Human beings have tremendous potential to acquire new knowledge, develop new skills, and improve their brains throughout life. By explicitly teaching learners about brain plasticity and malleable intelligence (the idea that they can become functionally smarter through effort) and by modeling and teaching specific learning strategies, teachers can…

Social skills instruction (SSI) provides a promising avenue for teaching and promoting positive social interactions to students with high-incidence disabilities. Within SSI, a distinction can be made between social skills and social competence. Social skills are specific behaviors one must perform correctly within a specific social context or…

The experience that students gain through creative thinking contributes to their readiness for the 21st century. For this and other reasons, educators have always considered creative thinking as a desirable part of any curriculum. The focus of this article is on teaching creative thinking in K-12 science as a way to serve all students and,…

The video modeling (VM) teaching strategy is one in which a student watches a video of someone performing a specific behavior, skill, or task and is then expected to complete the behavior, skill, or task. This column discusses the variety of ways in which VM has been documented within the literature and supports teacher interest in the strategy by…

The attainment gap in science may not be as well-documented as the gap in English and maths, but it is just as pervasive. Our research has shown that disadvantaged pupils start to fall behind in science in Key Stage 1; the gap only gets wider throughout primary and secondary school and on to A-level. Helping schools to use evidence and to…

The "Connecting With Others" curriculum for grades 3 through 5 will help students learn to be sensitive to differences, resolve conflicts without resorting to violence, and learn tolerance and acceptance of others. Includes 30 lessons divided into five skill areas: Concept of Self and Others, Socialization, Problem Solving and Conflict…

When young children struggle with phonological awareness and alphabet knowledge, how can you intervene early and prevent later reading difficulties? Get kids on the "PAth to Literacy" with this highly effective Tier 2 intervention. Developed for children ages 4 to 6 who need help with key early literacy skills, this supplemental…

In this book, the authors explain why telling students things over and over--and perhaps more slowly and more loudly--does not result in understanding. Instead, discover how to use a combination of questions, prompts, cues, direct explanations, and modeling to guide students' learning and build their understanding. Explore an approach to…

Outlines a four step plan (Model, Assess, Prepare, and Practice) to improve students' listening attitudes and skills, primarily through teacher modeling. (Author/SJL)

Shows how the modeling of established poetic forms can help community college students to write poetry. (TB)

Describes how a teacher's contact with a published author, an interview and subsequent research into that author's work, stimulates students' interest in the author, provides crediblity for the teacher, and generates material for publication. (NH)

Modeling the behaviors they expect students to exhibit is one way teachers can teach comprehension skills. Teachers need to give multiple examples wherein the teacher models every behavior students should exhibit, giving the answer to the question, and giving the line of reasoning followed to arrive at the answer. To teach each separate…

This article presents two instructional strategies designed to help students process and understand what they read in their textbooks. The processes are termed Focused Recall and TIPS (Topic, main Idea, main Points, and Summary). Provides examples and maintains that teachers must model these strategies for students. (JDH)

Offers tips for teachers to develop a strategy to model literary elements used by authors of literature. Offers a modeling example of inferring characterization. Lists additional books that develop strong characters. (PRA)

Describes a research paper assignment that emphasizes the process and involves three kinds of research: reflecting, interviewing, and reading. Outlines the four stages of the process--introspection, modeling synthesis, brainstorm outlining, and peer critiquing. (PRA)