Teaching Elementary School

This book explores the learning that takes a teacher--elementary school teachers focusing on mathematics--from a traditional teaching practice to one that is focused on the ideas and understanding that students and teachers have of the subject matter.

Doing History offers a unique perspective on history instruction in the elementary and middle grades, one that begins with the assumption that children can engage in valid forms of historical inquiry-collecting and analyzing data, examining the perspectives of people in the past, considering multiple interpretations, and creating evidence-based historical accounts. Through case studies of teachers and students in diverse classrooms and from diverse backgrounds, the text shows children engaging in authentic historical investigations, often in the context of an integrated social studies curriculum. The grounding of this book in contemporary sociocultural theory and research makes it unique among social studies methods texts. In each chapter, the authors explain how the teaching demonstrated in the vignettes reflects basic principles of contemporary learning theory; thus they not only provide specific examples of successful activities, but place them in a theoretical context that allows teachers to adapt and apply them in a wide variety of settings. Features: *Classroom vignettes. Rather than a "cookbook" of lesson ideas, this text illustrates the possibilities (and obstacles) of meaningful teaching and learning in real classroom settings. *Inquiry-oriented instruction. The approaches shown in the classrooms portrayed are those which accord with the recommendations of practically all theorists and researchers in the field of history education. This text is not a hodge-podge of cute activities, but a consistent and theoretically grounded illustration of meaningful history instruction. *Diversity of perspectives. This is emphasized in two ways. First, the text helps students to look at historical events and trends from multiple perspectives. Second, the classrooms illustrated throughout the book include teachers and students from a wide variety of backgrounds-this gives the book widespread appeal to educators in a variety of settings. *Assessment. Teachers are provided with explicit guidance in using multiple forms of assessment to evaluate the specifically historical aspects of children's learning. Assessment issues are addressed throughout the text, including the need for assessment of specifically historical skills and knowledge; the integration of instruction and assessment; and the use of multiple forms of assessment-including anecdotal records, scoring guidelines [rubrics], and checklists-to evaluate the historical aspects of children's learning in presentations, projects, essays, and discussions. New in the Second Edition * Expanded treatment of assessment, integrated throughout the work. The second edition provides more practical guidance for teachers, addresses the need for assessment of specifically historical skills and knowledge (rather than more general, literacy-oriented assessment), and stresses the integration of instruction and assessment. Readers are introduced to the use of multiple forms of assessment--including anecdotal records, scoring guidelines [rubrics], and checklists--to evaluate the historical aspects of children's learning in presentations, projects, essays, and discussions. * Updated booklists and citations. The most recent quality children's literature that can be used to support instruction has been added. Citations include the most recent research and other scholarship on the teaching and learning history in the elementary and middle grades. * Epilogue. New to this edition, the epilogue draws together the primary themes of the text.

This book appears at a time when the crisis rhetoric about schools, teaching, and learning to read is extremely high. There is a rising call within the profession for a balanced perspective on reading. Balancing Principles for Teaching Elementary Reading aspires to help set the agenda for improving the quality of literacy instruction in the United States--by recentering the debate from "What's better, 'whole language' or 'phonics'?" to "What can we do in reading instruction to prepare all children for the literacy demands of the next century?" The authors, all members of the professional community of reading educators, work on a daily basis with teachers in classrooms, prospective teachers, clinicians, and tutors. Their goal for this book is to represent what they have learned about effective teaching and learning as members of this community. It is written with four purposes in mind: * to offer a principled conception of reading and learning to read that is considerate of both the personal dimensions of literacy acquisition as well as the changes that are taking place in society, * to summarize key findings from the research that relate specifically to effective teaching practices, * to describe current practices in reading instruction with specific comparisons to the principles of effective practice that are identified, and * to suggest an action agenda that is school-based and designed to promote positive changes in the quality of instruction. This text offers a perspective for teaching that provokes members of the reading education community to think about their underlying beliefs about teaching and their shared commitment to making schools more effective for the students they serve. It is envisioned as a resource to be used in building a community of learners--to be read with professional colleagues in a course of study, in a teacher-researcher book club, or in some type of in-service setting. Readers are encouraged to debate the ideas presented, to challenge the authors' conceptions with their own reality, to make sense within a community about what action is desirable. Some specific suggestions and strategies are provided as springboards for further exploration and action.