With a student population that is more diverse than ever, educators often face the exciting yet challenging task of creating learning environments that not only accommodate but celebrate the rich differences in backgrounds, experiences and identities of their students.

In this episode of the Educator's Playbook, host Kimberly McGlonn discusses the intricacies and importance of inclusivity and diversity in K-12 classrooms with two Penn GSE experts. She's joined first by Maria Cioè-Peña, a respected education researcher focusing on bilingual and disabled students. Maria's insights, enriched by her extensive research and experience, shed light on adaptive strategies teachers can use to transform their classrooms into supportive spaces where every student's story is acknowledged and valued. Then, licensed clinical psychologist Kyle Schultz shares effective and empathetic tactics that are easy to implement. For example, he explains how teachers can subtly create nurturing, safe spaces by incorporating different signifiers of queer experience around the classroom. Whether it's a pride flag, equality sticker, books, or magazines, the items reinforce that the class is a welcoming environment for LGBTQ+ students and allies.

For more tips on related topics, check out the links to our Playbook story archives below.

GUESTS:

• Maria Cioè-Peña, Assistant Professor, University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education
• Kyle Schultz, Lecturer in Educational Practice and Director, Counseling and Mental Health Services Program, University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education

NEWSLETTER:

• Subscribe to the Educator's Playbook newsletter for ongoing resources and content

RELATED PLAYBOOKS:

• No. 73: Tips to make your classroom more welcoming for all learners
• No. 64: How to be a good parent and a good ally
• No. 63: How to get even better at supporting your LGBTQ+ students
• No. 40: Bringing Restorative Justice into Your Classroom
• No. 39: Putting Black history lessons into action
• No. 27: Respecting pronouns in the classroom
• No. 24: Bringing Gender Consciousness into the Classroom
• No. 21: Creating meaningful classroom discussions
• No. 17: How to confront hate speech at school
• No. 7: Responding to anti-Muslim rhetoric
• No. 5: Treating racial competence as a skill to be learned

ADDITIONAL ARTICLES & RESOURCES:

Arming students with critical thinking skills is essential in this digital era when screen time dominates and the dissemination of information (and misinformation) is constant. But how, exactly, do we do that?

In this episode of the Educator’s Playbook podcast, host Kimberly McGlonn taps into two experts to help empower K-12 students and educators to discern, analyze, and evaluate content and information in a never-ending news cycle.

She speaks first with Megan Fromm of the National Association for Media Literacy Education, an organization at the forefront of raising awareness about the importance of media literacy. Together, they unravel some of the complexities around teaching students to view the digital landscape through a critical lens until dissecting and discerning the content they encounter becomes reflexive. Then Kimberly is joined by #PennGSE associate professor Abby Reisman, who provides additional insight and effective strategies for instilling these essential skills in students. Abby focuses on document-based historical inquiry, a way of studying history where you look at original documents, like letters, diaries or newspaper articles from the past, to better understand and explore historical events and the people involved in them.

This episode is a deep dive into the intersection of education, critical thinking and the digital world, offering educators tangible strategies and insights to empower the next generation of critical thinkers.

GUESTS:

• Megan Fromm, Education Manager, National Association for Media Literacy Education
• Abby Reisman, Associate Professor, University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education

NEWSLETTER:

• Subscribe to the Educator's Playbook newsletter for ongoing resources and content

RELATED PLAYBOOKS:

• No. 49: How to make the most of teaching history online
• No. 13: Teaching students to think like historians

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

• National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE)
• News Literacy Project
• Project Look Sharp
• Media Education Lab at the University of Rhode Island
• Stanford History Education Group
• History-Social Science Project at UC Berkeley
• UCLA History-Geography Project, part of the California History Social Science Project

Educators are all too familiar with the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP. It's known as the nation's report card– and as a country, our grades are dropping.

According to NAEP's long-term trend report, students' reading and math scores have declined for the last decade. States have been evaluating and adjusting their policies, curriculum and school schedules in response. On this episode of the Educator's Playbook podcast, host Kimberly McGlonn delves into the complexities and nuances of those changes, and the role teaching standards and innovative policies play in shaping the future. What's working, what isn't – and why?

Our first guest on this deep dive is Patrick Sexton, head of teacher ed programs at Penn GSE. He talks about how crucial an effective rollout of new standards is for long-term success. Even the most well-intentioned standards will fall short without adequate training for educators. Then we're joined by Mississippi's state literacy director, Kristen Wynn, who shares what they've been doing to radically transform the state's approach over the last decade. She provides valuable insight into what it took to help their students gain proficiency against various factors.

GUESTS:

• Patrick Sexton, Executive Director of Teacher Education Programs, University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education
• Kristen Wynn, State Literacy Director (K-12), Mississippi Department of Education

NEWSLETTER:

• Subscribe to the Educator's Playbook newsletter for ongoing resources and content

RELATED PLAYBOOKS:

• No. 62: Bringing theater into the classroom
• No. 41: Engineering can be elementary
• No. 22: Math that students can use in real life, right now

ADDITIONAL ARTICLES & RESOURCES:

• National Assessment of Educational Progress
• 76.3% of Mississippi third graders pass state reading assessment on first attempt (05-18-23)
• National Report Finds Mississippi’s 3rd Grade Promotion Law Leads to Early Literacy Gains (02-07-23)
• Mississippi Literacy-Based Promotion Act
• From Mississippi’s State Literacy Plan: Strong Readers, Strong Leaders Mississippi and Leading in Literacy