Want a quick way to get your students happily conversing more in the target language? This practical book shows you how to use formative assessments to gain immediate and lasting improvement in your students' fluency. You'll learn how to: (1) Imbed the 3-minute formative assessment into every lesson with ease; (2) Engage students in peer formative…

One reason for teacher attrition is that a gap exists between pre-service teacher preparation and in-service teacher development, in that most novice teachers suddenly have no further contact with their teacher educators, and from the very first day on the job, must face the same challenges as their more experienced colleagues, often without much…

A case study of an exemplary third grade teacher's use of the outdoor classroom for meeting both state science and language arts standards is described. Data from the researcher's field journal, teacher lesson plans, and teacher interviews document how this teacher used nature-study to bridge outdoor classroom experiences with the state science…

This study investigates whether lesson structure (LS) matters and which components are important for academic engagement during the first grade of secondary education. Data from videoed lessons of 10 Dutch and 12 Indonesian teachers analyzed using an observation protocol show that six LS components are found, that between class and over…

The purpose of this study is to investigate prospective chemistry teachers' expectations and experiences of teaching practice. Six (four females and two males) pre-service chemistry teachers taking a School Experience II course participated in the study. A case study design was employed. The data were collected from multiple sources including…

In this article the authors present Five-Picture Charades, an instructional activity designed to introduce preservice and in-service teachers to the technical and pedagogical uses of digital images in the classroom. Because digital images can be repurposed into several different types of digital media projects, Five-Picture Charades is described…

A cluster randomized trial estimated the effects of a supplemental vocabulary program, Elements of Reading[R]: vocabulary on student vocabulary and passage comprehension in moderate- to high-poverty elementary schools. Forty-four schools participated over a period spanning 2 consecutive school years. At baseline, 1,057 teachers and 16,471 students…

This qualitative, multiple case study investigated the ways that three preservice secondary teachers developed, presented, and considered their teaching personae. Data for each participant consisted of three interviews, field observations of both teaching and non-teaching, data collection of lessons and class documents, and four journal…

This lesson plan is designed to help students become more aware of how advertisements play a role in shaping societal attitudes about gender and sexuality and how these messages effect their own beliefs. This lesson plan will outline how to effectively accomplish this goal in any course focusing on gender and/or sexuality.

Meaningful conversations are a powerful tool to help students understand what they read and make text-to-self connections. This simple lesson, which is designed for repeated use with both fiction and nonfiction, provides students with strategies to support conversations about texts. Students will learn how to determine which ideas work best to…

Schoolwork, especially lessons in manual skills is often associated with various ergonomics stresses. These stresses are the result not only of school obligations but also of the physical working environment and inadequate lesson planning. Much can be done in this field if certain approaches are taken into consideration at the work planning stage.…

This article reports on findings from a study that explored blogging (a web-based log) as a tool for literacy graduate students to deliver support to preservice teachers who were working in an afterschool intervention program. Its effectiveness is compared to the use of an online literacy instructional module. Analyses of the discussions in nine…

This study explored the nature of the relationship between a fifth-grade teacher and an informal science educator as they planned and implemented a life science unit in the classroom, and sought to define this relationship in order to gain insight into the roles of each educator. In addition, student learning as a result of instruction was…

This investigation provides detailed descriptions of preservice secondary science teachers' technology-enhanced inquiry instruction and their developing TPACK. Prior to student teaching, 27 preservice teachers were introduced to general guidelines for integrating technology to support reform-based science instruction. This instruction was in…

This study explored a group of elementary teachers' ("n" = 35) learning to construct high-quality lesson plans that foster student understanding of fundamental mathematical ideas. The conceptual framework for this study was gleaned from the recently released Institute of Education Sciences (IES) recommendations, including (a)…