Sarah Kotleba earned her bachelor's degree in elementary education from the University of Iowa and her master's in language acquisition and literacy instruction from San Francisco State University. She has taught in public, faith-based private and secular independent schools in grades 2 through 4 and has worked as a literacy specialist and English language development teacher. She has done work in international comparative education in New Zealand and Israel. Sarah currently works as an instructional reform facilitator in California.
Sarah
Kotleba
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Articles by Sarah
Seeking Better Student Assessment Tools
Recently, I met with the second- through fifth-grade teams at our school to look at student achievement on our district benchmark tests. We analyzed the results. Then we set out to identify specific focal questions that large numbers of students answered incorrectly. We’d hoped to develop an instructional plan to help the students answer similar questions correctly in the future.
Lesson From Muslim Student Teaches Whole School
Last spring, a fifth-grade girl approached me in the lunchroom with a question. Asalah is a Muslim student from Yemen. Our connection had started right there in the school cafeteria two years ago. I was passing out trays and sporks when the third-grade version of Asalah approached me with a question about whether or not the “ham” sandwich was really pork. I told her no, that it was turkey, and shared with her that my religion, Judaism, has dietary laws as well and that I don’t eat pork either. We’ve been pals ever since.
Get Past the Discomfort, Discuss LGBT Issues
I work as an instructional coach at a large, diverse and underperforming urban public elementary school. Our students are at-risk. Families are struggling with stress and trauma. Teachers work mightily to close the achievement gap. So as I left a third-grade classroom the other day after a check-in with the teacher, I wasn’t surprised when she said, “Wait, can I ask you one more thing?”