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Current research suggests that active study of science reinforces thinking, language and reading skills. Presenting the necessary tools to integrate literacy with science, this hands-on book contains valuable instructional ideas and activities that make science less daunting - especially for teachers.
How can we prepare our students to think, read, and write like scientists? In Reading Science, Jennifer Altieri reminds us that literacy skills aren't add-ons to the science class-they are critical parts of instruction. She addresses the need for both literacy and science skills in our classrooms to prepare our students for the future challenges they will meet. Strategies you can use right away Filled with practical strategies customized for science classrooms based on Jennifer's decades of experience connecting content areas with literacy, this book supports: teaching students to be critical consumers of scientific information they read, regardless of the source or type of text developing students' interest in scientific vocabulary and rich understanding of how words relate to each other encouraging collaboration as students seek answers to scientific questions and communicate their findings. Science requires specialized literacy demands Our students should be prepared for not only the science class as we know it today but for future science classes and the world beyond. To create classrooms that support this kind of learning, we must use literacy as a tool to help students access science content, communicate their ideas precisely, and apply their discoveries in new contexts.
Teachers struggle every day to bring quality instruction to their students. Beset by lists of content standards and accompanying "high-stakes" accountability tests, many educators sense that both teaching and learning have been redirected in ways that are potentially impoverishing for those who teach and those who learn. Educators need a model that acknowledges the centrality of standards but also ensures that students truly understand content and can apply it in meaningful ways. For many educators, Understanding by Design addresses that need. Simultaneously, teachers find it increasingly difficult to ignore the diversity of the learners who populate their classrooms. Few teachers find their work effective or satisfying when they simply "serve up" a curriculum—even an elegant one—to students with no regard for their varied learning needs. For many educators, Differentiated Instruction offers a framework for addressing learner variance as a critical component of instructional planning. In this book the two models converge, providing readers fresh perspectives on two of the greatest contemporary challenges for educators: crafting powerful curriculum in a standards-dominated era and ensuring academic success for the full spectrum of learners. Each model strengthens the other. Understanding by Design is predominantly a curriculum design model that focuses on what we teach. Differentiated Instruction focuses on whom we teach, where we teach, and how we teach. Carol Ann Tomlinson and Jay McTighe show you how to use the principles of backward design and differentiation together to craft lesson plans that will teach essential knowledge and skills for the full spectrum of learners. Connecting content and kids in meaningful ways is what teachers strive to do every day. In tandem, UbD and DI help educators meet that goal by providing structures, tools, and guidance for developing curriculum and instruction that bring to students the best of what we know about effective teaching and learning.
Science educators in the United States are adapting to a new vision of how students learn science. Children are natural explorers and their observations and intuitions about the world around them are the foundation for science learning. Unfortunately, the way science has been taught in the United States has not always taken advantage of those attributes. Some students who successfully complete their Kâ€"12 science classes have not really had the chance to "do" science for themselves in ways that harness their natural curiosity and understanding of the world around them. The introduction of the Next Generation Science Standards led many states, schools, and districts to change curricula, instruction, and professional development to align with the standards. Therefore existing assessmentsâ€"whatever their purposeâ€"cannot be used to measure the full range of activities and interactions happening in science classrooms that have adapted to these ideas because they were not designed to do so. Seeing Students Learn Science is meant to help educators improve their understanding of how students learn science and guide the adaptation of their instruction and approach to assessment. It includes examples of innovative assessment formats, ways to embed assessments in engaging classroom activities, and ideas for interpreting and using novel kinds of assessment information. It provides ideas and questions educators can use to reflect on what they can adapt right away and what they can work toward more gradually.
This text addresses the changing literacies surrounding students and the need to communicate effectively using technology tools. Technology has the power to transform teaching and learning in classrooms and to promote active learning, interaction, and engagement through different tools and applications. While both technologies and research in literacy are rapidly changing and evolving, this book presents lasting frameworks for teacher candidates to effectively evaluate and implement digital tools to enhance literacy classrooms. Through the lens of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), this text prepares teacher candidates to shape learning environments that support the needs and desires of all literacy learners through the integration of technology and literacy instruction by providing a range of current models and frameworks. This approach supports a comprehensive understanding of the complex multiliteracies landscape. These models address technology integration and demonstrate how pedagogical knowledge, content knowledge, and technological knowledge can be integrated for the benefit of all learners in a range of contexts. Each chapter includes prompts for reflection and discussion to encourage readers to consider how literacy and technology can enable teachers to become agents of change, and the book also features Appendices with annotated resource lists of technology tools for students’ varied literacy needs in our digital age.
