Books

Permaculture expert and educator Ross Mars is back with another collection of hands-on projects and investigations that provide students with opportunities to observe, understand and contribute to a thriving garden ecosystem. Students will follow the journey from theory to final product through the book’s six parts: understanding science in the garden, growth in the garden, changes in the garden, animals in the garden, human use of the garden and products from the garden. Each activity is aligned to the Australian Curriculum: Science and the Australian Curriculum: Technologies as well as the cross-curriculum priority of sustainability. Plus, teachers can use the handy index of curriculum links to assist with their planning.

Successful change requires all voices and voters at the table to be heard and valued. The Bridges Out of Poverty model is an antidote to current divisiveness, facilitates dialogue and respect among stakeholders, and offers policy-level direction for elected officials. The authors’ goal is to provide a roadmap for coming together as individuals, institutions and communities to help people get out of poverty and create communities, states and indeed a country where everyone can live well.

Designed as a guide to school reform, this resource outlines a series of ten small-scale changes powerful enough to make a lasting impact. Promote F-12 student growth through research-based instructional strategies, performance-based assessments and social-emotional learning (SEL).

Do you, your school, or your school district want to align your science curriculum with state standards while meeting the growing demand for STEM instruction? If so, this is the book for you. It’s a guide to creating coherent, high-quality classroom materials that make standards and STEM work together in ways that are both effective for learning and practical for teaching. The author of STEM, standards, and strategies for high-quality units is thought leader and curriculum expert Rodger W Bybee. He wrote it to be useful for individual teachers, professional learning communities and professional developers. The book offers explicit directions for how these different groups can use the book’s background information and activities at each step of developing a standards-based STEM unit.

Personalized deeper learning articulates how all teachers can simultaneously teach assessed academic content and promote crucial deeper learning skills. Bellanca offers blueprints for teachers and students, clear tools with which teachers can become effective guides in the process of student-directed discovery, regardless of grade level or style.

What can we teach kids today that will have utility 10 or 15 years from now? This resource proposes an approach to information literacy that goes beyond the teaching of discrete, easily outdated skills. Instead, students should develop a curious, open-minded, sceptical and persistent approach in their quest for information.

Math coach Kassia Omohundro Wedekind and literacy coach Christy Hermann Thompson have spent years comparing notes on how to build effective classroom communities across the content areas. How, they wondered, can we lay the groundwork for classroom conversations that are less teacher-directed and more conducive to student-to-student dialogue? Their answers start with Hands-Down Conversations, an innovative discourse structure in which students’ ideas and voices take the lead while teachers focus on listening and facilitating.

How can we help students develop resilience to persevere in the face of setbacks? How can we ignite a drive that will inspire them to sustain effort even through difficulty? This book equips teachers to deliberately cultivate psychosocial skills, including self-awareness, problem-solving to deal with setbacks, assertive interpersonal skills and intellectual risk-taking. By teaching students to be aware of how their thoughts, emotions and behaviours affect their pursuit of excellence, students can learn to tackle challenges and setbacks that they might experience as they reach to achieve. Lessons include engaging activities and curriculum connections, covering topics related to perfectionism, mindset, grit, stress, procrastination, social-emotional intelligence and more.

Award-winning author Kwame Alexander joins your classroom as a coach, advisor and friend to give you personal and practical advice on how to teach teach writing to your students. A fun, practical and engaging resource for the whole classroom.

10 performance-based STEM projects for grades 6–8 provides ten ready-made projects designed to help students achieve higher levels of thinking and develop 21st-century skills while learning about science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Each project is linked to national STEM education goals and represents one of a variety of performance assessments, including oral presentations, research papers and exhibitions. Included for each project are a suggested calendar to allow teachers to easily plan a schedule, mini-lessons that allow students to build capacity and gain an understanding of what they are doing, as well as multiple rubrics that can be used to objectively assess the performance of students. 

10 performance-based STEM projects for grades 4–5 provides ten ready-made projects designed to help students achieve higher levels of thinking and develop 21st-century skills while learning about science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Each project is linked to national STEM education goals and represents one of a variety of performance assessments, including oral presentations, research papers and exhibitions. Included for each project are a suggested calendar to allow teachers to easily plan a schedule, mini-lessons that allow students to build capacity and gain an understanding of what they are doing, as well as multiple rubrics that can be used to objectively assess the performance of students.

10 performance-based STEM projects for grades 2–3 provides ten ready-made projects designed to help students achieve higher levels of thinking and develop 21st-century skills while learning about science, technology, engineering and mathematics. PEach project is linked to national STEM education goals and represents one of a variety of performance assessments, including oral presentations, research papers and exhibitions. Included for each project are a suggested calendar to allow teachers to easily plan a schedule, mini-lessons that allow students to build capacity and gain an understanding of what they are doing, as well as multiple rubrics that can be used to objectively assess the performance of students.