This annotated bibliography is reformatted and customized by the Center for Positive Practices. Some of the authors featured on this page include Sarah E. Montgomery, Susan Looney, Morgan S. Polikoff, Matthew Metzgar, Arsalan Wares, Lenora C. Forsythe, Sherron Killingsworth Roberts, Casey M. Rausch, Candace Walkington, and Christine Anne Royce.
(2016). Addressing Three Common Myths about the Next Generation Science Standards, Science and Children. Science education is central to the lives of all Americans. Students face a world where they will frequently be required to make important decisions on issues that range from health care to the environment. Achieving literacy in science will require coherence at all levels and across components of the system including curriculum, assessment, and professional development (NRC 2015). Coordinating changes in all aspects of the system will be challenging, but it is not impossible. At stake is our children's ability to make wise personal decisions and to compete and lead in a global economy. This article addresses the misconceptions about the "Next Generation Science Standards" (NGSS) that are most relevant in science classrooms and are still held by some science educators. [More] Descriptors: Misconceptions, Academic Standards, Science Education, Alignment (Education)
(2015). Why Educational Standards Are Not Truly Objective, Educational Policy Analysis and Strategic Research. Educational standards have become a popular choice for setting clear educational targets for students. The language of standards is that they are "objective" as opposed to typical tests which may suffer from bias. This article seeks to further analyze the claims that standards are objective and fair to all. The author focuses on six issues which illustrate the problematic nature of educational standards. Examples from the Common Core standards are chosen to show the range of problems associated with standards-based systems. Given these arguments, it is questionable as to whether educational standards represent a better alternative to norm-referenced tests. [More] Descriptors: Academic Standards, Educational Assessment, Bias, Common Core State Standards
(2017). Origami, Geometry and Art, International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology. The purpose of this paper is to describe the mathematics that emanates from the construction of an origami box. We first construct a simple origami box from a rectangular sheet and then discuss some of the mathematical questions that arise in the context of geometry and algebra. The activity can be used as a context for illustrating how algebra and geometry, like other branches of mathematics, are interrelated. [More] Descriptors: Geometry, Art Activities, Mathematics Activities, Algebra
(2016). Integrating Common Core Content into Physical Education: Creating New Knowledge Connections, Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance. Recent trends highlight the connection between engagement in physical activity and cognitive function. This is a key point to consider when designing physical education curricula and the activities that are included. By exposing students to material in a variety of ways students' interest can be sparked, yielding greater learning and understanding of material. Physical education classes are an ideal context for integrating multiple subjects because of the variety of outlets for practice and broad topics that can be covered. With the push for standards-based learning and high-stakes testing, teachers in all subject areas are being urged to find new ways to integrate concepts in their classes. With creativity, flexibility and basic knowledge in a wide variety of content areas, physical education teachers can reinforce concepts through tasks that allow students to truly engage with the content. This article highlights current research and provides examples for the integration of fourth-grade New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards into the physical education curriculum in an effort to help teachers advocate for more physical education time. [More] Descriptors: Physical Education, Common Core State Standards, Physical Activities, Physical Education Teachers
(2015). How Well Aligned Are Textbooks to the Common Core Standards in Mathematics?, American Educational Research Journal. Research has identified a number of problems limiting the implementation of content standards in the classroom. Curriculum materials may be among the most important influences on teachers' instruction. As new standards roll out, there is skepticism about the alignment of "Common Core–aligned" curriculum materials to the standards. This analysis is the first to investigate claims of alignment in the context of fourth-grade mathematics using the only widely used alignment tool capable of estimating the alignment of curriculum materials with the standards. The results indicate substantial areas of misalignment; in particular, the textbooks studied systematically overemphasize procedures and memorization relative to the standards, among other weaknesses. The findings challenge publishers' alignment claims and motivate further research on curriculum alignment. [More] Descriptors: Alignment (Education), Textbooks, Common Core State Standards, Elementary School Mathematics
