If you want to teach writing skills without taking the joy out of writing, this teacher-written resource is for you. You'll find easy, ready-to-use activities and thought-provoking prompts that will help your students become inventive and flexible writers. Includes creative and expository writing skills such as organizing ideas, writing focused paragraphs, making transitions, using strong adjective and action verbs, writing dialogue, revising, and much, much more. Developing these skills will help students do better on strandardized tests and approach writing with excitement. Includes engaging reproducibles and a wealth of student samples. For use with Grades 4-8.

As the importance of public education increases both globally and nationally, partnerships between schools and their community become key to each other's success. Examining the intersection of schools with their communities reveals the most effective strategies for supporting school populations that are traditionally marginalized or underserved in both rural and urban areas. Cases on Strategic Partnerships for Resilient Communities and Schools is an essential publication that uncovers the problems and pitfalls of creating strategic partnerships between schools and other members of the community in which the schools are situated that include for-profit businesses, not-for-profit entities, and private organizations. The book reveals that schools that are thriving effectively do not do so in isolation but as vibrant members and centers of the communities in which they serve students and families. Moreover, it examines the difficulty in advocating for the schools and the leadership of the schools within these communities so that they can be better served. Highlighting a wide range of topics including leadership, community-based outreach, and school advocacy, this book is ideally designed for teachers, school administrators, principals, school boards and committees, non-profit administrators, educational advocates, leadership faculty, community engagement directors, community outreach personnel, entrepreneurs, researchers, academicians, and students.

The use of technological tools to foster language development has led to advances in language methodologies and changed the approach towards language instruction. The tendency towards developing more autonomous learners has emphasized the need for technological tools that could contribute to this shift in foreign language learning. Computer-assisted language learning and mobile-assisted language learning have greatly collaborated to foster language instruction out of the classroom environment, offering possibilities for distance learning and expanding in-class time. Recent Tools for Computer- and Mobile-Assisted Foreign Language Learning is a scholarly research book that explores current strategies for foreign language learning through the use of technology and introduces new technological tools and evaluates existing ones that foster language development. Highlighting a wide array of topics such as gamification, mobile technologies, and virtual reality, this book is essential for language educators, educational software developers, IT consultants, K-20 institutions, principals, professionals, academicians, researchers, curriculum designers, and students.

In this digital age, faculty, teachers, and teacher educators are increasingly expected to adopt and adapt pedagogical perspectives to support student learning in instructional environments featuring online or blended learning. One highly adopted element of online and blended learning involves the use of online learning discussions. Discussion-based learning offers a rich pedagogical context for creating learning opportunities as well as a great deal of flexibility for a wide variety of learning and learner contexts. As post-secondary and, increasingly, K-12 institutions cope with the rapid growth of online learning, and an increase in the cultural diversity of learners, it is critical to understand, at a detailed level, the relationship between online interaction and learning and how educationally-effective interactions might be nurtured, in an inclusive way, by instructors. The Handbook of Research on Online Discussion-Based Teaching Methods is a cutting-edge research publication that seeks to identify promising designs, pedagogical and assessment strategies, conceptual models, and theoretical frameworks that support discussion-based learning in online and blended learning environments. This book provides a better understanding of the effects and both commonalities and differences of new tools that support interaction, such as video, audio, and real-time interaction in discussion-based learning. Featuring a wide range of topics such as gamification, intercultural learning, and digital agency, this book is ideal for teachers, educational software developers, instructional designers, IT consultants, academicians, curriculum designers, researchers, and students.

Self-directed learning is a concept that has been in circulation for centuries, though the topic experiences lulls and surges as contemporary theories identify advantages or improvements to better align the topic with contemporary learning environments. Self-directed learning is an instructional strategy where students accept a leadership role in their own learning practice and an increasingly significant learning technique for undergraduate students performing in a technologically and globally advanced college arena. Self-Directed Learning and the Academic Evolution From Pedagogy to Andragogy is an essential reference book that supports a student shift from passive pedagogical learning to active andragogical exploration and specifically shift from seeking mastery of basic skills to recognizing and reassessing the structure of personal assumptions, expectations, feelings, and actions. It fills the gap between theory-laden academic books designed to help academic faculty incorporate self-directed learning activities into their courses and the self-help books designed to help motivate individuals to learn new skills. This book is designed to specifically empower college students to accept a leadership role in their academic journey. Covering topics such as self-directed learning, lifelong learning, educational leadership, and competency-based education, this book is a foundational resource for teachers, instructional designers, administrators, curriculum developers, academicians, researchers, and students.

