"As I turn 85, I find myself looking back on my own intellectual history with Core Knowledge. I've written four books on the theory behind all this activity. But the thought occurs: Perhaps sharing my personal epiphanies might be a good way of helping others understand the program's character and scientific origins. More important, perhaps it would help mitigate two misconceptions: that reading is a technical skill and that Core Knowledge is impelled by reactionary nostalgia."

In this "reader idea" column, a MA English teacher shares her school's process of handling gender issues, from the classroom level to schoolwide. Several resources are shared, including a beginning-of-the-year identity survey, lesson plan ideas for teaching about pronouns, and links to related articles and PDFs.

An anthology of social justice poems

WaPo's Answer Sheet blog picked up Sara Holbrook's delightfully scathing review of standardized tests, particularly a Texas test that sources her poetry, poorly. The Answer Sheet provides some good context, with a reference and link to the now infamous pineapple episode that occurred during the 2012 New Your Regents Exam.

A good description of strategy minilesson instruction with GRR

A collection of instructional strategies, i.e. "tools," and templates and videos for implementation of the tools. From the site homepage: "For every tool you'll find:

An explanation of how and when to use it,
a template students can use to implement the tool, a place to take notes about how you use each tool."

"...[A] list that touches on everything from sports to travel, education, gender roles, video games, fashion, family, pop culture, social media and more. ...[E]ach links to a related Times article and includes a series of follow-up questions....So dive into this admittedly overwhelming list and pick the questions that most inspire you to tell an interesting story, describe a memorable event, observe the details in your world, imagine a possibility, or reflect on who you are and what you believe."