All students should have opportunities to develop their ability to reason mathematically. Gersten and Chard (1999) support this stance with respect to students with learning disabilities: "Even if students are not automatic with basic facts, they still should be engaged in activities that promote the development of number sense and…

Many teachers have developed "tried and true" lessons that they look forward to teaching-- mystery powders is one that these authors like. Originally part of the Elementary Science Study curricula in the 1960s, there are now many different versions of this well-known activity in which students examine physical and chemical properties of…

Guiding students to generate testable scientific questions is essential in the inquiry classroom, but it is not easy. The purpose of the BDC ("Big Idea, Divergent Thinking, and Convergent Thinking") instructional model is to to scaffold students' inquiry learning. We illustrate the use of this model with an example lesson, designed…

Children love snow days, even when they come during the warmest weather. In this lesson the snow isn't falling outside, it's in the classroom--thanks to "Snowflake Bentley" (Briggs Martin 1998) and several models of snowflakes. A lesson on snow demonstrates several principles of practice for using models in elementary science. Focusing on snow was…

The EPILLAW Paradigm is a practical method for developing writing skills. It consists of an original nine-level taxonomy and sequential methodology of listening, speaking, writing and reading. In this method, the development of writing precedes the development of reading. The work consists of two books. In the introductory book, the author…

A graduate student who has an 11-year-old daughter in 5th grade described an incident that underscored concerns that the authors and other professional teacher educators have felt for some time. The 11-year-old had a science assignment to complete as homework. Her parent, attempting to help, offered several suggestions for enhancing the project.…

Paraphrasing, somewhat different from retelling and summarizing, helps students monitor their understanding and incorporate new knowledge with what they already know about a topic. Paraphrasing helps students realize that comprehension is the goal of reading.

The teaching profession has come a long way in developing frameworks that encourage and structure student inquiry. This article features the KWL (We Know, We Want to Know, We Learned/Still want to learn) framework that the author has developed for over 20 years, as a graphic organizer tool to encourage inquiry and student questioning. This…

Testing the pH of various liquids is one of the most popular activities in 5th- through 8th-grade classrooms. The author presents an extensive pH-testing lesson based on a 5E (engagement, exploration, explanation, extension, and evaluation) teaching model. The activity provides students with the opportunity to learn about pH and how it relates to…

Power Teaching weaves four factors into a seamless whole: standards, teaching thinking, research based strategies, and critical inquiry. As a prototype in its first year of development with an urban fifth grade class, the power teaching model connects selected district standards, thinking routines from Harvard University Project Zero Research…