As teachers consider what it means for students to "do mathematics" successfully, they must explore their role as teachers in a way that strategically supports students as powerful agents for their own learning. As teachers foster a classroom environment based on agreed-on expectations, they must help students learn how to engage in…

Evidence-based writing is a complex standard in the Common Core State Standards that has taken center stage in the writing curriculum. Students must demonstrate proficiency in making claims based on evidence and explain how the evidence supports their claim. This is a challenging task for all students, but for English learners, it can be…

Sourcing involves interrogating historical documents, asking questions about their attributes to determine their relation to the historical event or time period under study. In this article, a university researcher and a sixth-grade teacher describe a set of heuristics that the teacher developed for supporting her students' sourcing of historical…

In this article the authors describe an Integrative Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education Design-Based Learning (I-STEM ED DBL) activity that invites students to delve into the science, technology, and engineering related to the production of Ötzi's copper axe and to speculate about the circumstances surrounding his…

With 50% new material reflecting current research and pedagogical perspectives, this indispensable course text and teacher resource is now in a thoroughly revised third edition. Leading educators provide a comprehensive picture of reading, writing, and oral language instruction in grades 5-12. Chapters present effective practices for motivating…

The Puppy Love problem asked fifth and sixth grade students to use their prior knowledge of measures of central tendency to determine a data set when given the mean, mode, median, and range of the set. The problem discussed in this article is a task with a higher level of cognitive demand because it requires that students (1) explore and…

To be successful, teachers of English in grades 6-12 need more than basic content knowledge and classroom management skills. They need a deep understanding of the goals and principles of teaching literature, writing, oral discourse, and language in order to make sound instructional decisions. This engaging book explores the pedagogical foundations…

As schools work to implement the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), a team at Stanford University found that project-based learning is an effective framework for engaging students. The team used project-based learning, group activities, and performance-based assessments to design an effective, engaging curriculum. Over a three-year period,…

The detected decline in middle school students' school engagement during the period of young adolescence is concerning. As middle school can be perceived as a time in which plans for higher education and career considerations begin to take shape, planting seeds for future aspirations certainly seems appropriate. This article draws on the…

The author wants her students to see any new mathematics--fractions, negative numbers, algebra--as logical extensions of what they already know. This article describes two students' efforts to make sense of their conflicting interpretations of 1/2 × -6, both of which were compelling and logical to them. It describes how discussion, constructing…

The plight of refugees has recently received considerable media coverage. Yet, little attention is given to groups who are internally displaced. The purpose of this article is to model one way to teach about internally displaced peoples, drawing on the Rohingya crisis as a specific example. We first provide a background of the Rohingya crisis, and…

According to Harlen (2010) the ultimate goal of science education is for children to have an understanding of relationships, moving beyond science as a series of facts or small ideas towards seeing the bigger picture. Working with a group of 10- and 11-year-olds from a year 6 class, teacher Simon Williams provided a series of challenges using the…

Do your students think they can model ratios with sets of discrete objects and combine them to show the addition of ratios? Do they believe that equivalent ratios are based on additive relationships rather than multiplicative ones? What tasks can you offer what questions can you ask to determine what your students know or don't know and move them…

Do your students need more opportunities do develop number sense and reasoning? Are you looking to get your students energized and talking about mathematics? Have you wondered how practical, replicable, and engaging activities would complement your mathematics instruction? This guide answers the question "What could I do differently?" by…

This article presents the Snail problem, a relatively simple challenge about motion that offers engaging extensions involving the notion of infinity. It encourages students in grades 5-9 to connect mathematics learning to logic, history, and philosophy through analyzing the problem, making sense of quantitative relationships, and modeling with…