This facilitator's guide is designed to assist professional learning communities (PLCs) in applying evidence-based strategies to help K-8 English learners acquire the language and literacy skills needed to succeed academically. Through this collaborative learning experience, educators will expand their knowledge base as they read, discuss, share,…

These handouts, which are meant to accompany the facilitator's guide, are designed to assist professional learning communities (PLCs) in applying evidence-based strategies to help K-8 English learners acquire the language and literacy skills needed to succeed academically. The facilitator's guide uses a five-step process for collaborative…

This study explores the effects of cooperative and mastery learning methods, alone and in combination, on first and second grade students' learning and retention of basic economic facts. A 2 X 2 (cooperative X mastery) factorial design compared the achievement of 120 students randomly assigned by grade level stratification to one of four treatment…

Presents seven scenes showing everyday classroom situations that give students the options of applying their own problem-solving strategies to solve everyday problems of life and enable them to experience mathematical power coming from self-initiated insights into mathematical concepts. (MDH)

Second and third grade students used the creative problem solving strategy developed by Sidney Parnes and Alex Osborn in their social studies classes. The second graders, finding few biographies written for students reading on a first or second grade level, interviewed community members, collected photographs of them, and wrote their biographies,…

This Fort Bend (Texas) social studies curriculum guide for second grade covers six six-week periods, and the 11 course outlines include the topics to be covered, the main goals and their supporting objectives, and a materials correlation chart. The 11 topics include holidays, citizenship, you and me, the community and my family, communication,…

Described is a study of second grade classes that participated in a year-long project in which instruction was generally compatible with a socioconstructivist theory of knowledge and recent recommendations of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Methods, results, and implications for mathematics instruction are discussed. (CW)

Presents a geometry game which offers K-2 students a way to learn geometric concepts and skills as part of a small-group or cooperative-learning activity or in a learning center. (MKR)

An 8-month study tracked 166 second graders of various ethnic backgrounds in an urban setting while they were being motivated to read through a literature-based reading and writing program. The classrooms in which the research was conducted used basal readers and did not have well-designed literacy centers. Collaboration was not an integral part…

This guide is intended to inform school districts about the Learning through Communication Program. The goals of the program are (1) to prevent summer loss of reading skills for Chapter 1 and learning disabled students in grades one and two; (2) to involve parents in the learning process of their child; and (3) to increase the child's ability and…

Describes the production of operas in a second-grade classroom. Explains how the project requires an interdisciplinary approach to learning. Contends that elementary, secondary, and even higher education students would benefit from this activity. (CFR)

Following the Migrant Student Record Transfer System skills list, this checklist, designed for non-English speaking students, is a system for rapidly evaluating a student's skill level and for keeping track of the student's mastery of suggested objectives at the second grade level. Objectives to be mastered with 100% accuracy include: reading…

This unit is designed to help teachers of students in grades one through three in the Northwest Territories (Canada) meet social studies program goals and to develop student language learning. The unit focuses on Yellowknife, the capital of the Northwest Territories, and features nine lesson plans: location, physical features, transportation,…

This module on developing and using learning centers in the classroom was developed in response to interest voiced by teachers and assistant teachers in Mississippi. Intended to accompany assistant teacher staff development videotapes, the information included in the module is in handout form to be disseminated to the participants by the workshop…

Discusses results of an action research study of second-grade students' group work which indicated that, when students were not given sample solutions for problems, they were more likely to use higher order thinking, take ownership of strategies, discuss solutions longer, and be more accepting of other views. (MKR)