Books

Coding has become an essential skill for finding solutions to everyday problems, while computational thinking (CT) teaches reasoning and creativity and offers an innovative approach to demonstrating content knowledge and seeing mathematical processes in action. No fear coding introduced many K–5 educators to ways to bring coding into their curriculum by embedding computational thinking skills into activities for different content areas. This second edition features updated tools – including programmable robots and other physical computing devices – as well as new activities aligned to the ISTE standards for students and computational thinking competencies. No fear coding, second edition will help build students’ coding and CT knowledge to prepare them for the middle grades and beyond.

The instructional pattern of ‘teaching as telling, learning as listening’ has remained a tradition for generations. However, the 21st century requires a different approach. Through author Ted McCain’s problems-first instructional method, educators present their curriculum to students as a problem to solve – rather than as content to listen to – and then equip students with transferable processing skills that will help them effectively address challenges in school and beyond. Filled with problems-first lesson examples and tips for elevating students’ thinking, Problems-first learning: A framework for engaging minds and nurturing thinkers in grades 6–12 provides step-by-step guidance for teachers to increase students’ engagement and development of real-world skills in their classrooms.

How can teachers ensure students will continue to challenge and educate themselves after graduation so they can succeed throughout their lives? In Teaching for lifelong learning: How to prepare students for a changing world, author Elliott Seif distinguishes a four-phase instructional framework: (1) setting the stage, (2) building the foundation, (3) deepening learning and (4) providing closure. With the framework and coordinating strategies, F–12 educators facilitate key goals, criteria and principles to support learning beyond the classroom. When educators align their curriculum and assessments with the principles and criteria for lifelong learning, students can continually show essential skills like making connections, synthesising ideas and collaborating.

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.

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.

In Teaching for transfer: A guide for designing learning with real-world application, author Michael McDowell provides F–12 teachers with a road map for reconfiguring classroom instruction to ensure that students learn to expertly apply their knowledge and skills to different contexts. McDowell outlines three levels of complexity in learning – (1) surface, (2) deep and (3) transfer – and explains that while the foundational levels of surface and deep are essential and allow students to understand and relate ideas, transfer-level work is key; it involves the interdisciplinary problem-solving students need to practice to become creative, well-rounded citizens who can meet and overcome unexpected challenges.