How to Host Successful Classroom Discussions

There are many methods, procedures, suggestions, tools, and ideas on how to best host a classroom discussion for literary analysis. Over the years, I’ve tried most of them, if not all of them. Some worked for certain groups of students and some didn’t. What I’ve learned through experimentation is that you really need quite a few tools in your toolbox, but also it is important to note that having the classroom discussion of your dreams takes time, practice, a clear understanding of the material, and a safe classroom culture. In this blog post, I’m sharing five things it takes to host successful classroom discussions in your middle and high school English classrooms.

Use Questions and/or Discussion Stems

Teacher-prepared questions or student-prepared questions can work successfully depending on what level your students are at in the discussion process. I would suggest that if your students are new to discussions, use the teacher-prepared questions approach the first couple of times because that models the right type of questions that students need to be asking about a text to get the most out of the discussion. Using task cards with pre-written questions is a good option. Give each student one or two cards at first, so they aren’t overwhelmed. Build in some time for them to answer before you open to the group, and make yourself available to give feedback individually before the discussion starts. It would be the same process if students are writing their own questions. Having questions and answers prepared ahead of time puts student on the same playing field, so to speak, at least initially. Everybody comes to the discussion with something to say that he/she can feel confident about, and student confidence is a key ingredient in having a successful classroom discussion.

Tools for useful and engaging questions/stems:

Another strategy I like to use to prompt comment preparedness is the 3-2-1 strategy. I explain it in this video:

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Let the Students Lead

It is not always easy to step back as the teacher and wait on students to speak up. We are trained to think that we have to do all the talking or that silence equals a lack of understanding. In some cases the latter may be true, but most of the time with classroom discussions, students need a minute to formulate an answer before they speak up in front of their peers. Letting the students lead also builds their confidence over time, and they learn how to encourage each other as well. An article on Edutopia entitled “Extending the Silence” suggests at least 15-20 seconds of wait time especially when students don’t know the answer. The article states, “Not every learner processes thinking at the same speed. Quality should be measured in the content of the answer, not the speediness,” and I wholeheartedly agree. The level of critical thinking and problem solving required to participate in a meaningful conversation about a text is arguably one of the highest that students might encounter, especially when they know they are going to be required to keep it going. I would suggest only speaking up when you can see that the productive struggle has just become more of a struggle: if the silence goes on for minutes, if there is nothing left to say, if comments begin to repeat, or if the tone shifts. Otherwise, sit back and enjoy your students’ perspectives!

Hold Students Account to the Text

I always tell my students that there is a ton of flexibility when it comes to literature. That means that most of the time their interpretations are acceptable when they can be backed up with line support. However, I do tell them that there are wrong answers. So, when they get out in the weeds or just have a blatantly erroneous reading of a text due to too much speculation, misreading, failure to remember details correctly, etc., we have to stop and go back to the text. Sometimes they will check each other, and other times I need to step in and ask students to take another look at the text. It is necessary to establish text dependency with all classroom discussions about literature from the start. We may reread passages being discussed. Other times I might ask for line support. When students are writing answers to their questions from the task cards, for example, always require textual evidence. Otherwise the purpose can get skewed, and the ultimate purpose of a classroom discussion is two-fold: teach students to correctly analyze a text and effectively communicate those ideas out to others.

Physical Positioning Matters

For this one, I’m taking a page out of one of my favorite professional development authors/speakers. Dave Burgess, author Teach Like a Pirate, suggests, “In order for all members of the classroom to be engaged and learning, both the teacher and the students need to be immersed in their instruction/learning.” Switching up your seating arrangement to a circle where everyone is facing each other sets the stage for better communication practices. Plus, it is something out-of-the-norm and builds excitement. This simple transformation according the Burgess “provides an uncommon experience for your students and they will reward you and uncommon effort and attitude.” I want that as a teacher, and I know my students want that, too.

Troubleshooting Problems

Over-eager students and reluctant students will likely be your biggest issues with classroom discussions. I don’t like to force students to speak up, and honestly, sometimes I rely on my more outspoken students at times. In some cases, the more quiet students need to see the process modeled for them. They have their questions and answers prepared, but they aren’t comfortable with their own voice. I just give them time and small pushes in the right direction. For your eager students, validate their enthusiasm and gently remind them that you’d like as many voices as possible to be heard. Ask the students who’ve had quite a bit of “airtime” during the discussion to “stick a pin” in their remaining ideas, so that we can come back to them if no one else covers them. That typically doesn’t cause them to shutdown, and it reminds other students they need to speak up!

