Blog
Reading Aloud–Not Just for the Little Ones
Welcome to QPS’s mini screed re: the value of reading aloud to our students during school time and having them read aloud to us. Oh, and begging parents to do the same at home. Even when your kids already can read. There’s lots out there on the benefits of reading...
Project-Based Learning in Its Place
Project-based learning (PBL) is an educational experience in which a student engages in a hands-on, sort-of real-life project. These projects promote development of information and skills, transfer of skills, problem solving, collaborative know-how (group PBL),...
Harry Potter–So What?
Last Friday, Queens Paideia was overcome by Harry Potter fever. It’s a simple idea: run the day around HP-themed activities, tell the kids (and the staff) that they can wear costumes, and the rest is magic. So simple, so much fun, the kids will never forget it....
Practice, Practice, Practice — Indeed!
We're really glad to see Angela Duckworth and Character Lab promoting some of the concepts we care about most--goal-setting, practice, and feedback. It even sounds a bit like fluency to us. Whereas repetition plus reward leads to automatic, effortless habits,...
Queens Learns–January 12, 2019
The breaking news is that Queens Paideia is hosting a Winter Open House alongside our neighbors/partners (Sage Music, LICSB, Secret Theatre) and several other education/activity programs in the Court Square area. January 12, 1-5 p.m. at the LIC Art Center, 2nd floor...
Relevance + Fluency = Math without (or with Far Less) Anxiety
All of us have met math phobes—people who are afraid of math and feel that they’re bad at it. Math phobia is almost always acquired in large classroom settings, where any student can fall behind by inadvertently missing a critical skill or concept. Even if a...
The Elements of Reading
Yesterday, Iowa Reading Research Center posted a very good blog article by Anna Gibbs, M.S., Deborah K. Reed, PhD, and Leah Zimmermann, M.Ed., on the necessity of including phonics in reading instruction because "understanding of how language sounds are represented...
Teaching Reading–the Right Way
Tucked inside this week's New York Times Sunday Review is a gem entitled, "Why Are We Still Teaching Reading the Wrong Way." We cannot recommend it highly enough because Emily Hanford incisively diagnoses multiple common problems with current general reading...
The Problem with Teaching Problem Solving
The question What are 21st century skills? is often answered by pundits, schools, and for-profit companies with catchy, possibly brand-able, lists. These lists are good clickbait but no substitute for ongoing attention to the timeless and emerging competencies that...
What Parents Need to Know
Last night was our annual Parent Orientation. Having done this for almost 10 years, it may surprise some readers that we put a large, critical eye on it every year, as if it's our first time. Just as we teach our students to ask and answer questions (and to write...