Abigail Norfleet James - Active Lessons for Active Brains: Teaching Boys and Other Experiential Learners, Grades 3-10

Copyright 2011 by Corwin Press

First Skyhorse Publishing Edition 2012

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

ISBN: 978-1-62873-766-0

Printed in China

Acquisitions Editor : Carol Chambers Collins

Editorial Assistant : Sarah Bartlett

Permissions Editor: Adele Hutchinson

Production Editor: Jane Haenel

Copy Editor: Alan Cook

Typesetter: C&M Digitals (P) Ltd.

Proofreader: Carole Quandt

Cover Designer: Scott Van Atta

Contents

Acknowledgments

E very book is a result of the input of many people, and a book that is coauthored has more than most. This book arose from conversations the three of us have had over the years. We have each been asked for examples of the active lessons that we use and finally decided that the best thing was for us to write them down.

Sherwood Githens was a professor of education at Duke University and a great proponent of active learning. He passed that love and a great many techniques on to his students. Some of the lessons in the science portion were inspired by his thinking and approach to teaching science.

Elizabeth Birdsong Taylor, a gifted teacher in her own right, was willing to be the guinea pig and read the lessons for clarity. Her comments were helpful in making sure that someone who has no previous knowledge of the information could understand the directions and what the students were to do.

Jacquelyn P. Graham, a teacher at Hannah-Pamplico Elementary Middle School, supplied the idea for Superbowl Writers. Danielle Heffron, a teacher at A. Scott Crossfield Elementary School, developed the Reading Bingo and Bookmarks strategies. Sandy Lorick, a teacher at Langston Charter Middle School, developed the Four-Square Strategy. These fantastic teachers have allowed us to include their ideas in this collection. Thanks also to Andrea Byrns for the map used in Blackbeards Challenge.

Two of us teach in South Carolina and we are very grateful for all of the support that we have received for our efforts in teaching boys and girls. Randall Gary and Charlene Herring of Richland District Two were instrumental in helping start single-gender education in South Carolina. David Chadwell, the coordinator for single-gender education for South Carolina, is responsible for this book because he introduced the three of us. There are many successful single-gender programs in that state, and if you want to know how to start such a program, his book is a wonderful resource. We would like to thank the students of TWO Academies at Dent Middle School in Columbia, South Carolina, for trying and fine-tuning our lessons. More importantly, we would like to thank those students for being adventuresome and fearless as we navigated through the unfamiliar terrain of best-practice strategies in a single-gender setting.

When you have never been inside a single-gender classroom or seen exactly what teaching strategies are used in single-gender classes, it is very helpful to have access to schools and teachers who have been at this for a long time. Even when you are familiar with this approach, seeing what other teachers do provides a scaffold for expanding your own methods. The teachers in the member schools in the International Boys' Schools Coalition, especially those at The Haverford School and the Woodberry Forest School, have been very welcoming to all of us, sharing what works and what doesn't.

We would like to thank our families: SBA for their help during her shoulder and foot surgery as she worked to produce the lessons, ANJ for their continuing support in her efforts to bring new strategies to teachers, and CZM for their understanding as she tries to teach, get a doctorate, and provide lessons for this workbook.

PUBLISHER'S ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Skyhorse gratefully acknowledges the contributions of the following reviewers:

Freda Hicks, Associate Principal

Grady Brown Elementary School

Hillsborough, NC

Tasha Holiday, Assistant Head of School

First Presbyterian Day School

Jackson, MS

Donna Lopez, First Grade Teacher and Science Lead Teacher

Rio Vista Elementary School

Anaheim, CA

Eva Myrick, Charter School Coordinator

SL AS-TBP

Dallas, TX

Marci L. Reeves, English Instructor and Mentor Coordinator

Belleville Township High School East

Belleville, IL

Letetia Penn Rodgers, Teacher

St. Thomas, VI

Vicky Ross, Technology Integration Specialist

Kennedy Junior High School and Ranch View Elementary School Naperville, IL

About the Authors

Abigail Norfleet James taught for many years in single-sex schools and consults on the subject of gendered teaching to school systems, colleges, and universities. Her area of expertise is developmental and educational psychology as applied to the gendered classroom. Prior to obtaining her doctorate from the University of Virginias Curry School of Education, she taught general science, biology, and psychology in both boys and girls schools. Her previous publications include reports of research comparing the educational attitudes of male graduates of coed schools and single-sex schools, research describing the effects of gendered basic skills instruction, and a report of academic achievement of students in single-gender programs. In addition, she has written on differentiated instruction at the elementary school level. She has presented workshops and papers at many educational conferences and works with teachers and parent groups in interpreting the world of gendered education. Her professional affiliations include the American Educational Research Association, the American Psychological Association, the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, the Coalition of Schools Educating Boys of Color, the Gender and Education Association, the International Boys Schools Coalition, and the National Association for Single-Sex Public Education (Advisory Board member).

Sandra Boyd Allison is an experienced educator with thirty-five years of teaching and consulting experience in curriculum instruction, secondary mathematics, and special education. She has presented at local, state, and international conferences and workshops. Her experience includes teaching positions in regular education in grades K12 as well as in single-gender magnets programs, regular education classrooms, self-contained, resource and itinerant programs for hearing-impaired students, programs for learning-disabled students, and programs for mentally handicapped students. In addition to state certifications in secondary mathematics, elementary education, in teaching the hearing impaired, the gifted and talented, students with learning disabilities, and the mentally handicapped, she has been recognized by her peers as Teacher of the Year and is certified by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards in Adolescence and Young Adulthood Mathematics. Allison received an undergraduate degree in elementary and special education from Winthrop University and a graduate degree in curriculum and instruction (math and science) from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She has received local, state, and national grants from the South Carolina Department of Education, Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, and Time Warner Cable. Allisons expertise is in the implementation of innovative programs that are built around current models of instruction containing core lessons based on state standards. She is a collaborator with a special interest in creating cross-curricular, real-world lessons that combine her knowledge of mathematics with her lifelong interest in science, technology, the history of the United States, and the ancient works of the great thinkers.