How do teachers and schools create meaningful learning experiences for students with diverse skills, abilities, and cultures? How can teachers authentically assess the learning of their students and build on their strengths and interests in ways that enrich the larger community? How can schools become places where everyone is learning from each…

Designed to introduce students to the world through nonfiction, this book presents easy-to-follow suggestions for class projects, activities, strategies, and learning centers. The book uses an integrated approach to promoting inquiry in the classroom through the use of quality nonfiction. Aimed at middle grade students and using vignettes which…

Every day in so many ways, children are surrounded by language: from the language of home and family, to the never-ending bombardment of environmental print, to the clash between school admonitions to use "standard" English and their peer groups' specialized and invented speech. According to the author of this book, students love to…

This guide enables teachers to select current children's books incorporating one or more of the 10 thematic strands of social studies (culture; time, continuity, and change; people, places and environments; individual development and identity; individuals, groups, and institutions; power, authority, and governance; production, distribution, and…

Organized around the theme of "challenges," the 11th edition of "Your Reading" offers annotations of more than 1,200 books for young adults. Intended for teachers, librarians, parents, and students, this booklist presents recently published books that can be read for many purposes--for sheer enjoyment of the story, to pique…

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…

This resource book is intended for teachers using a thematic immersion approach to social studies instruction. Broad categories addressed include: (1) conflict; (2) settlement of the United States; (3) global awareness; and (4) cultural diversity within the United States. Chapter 1 provides a brief overview of the theme immersion process. Chapters…

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…

Offering 16 essays by presenters at the first Middle School Mosaic (held in Detroit, Michigan, in 1997), this book connects the themes of literacy, reflective practice, and the special characteristics of middle level teaching. In the first section, Literature and Literacy at the Middle Level, the authors examine questions of literacy by looking at…

Book Club started over 12 years ago with the goal of creating an alternative context for reading instruction--one that would get students excited about reading and discussing books. Since then, Book Club's combination of excellent literature, relevant writing activities, and student-led discussion groups has proven effective in classrooms. This…

This book offers suggestions for developing literary experiences that provide middle-grade students with opportunities to build an awareness of literary elements, genre, and the craft of authors and artists, and to learn strategies for exploring multiple meanings in literary texts. The literary experiences in the book are developed within a series…

This book is designed to be a resource that embodies the progressive concepts of life-connected topics by focusing on the search for self-understanding. It uses adolescent literature that is prize winning and much prized by young people, and it uses this literature to focus on difficult topics that adults (parents, teachers, and the school's…

This book presents nearly 50 interdisciplinary strategies to link social studies and English classes around common themes. The book is designed for the changing classrooms of middle school and high school learners. The strategies are designed to offer a continuum of student-centered activities for a one day lesson to a semester's length. Each…

This updated third edition is a handbook for teachers to bring the reflective inquiry emphasis of integrated curriculum theory to life in the elementary and middle school classroom. It takes an action approach to implement theory and practice in educating students for a democratic, multicultural society. The five major interrelated emphases in the…

Focusing on the middle grades (4-8), this book promotes an integrative and thematic approach to curriculum development. The book provides mini-lessons organized around three interactive constructs: the purpose for communicating, the audience, and the organization of the content to be communicated. Separate chapters in the book on each of five…