This book challenges us to 'think anew' about teaching and teacher education. It explores the nature of quality in teaching and teacher education, and addresses emerging and potentially redefining challenges for teaching, learning, and teacher education for our times. At the centre of the discussion are the tenets of education, teaching profession, and a values-centred vision of teacher education. The book is rooted in rich, contemporary research and reflects the context of (post)pandemic practice and a fast-changing policy environment. It provides new understandings on the topic at hand, and it will be useful to readers from across a range of domains and interests concerning teaching, teacher values-education, and professional practice. Contributors are: Ana Isabel Andrade, Bjoern Astrand, Helen Caldwell, Stephane Colognesi, Saraa Salim Dawood, Anna-Barbara du Plessis, Irma Eloff, Maria Assuncao Flores, Conor Galvin, A. Lin Goodwin, Qing Gu, Kathy Hall, Carol Hordatt Gentles, Washington Ires Correa, Fawzi Habeeb Jabrail, Panagiotis Kampylis, Daria Khanolainen, Monica Lourenco, Marilyn Leask, Kay Livingston, Joanna Madalinska-Michalak, Virginie Marz, Deirbhile Nic Craith, Hannele Pitkanen, Helle Plauborg, Noel Purdy, Felix Senger, Marco Snoek, Vasileios Symeonidis, Gisselle Tur Porres, Heike Wendt, Saraa Younie and Amal Fatah Zedan.

The need to develop 21st-century competencies has received global recognition, but instructional methods have not been reformed to include the teaching of these skills. Multiple frameworks include creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration as the foundational competencies. Complexities of planning curriculum and delivering instruction to develop the foundational competencies requires professional training. However, despite training, instructional practice can be impacted by barriers caused by personal views of teachers, economic constraints, access to resources, social challenges, pandemic, overwhelming pace of global shifts, and other influences. With digitalization entering the field of education, it is unclear if technology has helped in removing or eliminating the barriers or has, itself, become another obstruction in integrating the competencies. Gaining an educator's perspective is essential to understanding the barriers as well as solutions to mitigate the impediments through innovative instructional methods being practiced across the globe via digital or non-digital platforms. The need for original contributions from educators exists in this area of barriers to 21st-century education and the role of digitalization. Barriers for Teaching 21st-Century Competencies and the Impact of Digitalization discusses teaching the 21st-century competencies, namely critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication. This book presents both the problems or gaps causing barriers and brings forth practical solutions, digital and non-digital, to meet the educational shifts. The chapters will determine the specific barriers that exist, whether political, social, economic, or technological, to integrating competencies and the methods or strategies that can eliminate these barriers through compatible instructional approaches. Additionally, the chapters provide knowledge on the impacts of digitalization in general on teaching and learning and how digital innovations are either beneficial to removing impediments for students or rather causing obstructions in integrating the four competencies. This book is ideally intended for educators and administrators working directly with students, educational researchers, educational software developers, policymakers, teachers, practitioners, and students interested in how 21st-century competencies can be taught while facing the impacts of digitalization on education.

This book seeks to make fractions more accessible to both students and teachers by introducing an element of fun. The stories, poems, plays, and parodies contained in these pages are designed to entertain your students and at the same time to give them a solid grasp of important fractional concepts. The characters and situations in each activity will also help students apply the concepts they learn to real-life situations--a key element of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics' Curriculum Standards. - from the book.Grades 3-6.

