Article headlines

This is a collection of the "In This Issue" headlines from the first page of all of the Marshall Memo issues to make it easier for subscribers to locate articles.

Articles with red headlines are "Classics" - the best of the best. 

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Marshall Memo 1029 - March 25, 2024

1. Jennifer Gonzalez on crying in front of students
2. Timothy Shanahan on instructional versus grade-level texts
3. What’s the best way to get ready for an algebra exam?
4. A thoughtful, take-it-slow approach to ChatGPT
5. Comparing human to AI tutors
6. Should student surveys be part of teachers’ evaluations?
7. Gender segregation in elementary classrooms
8. Are students getting enough physical activity during the school day?
9. Recommended books on Olympic-level athletes

Marshall Memo 1028 - March 18, 2024

1. Using home visits to build rapport with families
2. Four design decisions that improve students’ high school experience
3. Transforming students’ mathematics identity
4. An updated list of sight words for early reading instruction
5. Timothy Shanahan on balancing literature and content knowledge
6. What works with struggling readers?
7. Online software tools to liven up history classes
8. Recommended children’s books honoring women

Marshall Memo 1027 - Mach 11, 2024

1. A critique of the “college for all” ethos of one high school
2. What it takes to implement a successful districtwide reform
3. Taking inventory of your emotional well-being
4. Responding to traumatized students with compassion (versus empathy)
5. Bringing back unstructured play for children
6. What’s different in classrooms where students actually do homework?
7. The impact of peer consistency on high-school student attendance
8. Tips on applying for National Board Certification
9. Books to hook tweens and teens on reading

Marshall Memo 1026 - March 4, 2024

1. A tribute to Harry Wong
2. I just taught that! Why don’t they get it?
3. Can secondary students have civil debates on public policy issues?
4. Sharing our emotional preferences with colleagues and students
5. Building emotional intelligence
6. An acronym for emotional intelligence
7. Why unpacking emotions is helpful
8. Four ways to tap the brakes when emotions are getting us in trouble
9. What emotional intelligence is – and isn’t
10. Manga books for younger students

Marshall Memo 1025 - February 26, 2024

1. Persuasion 101
2. Thomas Guskey on backwards-planning professional development
3. Evaluating PD
4. Keys to supporting school leaders
5. Preparing well for a check-in meeting
6. Using “progress guides” to help students step by step
7. Boosting the reading skills of struggling teens
8. Improving home-school communication
9. Suggested ChatGPT prompts
10. The Goldilocks amount of phonemic awareness in primary grades
11. Books on women’s role in history, science, and more

Marshall Memo 1024 - February 19, 2024

1. Project-based learning – suggestions for successful implementation
2. Keys to student motivation, engagement, and success
3. How different students respond to a “wise” intervention
4. Problems and progress evaluating teaching at the college level
5. Should phonics instruction be whole-class or small-group?
6. Tips for evaluating AI edtech tools
7. Recommended children’s nonfiction books

Marshall Memo 1023 - February 12, 2024

1. A tribute to Robie Harris
2. How to get students to care about what’s being taught
3. A missing element in some primary-grade reading classes: motivation
4. Inquiry vs. direct instruction – what works best?
5. Getting students working on challenging, open-ended math problems
6. Tasks that get students thinking in math classes
7. Feedback without the “Ack!”
8. School boards – some do’s and don’ts
9. Inclusive books for elementary classrooms

Marshall Memo 1022 - February 5, 2024

1. The perils of historical simulations – and a better approach
2. How to handle “trigger warnings” in high-school classes
3. Problems with classroom behavior charts – and some alternatives
4. Making data walls more than multi-colored wallpaper
5. Timothy Shanahan on reading comprehension versus learning
6. Anticipating algebra difficulties in fourth and eighth grades
7. The quality of math instruction in different kindergarten classrooms
8. Recommended young adult books with a different twist

Marshall Memo 1021 - January 29, 2024


Marshall Memo 1020 - January 22, 2024

1. Adam Grant on the difference between empathy and compassion
2. A harm-reduction approach to standardized testing
3. With complex problems, don’t leap to solutions
4. Insights on teaching and learning from brain science
5. Timothy Shanahan on literacy priorities in middle schools
6. What happened to Finland, the poster child of good pedagogy?
7. How helpful are clearinghouses that rate K-12 programs?
8. Knowledge gaps about the Holocaust
9. Award-winning fiction books for children

Marshall Memo 1019 - January 15, 2024

1. How to be a caring boss and not burn out
2. A three-step approach to eliminating student cellphone use in schools
3. Heterogenous high-school courses with an honors option
4. An “inside-out” approach to schoolwide discipline problems
5. What is science – and why should students care?
6. Recommended tech tools for teachers
7. Award-winning nonfiction children’s books

Marshall Memo 1018 - January 8, 2024

1. Teacher teamwork that gets results
2. Using classroom videos for coaching cycles
3. The role of personal identity in the classroom
4. Activating inner leadership potential in a few minutes
5. How libraries can launch preschoolers into reading
6. A different way of arranging students’ desks
7. Mental health tips for stressed-out adults
8. Recommended poetry books and verse novels

