Despite the best of intentions on the part of overworked and undertrained classroom teachers, instructional planning can too often be described as idiosyncratic, haphazard, and lacking any logically or pedagogically defensible structure. In this article, Tim Westerberg highlights the importance of a unifying planning framework that ensures…

As well-developed as they may be, standards are not curriculum. It is the job of teachers and curriculum teams to use the Standards as the basis for designing the specific pathway for teaching and learning. In this article, the authors explore the use of Understanding by Design (UbD), a widely-used curriculum development framework, for honoring…

This research is based on the rationale that the well-defined framework of education for sustainable development (ESD), its connection with real life and its specific integration in the educational policies and curricula can help to enhance quality education (QE) in a meaningful and identifiable way. In a first step, the common ground of ESD and…

The second edition of "Words and Actions" features an expanded framework, a variety of new unit, lesson, and activity examples from different languages and levels, and additional content on how social justice education fits within the context of contemporary approaches to language instruction. The revised text provides concrete examples…

The National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) curriculum standards offer a set of principles for creating good social studies lessons, units of study, and curriculums. This article presents excerpts from "National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies: A Framework for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment." The revised standards (published in…

This updated edition of the bestselling book on the brain's natural learning process brings new research results and applications in a power-packed teacher tool kit. Rita Smilkstein shows teachers how to create and deliver curricula that help students become the motivated, successful, and natural learners they were born to be. Updated features…

Join Carol Ann Tomlinson and Cindy A. Strickland in the continuing exploration of how real teachers incorporate differentiation principles and strategies throughout an entire instructional unit. Focusing on the high school grades, but applicable at all levels, Differentiation in Practice, Grades 9?12 will teach anyone interested in designing and…

This handbook contains a collection of creative ideas and activities for teaching English as a second language (ESL), organized by levels and topics. The handbook helps to foster an understanding of the tutor's role in creating a learning environment and to develop an awareness of the variety of instructional approaches. The format of the…

The lessons in this 10-day unit for high school sophomores are designed to: (1) acquaint students with terminology related to visual literacy; (2) enable students to make comparisons between drama for the theater and drama for film; (3) acquaint students with the basic structural elements of film such as movement, lighting, sound and music,…

To develop geography curricula, elementary and secondary school classroom teachers must understand curriculum theory as well as geography subject matter content. Awareness of these two areas helps teachers decide what students should learn, how they can learn the selected material, and how student achievement can be evaluated. Teachers will…

Intended for both librarians and teachers in grades K through 12, this guide presents a framework and some of the strategies and tools needed to build toward a systematic and meaningful library/study skills program for Hawaii's schools. The guide is organized around basic elements of an instructional development model (IDM). Chapters cover…

This planning guide for inservice vocational teacher education is one of a series of materials developed by the Comprehensive Vocational Teacher Education Program for the Mississippi ARC (Appalachian Regional Commission) Region to provide teacher educators, vocational directors, teachers, and other appropriate individuals with material needed to…

This booklet contains guidelines and suggestions for starting or expanding an existing agricultural production/ mechanics program to include an agribusiness program in secondary schools. The ideas and recommendations were prepared and field tested in an agribusiness program started and currently in progress in Tonganoxie High School (Kansas). The…

This teacher's guide is designed for use in helping secondary and postsecondary students in office occupations education programs to become familiar with duplication procedures and machines. Addressed in the individual units of the guide are the following topics: measurement, paper characteristics and classifications, copy preparation for pasteup…

The Cooper Foundation Awards for Excellence in Teaching originated in 1981 to recognize and reward classroom teachers who submit innovative ideas and projects judged most likely to improve teaching and learning in the subject areas of economics, fine arts, foreign languages, geography, global studies, mathematics, and science. Each year the…