Cognition, Thinking & Understanding

Facilitating for Learning: Tools for Teacher Groups of All Kinds

One of the most important shifts in schools in the last two decades has been the growing emphasis on collaboration among teachers and other educators. Whether you are a teacher facilitating a group for the first time or an experienced facilitator seeking to further develop your skills, this book is for you. Organized to be used as both an exploration of the role of facilitating and as a handbook of strategies, this resource covers a range of contexts that include faculty meetings, department meetings, professional learning communities, grade-level teams, and inquiry groups. This book is a perfect companion to the authors' bestseller, The Facilitator's Book of Questions, which focuses on the skills needed to facilitate protocols or structured conversations. Facilitating for Learning extends the scope of that work by also examining the facilitator's responsibilities for supporting a group's learning during all parts of a meeting, between meetings, and within the larger school context and culture. It is an essential resource for teachers, administrators, coaches, and teacher educators.

When Change Has Legs

Perkins, D. N., & Reese, J. D. (2014). When change has legs. Educational Leadership,71(8), 42-47.

From the introduction: "Initiatives to improve teaching and learning remind us of New Year's resolutions. They often launch at the beginning of the year—the school year. They commence with a cherished vision of possibility and a spirit of commitment. They begin with genuine progress. But most New Year's resolutions fail. And similarly, many initiatives to improve teaching and learning prove shaky in the long term."

Engaging City Hall: Children as Citizens

An article by Krechevsky, Mardell, & Romans putting forth a view of young children as citizens.

Boston Early Civics Curriculum

Blog describing curriculum developed by Mardell and others in the Boston Public School kindergartens that recognizes children are citizens. And, examples from BPS K2: Kindergartners' ideas for making Boston a fairer and more interesting place for children.

The Color Investigation

10 short videos by Melissa Rivard that track the development from start to finish of a Boston Public School preschool class's investigation into color, accompanied by a Teacher Study Guide. Also on this site is a 5-minute video of two kindergarten classrooms who participated in a Making Learning Visible course in which children created "how-to" books that were ultimately displayed at the Boston Children's Museum.