Rewiring Our Teaching

In this first episode for the 2021-22 school year, we reflect on how we have changed in our approach to planning units and lessons, from being teachers who were held to strict pacing guides or rigid units, to teachers who use a more student-centered, dynamic approach. Why do some approaches lend themselves to the "factory model" and how can planning be more responsive and center the student?

In this episode, Katie and I discuss how annotations serve as entry points for students as they engage with texts in English, and as key data points for us in navigating which scaffolds or strategies best support a student. In this way, we can start with student interest, then move from there! If you work with newcomers or "beginner" ELL/ENL/emergent bilingual students, this is a concrete tool you can use to support both their language learning, comprehension of texts and learner agency.