Colorado students
Colorado students who have been struggling with math the past few years may see some additional support in future years, thanks to recently introduced legislation: HB23-1231 – Math in Pre-Kindergarten Through Twelfth Grade. The bipartisan legislation seeks to reverse a trend in declining math scores since 2020, and is designed […]
Read MoreAssessment: Rubrics and Trackers
Written trackers can be useful in communicating success criteria to students as well as to invite learners to be agents in their own progress monitoring; they might be used for specific tasks or for unit- or yearlong targets. The table below is an example of a self-assessment, self-report tool. Elementary […]
Read MoreAssessment: Additive Rubrics
An additive rubric is a tool for task design that scaffolds students’ success. Beginning in the first column, we can describe what we expect all students to do to get started, then build with more detail, rigor and complexity towards the right hand side of the page. In this way, […]
Read MoreLearning through Discourse
I met a special education teacher who shared a story about a boy with autism who had not spoken a word all year. Then one day she gave the group a uniquely challenging math problem. This boy figured it out before all his peers; everyone saw his solution and believed […]
Read MoreThinking Strategies: Readers’ Workshop
Into the Classroom: Mrs. Blake’s Fifth Grade Readers’ Workshop Mrs. Blake’s students have been fifth graders for seven days. This time of year is all about growing independence and learning the rituals and routines of readers’ workshop. But Mrs. Blake’s fifth graders are also knee-deep into an inquiry of how […]
Read MoreMath Workshop
“When I switched to workshop model instruction, my students’ math achievement leapt up by 50 percent in a matter of months. I am not kidding. The principal was in my room asking, ‘What is it you are doing in here?’ And I told her, ‘I read this book, and now […]
Read MoreCommunity in the Classroom
Trust, shared purpose, interdependence, mutual support, and safety in taking risks are some of the features of an effective community. Your own community might be your neighborhood, your faith group, your colleagues, or your extended family. For students, their learning community, the space in which and the people with whom […]
Read MoreWhat: Plan for Agency and Understanding
Believe in the children, fight foolishness, and learn who our children are and the legacies they bring, education expert Lisa Delpit (2013) implores us in “Multiplication Is for White People.” The foolishness she is referring to is wasting teachers’ time keeping track of non-instructional tasks in regimented, teacher-proof curricula. As […]
Read MoreAn Overview of Phenomenal Teaching
What does it look like to build students’ agency and understanding amidst shifting standards, changing assessments, waves of mandated curricula, and evolving educational policies? If, against that backdrop, we believe in fostering the unique promise inherent in each child, how might our classrooms look and sound? If we are devoted […]
Read MoreIntroduction to Phenomenal Teaching
This blog post is part of a series excerpted from the 2020 PEBC publication Phenomenal Teaching. The book is available through the publisher, Heinemann, as well as on Amazon. “If we create a culture where every teacher believes they need to improve not because they aren’t good enough but because […]
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