Deeper learning is great for exploring a topic in great depth, but it will fail if student motivation isn't taken into account. Researchers Eric Anderman and Adriana Calvit discuss how to align your deeper learning curriculum with motivational strategies for successful lessons.

The fifth-grade curriculum presents many opportunities to use students' prior mathematical knowledge as a way to bridge new and more difficult mathematical ideas. In this article, the authors document an area tiling task given to fifth-grade students to connect aspects of area measurement covered in earlier grades to grade-level standards such as:…

"In many ways, images are the vehicle of comprehension, thought, and action. We integrate parts of images, we remember images, we manipulate images." This quote from James E. Zull clarifies the rationale for a discussion protocol called Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS), in which teachers focus students' attention on an image and ask…

Vocabulary instruction is a key component of reading comprehension but is often not addressed sufficiently in classrooms. The authors worked with a team of fifth-grade teachers in professional development targeted to learning instructional strategies for developing students' vocabularies. In this article, the authors share two strategies that the…

This article explains how to create and use a daybook in the literacy classroom. Readers learn what a daybook is, how the daybook in one fourth and fifth grade classroom is structured, and how students in this classroom use that daybook during reading instruction to engage, record important information, and discuss a text.

Many studies of comprehension strategies instruction rely on an internalization metaphor of strategy learning. In this view, strategies eventually enter students' heads after repeated interactions with teachers who introduce strategies and control how they are used. In this article, the author discusses the limitations of the internalization view…

While there have been many articles published in the area of self-regulated learning, there is a need to have a research article that solely emphasizes on how to put self-regulated learning theory into practice. In order to help teachers incorporate self-regulated learning theory into their classroom teaching and students to do so into their…

Just as ready-made clothes may not provide a perfect fit for all bodies, math lessons may not be a perfect fit for all students. Published instructional tasks, including problems in mathematics textbooks, often need to be tailored to be meaningful, relevant, or accessible to each student. Ways are possible to take high-level reasoning tasks and…

In the upper elementary grades, content-area text gains increasing importance as a primary source of reading and information. This article focuses on the specialized vocabulary demands of social studies texts and presents a framework of teaching and learning strategies based on vocabulary research. Strategies are introduced before, during, and…

Learning pathways capture the development of competence in a mathematical domain. They have been developed from empirical studies in the areas of mental computation and emergent numeracy concepts. These pathways afford teachers the opportunity to identify students' current levels of understanding, antecedent understandings and the steps that are…

The history of strategies research during the past quarter century has been a story of significant conceptualizations and reconceptualizations regarding the nature, development, and teaching of cognitive and metacognitive strategies. Theoretical models, empirical research, and discussions contributed by Michael Pressley have been central to…

Analyzing student work can help teachers improve the teaching and learning of mathematics. Fortunately, the four authors have experienced professional development that supports teachers' professional growth and provides tools to begin the challenge of analyzing student work. However, as they began to assume leadership roles in their schools and…

Research indicates that students of all ages and demographics benefit from active learning strategies. The challenge is translating what we know into what we do. Award-winning educators Linda Schwartz Green and Diane Casale-Giannola build that bridge with more than 40 easy-to-implement strategies for today's inclusive classroom. This practical…

Mathematics concepts are most often taught using auditory, sequential instructional methods. Not only are these methods ineffective when used with visual-spatial learners, they may be detrimental to both academic and emotional progress. Ways in which visual-spatial learners process information are explained. One child's story is presented,…

A school principal at Oak Grove-Bellemeade Elementary School in Richmond, Virginia, describes the application of the Clifton Youth StrengthsExplorer assessment developed by the Gallup organization. A fifth-grade girl who was in frequent conflict with peers and teachers was helped to identify her strengths and develop more effective emotional and…