"Autism at-a-Glance" is a series of practitioner and family-friendly documents created by the Center on Secondary Education for Students with ASD (CSESA) designed for high school staff members supporting students on the autism spectrum, as well as family members of adolescents with ASD. The purpose of the "Autism at-a-Glance"…

"Improving Mathematics in the Early Years and Key Stage 1" reviews the best available evidence to offer five recommendations for developing the maths skills of 3-7-year olds. Recommendations include integrating maths into different activities throughout the day -- for example, at registration and snack time -- to familiarise children…

Recent studies using graduate students in one case and first graders in the other reached the same conclusion. If instruction capitalizes on what students already know, they learn more readily and transfer the knowledge well. Teachers can use children's knowledge as a bridge to new knowledge. (MT)

A teacher educator developed several exercises to illustrate the related concepts of "meaningful learning" (relating new information to prior knowledge) and "elaboration" (using prior knowledge to expand on new information and to make better sense of it). The exercises demonstrate that learning is easier and retention is better…

Explains why writing is a mysterious, complex process dependent on a lifetime of experiencing, feeling, and thinking, and why English teachers should be emphasizing writing to an audience more than the learning of mechanical rules. (RL)

This article profiles a high school physics teacher who received a grant to conduct research, with his own classes, designed to identify students' preconceptions about the physical world, explore ways teachers can use those preconceptions to teach physical laws, and prepare classroom materials that teachers can use to teach physics. (IAH)

Presents an approach for teaching the multiplication of fractions by helping students build a foundation on the basis of their informal knowledge. Suggests some action research ideas for teachers to try in their classrooms. (ASK)

Describes a teaching method that combines the concepts of the structural overview and concept attainment in order to help students read content area textbooks. (FL)

Argues that vocabulary is best taught by helping students experience the meaning of words. Offers research background and four teaching methods to use with intermediate grade students. (FL)

Discusses List-Group-Preview, an activity that combines eliciting prior knowledge with guiding students through a new textbook chapter. (FL)

Describes a teaching strategy in which teachers ask questions that help students activate their existing knowledge about a text to be read in order to facilitate the learning of new concepts. (FL)

Discusses the effect of previous knowledge on reading comprehension. Suggests reading instruction methods that evoke the readers' experiences, or schemata, relevant to the material. (HTH)

Describes a three-step process to help teachers honor what children bring to each reading situation and to model for children the importance of accessing appropriate knowledge sources before reading. (FL)

Describes 10 categories of inferences and proposes a three-step procedure for teaching students to make inferences while reading. (HOD)

This report describes the role of analogies in science instruction and presents research on a model for teaching with analogies. This model is being developed from research studies of textbooks and exemplary teachers; it provides guidelines for the strategic use of analogies during science instruction to explain fundamentally important concepts in…