We often discuss explicit instruction as a method, but rarely as a matter of equity. Its purpose is to provide all students, regardless of background, with the kind of knowledge that can genuinely change their lives. 🧵⬇️

Not teaching students math facts because they can use calculators, spelling rules because they have spell check, historical dates because they can google it, or writing skills because they have AI is a travesty. Depriving students of these things enslaves them to technology

Robert Pondiscio I am both a certified teacher and a school psychologist. I currently teach 5th grade. My role is to teach students reading, math, science, social studies, and civics. Being a psychologist in the classroom is outside my scope and practice. All teachers should understand this.

School is just around the corner for many, so I put down some thoughts about designing routines for a learning-focused classroom. Hats off to Doug Lemov and Peps Mcrea, Oliver Lovell (and probably Adam Boxer) for influencing my thoughts. openwindowslearning.com/post/teacher-t…

Ms. Sam It's like telling the kids to look up an unfamiliar word in the dictionary when they can't spell it.

The case for knowledge building

Everybody wants to think critically and creatively, but nobody wants build their knowledge base! Reasoning, creativity, etc., involve combining elements of a knowledge base. You can't think with knowledge you don't have. You can't cook with ingredients you don't have.

Ms. Sam This is why, if you want to be a writer, you need to be a reader. Writers (well, good ones, anyway) have a vast store of correct, powerful, well-written English in their heads. They can google a synonym, or even examples of parallel structure, but if they don’t know they exist?

100% Every holiday the same thing happens, someone says "stop working and take a break" or whatever leave me alone, i enjoy this 😂

This is what happens when you skip the foundations. Students end up spending so much time trying to figure out the basics, they don't have mental energy left to do the high-order thinking.

Ms. Sam This is particularly true in math. There's no chance of ever getting through higher math if you stumble on the lower math calculations.

My book summaries are now in one place! Yay! Together with the cogsci reading list of 63 books! And which books, or series, would it be useful to do next? itsalearningcurve.education/cogsci-book-su…

Sure they do. You know which teachers kids really don’t like? The ones they don’t learn from. Liking a teacher isn’t a prerequisite for learning and thinking it is leads many teachers to focus on the wrong things and distract from what actually influences learning—good teaching.