Helping teachers engage K–12 students as participatory researchers to accomplish highly effective learning outcomes Integrating Teaching, Learning, and Action Research: Enhancing Instruction in the K–12 Classroom demonstrates how teachers can use action research as an integral component of teaching and learning. The text uses examples and lesson plans to demonstrate how student research processes can be incorporated into classroom lessons that are linked to standards. Key Features Guides teachers through systematic steps of planning, instruction, assessment, and evaluation, taking into account the diverse abilities and characteristics of their students, the complex body of knowledge and skills they must acquire, and the wide array of learning activities that can be engaged in the process Demonstrates how teacher action research and student action learning—working in tandem—create a dynamic, engaging learning community that enables students to achieve desired learning outcomes Provides clear directions and examples of how to apply action research to core classroom activities: lesson planning, instructional processes, student learning activities, assessment, and evaluation
Helping teachers engage K–12 students as participatory researchers to accomplish highly effective learning outcomes Integrating Teaching, Learning, and Action Research: Enhancing Instruction in the K–12 Classroom demonstrates how teachers can use action research as an integral component of teaching and learning. The text uses examples and lesson plans to demonstrate how student research processes can be incorporated into classroom lessons that are linked to standards. Key Features Guides teachers through systematic steps of planning, instruction, assessment, and evaluation, taking into account the diverse abilities and characteristics of their students, the complex body of knowledge and skills they must acquire, and the wide array of learning activities that can be engaged in the process Demonstrates how teacher action research and student action learning—working in tandem—create a dynamic, engaging learning community that enables students to achieve desired learning outcomes Provides clear directions and examples of how to apply action research to core classroom activities: lesson planning, instructional processes, student learning activities, assessment, and evaluation
Judith H. Anderson and Christine R. Farris, colleagues at Indiana University and prominent scholars in literary studies and composition respectively, aim here to bridge the perceived division between the two disciplines. In a spirit of curricular collaboration, Integrating Literature and Writing Instruction presents an array of courses, mainly for non-English majors, that use literature in teaching first-year college students how to read, write, and think critically. Contributors teach at a range of institutions—from Research I and large state universities to small, selective colleges—and use different classroom approaches, some highly participatory and others combining lectures with small-group work. Divided into three groups, representing humanities core courses, courses that focus on literature, and courses that focus on cultural issues in relation to literature, the essays explore the use of a variety of literary texts, from Shakespeare's sonnets to historical novels to detective fiction. Contributors offer imaginative assignments and innovative pedagogical techniques that can be adapted profitably in multiple courses and institutional contexts. The concluding section narrates the collaborative development of a course on language, metaphor, and textuality, which the editors offer as a successful model of what literature and writing instruction can accomplish together.
This book focuses on Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences and includes high interest strategies and activities to integrate language arts with the disciplines of social studies, math and science as well as planning outlines and more.
"The content is powerful. Seeing examples from all grade levels is important so that each reader, regardless of teaching level, can see that it can be done in his or her situation." a?Sue DeLay, Curriculum Resource Teacher, Oak Creek Franklin School District, WI "Contains real-life examples of integration, including examples of the author's own experience in the classroom, making the work much more appealing and credible for teachers." a?Mary Ann Kahl, Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership, National-Louis University "This is the first book I have read that lays out a big picture that I can buy into and explains how to look at accountability in a positive way." a?Jane Adair, Resource Specialist, Long Beach Polytechnic High School, CA Help your learners connect big questions to big understandings! In today's accountability-driven environment, educators strive to develop an integrated, relevant, and measurable curriculum while also presenting engaging subject matter that inspires student learning. In this completely revised edition of the classic text, Susan M. Drake provides a new approach to standards-based curriculum, instruction, and assessment that helps educators identify what students must know, do, and be. This invaluable resource also offers: A framework allowing for multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary approaches to curriculum integration Sample models of integrated curriculum in action Practical suggestions to simplify curriculum alignment and integration Insights based on real classroom experience to connect the framework to the real world End-of-chapter discussion questions and suggested activities Discover how you can create an integrated, standards-based curriculum that inspires your students, and then watch them thrive.
