Foxfire
A teaching approach which involves students in deciding
how to learn a given curriculum by soliciting their ideas
about how people in the real world use that content and what
they might do to learn it.
Wigginton, E. (Ed.) (1972). The Foxfire
book. Garden City, NY: Anchor Books.
Wigginton, E. (1985). Sometimes a shining moment:
the Foxfire experience. Garden City, NY: Anchor
Books.
http://www.foxfire.org
|
Problem-Based Learning
By focusing learning around a problem to solve, teachers
can create the conditions necessary to get students to start
asking questions about content.
Delisle, R. (1997). How to use problem-based
learning in the classroom. Alexandria, VA:
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Nagel, N. (1996). Learning through real-world
problem solving: the power of integrative teaching.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, Inc.
|
Plan Units for Active Learning
Frame unit objectives as essential questions, start units
with a hook activity, have active acquisition activities for
each essential question and give students a chance to
synthesize learning with a meaningful use activity.
Learning-Focused Schools: A High Achievement
Project. Available from Learning Concepts, Inc., PO
Box 2112, Boone, NC 28607
Daniels, H., & Bizar, M. (1998). Methods that
matter: Six structures for best practice classrooms.
York, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.
|
Implement the Turning Points
Recommendations
The Turning Points report led to the organizational and
structural changes now common in middle schools:
interdisciplinary teaming, looping, multiyear teams,
advisory programs, and exploratory or allied arts programs,
integrative curriculum, project-based and field-based
learning, and alternative assessment.
Felner, R., Jackson, A., Kasak, D., Mulhall, P.,
Brand, S., & Flowers, N. (1997). The impact of the
school reform for the middle years. Phi Delta Kappan.
March. pp. 528-550.
Task Force on Education of Young Adolescents. (1989).
Turning points: preparing American youth for the 21st
century. Washington, DC: Carnegie Council on
Adolescent Development.
|
Curriculum Integration
Building curriculum around student's own questions and
concerns can be particularly effective for engaging middle
school students in learning.
Alexander, W. (1995). Student-oriented
curriculum: asking the right questions. Columbus, OH:
National Middle School Association.
Beane, J. (1990). A middle school curriculum: from
rhetoric to reality. Columbus, Ohio: National Middle
School Association.
Muir, M. (1998). Planning integrative curriculum with
skeptical students. Middle school journal.
November. Pp. 9-17.
Pate, E., Holmstead, E., & McGinnis, K. (1997).
Making integrated curriculum work: teachers, students,
and the quest for coherent curriculum. NY, NY:
Teachers College Press.
|
Project-Based Learning
Students can also demonstrate their learning by creating
culminating projects using interesting media. This might
include posters and displays, plays or performances, books
or magazines, or hypermedia, multimedia, or web pages.
Muir, M. (1994, April). Putting computer
projects at the heart of the curriculum. Educational
leadership. Vol. 51, Num. 7, 30-32.
Muir, M. (1997). But how do I use HyperStudio with
kids? Designing and doing curriculum-based projects.
Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in
Education.
|
