Anne has worked with middle level graduate students on effective teaching strategies for teachers, particularly those working on teams and/or within a block schedule. She believes very strongly that all the latest brain research has shown teachers that the path toward increased achievement is through engaged learning in the classroom. Her work has focused on how to help teachers create that engaged learning environment. Anne has worked with school districts in Illinois on both curriculum and middle school issues. She has also presented many times at both state and national conferences and has served for several years on the board of the Association for Illinois Middle Schools.

Topics Include:

• Building Literacy Strategies in the Middle Level Classroom
  • We know middle school students love to read about celebrities and sports stars, to read and write notes, and do IM so how do we bring the heartbeat of the hallway into our classrooms in terms of improving their literacy? There are very effective research based teaching strategies for improving middle school student literacy.
• No More Fake Reading
  • Far too many of our students can read aloud well, and can even decode the most difficult words. The problem comes when they have to use, remember or retell what they have read. In order to prevent “fake reading” we have to teach our students researched based strategies on how to make sense of text. These strategies are effective for struggling readers and college-bound students as well.
• The Message of Brain Research to Middle Level Teachers
  • For several years middle school teachers often heard “there’s so much happening from the neck down that there’s just not much going on from the neck up”. Recent brain research has shown that statement to be completely false. In fact, early adolescence is second only to the period of birth to two years in terms of brain growth. Middle school teachers need to know about and capitalize on this research to create brain friendly classrooms that maximize student learning.
• Teaching Diverse Learners
  • Recent learning theory has taught us so much about how students learn. But we need to apply that theory to the many diverse learners in our classrooms. Middle school minority students need teachers that are using teaching strategies that compliment how their students learn most effectively.
• Teaching in the Block
  • Many schools are implementing block schedules but what will the teaching look like in that longer block of time? The ability to integrate curriculum and build literacy is a very powerful possibility of block scheduling. There are very specific ways to help teachers become more highly effective within this scheduling model while meeting the physical, intellectual, emotional, and social needs of their adolescent learners.
• Building Your Social Studies Curriculum – No Longer a Mile Wide and an Inch Deep
  • Many social studies curriculums have often been criticized for their focus on coverage rather than on depth. By using the concepts of building a curriculum on big ideas and using essential questions to focus learning teachers can construct a very rich and engaging social studies classroom.
• So What Does Engaged Learning Really Look Like?
  • We all know we want our students to be actively engaged in their learning but that is often more easily said than done. By keeping in mind some very key concepts of learning and employing research based teaching strategies we can effectively answer this question.
• The Nuts and Bolts of Teaming
  • So you’re now working on a team or soon will be. You already know or have been told that when it’s working it is a wonderful teaching environment but too often the opposite is true. There are several time and teacher tested strategies that really do maximize the possibilities of working on a very effective team and having lots of fun along the way.
• Rethinking Advisory – The Key Is Building Relationships
  • No single middle school program has been harder to successfully implement than advisory. Instead of simply doing away with advisory perhaps what we really need to do is rethink it. What works? What doesn’t? What can schools do to build the relationships with students outside of the confines of a defined advisory curriculum? There ARE exciting ways to rethink and rebuild the concept of advisory.