K-12 Teaching Resources

"After our recent CUFA conference, many social studies teacher educators came to realize that pre-service teachers are skeptical of calls to integrate sensitive topics in the curriculum because they do not see it in their field experiences. The purpose of this edited book is to share examples of Pre/K - 12 grade teachers, schools, or school systems that infuse race, class, gender and sexuality in the curriculum. This book offers concrete examples of social studies teachers, schools and schools systems committed to the inclusion of topics often deemed as sensitive or controversial. Care was taken to provide examples from diverse geographic areas, school types (public, charter, private etc.), and grade levels. Researchers teamed with practicing professionals to highlight teachers and schools that successfully integrate race, class, gender and/or sexuality in the curriculum. The chapters provide specific examples of content inclusion, share high leverage practices, and provide advice for others infusing race, class, gender, and sexuality in the curriculum"--

Experts in social studies education and gifted education share teacher-tested strategies for differentiating social studies in K-12 classrooms. Chapter authors showcase best-practice and research-based lessons and activities that enrich and expand social studies instruction while building K-12 students' critical and creative thinking. Each chapter contains two or more teacher-tested lessons or activities linking social studies content and concepts to the standards and recommendations of the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) and National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS). This edited volume is targeted toward K-12 teachers and administrators, gifted education coordinators and consultants, parents of gifted children, social studies methods instructors, and central office administrators. Each chapter contains activities that can be adapted and replicated in teachers' classrooms. Chapters focus on significant social studies topics such as civic education, historical thinking, drama, and teaching with primary sources. Each topic is approached in ways that meet the needs of gifted education students. Through its emphasis on critical thinking, inquiry-based instruction, and higher order thinking skills, activities and lessons in the book challenge K-12 educators to raise the bar for classroom instruction in ways that improve opportunities of learning for all students.

Race and racism are a foundational part of the global and American experience. With this idea in mind, our social studies classes should reflect this reality. Social studies educators often have difficulties teaching about race within the context of their classrooms due to a variety of institutional and personal factors. This book provides teachers at all levels with research in social studies and critical race theory (CRT) and specific content ideas for how to teach about race within their social studies classes.

This fully revised and updated edition includes twelve new chapters on contemporary topics such as ecological democracy, Native studies, inquiry teaching, and Islamophobia.

As former elementary school teachers, the authors focus on what is possible in schools rather than a romantic vision of what schools could be. Based on a 5-year study of an elementary school, this book shows how civic engagement can be purposive and critical--a way to encourage young people to examine their environment, to notice and question injustices, and to take action to make a difference in their communities and school. Focusing on the intersection of student voice and critical inquiry, the book describes how to embed civic engagement into curriculum, school decisionmaking processes, and whole-school activities. Chapters provide an overview of what research has demonstrated about civic engagement at the classroom, school, and community levels, including detailed descriptions of activities and lessons for practice. Classroom teachers, school principals, community members, and teacher educators can use this resource to foster a deeper, richer understanding of what is entailed in civic life. Book Features: A vivid portrait of a "typical" public school that wants to do more than teach to the test. An examination of the conditions that enable young people to participate in democratic practices, including identifying and questioning injustices. Concrete examples of student voice and critical inquiry in classroom contexts. Practices and activities that encourage children to get along with others, exchange perspectives, and work across differences.

This book is an invitation to become one of those passionate and transformative teachers, someone who can join with others to rescue teaching from the heavy hand of the test-obsessed technocrats, and change the world--or, at the very least, change the people who will change the world. How do we see our schools and the project of education? Is this the best we can do? What would we like our schools to become? How might we get there? In this provocative book, Bill Ayers invites us to dream of schools in which each child "is of infinite and incalculable value." Blending personal anecdotes with critique of the state of education, this beautifully written little book is filled with big ideas that explore the challenges and opportunities for an education system that desperately needs repair. Teaching with Conscience in an Imperfect World is an urgent call to action and a plan to help educators stretch toward something new and dramatically better--schools that are more joyful and more just, more balanced and more guided by the power of love. Book Features: Promotes meaningful discussions in teacher education courses. Addresses problems with our current education system and how they came to be. Advocates, with illustrations, for schooling that promotes critical thinking and engaged learning. Critiques school reform efforts, such as high-stakes testing, curriculum standardization, and dated performance metrics. Urges teachers to see students as full and equal human beings with agency and capacity. Offers 21 "gestures" toward the kind of schools all children and youth deserve.

