Teaching and learning in grades 4-8

Students Making Sense of Multiple Sources

When your students read, view, and listen to multiple sources on a topic or issue, do they tackle each source in a silo? Martha Polley and Sunday Cummins share Martha’s dive into helping students think across history sources, synthesizing to deepen their understanding.

Reading Strategies in the Science Classroom

Using reading comprehension strategies in the content area helps students build background knowledge and academic skills. Tara Dale and Mandi White, authors of The Science Teacher’s Toolbox, share four techniques they use to help middle schoolers grasp informational text.

Using Supreme Court Cases to Teach Equity

Education law expert Robert Kim’s focused discussion of ten Supreme Court cases is written in practical and accessible language and can be a valuable resource to any educator who wants to help students understand justice and equity, writes pre-service teacher Morgan DeVico.

Understanding Autism Through Its History

If you are looking for a book that acts as an all-encompassing start to your journey in autism history and education, NeuroTribes by science journalist Steve Silberman is the book for you, writes pre-service teacher Daniel Zarasua, whose younger brother has autism.

Teach Current Events as ‘History in the Making’

The social studies classroom is an obvious place to examine current events, write teacher-authors Elisabeth Johnson and Evelyn Ramos. Highlighting “history in the making” helps students recognize that historical events don’t occur in a vacuum. Lots of quick lesson ideas!