In learner-centered classrooms, teachers and students together construct, evaluate, and revise the ways they will go about meeting curriculum goals. This type of planning differs drastically from the Tyler Rationale, a technocratic planning framework that has guided the production model of schooling for nearly 50 years. Suggestions are offered for…

An elementary school teacher describes how students in grades five through six developed language-arts and other skills by rewriting Shakespeare plays; learning stage design, techniques, and vocabulary; reflecting on Shakespeare's intentions and their own insights into the plays' meanings; and presenting both original plays and their own versions.…

Presents the 1999 winners of the Foxfire Exemplary Classrooms Awards. The winners were diverse in grade level, urban and rural settings, years of experience with the Foxfire core practices, and ideas about how to implement the Foxfire approach. Activities and experiences from each winning classroom are highlighted. Criteria for winning an award…

Recollections of a small childhood neighborhood suggest that the theory and research on integrating curriculum and community can be implemented by sharing curriculum mandates or standards with students. Once they know what they need to learn, students can draw on shared experience to identify places and people in the community where they might…

Fourth-grade students went to Foxfire Center (Mountain City, Georgia) to learn through experience how pioneers of the 1800s lived a typical day. Their school, Isaac Dickson Elementary in Asheville, North Carolina, has implemented the Foxfire Core Practices. Students learned survival skills, edible-plants identification, crafts, and cooking, and…

Sixth-grade class members met Washington state writing standards by creating their own newspaper and using rubrics to remind themselves of the requirements each article had to meet. Student activities were also linked to the Foxfire core practices. Student comments are included, demonstrating their development as independent, self-directed…

Students at Jamestown High School (Jamestown, New York) develop language, media, and critical thinking skills while producing video programs. With almost complete responsibility for their learning experiences, students conceive, plan, write, and produce the programs, then critique their own work, which must satisfy state academic standards in…

A high school teacher in rural Georgia who has used the 11 Foxfire Core Practices for seven years describes how they have helped her enable students to guide their own learning and think for themselves. Her classes' high scores on state writing tests and Spanish competitions are further testimony to the viability of the practices. (TD)

A teacher describes her experience applying the Foxfire approach to a particularly unruly fourth-grade class. A trip to an old-growth forest caught their attention and became their learning laboratory for the year. Practically every project they did focused around the forest, and they became a productive, hard working class. (TD)

An eastern Kentucky teacher has run the gamut of classroom challenges, from statewide educational reform to her own bout with technophobia. But through her application of the Foxfire approach, her students have engaged in active learning projects in their school and community and with other students in Nebraska and China, with lasting results.…

Founded in 1975 as a magnet school, Isaac Dickson school adopted the Foxfire approach in 1992. Instead of a one-size-fits-all process, students participate in planning their own learning, and teachers serve as facilitators, ensuring that each learner has developmentally appropriate subject matter and resources. Test scores verify that this…

The realization that students' and teachers' collaborative efforts are more creative, innovative, and academically challenging than traditional teacher-controlled instruction is the underlying premise behind these awards given by the Foxfire Fund. Describes the learner-centered experiences of seven award-winning classrooms from around the United…

The Foxfire core practices are woven into all class activities at a multiage, inclusive K-2 class in Asheville (North Carolina), characterized by active learning, small-group work, and peer teaching. Students are more motivated and have higher self-esteem when they make decisions. All practices met the state's curriculum and testing requirements.…

Foxfire awards were presented to a professor of education who helped found a Foxfire-affiliated teacher network and develop new courses, and four elementary-secondary teachers who implemented Foxfire classroom approaches that included learning centers; student tutoring; individual folder work; student-researched stories of family, community, and…

Students in a combined grade 3-4 in a charter school in Asheville, North Carolina, chose the topics and ways to demonstrate their learning to fulfill history curriculum requirements. Their choices of local historical architecture and traditional quilt-making spiraled out to include photography, historical fiction, and quilted pillows, which were…