Educator Newsletter
Issue 14, Winter 2021 |
Wonders News!
Thank you, Wonders Community.
We’ve made it to a new calendar year, and we’re almost halfway through the school year. We hope you’re taking a well-deserved moment to pause and reflect on just how far you and your students have come – learning and growing, building relationships, solving new problems, and being resilient in challenging times.
In this issue, we are sharing a few resources that might help you address challenging things in some different ways.
Stay safe and stay healthy.
- The Wonders Team.
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Handling the Shift to Virtual Learning |
Whether you’re in your physical classroom full-time with some students at home, juggling the logistics of a hybrid model, or trying to keep your class rowing in the same direction via all-day Zoom calls, you’ve had to make some adjustments in how you approach teaching and learning.
One of our Wonders curriculum specialists, Christina Quarelli, has written two guides that can help you! She offers practical classroom tips and uplifting advice for educators as they meet the challenges of today’s classrooms:
- : Five Instructional Shifts Teachers Can Make
- : No-Plan Strategies to Boost Student Engagement
Read, download, and share!
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Exploring Text Through Culturally Responsive Lessons |
As part of our effort to foster educational equity, we are proud to announce a new element in Wonders: Culturally Responsive Lessons.
Research supports the positive impact of culturally responsive teaching on student outcomes; culturally responsive instruction is grounded in rigorous instruction for all students and focused on academic excellence.
The supplemental Culturally Responsive lessons work alongside the lessons in your Wonders Teacher’s Editions, connect to specific anchor texts within Wonders that highlight a diverse range of people and experiences, and are accompanied by a separate digital Guidance document that explains how to use them, provides tips for teachers on examining unconscious bias, and for conducting sensitive conversations.
You can find these lessons in your Wonders digital teacher workspace under Resources > Resource Library > Additional Lessons > Culturally Responsive Teaching. |
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Reading, Writing, and Resilience |
The last year has reminded us that there’s far more to learn in the classroom than the mechanics of reading and writing. It’s also where students (and teachers!) can learn important social emotional skills. We have three new resources that can help you strengthen SEL in your classroom:
- Being Brave in the Face of Uncertainty: This Virtual Care Package provides activities and inspiration for kids (and their grown-ups) that focus on being brave, in big and little ways. It includes a playlist, writing prompts, printables, and more!
- Sesame Family Time Letters: In Grades K and 1, these monthly newsletters from our friends at Sesame Workshop will promote social emotional learning and oral language development at home and in the classroom. Find them under Resources > Resource Library > Back to School Support Resources > Social Emotional Learning
- Character Lab + Wonders: In Grades 2-6, we’ve joined forces with Character Lab, whose mission is to “provide actionable advice for parents and teachers—based on science” to align your Wonders instruction with SEL content from Character Lab. You’ll find the grade level connections and teacher guidance under Resources > Resource Library > Back to School Support Resources > Social Emotional Learning
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Looking for resources to share with parents, research to inform your work, or inspiration from experts and peers? . You’ll discover stories from educators, strategies from experts in reading instruction, and news from learning scientists and edtech experts. Here are three highlights to explore:
- : This short piece from Dr. Angela Duckworth and Character Lab provides a short bit of guidance for building confidence in yourself and others.
- : Just what is culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogy? How does it connect to literacy? Lanette Trowery, PhD, Senior Director of Learning Research and Strategy at 91HUB Hill explains.
- : Wonders author Dr. Jan Hasbrouck helps define, demystify, and decode dyslexia, and to debunk many of the myths about students who may have it. This post is the first in a series on our Medium blog, so follow Inspired Ideas for more.
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Do you have a success story, an "a-ha" moment, or advice for other teachers you’d like to share? We’d love to feature it! Email us at wondersnews@mheducation.com and it could be in our next newsletter.
And remember to share how you use Wonders in your classroom and tag #ReadingWonders. |
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