Makerspaces have become very popular in education because they "provide hands-on, creative ways to encourage students to design, experiment, build, and invent as they deeply engage in science, engineering, and tinkering" (Cooper 2013). Not only do makerspaces provide a safe learning environment for students to develop their 21st century…

This 13th report in WestEd's evaluation of the K-8 Early Implementers Initiative for the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) provides an extensive response to the following question: What does NGSS science teaching look like in the classroom? The report first discusses Initiative teachers' experiences with four instructional practices that…

This dissertation explored the roles schools can play in the successful outcomes of large carnivore or keystone reintroduction projects. Schools are more than centers for knowledge acquisition--they connect their community and disseminate information quickly to a wide audience. This study took place in California's Eastern Sierra Nevada, a…

We describe our team-taught, interdisciplinary course "Numb3rs in Lett3rs & Fi1ms: Mathematics in Literature and Cinema," which explores mathematics in the context of modern literature and cinema. Our goal with this course is to advance collaborations between mathematics and the written/theatre-based creative arts.

A text can be anything: a poem, a map, an old letter. To spur great learning, it needs to be provocative, powerful, open to multiple interpretations, and, above all, it needs to teach something profound. A school building can also become text when a teacher uses place as a way to make history come alive. The author discusses how he uses Theodore…

There is growing evidence that schools are not meeting the needs of emergent bilinguals who are falling behind in both academic language development and content knowledge learning. In response to this concern, this article proposes five research-based guidelines for promoting effective instruction for emergent bilinguals. In order to connect…

Despite high levels of disengagement in urban literacy classrooms, few teachers have seen fit to explore spoken word--the performance of poetry--as a tool to engage students in literacy. Spoken word poetry serves as a powerful means of self-representation for youth that are traditionally portrayed as threatening, menaces to society that do not…

THE UNIT OF STUDY FOR MODERN MATH IS DESIGNED TO MAKE THE TRANSITION FROM OLD TEXTBOOKS INTO THE NEW SILVER BURDETT COMPANY SERIES, "MODERN ARITHMETIC THROUGH DISCOVERY." EACH CONCEPT PRESENTED IS BASED ON FAMILIAR CONCEPTS. EACH IS DEVELOPED GRADUALLY AND DIRECTED TOWARD PARTICULAR FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES. THE FIRST CONCEPT DEVELOPED IS…

Simple but innovative strategies that fourth-grade California teachers can use for building student knowledge of California geography while reinforcing map skills throughout a typical fourth-grade state studies curriculum are presented. (RM)

These materials are part of the Project Benchmark series designed to teach secondary students about our legal concepts and systems. This unit focuses on the structure and procedures of the California Supreme Court and the Courts of Appeal. The materials outline the historical development of the appellate courts, jurisdiction, and the appeal…

These classroom materials are part of the Project Benchmark series designed to teach secondary students about our legal concepts and systems. This unit focuses on the California juvenile justice system. The materials describe the historical and legal development of the system, juvenile court procedures, correction facilities, and various creative…

Designed for students in the tenth grade, this electricity/electronics curriculum guide contains instructional modules for sixteen units of instruction: (1) orientation, (2) introduction to electricity/electronics, (3) electricity/electronics safety, (4) fundamental skills, (5) direct current circuits, (6) graphical illustrations, (7) circuit…

This course of study is aligned with the California State Science Framework and provides students the chemistry content needed to become scientifically literate and prepared for post-secondary science education. The course of study is divided into four sections. The first section provides an overview of the course and includes a course…

This course of study is aligned with the California State Science Framework and provides students with the physics content needed to become scientifically and technologically literate and prepared for post-secondary science education. Framework themes incorporated into the course of study include patterns of change, evolution, energy, stability,…

This unit was created as a result of a summer institute sponsored by the National K-12 Foreign Language Resource Center at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. The Center's goal is to improve student learning of foreign languages in kindergarten through twelfth grade (K-12). In the summer of 1996, the Center offered the Culture and Children's…