"What is a fandom, and why do fandoms matter for school?" Fandoms are passionate communities dedicated to appreciating and engaging with texts of interest (movies, TV shows, books, bands, brands, sports teams, etc.) via personally and communally meaningful literacy practices. It is increasingly obvious that scripted literacy curricula…

Originally published as a special issue of the "Middle School Journal," this book presents integrative curriculum as a foundational element of the middle school. By addressing the current gap in literature on curriculum integration in the middle grades, this text explores how learning can be organized around authentic concepts or…

"Drama at the Heart of the Secondary School" provides a rationale for the curricular centrality of drama together with rich and detailed examples of cross-phase thematic projects which are drama-led, but which promote learning across a wide range of curriculum areas, from the humanities and other arts, to English and literacy, science and PSHE.…

Based on the best-selling book "The Parallel Curriculum", this professional development resource gives multifaceted examples of rigorous learning opportunities for science students in Grades 6-12. The four sample units revolve around genetics, the convergence of science and society, the integration of language arts and biology, and the periodic…

As multicultural education is becoming integral to the core curriculum, teachers often implement this aspect into their courses through literature. However, standards and criteria to teach and promote active discussion about this literature are sparse. This book introduces pre-service and experienced teachers to the use of literature to promote…

Emphasizing writing and student inquiry, this rich collection offers teachers ready-to-use classroom resources with a sound basis in best practice. Student engagement with community becomes the centerpiece of the book, an engagement that takes place across disciplines through projects involving history, environment, culture, and much more. Editors…

Detailing a collaboration between an elementary school teacher and a middle school teacher, this book is about making connections--connections that make learning meaningful for students and teachers. The book describes how the teachers worked to bridge the gap between content area subjects and the gap in their understanding of each other's…

Noting that "theme immersion" is different from the traditional unit or theme approach, this book first defines theme immersion as "an in-depth study of a topic, an issue, or a question." The book then illustrates aspects of theme immersion with teacher profiles, interviews, and classroom vignettes to assist teachers in…

The goal of this resource notebook is to provide activities selected by astronomers and classroom teachers, comprehensive resource lists and bibliographies, background material on astronomical topics, and teaching ideas from experienced astronomy educators. Activities are grouped into several major areas of study in astronomy including lunar…

This teacher's handbook, organized in two parts, gives theoretical support for integrating social studies and literature disciplines and serves as an instructional guide for classroom use. Part 1, "Children's Literature in the Social Studies Curriculum," provides a philosophical background for integrating social studies and whole language across…

Introducing teachers to the possibilities of cross-grade-level learning, this book explains the rationale and goals for cross-age grouping and presents 12 interdisciplinary instructional units of study. Each unit in the book contains a rationale, specific directions for the teacher, reproducible handouts for students, rubrics for evaluating…

Using a dinosaur unit as an example throughout the chapters, this book presents an organizational plan for developing a thematic unit for literature-based instruction for grades K-6. The book is designed as a resource for preservice and inservice teachers new to literature-based instruction. The book shows how a content topic can be used as a…

This workshop guidebook introduces teaching methods that allow students with different skills, aspirations, and interests to succeed in meeting the same standards. It is designed to facilitate workshops by the Secondary School Redesign team of The Education Alliance at Brown University but can be used easily by any educator or group of educators…

The concept upon which this book is based is known by a variety of acronyms or terms such as Comprehensive Art Education (CAE), Discipline-Based Art Education (DBAE), or integrated curriculum. These similar educational approaches maintain art as central to the curriculum, a bridge that unites content areas in logical and meaningful ways. DBAE,…

This booklet is one in a series of resource manuals to help teacher educators conduct environmental education (EE) teacher workshops or promote EE programs. This unit is intended for workshop facilitators to help teachers integrate environmental themes into their teaching. It provides ideas for making connections between environmental content and…