In seeking a disciplinary literacy model that would enable students to express well-developed perspectives and argue contrasting views with the sound use of evidence, the authors developed a student-driven model that emphasized historical investigation, offered substance, and scaffolded reading and writing. To support their project, they created…

In searching for alternatives to multiple choice tests and document-based questions, the authors were inspired by the common practice of "do-nows" (also known as "bell work") in which teachers give students a brief task at the beginning of class to prepare them for the day's lesson. Could these minutes at the start of class be…

As online research has become an increasingly standard activity for middle school and high school students, Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org) has simultaneously emerged as the bane of many teachers who include research-focused assignments in their courses. An online encyclopedia that allows anyone to edit its entries, Wikipedia has educators…

It is said that meteorology is the only profession where a person can be wrong half the time and still keep his or her job. The truth is not quite so bleak, but one can still ask, "Just how accurate are weather forecasters, anyway?" This article presents two projects for middle level students to investigate this issue in a hands-on,…