The moment is right for critical reflection on what has been assumed to be a core part of schooling. In Ungrading, fifteen educators write about their diverse experiences going gradeless. Some contributors are new to the practice and some have been engaging in it for decades. Some are in humanities and social sciences, some in STEM fields. Some are in higher education, but some are the K-12 pioneers who led the way. Based on rigorous and replicated research, this is the first book to show why and how faculty who wish to focus on learning, rather than sorting or judging, might proceed. It includes honest reflection on what makes ungrading challenging, and testimonials about what makes it transformative.

As modern society gives great importance to scientific and technological literacy and new technology, it follows that the educational process must play a central role in development of the respective skills. STEAM is the approach to learning that uses concepts from natural sciences, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics like springboards for the development of the skills of exploration, cooperation, communication, creativity, and critical thinking. The desired result is that pupils who participate in experiential learning develop critical thinking skills, work together, and explore the environment within the context of a creative process. Practical Approaches to Integrating ICTs in STEAM Education includes the current research focusing on development of STEAM and ICT educational practices, tools, workflows, and frameworks of operation that encourage science skills, but also skills related to the arts and humanities such as creativity, imagination, and reflection on ethical implications. Covering topics such as early childhood education, machine learning education, and web-based simulations, this premier reference source is an essential resource for engineers, educators of both K-12 and higher education, education administration, libraries, pre-service teachers, computer scientists, researchers, and academicians.

This exciting addition to scholarly practice showcases a range of invited national and international authors who bring together their expertise, knowledge and previous studies to this edition. It is the fourth book in the series "Global Education in the 21st Century" and focuses upon mentoring in education. What is evident within each of the chapters and is a theme throughout this book is the constant search to articulate the mentoring relationship and to explore within each diverse context the effect of this relationship upon those involved. This thread of intentional discovery is both exciting and exhaustive. What is clear when the totality of chapters are now examined and the key lessons to be learnt are derived, is that the adoption of any one approach and theoretical framework for mentoring in educational contexts is likely to be fraught. That is, the authors have expertly explored both the challenges and advantages of their specific context and the powerful lessons within each context, clearly illustrating the relevance and interrelationship of the context to the mentoring approach. This prevailing message presents significant challenges for educators, setting up a tension between the various aspects of mentoring such as nurturing, imitation, reflective practice and disruptive challenging. When overlaid with the possibility of a shifting transformational role between the mentor and the mentee, the challenges appear vast. But the passion and spirit of the search is also evident in each of the chapters presented here and the overall conclusion of the combined chapters making up the authority of the book is the ardour and voice of educational contexts and diversity, framed in the professional development and learning scaffolds supplied by each of the authors. It is this commitment that will sustain education and mentoring well into the future. Contributors are: Veysel Akcakin, Anastasios (Tasos) Barkatsas, Tania Broadley, Andrea Chester, Anthony Clarke, Angela Clarke, Yuksel Dede, Kathy Jordan, Gurcan Kaya, Huk-Yuen Law, Kathy Littlewood, Darren Lingley, Tricia McLaughlin, Juanjo Mena, Peter Saunders, Naomi Wilks-Smith, Dallas Wingrove, and Sophia Xenos.

In the past few decades, there has been a growing interest in the benefits of linking the learning of a foreign language to the study of its literature. However, the incorporation of literary texts into language curriculum is not easy to tackle. As a result, it is vital to explore the latest developments in text-based teaching in which language, culture, and literature are taught as a continuum. Teaching Literature and Language Through Multimodal Texts provides innovative insights into multiple language teaching modalities for the teaching of language through literature in the context of primary, secondary, and higher education. It covers a wide range of good practice and innovative ideas and offers insights on the impact of such practice on learners, with the intention to inspire other teachers to reconsider their own teaching practices. It is a vital reference source for educators, professionals, school administrators, researchers, and practitioners interested in teaching literature and language through multimodal texts.

How does a teacher meet the needs of all learners amid the realities of day-to-day teaching? Patti Drapeau shows us how in this practical book. She offers several strategies, including pacing instruction, varying the depth of content, widening or narrowing the breadth of topics, and altering the complexity of questions. She also shows teachers how to make them work, through tiered task cards, differentiated learning centers, and more. For use with Grades 3-6.