Talking about race does not have to be incredibly awkward. In this book, Gooding offers twelve clear, cogent, and concise racial rubrics to help users of mainstream media more readily discern patterns hidden in plain sight. The text primarily leverages popular movies as the medium of analysis--since they are unparalleled in their cultural…

In this article, the authors explain how they leveraged the popularity of the "Star Wars" franchise to introduce a task steeped in popular culture as a fun way to engage their students in investigating complex mathematics that have real-life connections to careers in toy design and engineering design in general. The authors share various…

To further students' understanding about gravity, forces, and motion, multiple types of text were integrated into instruction. As part of a 5E lesson (Bybee et al. 2006), the authors used a selection from Capstone Press's Graphic Science series, "A Crash Course in Forces and Motion with Max Axiom" (Sohn and Barnett 2007) to support…

Creating classroom book clubs with e-readers helps connect adolescent interests, digital literacies, and content area academic goals.

Mathematics education is replete with activities that explore real-world problems. A variety of these problems are added to lessons in the belief that merely applying mathematics knowledge to everyday contexts will enhance the transfer of that knowledge to other settings. However, these contexts are hypothetical rather than authentic. This…

Choosing appropriate music for a school choir can be a daunting task. So much needs to be taken into account--the dictates of the curriculum, the pedagogical goals, the cultural and religious contexts of the students and the community. Juggling all of these needs and influences is crucial to creating a successful, lively performance program, not…

Students' backpacks bulge not just with oversize textbooks, but with paperbacks, graphic novels, street lit, and electronics such as iPods and handheld video games. This book is about unpacking those texts to explore previously unexamined assumptions regarding their usefulness to classroom learning. With a strong theoretical grounding and many…

O'Brien (2003), when redefining the competencies of struggling students, said it makes sense to provide opportunities for at-risk or struggling students to explore topics of interest including, but not limited to, inquiry into popular media. This use of popular media should be a welcomed addition of the use of technology to improve students'…

One of the biggest challenges facing middle school social studies educators is creating powerful lessons that engage young adolescents in acquiring knowledge, stimulate critical thinking skills, inspire passionate interest in social studies and social issues, encourage active participation in civic life, and provide them with opportunities to…