(2017). Real Lives, Relevant Texts: A Survey of B2G Children's Counternarratives, Multicultural Learning and Teaching. In recent years, natal males' assertions of being girls born in the wrong body have been unwelcome in elementary scholastic contexts. Several reasons call for individuals who teach or plan to teach young children to know about boy-to-girl (B2G) performance counternarratives. First, there is increasing visibility of B2G lives among elementary schoolchildren. Second, B2G performance counternarratives have empathetic impact with the potential to reshape educators' views regarding schoolchildren's embodiment and sexuality. Third, B2G performance counternarratives are increasingly present in children's literature. Collectively, these reasons contribute to a "queer-eye pedagogical stance" capable of fostering empathy for B2G perspectives. This discussion on B2G performance counternarratives is the result of a three year examination. The 28 children's picture storybooks put forth convey a range of B2G lived experiences–some of which feature classroom teachers. Ideally, these narratives–lived and in literature–will position actual teachers to become responsive to B2G schoolchildren in physical classrooms. [More] Descriptors: Young Children, Sexual Identity, Elementary School Students, Social Theories
(2016). The Education Writers Association Casts Its Narrowing Gaze on Boston, Online Submission. There are many thousands of education researchers in the world, thousands of higher education institutions, and hundreds of relevant research journals. But the EWA has chosen to rely almost exclusively on an infinitesimal proportion of it for expertise. Ironically, the tiny group on which they depend comprises some of the world's most poorly read and censorious researchers. In a variety of ways, the Education Writers Association functions to centralize expertise sourcing. If there were no EWA, the thousands of education journalists who attend their seminars would initiate all their expertise sourcing on their own. The result, in the absence of EWA's suggestions, would be a much wider variety of expertise sourced. And, the US populace would be much better informed. [This article was published in "Pioneer Institute Blog," Boston, MA.] [More] Descriptors: Professional Associations, Writing (Composition), Educational Research, Expertise
(2017). Utilizing Nonfiction Texts to Enhance Reading Comprehension and Vocabulary in Primary Grades, Early Childhood Education Journal. Many primary grade students are not afforded nonfiction-rich opportunities, with fiction comprising the majority of books read aloud in classrooms. With the Common Core Standards recommending that half of the texts made available to students be nonfiction, educators are increasing their use of informational text. The present study explored the impact of explicitly teaching reading comprehension and vocabulary strategies with nonfiction text compared to fiction text in primary-grade classrooms. Two first-grade (n¬ =¬ 39; 25 male, 14 female) and one second-grade class (n¬ =¬ 20; 13 male, 7 female) participated in the quantitative study that followed a repeated measures design in which the students alternated every 2¬ weeks between fiction-based instruction and nonfiction-based instruction for a total of 8¬ weeks. Vocabulary and use of comprehension strategies were assessed at the end of each 2-week period. Overall findings indicated that students were better able to apply the comprehension strategies and define vocabulary following nonfiction-based instruction; they also were more motivated to read informational text. The authors recommend that teachers use more nonfiction texts in the primary grades to support students' reading comprehension and vocabulary development. [More] Descriptors: Nonfiction, Reading Comprehension, Vocabulary Development, Vocabulary Skills
(2016). High Five for Mathematics, Teaching Children Mathematics. A first-grade teacher has students use their hands and fingers to engage in and develop understanding of counting, to combine groups to facilitate counting by fives and tens, and to describe their findings using words and equations. [More] Descriptors: Elementary School Mathematics, Mathematics Instruction, Grade 1, Computation
(2017). Revealing the Naturalization of Language and Literacy: The Common Sense of Text Complexity, Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy. This article illustrates the process and obstacles encountered when applying the Common Core's three-part model of determining text complexity to an urban literature text. This analysis revealed how the model privileges language and literacy practices that limit the range of texts used in classrooms through a process of naturalization and by appealing to common sense. Implications include possibilities for interrupting the process of naturalization by encouraging teachers to be more critical of text complexity measurements, shifting the focus of determining text complexity and text selection from standardized measurements to student-centered practices, and providing students with access to more diverse texts. [More] Descriptors: Reading Materials, Literature, Difficulty Level, Multicultural Textbooks
