Many literacy experts believe close reading has the power to create strong, independent readers, but what does that really mean, and how does it work in the classroom? This book is your must-have guide to getting started! It provides step-by-step strategies and scaffolds for teaching close reading and improving students' comprehension of complex…

Learning and personal development are integral to being a person, and learning and teaching are integral to life as a social being. "Understanding Children's Informal Learning" presents children's informal learning out-of-school and explores how this knowledge can enhance teaching and learning practice in the classroom. The authors focus…

"Cultivating Behavioral Change in K-12 Students" provides in-service educators with a long-term, team-based approach to enhancing their interventions and supports for struggling students. Given the clear visibility of trauma, crisis, and clinical challenges among children today, it is more important than ever that school professionals…

Children born after 2010 are labelled as members of Generation Alpha, who currently pursue their primary education. Gamification and game-based learning methodologies have gained popularity in the global education sector in the recent past. The goal of this study is to investigate the present state of adopting gamification and game-based learning…

Critical thinking--evaluating and analyzing data to make informed judgments--is essential in both the classroom and everyday life. Teaching critical thinking skills in the elementary grades is often an afterthought--if it's a thought at all. Veteran primary teacher and instructional leader Erin Shadowens proposes that students of all ages benefit…

Youth participatory action research can turn your classroom into a site of meaningful, relevant civic learning, in which young people gain a sense of civic empowerment as they discuss, investigate, analyze, and speak with authority on issues that directly affect them and their communities. Through stories, examples, and the reflections of youth…

We describe how mathematical argumentation supports curiosity and exploration by sharing a first-grade lesson in which students explored decomposition with subtraction. We also reflect on the conditions that supported the inclusion of mathematical argumentation.

The authors describe the benefits of elementary school gardening experiences and offer suggestions on how to nurture positive environmental attitudes among children through garden-based learning activities.

Successful comprehension is only possible when children draw inferences about ideas implicit or missing in discourse. Supporting inference-making with explicit instruction must start early given its importance in comprehension and knowledge development. However, students who experience difficulties with early reading skills often do not receive…

Successful comprehension is only possible when children draw inferences about ideas implicit or missing in discourse. Supporting inference-making with explicit instruction must start early given its importance in comprehension and knowledge development. However, students who experience difficulties with early reading skills often do not receive…

This article describes a comprehensive framework (iDISC) for the close reading of informational texts for elementary students that may need additional language, social, memory, or behavioral supports. The article introduces concrete tools that are used before, during, and after close reading, including cue-cards, language stems, discussion…

Although public K-12 student enrollment dropped by 3% nationwide in 2020-21, the school year that marks the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the patterns differ for specific areas and types of schools. This paper describes the COVID-19 and Equity in Education (CEE) Enrollment Explorer tool, which was developed to help policymakers and educators…

The activity presented in this article is part of a four-part module that centers earthquakes as a common phenomenon that students experience and introduces the idea of a resonant frequency. When the seismic waves from an earthquake encounter a building, the subsequent oscillating motion of the ground causes the building to move back and forth.…

An essential element of creative musicianship is the ability to seek, provide, and respond to feedback. This article presents a method of teaching elementary music students to respond to creative work in a way that is productive and uplifting, using a discussion protocol. Grounded in the work of Lerman and Borstel's critical response and Seidel's…

Typically, vocabulary instruction is associated as part of reading instruction. However, vocabulary instruction is also a necessary component of mathematics instruction. In fact, state and national standards (e.g., Common Core State Standards) require elementary students to communicate about mathematics to provide clear explanations, construct…