Gtec Kids' Blog Page

Blog

Using Multi-Level, Young Adult Literature in the Middle School American Studies

 Talk to middle school teachers about the challenges of teaching today, and you are likely to be barraged with a long list of factors that make their jobs difficult.  Class size, lack of materials, poor attendance– the list of problems facing today’s teachers sometimes seems endless. We often hear middle school teachers from all subject areas complain that, “It is so difficult to motivate students today.” Another complaint, often made by teachers is, “My students read on so many different...

Read More
Literature Bookroom - Gtec Kids

Differentiating the Curriculum- How We Established a Multi-Level, Young Adult Literature Bookroom for the Social Studies Department

 Recently, the District #2 Office in New York City mandated that all children at the middle school level should read 25 books per year.  While the burden of this mandate fell most heavily on the shoulders of the Language Arts department, we at Robert Wagner Middle School in Manhattan began to discuss ways the social studies department could help to increase literacy, a goal important to all subject areas.  As we talked, we agreed that it was misguided to assume that the language...

Read More

Flashcard Games for Reinforcing and Memorizing Content in the Classroom

 One of the most effective teaching strategy groups that is simple to implement involves inexpensive index cards. Whether students keep guided notes while they read text or keep a dictionary of new words in an index box, the following strategies offer ways to reinforce the content in an active manner.The basic principle of the index card strategy group is for students to write something down on an index card from their guided notes. Or, they can create a dictionary of new words...

Read More