Avoiding a question/answer session is another issue to watch out for when conducting classroom discussions. This happens a lot of times when students are new at discussions or if students know a quiz will follow. In the latter situation, students are just phishing for what the teacher is looking for and/or guessing what will be on the quiz rather than truly discussing the passage. There’s nothing wrong with giving a quiz after a discussion, but students need to know that the purpose of the discussion isn’t to “review” the material on a basic level. In other cases, it just goes back to letting the students lead, holding back, and resisting the urge to answer every question that is posed.

Grading is a sticky topic when it comes to discussions. I want my classroom discussions to be organic and free from judgement. I am usually enjoying the moment so much so that I don’t like to take notes or make marks on who talked or didn’t. I’ve done that in the past, and I know it works well for some classrooms. I’d rather give a reading quiz or a prompt where students write afterwards. Other times, students have done work prior to the discussion to prepare, and I’ll collect that. These days, I’m more in the space where I want to experience the discussion rather than evaluate it from the outside looking in.

The benefits of classroom discussion abound. Students are able to make text-to-text connections, text-to-self connections, and even text-to-world connections. Check out a few other posts I have regarding my book club procedures: I Don’t Do Literature Circles and Setting Up a Classroom Book Club.

Watch/Listen to a version of this post here.

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written by Julie Faulkner

Setting Up a Classroom Book Club Meeting

You may have read my “Why I don’t do literature circles and what I do instead” post, and now you want to try my classroom book clubs method. But you have some questions: What does it look like inside a “book club” meeting? What types of activities do you do? What questions do you ask students? What do you discuss and how? How do you keep it all organized? In this blog post, I hope to shed a little more light on the anatomy of my book club meetings. If you haven’t already read my first blog post about the concept or structure in general, click here. If you are ready to dive in and build your own classroom book club, keep reading!

1) Summarizing: Summarizing is a critical part of reading comprehension, so lately, I’ve been starting my classroom book club meetings out with a short summary exercise. I like to use SWBST, and I have a teaching pack available if you’d like to give that method a try. It comes with materials you can use with any text including Twitter summaries and these new SWBST Sketch Notes for any text. I usually have students doing that as their bell ringer, and it only takes about 2-3 minutes, then we share out for another 2-3 minutes. I usually type some examples on the board as they share.

2) Engaging, dissecting, and enjoying content from the week’s assigned pages: This part, to me, is the “fun” part of reading a novel. There are so many activities and creative projects and paired reading tasks that you can do to “make literature come alive” for the students during a classroom book club meeting — or anytime! I always start the classroom book club meeting off with one of these little bite-sized nuggets that relates specifically to something covered in the pages we read. I like to start with this “fun” piece because it sets the tone, and I really want students to enjoy reading!

For example, during our classroom book club meeting for Chapter 2 of Lord of the Flies, my students created a 3D map of the island using textual evidence. An activity like this requires students to go back and review those chapters and dig for details, while having fun. I played a little island music while they worked, and they had a good time.

After reading Chapter 2 of The Great Gatsby, I feel it’s always important to discuss domestic violence. We close read that section of the chapter highlighting details like the cause of the conflict and the disparity between the men’s and women’s reactions. We set up a KWL chart, and I found a really great TED talk on the topic that we watched. (BTW: My The Great Gatsby Complete Unit is coming late 2019! You can get my The Great Gatsby video viewing guide here now!)

When I design literature units, I try include something “creative” or a “paired text/close reading task” for each chapter or section. I mostly turn to those for this part of the book club meeting. Every now and then, there won’t be something specific for the chapter we’ve read, or I’ll just be in the mood for something different. In that case, I’ll use a quick activity from my “Response to Literature: Making Literature Come Alive” bundle. These are short, little activities that pack a big punch. Each activity is text-based, so it’s a purposeful use of your time. Some require students to take on real-world role create something: T-Shirt Designer, QVC Sells Person, Sports Broadcaster, Crime Scene Reporter.

