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Book: Limitless Mind – Learn, Lead, and Live without barriers

From the moment we enter school as children, we are made to feel as if our brains are fixed entities, capable of learning certain things and not others, influenced exclusively by genetics. This notion follows us into adulthood, where we tend to simply accept these established beliefs about our skillsets (i.e. that we don’t have “a math brain” or that we aren’t “the creative type”). These damaging–and as new science has revealed, false–assumptions have influenced all of us at some time, affecting our confidence and willingness to try new things and limiting our choices, and, ultimately, our futures. Stanford University professor, bestselling author, and acclaimed educator Jo Boaler has spent decades studying the impact of beliefs and bias on education. In Limitless Mind, she explodes these myths and reveals the six keys to unlocking our boundless learning potential. Her research proves that those who achieve at the highest levels do not do so because of a genetic inclination toward any one skill but because of the keys that she reveals in the book. Our brains are not “fixed,” but entirely capable of change, growth, adaptability, and rewiring. Want to be fluent in mathematics? Learn a foreign language? Play the guitar? Write a book? The truth is not only that anyone at any age can learn anything, but the act of learning itself fundamentally changes who we are, and as Boaler argues so elegantly in the pages of this book, what we go on to achieve

Culturally responsive pedagogies

From Tātaiako: Cultural Competencies for Teachers of Māori Learners The competencies are: Ako: taking responsibility for their own learning and that of Māori learners. Manaakitanga: showing integrity, sincerity and respect towards Māori beliefs, language and culture. Tangata Whenuatanga: affirming Māori learners as Māori. Providing contexts for learning where the language, identity and culture of Māori learners and their whānau is…

Book: Spelling Rules, Riddles and Remedies – Advice and activities to enhance spelling achievement for all

Sally Raymond ISBN 9780415710008 Routeledge Pg 8 Why do some learners find spelling difficult? Auditory (sound-based) and visual processing skills – If the brain cannot easily identify units of sounds within words and/or match them to the correct lettered displays, then spelling memories and coding ability is going to be weak. … Furthermore, an over-reliance on either the audio or…

Book: Mathematical Discourse that Breaks Barriers and Creates Space for Marginalized Learners

Hunter, Roberta; Civil, Marta; Herbel-Eisenmann, Beth; Planas, Núria; Wagner, David (Eds) (2018). Mathematical Discourse that Breaks Barriers and Creates Space for Marginalized Learners. Sense Publishers. ISBN 9789463512107 Chapter 1: Opening the space for all students to engage in mathematical practices within collaborative inquiry and argumentation pg 2 …the need for teachers to understand possible barriers their diverse and marginalised students…

Book: Classroom Starters & Plenaries: Creative ideas for use across the curriculum

Brown, Kate (2009). Classroom Starters & Plenaries: Creative ideas for use across the curriculum. Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 9781847065452 What makes a good starter or plenary? Good starters and good plenaries have a lot in common with each other, and also a lot in common with any kind of good teaching activity. They incorporate several, if not all, of…

Book: Teaching Primary School Mathematics and Statistics: Evidence-based Practice

Harvey, R., & Averill, R. (2010). Teaching primary school mathematics and statistics : evidence-based practice. NZCER Press. [C&Pa topic Learning to count] Chapter 1: Learning to Count Pg 17 Activity: Count in another languageIf appropriate, ask a child who is a confident speaker of another language to teach you, and possible some other children, how to count in their language. This is…

Book: Language learning strategies: What every teacher should know

Rebecca L. Oxford Oxford, R.Language Learning Strategies: What every teacher should know. Heinle Cengage Learning, Boston, USA (1990). ISBN 9780838428627 Chapter One: Looking at Language Learning Strategies Pg 24 Exercises to use with your students Exercise 1.1. Embedded Strategies Game Purpose This game helps participants to become acquainted with language learning strategies and can be used with either teachers or…

Book: Differentiated Reading Instruction: Strategies for the Primary Grades

Sharon Walpole & Michael C. McKenna Walpole, S & McKenna, M. Differentiated Reading Instruction: strategies for the Primary Grades. The Guildford Press, New York (2007) ISBN09781593854126 Chapter 2: Using Assessment to Differentiate Instruction pg 15 Progress Monitoring Measures Once differentiated instruction begins, teachers must periodically check to see whether their efforts are paying off. Imagine a dentist who identifies a…

Article: Choral Counting

By placing children’s ideas at the center, our hope is that Choral Counting can provide one way to support students to see themselves as knowers and doers of mathematics and to experience school mathematics as a place where their ideas matter.

Book: Differentiated Reading Instruction : in Grades 4 & 5

by Sharon Walpole , and Michael C. McKenna Walpole, Sharon, and Michael C. McKenna. Differentiated Reading Instruction : Strategies for the Primary Grades, Guilford Publications, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/massey/detail.action?docID=320575. Chapter 7: Building Comprehension pg 104For the novice and struggling readers, reading comprehension is related to vocabulary, just as it is for older readers, but it is also inextricably linked to decoding and…