The Stenhouse Blog

Katie Egan Cunningham is interested in helping teachers make happiness a priority in their classrooms, so she put together these handy conversation prompts to use with your students. By using these conversation starters, you're showing your students that you're interested in getting to know them as the individuals they are, which will not only help your instruction, but it will create a classroom culture of kindness.

Our Stenhouse staff is gearing up to head to New Orleans for the annual International Literacy Association Conference 2019. Here’s a rundown of all the exciting activities we have planned in the booth this year! Be sure to come visit us.

Below is an excerpt from the new book, From Curiosity to Deep Learning: Personal Digital Inquiry in Grades K–5 by Julie Coiro, Elizabeth Dobler, and Karen Pelekis.

Math teacher and author of the new book, Up for Debate! Chris Luzniak, wondered what would happen if he blended the energizing techniques from his debate classes with the lessons in his math classes to help his students become more engaged—he was not disappointed.

Longtime Stenhouse author Linda Dorn passed away on September 18 after a brief struggle with cancer. Linda created nine books and videos for Stenhouse, including Teaching for Deep Comprehension and Apprenticeship in Literacy. A professor of Reading Education at the University of Little Rock, Linda was also the founder and director of the UALR Center for Literacy since 2005. There she created a professional learning model called the Comprehensive Literacy Model—a systemic design for continuous school improvement. Coaches, teachers, intervention teachers, Reading Recovery teachers, and Comprehensive Intervention Model teachers all working collaboratively in a clear, structured way to lift schools into excellence. It broadened into a national network involving partnerships with five universities across twelve states.

By Trevor A. Bryan

The following is excerpted from the Introduction of the new book by Robert Kaplinsky, Open Middle Math: Problems That Unlock Student Thinking, Grades 6–12. Find out what your classroom can look like by incorporating the ideas from this book into your math instruction.

It’s almost time for the National Council for Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) regional conference in Boston, MA. Here is a rundown of what our Stenhouse math authors will be up to. Be sure to catch their sessions!

The following is an excerpt from Activate: Deeper Learning Through Movement, Talk, and Flexible Classrooms by Katherine Mills Hernandez on how to incorporate movement into your routine to benefit your students' test-taking.

One way to think about using movement to benefit testing is to consider when and where as opposed to what methods to use. We already know that rigorous cardiovascular movement wakes up the brain, so we need to strategize when and where to do it on testing days. We also know that the greatest benefits are achieved when movement happens before cognitive challenge.

If movement is going to happen before the test is administered, then students should be prepared to do some of this on their own, before arriving at school, since state tests usually begin at the start of the school day. There are also ways to build in brief movement sessions together, before the test begins. 

In case you missed it, here is the recap of last night's #StenhouseMath Twitter Chat with Elham Kazemi and Allison Hintz on their book, Intentional Talk: How to Structure and Lead Productive Mathematical Discussions.

Teachers and math enthusiasts from all over the country joined in to chat about how to use the strategies in this book to explore deeper math discussions in the classroom. There are a lot of great ideas shared, so read to get some tips!