Find more than 1400 activity ideas organized according to 24 age-appropriate themes that build social studies, science, math, or language arts skills. Themes include families, clothing, dental health, space exploration, rocks, birds, dinosaurs, numbers and numerals, measuring, and storytelling. Each thematic unit includes clearly written teacher directions, including purpose, procedures, background information, ways to simplify or extend the unit, related literature lists for children, and suggested reference books for the teacher. Grades preK-1. Index of activities. Illustrated. Good Year Books. 537 pages.
WINNER OF A CORETTA SCOTT KING HONOR AND THE JANE ADDAMS PEACE AWARD! Each kindness makes the world a little better This unforgettable book is written and illustrated by the award-winning team that created The Other Side and the Caldecott Honor winner Coming On Home Soon. With its powerful anti-bullying message and striking art, it will resonate with readers long after they've put it down. Chloe and her friends won't play with the new girl, Maya. Every time Maya tries to join Chloe and her friends, they reject her. Eventually Maya stops coming to school. When Chloe's teacher gives a lesson about how even small acts of kindness can change the world, Chloe is stung by the lost opportunity for friendship, and thinks about how much better it could have been if she'd shown a little kindness toward Maya.
One of the most influential teaching guides ever—updated! Teach Like a Champion 2.0 is a complete update to the international bestseller. This teaching guide is a must-have for new and experienced teachers alike. Over 1.3 million teachers around the world already know how the techniques in this book turn educators into classroom champions. With ideas for everything from boosting academic rigor, to improving classroom management, and inspiring student engagement, you will be able to strengthen your teaching practice right away. The first edition of Teach Like a Champion influenced thousands of educators because author Doug Lemov's teaching strategies are simple and powerful. Now, updated techniques and tools make it even easier to put students on the path to college readiness. Here are just a few of the brand new resources available in the 2.0 edition: Over 70 new video clips of real teachers modeling the techniques in the classroom (note: for online access of this content, please visit my.teachlikeachampion.com) A selection of never before seen techniques inspired by top teachers around the world Brand new structure emphasizing the most important techniques and step by step teaching guidelines Updated content reflecting the latest best practices from outstanding educators Organized by category and technique, the book’s structure enables you to read start to finish, or dip in anywhere for the specific challenge you’re seeking to address. With examples from outstanding teachers, videos, and additional, continuously updated resources at teachlikeachampion.com, you will soon be teaching like a champion. The classroom techniques you'll learn in this book can be adapted to suit any context. Find out why Teach Like a Champion is a "teaching Bible" for so many educators worldwide.
How do teachers and schools create meaningful learning experiences for students with diverse skills, abilities, and cultures? How can teachers authentically assess the learning of their students and build on their strengths and interests in ways that enrich the larger community? How can schools be turned into places where everyone is learning from each other? These are the big questions that guide the work of teachers at the well-known Mission Hill School in Boston and that are addressed in this book. Teaching in Themes will help schools incorporate a whole-school, theme-based curriculum that engages students across grade levels K–8. The authors provide detailed descriptions of four thematic units: What’s Baking? Learning Together About Bread and Bakeries; The Impact of Nature and Play; The Struggle for Justice: U.S. History Through the Eyes of African-Americans; and Astronomical Inquiries. Readers will see how teachers and students design “emergent inquiries” within the themes and create artwork, music, presentations, and a variety of hands-on learning experiences that support differentiated instruction across the curriculum. Book Features: Examples of whole-school projects designed to create a deep sense of immersion in a curricular theme and to build a multi-age learning community. Details of how teachers developed rich curriculum tailored to their unique students. The insights of legendary educator Deborah Meier on how whole-school thematic units were used to encourage collaboration among teachers. An afterword by teachers (and film makers) about the thinking behind their work featured in the widely-viewed film series “A Year at Mission Hill.” “The schools Deborah Meier created in New York and Boston are outstanding examples of democratic education in action. I will never forget the first time I visited one of Deborah’s schools in East Harlem and saw the joy and curiosity on the faces of children and teachers alike. I took time then to carefully describe the school’s practices, including its portfolio-based assessment system, because I believed the word needed to be spread. I still do. Happily, this new book from Deborah and her colleagues at the Mission Hill School adds to the literature on creative and collaborative teaching and on building trusting and powerful learning communities.” —Linda Darling-Hammond, Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education, Stanford University “Here is a book that shatters the prevailing definition of a ‘good’ school as one with high test scores. Teaching in Themes makes clear the often hidden fact that there are many kinds of ‘good’ schools for children, adults, and a democratic society, past and present. Experienced teachers tell a fascinating story about Boston’s Mission Hill School, its goals, curriculum, classroom lessons, and assessments that will knock the socks off many true believers in only one kind of a ‘good’ school.” —Larry Cuban, Professor Emeritus of Education, Stanford University “Real student engagement is not the result of entertaining instruction; it is borne from students being passionate about their own learning—about becoming young experts. This book gives a behind-the-scenes look at Mission Hill, a remarkably successful public school where the quality of student thinking and student work takes precedence over test scores, and where thematic learning builds powerful intellectual bridges within classrooms and across the school.” —Ron Berger, chief academic officer, Expeditionary Learning
This booklet documents our school district's collaborative inquiry project looking at how Reggio-inspired practices can inform and enhance primary mathematics teaching and learning.
Exploring Relationships and Connections to Others: Teaching Universal Themes through Young Adult Novels offers readers opportunities to explore the most common universal themes taught in secondary English Language Arts classrooms using contemporary young adult literature. Authors discuss adolescence and adolescent readers, young adult literature and its possibilities in the classroom, and ways to teach thematic analysis. The book provides context, traditional approaches to teaching, and examples of thematic explorations of each of the chosen themes. Chapters include developed teaching instructional units to study four universal themes: love and loss; friendship and betrayal; hate, its destructive consequences, and healing; and dreams and hope for tomorrow. Each instructional unit includes rationale, essential questions and objectives, calendar plans for up to five weeks, examples of introductory, reading and discussing, and enrichment activities and assessments. The activities target academic skills for ELA curricula and create safe spaces for exploring topics of relationships and connections to others, both of which are vital to adolescent growth and development. Each instructional chapter suggests a wide range of additional texts and resources for theme explorations.
Play is serious business. Whether it's reenacting a favorite book (comprehension and close reading), negotiating the rules for a game (speaking and listening), or collaborating over building blocks (college and career readiness and STEM), Kristi Mraz, Alison Porcelli, and Cheryl Tyler see every day how play helps students reach standards and goals in ways that in-their-seat instruction alone can't do. And not just during playtimes. "We believe there is play in work and work in play," they write. "It helps to have practical ways to carry that mindset into all aspects of the curriculum." In Purposeful Play, they share ways to: optimize and balance different types of play to deepen regular classroom learning teach into play to foster social-emotional skills and a growth mindset bring the impact of play into all your lessons across the day. "We believe that play is one type of environment where children can be rigorous in their learning," Kristi, Alison, and Cheryl write. So they provide a host of lessons, suggestions for classroom setups, helpful tools and charts, curriculum connections, teaching points, and teaching language to help you foster mature play that makes every moment in your classroom instructional. Play doesn't only happen when work is over. Children show us time and time again that play is the way they work. In Purposeful Play, you'll find research-driven methods for making play an engine for rigorous learning in your classroom.
