For educators, the content of the curriculum really is like oxygen: it is the necessary precondition for improving schools, closing the achievement gap, engaging parents, and preparing teachers. However, when educators take the content of the curriculum for granted, they lose opportunities to coordinate and collaborate. Good curriculum instruction…

When teaching writing, this author states that there is nothing harder than trying to get a quality product, one worth reading, from a high school student. The author, however, has high hopes for the new Common Core standards, which call for students to "write routinely over extended time frames and shorter time frames for a range of tasks,…

Developing a large and rich vocabulary is central to learning to read. Children must know the words that make up written texts in order to understand them, especially as the vocabulary demands of content-related materials increase in the upper grades. Studies have documented that the size of a person's vocabulary is strongly related to how…

In this article, author Daisy Christodoulou, a former teacher in the United Kingdom, debunks the myth that teaching facts prevents understanding, and she explains why teaching content knowledge is part of the primary mission of education. Throughout this article, she tries to stress that she shares the aims of many of the people whose methods she…

Preschool teachers can best educate youngsters learning their home language and English by using children's primary language where possible, adopting effective practices for building English language skills, and involving families in supporting children's learning. This article surveys the growing body of research on improving preschool…

Challenges are bound to arise as the vast majority of states strive to help English learners meet the Common Core State Standards. In calling for students to read complex texts, these new standards place an even greater emphasis on content knowledge and literacy skills than prior state standards. This review of available research will help…

Having reviewed several bodies of research, the authors provide 14 guidelines for educators to help English learners (ELs) make greater strides in learning English. These guidelines are: (1) Providing English Language Development (ELD) instruction is better than not providing it; (2) ELD instruction should continue at least until ELs attain…

The author discusses four specific strategies for enhancing and supporting the spatial aspects of the science, mathematics, and social studies curricula. However, these four strategies are examples of what can be done, not an exhaustive list. The overarching concept is to embrace the spatial visualizations used for discovery and communication in…

There is only one practice of solitude: to make a choice and carry it out well. The particulars assemble around this simple principle. One may later regret the choice; one may end up reversing or abandoning it. The choice may consist of doing nothing or refraining from a decision until the time is right. But no matter what it entails, one must…

Disputes about the impact of instructional guidance during teaching have been ongoing for more than a half century. On one side of this argument are those who believe that all people--novices and experts alike--learn best when provided with instruction that contains unguided or partly guided segments. On the other side are those who believe that…

Distinguishing between good and bad science is not easy. Evaluating whether or not a claim really is supported by good research is like buying a car. There is an optimal solution to the problem, which is to read and digest all of the relevant research, but most people do not have time to execute the optimal solution. What they need is a good…

The authors are conducting studies to determine what knowledge world history teachers need and how they can use it to plan instruction. In this article, they report on a small but in-depth study designed to examine how four pre-service and six in-service world history teachers think about, organize, and make meaning of separate world historical…

Focusing directly on the development of instructional practice and its effects is not easy. One major shortcoming in the educational infrastructure has been the lack of a common curriculum. A second has been an impoverished approach to supporting teaching practice. These two are related, for any effort to develop and improve teaching is weakened…

A strong curriculum brings clarity to a school's endeavor; it has practical, intellectual, and philosophical benefits. It gives shape to the subjects, helps ensure consistency within and among schools, makes room for first-rate books and tests, and leaves teachers room for professional judgment and creativity. In this article, the author explains…

When inspectors visit construction sites to assess the quality of work, they do so against the building code, which typically is written out in detail and used to guide work and teach apprentices. When attending physicians supervise interns as they take patients' histories or check their blood pressure, they compare the interns' work with…