There have been many significant changes in education over the last fifty years, but few have been as swift and all-encompassing as the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Discussed and debated everywhere, and now implemented in many states, the CCSS initiative set out to transform our nation's K-12 educational system by providing clear…

In "History and Imagination," elementary school social studies teachers will learn how to help their students break down the walls of their schools, more personally engage with history, and define democratic citizenship. By collaborating together in meaningful investigations into the past and reenacting history, students will become…

In this study a group of elementary teachers use illustrations, rather than written text, to introduce their students to the peoples and places of the ancient silk routes. The illustrations are from two picture books; "Marco Polo," written by Gian Paolo Cesaerani and illustrated by Piero Ventura (1977), and "We're Riding on a…