Tim Riley

Smart Strategies to Improve Your Scaffolding School of Practice · Episode

Listen on Spotify: bit.ly/40DSu2v

Love these ideas.

29 High-Impact Formative Assessment Strategies These versatile strategies—from brain dumps to speed sharing—help students track their own progress while informing your next instructional steps.

Formative assessment can’t be an afterthought. These flexible strategies reveal crucial insights about student learning (during and after your next lesson). 🔎

#assessment #EduSky

A Low-Stakes Public-Speaking Game for High School Students By offering a quick, low-pressure way to practice, teachers can help students build their confidence and poise when talking in front of the class.

Ever heard of the Um Game? 🤔

It’s a low-pressure, quick way to practice public speaking—helping students build their confidence, poise, and pacing when talking in front of the class!

#EduSky

Three-question sequence today that ABSOLUTELY landed— especially when paired with the Myth of Sisyphus background and the poem "Sisyphus and the Ants" by Flescher

Sometimes the dominoes are just lined up perfectly!

I don't have adequate words for how cool this is

(but without question I am taking notes!)

A Low-Stakes Public-Speaking Game for High School Students By offering a quick, low-pressure way to practice, teachers can help students build their confidence and poise when talking in front of the class.

Public speaking isn’t always easy for students. This simple, low-pressure game can help. 🙌

#EduSky

An Active Learning Strategy for Using Videos in Class Reaction videos are a modern form of annotating a text, and they teach students the same critical thinking and connection skills.

Can making reaction videos build your students’ critical thinking skills? 🛠️ First-time Edutopia contributor Chris Bach says yes!

#EduSky

What’s one way to convert fast finishers into self-directed learners? ⏩

📚 Make a station with lots of options to get them reading independently!

Stay tuned for more activities for fast finishers!

1-Minute Read. Brain-Based Learning. Pausing to Process New Information With a Stop and Jot

In Kalen Dillon’s middle school social studies class, learning is punctuated with moments to pause and think. 🛑🧠

She frequently uses the Stop and Jot routine. 📝

Here’s how it works.

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Pausing to Process New Information With a Stop and Jot Building structured breaks into lessons that let students reflect, organize their thinking, and work through ideas in real time can strengthen their understanding.

🎥 To see Dillon’s students using the Stop and Jot strategy, watch the video here: edut.to/4lbtbys

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Making Formative Assessments More Efficient and Effective Incorporating peer review and individual reflections makes frequent, intentional formative assessment manageable, with big benefits for student learning.

“Looking back now, I realize two things I was entirely wrong about: First, there were ways for formative assessments to be much more efficient and effective … and second, a classroom built around formative assessments was much, much better for student learning,” @marcusluther.bsky.social writes.

6 Routines to Get Students Unstuck When students are grasping at straws, these self-directed strategies help them to pause, make a plan, and pivot more effectively.

Getting stuck is an emotional experience, especially when it happens time and time again. With these strategies at the ready, students can think flexibly and adapt to the challenge. 💭

#EduSky

It's #SpeakUpSaturday at The Worthy Educator! Speaking up needs a safe place to be heard. Apryl Taylor shares how she and her two teacher-sisters are always there for each other! Who are YOUR safe spaces for practicing speaking up? www.theworthyeducator.com/post/apryl-a... #EduSky

An Interesting AI Conversation with Students and how leaning into hypotheticals was incredibly meaningful

One of the reasons I was so enthusiastic this past week was a conversation that somewhat spontaneously arrived at some pretty big contradictions within the class around AI—and I can't stop thinking about! So I wrote a bit about what happened:

thebrokencopier.substack.com/p/an-interes...

Building PBL Systems That Really Encourage Students to Lead Teachers can set up effective systems for project-based learning that support students in assuming more agency in their work.

“More than 10 years ago, when I was a student-teacher, a mentor teacher said something I’ll never forget: ‘Students don’t always learn because of us; they learn in spite of us,’” writes teacher Matt Halter.

Here’s how that’s informed his approach to PBL systems. 🌟

#PBL #EduSky

5 Indispensable Ways to Deepen Student Comprehension Simple, in-class activities—drawn from recent research—that you can use to cement hard-won student insights.