Others are derived from social media: Twitter Subtweeting, Cell Phone Conversations, Character Song Lists, Making Memes. Plus, every time I think of something new, I add it to the bundle, so you get those updates for free!

3) Small-group discussion: There are several ways you can go about this portion of the classroom book club meeting, and you also need to decide if it’s something you think your students need or not. I started small-group discussions as a precursor to large-group when I had a group of lower-level/reluctant readers because they would come to large group discussion with nothing to say, their thoughts weren’t organized, or they were too embarrassed to speak up. Once I started doing it, it just stuck for every group I had. Now, even with my most advanced groups, we almost always have a small-group discussion. They even ask for it, so they can get their thoughts together in a smaller, safer setting.

One method I use is the 3,2,1 approach. This method allows for more open-ended discussion. Students just take a blank sheet of paper out and jot 3 questions about the section/chapter, 2 comments, and 1 connection or key quote. Sometimes they can answer their own questions in the small group, and I love that. They are always going back and digging through the pages to look for info and answers. Depending on time, I give anywhere from 5-10 minutes in small group for 3-2-1. Since they are reading out-of-class, several of them bring questions and comments with them to class, and I love to see them bubbling and wanting to talk about books! Then, they bring that list to large group.

Another approach for small group is a guided focus. After reading Chapters 1-3 of The Great Gatsby, I wanted students to discuss findings from the color tracker sheet they had done in their “packets” for that section. The idea of color symbolism hadn’t gelled with them quite yet, so I felt it necessary to break them up into groups and have them discuss. I had them discuss all the colors on the chart, and then I just gave each group one color to be the “experts” on, and they led the discussion for that color. In that case I set up a specific framework and topic for their small-group discussion.

Another way to guide small group discussion is with literary analysis task cards. You could even use task cards for large group, too. It’s totally flexible. Task cards are perfect to differentiate different levels of readers or just to mix up what students look for and discuss. My Response to Literature Literary Analysis Task Cards come in my “Response to Literature: Making Literature Come Alive” bundle. The task cards come in both printable and digital format. Read more about using task cards in this blog post.

My literature worksheets that come digital and printable in the pack are also a good way to focus small-group discussion if there’s something specific you want to students to note or focus on for a certain set of pages or chapter. These would also work really well for the out-of-class packets you could assign students, especially if you are building your own book clubs or your unit needs more meat. (More on the packets below.)

4) Large-group discussion: In large group, I have us sit in a circle when we can. I usually just let anyone start with a question from 3-2-1, and we go from there. I encourage them to answer each other’s questions and go back to the text where necessary. I model that often. I only interject if I think they are off-base, if they ask a question I know will be answered in a later chapter, or when a little prompting could lead them to a much deeper discussion. Large-group discussion can last anywhere from 15-30 minutes, depending on what else you have done that day and how much time you have. I have had groups that skip small group entirely, and we go outside on a nice day and discuss for the majority of the class period.

In the case that students are reluctant to speak up or if you have students who dominate (especially if you are hosting longer discussions) I require every student to say something. I also made cute emoji puppets for discussion. Those work really well for younger students. Here’s a quick video where I explain a bit more about the accountable talk emoji puppets.

Emoji Puppets for Accountable Talk, Review & More
Sharing some classroom discussion snippets today using my new emoji puppets! These are perfect for any subject and upper elementary to high school! https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Emoji-Puppets-with-Stems-for-Discussions-Review-and-Reflection-3064752 #classroomsuccessstories #iteachenglish #iteachhighschool
Posted by Julie's Classroom Stories on Friday, March 17, 2017

Here’s a quick video tutorial where I explain large-group discussions a bit more.

5) Assessment: Since my students are reading out-of-class, they do take a quick quiz at the end of the book club meeting because I do want to hold them accountable. They are also working through packets as they read alone as well. Those are for a grade, too, and include comprehension questions, figurative language, grammar work, journal topics – just whatever I’ve created for the unit plan that would work to guide students through the reading and enrich learning. Every student completes every page in the “workbook” on his or her own. These packets replace the old-fashioned literature circle sheets students do that can be arbitrary or vacuous if not done correctly or managed correctly. I even think when done as well as possible, they don’t always teach students to really dig in and analyze a text. Here’s a link to a short IG story that shows a glimpse of a Lord of the Flies packet I put together.

