Drawing inspiration from Parker Palmer and John Dewey, this essay explores the author's journey of learning to connect with his ninth-grade students in a summer study skills class. Using the metaphor of an "undercarriage," the author reflects on how he strengthened his capacity to endure classroom challenges. Through experimentation with…

Society values the vital role scientists and engineers play in solving urgent, real-world problems such as developing COVID-19 vaccines. The NGSS framework for Engineering Design articulates specific practices and disciplinary core ideas that work in conjunction with other science standards to equip today's youth to be solvers of tomorrow's…

This article describes literacy practices and outdoor activities in high school English classrooms--framed as critical rambling, a pedagogy seeking to raise awareness of issues like climate justice--with illustrations from a dissertation of teacher research and additional student work.

Both of us were drawn into the writing assessment field initially through our lived experiences as schoolteachers. We worked in radically different contexts -- Martin was head of a languages department and teacher of French and German in the late 1990s in the UK, and David was a Grade 12 teacher of Academic English in Alberta, Canada, at the turn…

While empirical studies on the use of hip-hop music in social studies spaces is limited, the work that has been done offers encouraging perspectives. Some research suggests that incorporating hip-hop lyrics into the classroom leads to increased student engagement and greater curricular relevance. Other scholars have centered hip-hop as a way to…

The design of algorithms is one of the hardest topics of high school computer science. This is mainly due to the universality of algorithms as solution methods that guarantee the calculation of a correct solution for all potentially infinitely many instances of an algorithmic problem. The goal of this paper is to present a comprehensible and…

While adolescent foundational skills interventions can be critical levers for reading improvement, district leaders, teachers, and researchers must make complex decisions about how to evaluate their effectiveness in context. In this discussion article, we explore three issues and tensions we experienced during a 2-year research-practice…

A high school teacher advocates for the use of the CARE method in the selection and teaching of fiction about disability in the English language arts classroom, considering the centrality, agency, and respect afforded disabled characters, as well as the expertise of the author.

Academically talented students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have the potential to be successful both in high school and later in college, but their rate of post-secondary enrollment and completion lags behind their peers. Currently, limited information exists on strategies to help these students, often known as twice exceptional or 2e, to…

Making sense of algebraic expressions in context is multifaceted and extends beyond representing real-world situations using algebra. As part of Project MathTalk, the authors created videos that feature a pair of Grade 9 algebra 1 students coming to understand algebraic expressions in context. The students found three aspects of making sense of…

A revision-based assessment system, driven by clear rubrics, can mean less stress, more effective feedback, and greater student learning. English teacher Alexis Wiggins shares an effective and time-friendly revision-based assessment system she developed that allows students to focus on learning, not their grade.

Drawing from the author's own teaching, this article explores beginning steps for incorporating video games in English classrooms and details the logistical and pedagogical challenges that occur when teachers include digital interactive texts in the curriculum.

A teacher education professor and former secondary school instructor discusses using punk pedagogy and content in the English classroom to promote experimentation, interdisciplinarity, participation in community, and process-focused work.

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM, 2014) highlights that effective teaching practices promote students' reasoning and sense making through various problem-solving strategies. Rather than telling students what to do and how to solve problems, teachers are expected to engage learners in accessible real-life problem situations…

When teaching volleyball to neophytes and relative beginners, it is crucial to make modifications to ensure success, to maximize touches, to lengthen rallies and to foster structured play. Two such modifications described in this article, Instant Volleyball and Flips, help the instructor meet all four of these goals. Eliminating the serve from…