Challenge and expand students' abilities with multidimensional performance tasks! In this invaluable resource, science educators Elizabeth Hammerman and Diann Musial define a new vision for integrating science, mathematics, and language arts with instruction and assessment and encourage teachers to develop reliable processes for assessing both their teaching practice and student learning. This revised edition offers more than 20 performance assessments that promote student engagement. Each clearly articulated task correlates with current research and focuses on learning indicators linked to state and national standards. The assessments also model inquiry-based science in ways proven to increase student achievement, allowing learners to demonstrate their understanding of embedded concepts through exploration, inquiry, and application. Teachers can follow detailed guidelines to develop customized assessments or use the assessments already included to evaluate learners': • Understanding of content and processes • Development of complex thinking skills • Aptitude for science • Ability to make real-world connections Featuring learning logs, portfolios, peer interview strategies, and sample teacher-student interviews, Integrating Science With Mathematics and Literacy, Second Edition, helps educators obtain accurate performance data while giving students opportunities to examine the world in exciting ways.

Many K–6 teachers--and students--still think of mathematics as a totally separate subject from literacy. Yet incorporating math content into the language arts block helps students gain skills for reading many kinds of texts. And bringing reading, writing, and talking into the math classroom supports the development of conceptual knowledge and problem solving, in addition to computational skills. This invaluable book thoroughly explains integrated instruction and gives teachers the tools to make it a reality. Grounded in current best practices for both language arts and math, the book includes planning advice, learning activities, assessment strategies, reproducibles, and resources, plus a wealth of examples from actual classrooms.

How can curriculum integration of school science with the related disciplines of technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) enhance students’ skills and their ability to link what they learn in school with the world outside the classroom? Featuring actual case studies of teachers’ attempts to integrate their curriculum, their reasons for doing so, how they did it, and their reflections on the outcomes, this book encourages science educators to consider the purposes and potential outcomes of this approach and raises important questions about the place of science in the school curriculum. It takes an honest approach to real issues that arise in curriculum integration in a range of education contexts at the elementary and middle school levels. The clear documentation and critical analysis of the contribution of science in curriculum integration—its implementation and its strengths and weaknesses—will assist teachers, science educators, and researchers to understand how this approach can work to engage students and improve their learning, as well as how it does not happen easily, and how various factors can facilitate or hinder successful integration.

Many K–6 teachers--and students--still think of mathematics as a totally separate subject from literacy. Yet incorporating math content into the language arts block helps students gain skills for reading many kinds of texts. And bringing reading, writing, and talking into the math classroom supports the development of conceptual knowledge and problem solving, in addition to computational skills. This invaluable book thoroughly explains integrated instruction and gives teachers the tools to make it a reality. Grounded in current best practices for both language arts and math, the book includes planning advice, learning activities, assessment strategies, reproducibles, and resources, plus a wealth of examples from actual classrooms.

Description of ways to integrate science and mathematics into elementary school curriculum thereby creating a more holistic approach to education.

Fourth grade classrooms in Virginia only take state assessments in reading and mathematics. Science instruction often gets pushed to the side in favor of spending more time on reading and math instruction. This research sought to integrate science content with literacy instruction so that students would not miss out on vital science knowledge they would go on to need in fifth grade. Fourth grade students in one classroom read science content books during small group guided reading instruction that focused on the current science unit of study. Students also visited the classroom science literacy center weekly to explore science books and practice reading comprehension skills taught in the classroom. Student surveys and interviews along with classroom and district assessments were used to measure students' science content knowledge, nonfiction reading comprehension skills, and interest in science literacy throughout the research.

Want to know how to implement authentic STEM teaching and learning into your classroom? STEM Lesson Essentials provides all the tools and strategies you'll need to design integrated, interdisciplinary STEM lessons and units that are relevant and exciting to your students. With clear definitions of both STEM and STEM literacy, the authors argue that STEM in itself is not a curriculum, but rather a way of organizing and delivering instruction by weaving the four disciplines together in intentional ways. Rather than adding two new subjects to the curriculum, the engineering and technology practices can instead be blended into existing math and science lessons in ways that engage students and help them master 21st century skills.