I have 75-minute periods, so we have to keep it moving. We do all the above steps in that time period and always on Fridays, but if you have shorter periods, you might want to consider doing a two-part classroom book club meeting each week. Every now and then I’ll do that, especially when I have a bigger project in mind. We might start on Thursday or end on Monday. Everyone’s schedule is different, so it’s hard for me to predict what might work best for your timeline. One thing that I’ve starting doing this year is making a slide show (PPT) for the meeting, so that students can see where we are going, and we can keep up with progress more easily. It also gives them a visual because I add pictures, but it’s also helpful for differentiation purposes to meet various learning styles. I’ve also had admin drop in for pop evaluations during book club meetings, and it helps them see at-a-glance what we are working on. I just make one slide per “segment” of the class (see 1-5 above), plus a “Daily Objective” slide at the beginning.

Love this content? Join a group! There are already tons of ideas, freebies, and fabulous teachers in my new groups, and joining is simple. Just click over to the following links, answer a few questions, and voila! Thanks again for following along my classroom stories and small-business journey, and I really do hope you to see you over in my new “backyards” where we can chat and share all things English and Yearbook.

Feb 2019

Treating “Activity-itis” (Assessing and Adding Value and Quality to Activities)

Class time is precious and limited. With so many standards to cover and stakes being so high, it is imperative that everything we put in front of our students be standards-based, purposeful, and designed to drive and assess student growth. Over the years, I’ve reflected on some activities that I’ve done with students and realized that maybe just maybe 🙂 some of them were “fluff” in terms of standards. Don’t get me wrong. Some assignments are fun, make personal connections, or meet other goals. However, some are just not designed to do much other than keep students busy or produce something cute or trendy for a social media post. In the past, I have certainly been afflicted with “activity-itis.” This post explains how to assess and add value and quality of your classroom assignments and activities.

The Symptoms of Activity-itis:

The students have no idea why they are doing the activity. You could probably argue that there will always be students who are clueless in a sense that they aren’t trying. In this case, the problem goes much deeper. There are times when I dive right into a lesson or activity and just don’t tell my students why we are doing it or what it connects to. If I just forget to tell them, that’s one thing, but if I can’t answer the questions “Why are we doing this?” or “What are they learning from doing this?” then why are we doing it? Why are we building a model of a fire-proof house with our 451 unit? Guilty. Why are we drawing a picture of our favorite character in The Lord of the Flies? Guilty again. Instead, let’s trace the symbol of fire throughout the novel and analyze how it changes. Let’s read an informational text about how fire works and make literal and symbolic connections. If we want students to get to know characters, let’s have them create a body biography with text-based descriptions. Just making some tiny, purpose-driven adjustments can spark huge changes in students’ growth and understanding.

The students are busy, but there’s no challenge. I suppose this could happen for a couple of reasons, but like I said before, class time is precious and limited. Coloring, watching movies, listening to a podcast — just for the heck of doing it or because everyone else on social media is doing it. I actually use and sell resource for these types of activities; however, there is always something students are doing that is skills based. Yes, coloring and movies make excellent brain breaks and sub plans, but even then, I just can’t get behind vacuous time-fillers. If students are coloring in my class, they will be editing sentences in order to color by number. If they are watching a movie, they are analyzing structure and style. More on using movies effectively in this post. If we are listening to a podcast, we are making connections, analyzing plot, or more — we aren’t just doodling. There is always something that can be done to up the ante with any assignment.

The activity steps too far out of its subject, isn’t grounded in standards, or isn’t connected to any prior or future learning. I think this one creeps up a lot in English class because we do so much with texts that we feel we need to introduce. When I first started teaching The Crucible, I felt I had to tell students everything they needed to know about Puritans before we started the unit. Then I had to spend another day or so talking about the 1950s. Then, yet another day was spent covering the elements of drama. A week or more had passed and we hadn’t even started reading the text; and my kids were bored and over it. Eventually, I stepped back and asked myself, what I am I doing wrong? I love this play so much, but the kids hate it. Then, I realized: it wasn’t the play they hated, it was the presentation. Wow. So, how did I fix it? I asked myself one question: Why am I teaching this play? The answer? It wasn’t so they could learn the history of the Puritans. It wasn’t so they could understand the 1950s. It is so we could analyze a true hallmark in the canon of American literature — for the literature, to see how an author can craft a story that conveys both so creatively and expertly that we really don’t need much else than the text itself. In that regard, the only intro material I kept was one short informational text article about McCarthy and a quick vocabulary lesson on allegory. Then, we just dig in. I let the text do the talking. I developed questions, prompts, close reading exercises, and activities that drove students further and further into the text. The result? Students who enjoyed the play more than ever before, and students who were mastering standards. More ideas on how to start a unit here.