This practical book shows how veteran, justice-oriented social studies teachers are responding to the Common Core State Standards, focusing on how they build curriculum, support students' literacy skills, and prepare students to think and act critically within and beyond the classroom. In order to provide direct classroom-to-classroom insights, the authors draw on letters written by veteran teachers addressed to new teachers entering the field. Part I of the book introduces the three approaches teachers can take for teaching for social justice within the constraints of the Common Core State Standards (embracing, reframing, or resisting the standards). Part II analyzes specific approaches to teaching the Common Core, using teacher narratives to illustrate key processes. Part III demonstrates how teachers develop, support, and sustain their identities as justice-oriented educators in standards-driven classrooms. Each chapter includes exemplary lesson plans drawn from diverse grades and classrooms, and offers concrete recommendations to guide practice. Book Features: Offers advice from experienced educators who have learned to successfully navigate the constraints of high-stakes testing and standards-based mandates. Shares and analyzes curricular and pedagogical approaches to teaching the Common Core, including lesson plans teachers can use in their own classrooms. Examines a range of philosophical and political stances that teachers might take as they navigate the unique demands of teaching for social justice in their own context. Has a companion website with additional information about the teachers in the book, copies of their complete letters, and more: www.socialstudiesforsocialjustice.com

Middle school history teachers confront the same challenge every day: how to convey the breadth and depth of a curriculum that spans centuries, countries, and cultures. In Making History Mine, Sarah Cooper shows teachers how to use thematic instruction to link skills to content knowledge. By combining thought-provoking activities and rich assessments, Sarah encourages teachers to challenge students to make history personal and relevant to their lives. Built around eight themes--examining the role of the individual, understanding point of view, assessing the impact of rhetoric, finding patterns in the past, writing analytically, connecting current events to historical precedents, igniting passion through research, and exploring ethics and morals--Making History Mine offers young adolescents a window to the wider world. This comprehensive volume gives teachers and students a solid framework for exploring and understanding history, including how to analyze primary source documents, extrapolate themes, and detect bias in a historian's argument.   A one-page description at the beginning of each chapter explains the embedded skills and shows how the lessons correlate to state and national history standards. Making History Mine includes dozens of short activities, in-depth projects, guiding questions, and effective strategies to help teachers bring history to life in the classroom. Students will learn how to imagine themselves in the past, making decisions that changed the world. Through role playing, debates, and service learning they will gain the skills to make their own histories count.

Teaching U.S. History offers an innovative approach to social studies teaching by connecting historians to real-world social studies classrooms and social studies teachers. In an unusual, even unprecedented, dialogue between scholars and practitioners, this book weds historical theory and practice with social studies pedagogy. Seven chapters are organized around key US History eras and events from the time of slavery through the Civil Rights Movement and are complemented by detailed discussions of a particular methodological approach, including primary source analysis, oral history and more. Interviews with historians open each chapter to bring the reader into important conversations about the most cutting edge issues in U.S. history today and are followed by essays from expert teachers on the rewards and challenges of implementing these topics in the classroom. Each chapter also includes a wealth of practical resources including suggested key documents or artifacts; a lesson plan for middle school and another suitable for high school; and suggested readings and questions for further study. Teaching U.S. History is a must read for any aspiring or current teacher who wants to think critically about how to teach U.S. history and make historical discussions come alive in the school classrooms where the nation's students learn.

Offers pre- and in-service teachers creative strategies and proven techniques sensitive to the needs of all elementary and middle school learners. Coverage includes the C3 Framework and the four sets of learning from the National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies. Farris, together with contributors who specialize in implementing successful teaching methods and theories, demonstrate how classroom teachers can excite and inspire their students to be engaged learners.

Written specifically for K-12 social studies teachers, this resource provides the nuts and bolts of differentiation. Presented in an easy-to-implement format, this handy notebook is designed to facilitate the understanding and process of writing differentiated lessons to accommodate all readiness levels, learning styles, and interests. The lessons are based on various differentiation strategies including tiered assignments, tiered graphic organizers, leveled questions, using realia, leveled learning centers, choices board, discovery-based learning, and personal agendas. Additionally, the lessons are vertically aligned and provided at four different levels: K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12. This resource includes a variety of digital resources and is aligned College and Career Readiness Standards.

This widely adopted teacher resource and course text explains basic geographic principles and demonstrates how to bring them to life in engaging, challenging instruction for grades K-12. Accessibly written, the book is packed with instructional materials, teaching tips, and more than 100 maps and other graphics. Together with the companion CD-ROM, it presents effective ways to promote students' spatial-thinking skills while teaching them about the land, climate, economy, and cultures of places around the world. The Companion CD-ROM The CD-ROM features more than 225 reproducible student activities; a Model Curriculum; PowerPoint slides of the book's figures and discussion guides that focus on important concepts in each chapter; specially designed K-2 resources; teaching notes with links to Common Core State Standards and Geography Standards

