A new study came out yesterday that was covered by NPR, and you can read about it at Socioeconomic factors are becoming 'biologically embedded' in children's brains. It documents the harm that poverty can have on children's cognitive abiltiies. I've ...
It documents the harm that poverty can have on children’s cognitive abiltiies.
I’ve published quite a few posts over the year sharing similar studies, and I’ll post links to them all here. So the connection isn’t new.
What’s more important, of course, are practical strategies teachers can implement to try and counteract these harms. I’ll start off this list with links to those ideas:
The new official World Cup song would be a great one for English Language Learners – and for all other students, too.
It’s about doing your best and perseverance. Having ELLs listen to it, sing, and then discuss the lyrics’ meaning and how they could relate it to their life would be a nice lesson, and English proficient students could certainly benefit from doing that last part, too.
I’ve embedded three videos below – the official World Cup music video, a “lyrics video” of the song showing the words as they’re sung (which is my preferred way of teaching with songs), and a lyrics video of a song I use in similar ways – “You Can Do It If You Really Want.”
Student engagement – what it looks like, why it’s important, and how it can be measured – is a topic of understandably constant attention by educators.