Treating "Activity-itis" (Assessing and Adding Value and Quality to Activities)

The activity lack true engagement and/or collaboration. Students aren’t talking at all or aren’t talking about the actual task. How many times have you overheard students saying “What’s for lunch?” or “I have to work this afternoon” during an activity? Sure, students get off task with even the best designed activity. However, a key symptom of activity-itis is students who are off-task. If I have students in groups, what I really want them to be able to do is collaboration, bounce ideas off each, and share out. I want them to even learn to hear different ideas and defend their own answers. I love to have students think first, and talk second, so they have something prepared when they join the group. Task cards are hugely helpful with getting kids thinking and giving them direction. More ideas on using task cards in the classroom here.

Response to Text, Speech Task Cards, Textual Analysis Speech Task Cards for English, History

There is no assessment, the assessment isn’t a challenge, or there is a discrepancy between the assessment and the activity. If at the end of the day, I’ve done a lesson and can’t measure if the students really “got it,” then I’m pretty much in panic mode. For me, it can be as simple as asking them. Other times, I’ll have a worksheet they have to complete. Other people like to do the ticket out the door. Another issue here is when the assessment only asks the students to regurgitate what they’ve already been told in class and there’s no application to show their learning. It’s very important that students can apply the skills they’ve be taught, so you can see if it stuck. I almost never give a final exam on the story we’ve read in class where students recall details of the story. That doesn’t assess their hopefully newly acquired knowledge of plot, characterization, or symbolism. Rather, they will write about it, do another project with it, or read a shorter text and answer questions that test those skills. Whatever you choose, again, it needs to be purpose-driven, and truly measurable.

The Cure:

Design, discuss, and post essential questions to drive planning and measure learning. For more tips on creating essential questions and creating standards-based lessons and activities, take a look at my CC standards aligned depth of knowledge chart where I’ve aligned every ELA standard 9-12. More on using essential questions here.

2. Student self-reflection. This isn’t always easy, but with particularly reluctant groups, I have success with my weekly reflection task cards that come in my student-directed data pack. More on data collection here.

3. Think about the end goal when planning. In other words, plan backwards. In order to help myself remember this important piece, in every one of the teacher planners that I design, I have a reflection page at the end of the month. It reminds me to pause and reflect on what we accomplished and need to work more on. More on planning backwards in this post.

4. Assessment and measurement that are consistent and align with the skills.

5. Make connections to prior and future learning. This can be done effectively if you work inside of units where a big picture is evident. A KWL chart activator is perfect tool for making connections. I also love to do the 3-2-1 strategy.

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Yes, there are crazy-day schedules, half days, sub days, or sick days, or any number of random odd days occasionally when we need a quick low-stakes, no prep activity, but even those days need to be utilized to matter. Ultimately, I now evaluate each lesson and activity I plan for its standards-based value.

[Read more…]

Making Learning Interactive: 5 Strategies for the Secondary Classroom

Keeping kids engaged and involved is one thing. Keeping
teenagers engaged and involved is a whole other issue. However, interaction of
some sort is a staple for just about every day in my classroom to reinforce,
review, or revitalize a lesson. Whether
it is just a quick conversation with a shoulder partner, a game that requires
movement to demonstrate understanding, or a hands-on task, students do
appreciate the opportunity to get out of those straight rows for a few
minutes. Here are 5 interactive strategies
to engage secondary students!