This book offers the tools teachers need to get started with an innovative approach to teaching history, one that develops literacy and higher-order thinking skills, connects the past to students' lives today, and meets most state standards (grades 7-12). The author provides over 60 primary sources organized into seven thematic units, each structured around an essential question from U.S. history. As students analyze carefully excerpted documents--speeches by presidents and protesters, Supreme Court cases, political cartoons--they build an understanding of how diverse historical figures have approached key issues. At the same time, students learn to participate in civic debates and develop their own views on what it means to be a 21st-century American. Each unit connects to current events and dynamic classroom activities make history come alive. In addition to the documents themselves, this teaching manual provides strategies to assess student learning; mini-lectures designed to introduce documents; activities to help students process, display, and integrate their learning; guidance to help teachers create their own units; and more. Book Features: A timely aid for secondary school teachers confronted with Common Core and other state-level quality requirements. An approach that promotes student engagement and critical thinking to replace or augment a traditional textbook. Challenges to the "master narrative" of U.S. history from figures like Sojourner Truth, Malcolm X, and Cesar Chavez, as well as traditionally recognized historical figures such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Essential questions to help students explore seven of the most important recurring themes in U.S. history. Role-plays and debates to promote interaction among students. Printable copies of the documents included in the book can be downloaded at tcpress.com.

In Teaching History Then and Now, Larry Cuban explores the teaching of history in American high schools during the past half-century. Drawing on his early career experience as a high school history educator and his more recent work as a historian of US education policy and practice, Cuban examines how determined reformers have and have not changed the teaching of history. The book focuses on two high schools--Cleveland's Glenville High School and Washington DC's Cardozo High School--examining both throughout the 1950s and 1960s and then at the present time. Adding to this complex portrait are fascinating accounts of the major reform movements in history teaching over the last half-century: the New Social Studies of the 1960s and the New History of the 1990s. Uniting this nationwide history of the field with his own recollections of and research on the featured high schools, Cuban creates a rich, detailed portrait of an important, contested high school field characterized by enduring features and significant change. The result is exemplary education research, capturing the gritty facts of classroom practice and the larger currents of policy, institutional, and national change. Cuban identifies how large reforms have influenced--and sometimes failed to affect--classroom practice. Teaching History Then and Now portrays a complex, often unpredictable process whereby reformers, school leaders, policy makers, and teachers have all struggled to make the teaching of history best serve students, their communities, and the nation.

Popular media has become a common means by which students understand both the present and the past. Consequently, more teachers are using various forms of popular culture as pedagogical tools in the history classroom. With their emphasis on issues such as drug and alcohol abuse, sex, race, gender, and violence, social problem films, or "message movies," offer a compelling look at the eras in which they were made. In order to facilitate the use of social problem films as learning tools, however, teachers of history need a dependable resource. Teaching History with Message Movies is a guide for teaching US history using these films as vivid historical illustrations and tools for student engagement. In addition to covering key themes and concepts, this volume provides an overview of significant issues and related films, a tutorial in using film in historical methodology, user guides for thinking about social problems on screen, and sample exercises and assignments for direct classroom use. Focusing on the issues that plaguing society, the book draws on films such as I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932), Gentleman's Agreement (1947), The Snake Pit (1948), Silkwood (1983) and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), among others. This resource enables teachers to effectively use films to examine key social and cultural issues, concepts, and influences in their historical context. Teaching History with Message Movies will be an invaluable asset to any teacher of history in middle- and secondary school settings, as well as at the undergraduate level.

Recipient of the 2019 NCTE David H. Russell Award! Educating for Empathy presents a compelling framework for thinking about the purpose and practice of literacy education in a politically polarized world. Mirra proposes a model of critical civic empathy that encourages secondary ELA teachers to consider how issues of power and inequity play out in the literacy classroom and how to envision literacy practices as a means of civic engagement. The book reviews core elements of ELA instruction--response to literature, classroom discussion, research, and digital literacy--and demonstrates how these activities can be adapted to foster critical thinking and empathetic perspectives among students. Chapters depict teachers and students engaging in this transformative learning, offer concrete strategies for the classroom, and pose questions to guide school communities in collaborative reflection. Book Features: Responds to our current, divisive political climate to explore what empathy really means and what it takes to teach for it. Explores an innovative concept of critical civic empathy that goes beyond simply being nice to others and emphasizes making positive changes in government and society. Provides an engaging synthesis of theory and practice that shows how foundational ELA activities can be used to support the development of empathy and civic engagement. Focuses on both personal empathy (seeing other points of view) and global empathy (understanding the power of position and privilege in social interactions). Includes real-world examples from a variety of schools and discussion questions at the end of each chapter.

This book investigates the preparation of secondary history and social studies (SS) teachers to teach English language learners (ELLs) in twenty-first century classrooms. This edited collection focuses on the ways in which pre-service and in-service teachers have developed - or may develop - instructional effectiveness for working with ELLs in the secondary history and social studies classroom. The authors address a variety of standards and content examples, including the National Council for Social Studies C3 Framework and Curriculum Standards, the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts, and content from history, geography, and civics. This volume is part of a set of four edited books focused on teaching the key content areas to English language learners.