Marshall Memo 1017 - January 1, 2024

1. Five strategies for better thinking
2. How leaders respond to unexpected events
3. Student self-talk and classroom success
4. Middle-school girls dealing with gendered harassment
5. Teen social media use varies by race and ethnicity
6. Elementary subject-area specialization and teacher turnover
7. The pros and cons of online grading programs
8. Books on Tourette syndrome and sensory processing disorder

Marshall Memo 1016 - December 18, 2023

1. Cellphones in schools: To ban or not to ban
2. Making home visits count
3. Jon Saphier on high-expertise teaching
4. How is a principal’s literacy leadership like being a point guard?
5. Two levels of questioning in social studies classrooms
6. A comparison of Eureka Math, Everyday Math, and Go Math!
7. Recommended children’s books on dyslexia
8. Thinking through the pros and cons of ChatGPT

Marshall Memo 1015 - December 10, 2023

1. Giving students an operating system for their adult lives
2. How can we capture students’ attention in a tech-saturated world?
3. Helping young adolescents stay safe when they’re online
4. Key research insights this year
5. Does school choice improve the quality of education?
6. Second graders create culturally relevant decodable readers
7. Literacy skills in different content areas
8. Factors in effective substitute teaching
9. Recommended children’s books on autism
10a. Lots more intriguing math problems
10b. A news literacy website

Marshall Memo 1014 - December 4, 2023

1. Psychological traps that produce bad decisions
2. Cautionary notes on online and whole-class mental health programs
3. What can we see in a 30-second classroom video?
4. Timothy Shanahan on the problem with main-idea instruction
5. Effective note-taking strategies
6. Using poems about social justice to encourage student empathy
7. Prompting AI chatbots for SEL lesson ideas
8. Recommended children’s books on ADHD

Marshall Memo 1013 - November 27, 2023

1. School librarians’ role in an effective schoolwide reading program
2. The impact of mentoring relationships in schools
3. Which student questions should teachers not answer?
4. Engaging math thinking tasks with a low floor and a high ceiling
5. What really matters in college?
6. What is the best way to memorize times tables?
7. AI chatbots – what could go wrong?
8. Recommended books that feature unreliable narrators

Marshall Memo 1012 - November 20, 2023

1. Can gifted classes be a force for equity and inclusion?
2. Handling students’ post-pandemic mental health issues
3. A math coach improves instruction in four middle schools
4. Discussion-worthy tasks for upper-elementary math groups
5. In elementary schools, to departmentalize or not to departmentalize?
6. Can AI help students understand and appreciate Shakespeare?
7. Graphic novels on human psychology

Marshall Memo 1011 - November 13, 2023

1. What it takes for all children to read well
2. Group work that is challenging, empowering, engaging, and equitable
3. Helping elementary students understand mathematical equivalence
4. Back to basics with math facts?
5. Data on teachers sending students to the office
6. Helping students deal with negative self-talk
7. Should we ban cellphones during the school day?
8. Jim Knight on learning to be humble
9. How to improve a ChatGPT prompt
10. Recommended books about the Native American experience

Marshall Memo 1010 - November 6, 2023

1. How much homework help should a parent provide?
2. Surprising results when teens read spicy young adult novels
3. Broadening our understanding of childhood trauma
4. Restorative practices 2.0
5. Programs that reduce unnecessary special education placements
6. Putting artificial intelligence tools to work in classrooms
7. Stories and poems about joy

Marshall Memo 1009 - October 30, 2023

1. Jennifer Gonzalez on pausing helpful suggestions and just appreciating
2. A surprising surge of creativity during unexpected interruptions
3. Cynicism, intelligence, and competence: are they linked?
4. Literacy as a springboard for student empowerment
5. Leading change with a compelling story
6. Crafting a strong statement of purpose
7. Teaching skimming and close reading
8. Children’s books on excellence in the African diaspora
9. Helping students master spelling demons

Marshall Memo 1008 - October 23, 2023

1. David Brooks on building social skills in ourselves and others
2. Adam Grant on looping
3. High-stakes testing, principals, and parent involvement in Chicago
4. Should an instructional coach intervene in the classroom?
5. A study of San Francisco’s decision to defer Algebra I until ninth grade
6. Recommended spooky graphic novels for tweens

Marshall Memo 1007 - October 16, 2023

1. What are U.S. Department of Defense schools doing right?
2. Four freedoms that allow everyone to flourish at work
3. Are trigger warnings effective?
4. Middle-school students discuss hot topics
5. Should homework be individualized?
6. Debunking myths about creativity and the brain
7. Helpful school factors for LGBTQ youth
8. Manga books on witches

Marshall Memo 1006 - October 9, 2023

1. Classroom rigor and artificial intelligence
2. A student-by-student approach to improving literacy achievement
3. Diversity in black teachers’ approach to multicultural education
4. Ethical dilemmas as teachers manage their classrooms
5. Planting seeds of student leadership
6. Information on the solar eclipse this Saturday

Marshall Memo 1005 - October 2, 2023

1. “Moral disengagement” among educators – causes and solutions
2. Four ways schools can reach aspirational goals
3. Assistant principals, discipline referrals, and racial disparities
4. How to get the most out of student group work
5. Instructional coaches “invite themselves” into classrooms
6. The track record of merit pay in Dallas
7. Project-based learning units online

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