Simple, in-class activities—drawn from recent research—that you can use to cement hard-won student insights. 🧠 ⬇️

6 Cool Visual Thinking Activities That Strengthen Student Writing Visual activities like mapping, sketching, sculpting, and writing comic strips can help students clarify ideas, strengthen drafts, and deepen literary analysis.

From sketching comic strips to sculpting poetry scenes out of Play-Doh, here are 6 ways teachers can encourage students to visualize literary tasks! 👓📚

#literacy #EduSky

7 Things Teachers Say to Create a Supportive Classroom The things teachers say can cut deeply or build a lasting foundation for success. Here are seven teacher-tested expressions to try this year.

Words matter! These teacher-tested phrases go a long way in empowering learners and creating a supportive classroom. 🧡

Are there any you’d add to the list?

Anchor chart titled "How We Thrive," with 4 steps. 1: Morning boost, with illustration of someone walking through a doorway. We kickstart our day with friendly greetings at the door as a reminder that we all belong here. 2: Conversations that count, with speech bubbles. We have casual, non-academic group conversations to help build long-lasting connections. 3: Refresh and reset, with an illustration of a brain. We make space for brain breaks throughout the day to boost our creativity and energy. 4: Ready, set, play! with illustration of someone stretching. We make movement and play a priority as they are essential to our learning!

Download our free anchor chart: https://edut.to/3NZhLBq

An Active Learning Strategy for Using Videos in Class Reaction videos are a modern form of annotating a text, and they teach students the same critical thinking and connection skills.

The modern form of annotating a text? Reaction videos. 📹

Here’s why teacher Chris Bach recommends having your students record their own!

#EduSky

4 Characteristics of Outstanding ‘Warm Demander’ Teachers: 1. The right kind of “demanding” 2. Consistency 3. A touch of empathy 4. Celebrating wins. Read the article to learn more!

Read more about the warm demander approach: https://edut.to/3L1NQr6

Such simple phrases that, when spoken meaningfully, make a huge difference. #TeacherSky

"The only way to get students to learn is to make learning a more meaningful and attractive proposition than outsourcing the earning of a credential to a bot."

Here's my problem, though: it takes time to convince students that the work in our classroom is meaningful.

It is not a Day 1 thing.

"My choosing not to use AI as a tool is not because I don’t understand it, but rather it’s because I do understand it."

🙏 from @susangbarber.bsky.social

muchadoaboutteaching.com/developing-a...

How to Engage Students the Moment They Enter the Classroom Openers matter and set the tone for the lesson that follows. Here’s how to start strong when you need to.

What do your students and Olympic athletes have in common? They need a warm-up—and the right ones can give a big boost to their performance! 🔥🥇

Middle and high school teachers, check out these educator-tested openers.

#MiddleSchool #HighSchoolTeacher #EduSky

6 Routines to Get Students Unstuck When students are grasping at straws, these self-directed strategies help them to pause, make a plan, and pivot more effectively.

Love when I get to speak to my younger self through my work. 💗

This one is dedicated to the little girl who used to throw her hands up and declare she was *bad at math* when she got stuck on something. Still not great at math to be fair 😅, but much more resilient. 💪

My latest for @edutopia.org:

6 Routines to Get Students Unstuck When students are grasping at straws, these self-directed strategies help them to pause, make a plan, and pivot more effectively.

Getting stuck can trigger all types of big emotions—like frustration or shame.

Edutopia’s @tatertutt.bsky.social lays out 6 strategies that give students the tools to coach themselves back toward calm and composure. 😌

#EduSky

Building PBL Systems That Really Encourage Students to Lead Teachers can set up effective systems for project-based learning that support students in assuming more agency in their work.

The key to effective project-based learning? Getting out of students’ way. 🔑

But that requires a strong system. In his first article for Edutopia, teacher Matt Halter explains how to build PBL systems that *really* encourage students to lead.

#PBL #EduSky

I also really wish there were SO many more series like this out there: conversations/interviews about not just why a teacher loves how a book shows up in their classroom but more importantly how they bring it to life, what moves they make, etc.

(Basically: I want to learn from others!)