1) Face-to-Face
Discussions
Teenagers love to
talk. So, I make use of every
opportunity to capitalize on their chatter.
From the very first week of school, I model and we practice accountable,
academically productive talk. Discussions
can come in several forms and fashions.
Sometimes we just turn to our “shoulder partner” and share our journal
response; other times we move into our “row teams” and discuss a chapter from
the novel we are reading. One really fun way to spark discussions is with
Rotating Stations. This type of activity
would work for many concepts. I like to
use it for discussing key or significant moments from a text we are reading. Each
station has a quote taped to butcher paper, and then small groups rotate
through the stations adding their thoughts and comments to the paper. When time is up, I play
a piece of a song, and that’s the signal for the groups to move to new stations
in the classroom where they continue their discussion, based on the ideas they
encounter from the previous group. Rotations
continue every few minutes until each group has been at all of the positions
and has had a chance to consider all of the other groups’ comments. Academically productive talk allows students
to share ideas, and it ultimately prepares them for an individual assignment,
such as a writing task.

Accountable Talk Productive Discussions & Collaborations P

2) Virtual
Discussions

Teenagers also love texting and social
media. We aren’t a full BYOD school or a
1:1, but we do have a policy where teachers can request for students to use
their devices in class for an assignment, and we do have a floating class set
of iPads. When I can, I like to plan some extra time to host virtual
discussions. Two free cool tools I use
to host a digital dialogue are Padlet.com and Today’s Meet.com. Padlet has tons of uses, but one fun way is
to just pose a question or topic, and then students plug in the unique URL and
begin posting their responses. Today’s
Meet allows teachers to set up a temporary “room” for discussion. Students join
the room and begin texting their ideas. My
students give rave reviews about the days we gab with gadgets!

3) Review
Skills with Games that Incorporate Movement

Let’s admit that
review work isn’t all that glamorous. That is unless it’s interactive! A simple
way to bring in a quick review of vocabulary or the previous day’s lesson is
with Ball Toss Review. I have a small ball that I toss out to get the game
going. If we are reviewing vocabulary, I may say a word and have the student
define it. He/she answers it and then
tosses to another student. This is also fun for reviewing the previous day’s
lesson. One student states something
he/she remembers, passes the ball for another student to add an idea, and so
on. Another strategy I use for reviewing
key skills is the “humanization” of more traditional classroom activities. Do you have a sorting activity? Why not make it into
human-sorting? Have terms for students to match? Why not have students play it
human-matching style? Directions and materials are included in all of my “human sorting and matching” games! Additionally, most all of my literature guides come with a human plot chart activity for review (pictured below)! They are easy to make, and kids love them! Check out my full catalog of Creative Worksheet Alternatives for ELA!

ELA Review Games Activities -Vocabulary, Poetry, Grammar,

Grammar Games, Easy Prep Activities, Interactive, Review T

4) Bring
Out Their Inner Child

No matter how old
they are, teenagers still love a little cut and paste time! Once upon a time I inherited
a whole slew of magazines. I just couldn’t bear to trash all that beautiful authentic
text, so it hit me – Collage Bingo! This interactive activity marries a couple
of old favorites: cut and paste collage
and the scavenger hunt. I love this
interactive activity because my students get exposed to a ton of text, we are
reviewing key terms, and it is so easy to implement. Collage Bingo is even
great for short days or substitutes!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Figurative-Language-Collage-Bingo-FREE-Full-Length-Lesson-215213

Peer
Editing

I can’t say enough about the power of a productive
peer edit – productive being the key word here!
I think where the peer edit breaks down is when students aren’t really
sure what they are looking for and aren’t comfortable communicating their
suggestions to a friend. What I’ve found
to make peer editing actually work is to practice peer editing sample papers
from the “File of Papers from the Unknown Students” first. Once we do guided practice, students gain
more confidence on how to offer constructive criticism. There are several ways to orchestrate a peer
edit from providing students with a checklist, list of questions, or a
foldable. To make a simple peer editing foldable,
just have students make one “hot-dog” fold.
On one side of the fold have students list the strengths. On the other
side, have the list the struggles. Voila – an easy-peasy, no-prep peer edit
interactive activity! Also, consider having
students focus their energies and comments by limiting or suggesting what they
look for – grammar, thesis statement, or colorful vocabulary. They don’t have
to tackle everything all at once. Hearing
and seeing students interact to improve writing just gives me “cold dots,”
which is what my six-year old niece calls cold chills!

See more interactive ideas at my newest blog post:

Formula for Classroom Success Series Post #3: Interactive and Real-World Strategies

I’m linking up with The OCBeach teacher over at her blog. So, head on over for more ways to make learning interactive!

An InLinkz Link-up