(2017). Reigniting Writers: Using the Literacy Block with Elementary Students to Support Authentic Writing Experiences, Childhood Education. Given the importance of writing, especially in light of college and career readiness emphasis, and the observations that time spent writing in context diminishes over a student's years in school, this article proposes to reignite writing instruction in elementary classrooms through three practical approaches for supporting students in authentic writing. Examples using these three approaches in the literacy block are included so as to reignite writers. [More] Descriptors: Writing Instruction, Elementary School Students, Literacy Education, Teaching Methods
(2015). Expanding Notions of "Learning Trajectories" in Mathematics Education, Mathematical Thinking and Learning: An International Journal. Over the past 20 years learning trajectories and learning progressions have gained prominence in mathematics and science education research. However, use of these representations ranges widely in breadth and depth, often depending on from what discipline they emerge and the type of learning they intend to characterize. Learning trajectories research has spanned from studies of individual student learning of a single concept to trajectories covering a full set of content standards across grade bands. In this article, we discuss important theoretical assumptions that implicitly guide the development and use of learning trajectories and progressions in mathematics education. We argue that diverse theoretical conceptualizations of what it means for a student to "learn" mathematics necessarily both constrains and amplifies what a particular learning trajectory can capture about the development of students' knowledge. [More] Descriptors: Mathematics Education, Learning, Student Development, Learning Theories
(2015). Some Thoughts on "Using Learning Progressions to Design Vertical Scales That Support Coherent Inferences about Student Growth", Measurement: Interdisciplinary Research and Perspectives. Briggs and Peck (2015) have written a thought-provoking article on the use of learning progressions in the design of vertical scales that support inferences about student growth. Organized learning models, including learning trajectories, learning progressions, and learning maps have been the subject of research for many years, but more recently they are being considered for and used in the creation of large-scale assessments (Almond et al., 2012; Kingston & Broaddus, 2015; Kingston, 2015). In this commentary we note an expansion of the view of learning maps presented by BP with regard to the relationships among content domains and grades. The relationships among the content domains are not so simple that a domain at one grade band leads directly into another, yet there are relationships among content standards to suggest the need to consider multiple pathways and the concept of a fine-grained learning map versus a course-grained, linear, learning progression (which is not to say that grain size or linearity is inherent in the terms "learning map" or "learning progression"). The concepts of grain size and linearity have implications for test specifications and help clarify previous debates regarding on-grade-level and off-grade-level testing. This is important, because measuring growth is not inherently meaningful if one does not allow for the measurement of precursor and successor skills. [More] Descriptors: Achievement Gains, Scaling, Scores, Inferences
(2015). Student Voice and the Common Core, Teachers College Record. Common Core proponents and detractors debate its merits, but students have voiced their opinion for years. Using a decade's worth of data gathered through design-research on youth voice, this article discusses what high school students have long described as more ideal learning environments for themselves–and how remarkably similar the Common Core ideals are to what kids say they want and need to learn best. [More] Descriptors: Student Attitudes, Student Participation, State Standards, High School Students
(2015). Teaching through Trade Books: Sunrise, Sunset, and Shadows, Science and Children. December brings the winter solstice, the day with the shortest amount of sunlight for the northern hemisphere. Students can notice the pattern of days getting darker earlier across the United States up to this point and then notice as the amount of sunlight starts to increase in the following months. Through making observations and collecting data about sunrise and sunset, students can begin to develop an understanding of the Earth's place in relationship to the Sun. [More] Descriptors: Science Instruction, Teaching Methods, Observation, Astronomy