Equity & Access Professional Learning

Creating Connectional and Critical Curriculum, from Family Dialogue Journals: School-Home Partnerships that Support Student Learning

By JoBeth Allen, Jennifer Beaty, Angela Dean, Joseph Jones, Stephanie Smith Matthews, Jen McCreight, Elyse Schwedler, and Amber M. Simmons

Download “Creating Connectional and Critical Curriculum”

Excerpt

Journals allow students, parents, and teachers to engage actively as they question and reason together. Inquiry has the power to transform a list of learning objectives into powerful topics of discussion and negotiation. As we participated in a more inquiry-based approach in our classrooms, we found that because students are learning and understanding at a deeper level as they engage with the journals and their family members, there is actually enough time to fit it all in. More importantly, our students retained the knowledge much better because of the active role they played in questioning, inquiring, and learning.

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Equity & Access Professional Learning

Opening the Classroom Door: Inviting Parents and Preparing to Work Together in Classrooms

By Lynne Yermanock Strieb

"They Carried Us:" Exploring our Literacy Roots and Routes with Joy and Genius

Teachers from the Philadelphia Writing Project and educators at the African American Museum in Philadelphia developed and hosted a series of events focused on the hidden histories of African American women in Philadelphia from 1700 to the present. They created a series of public discussion and open-source resources for teaching.

Place-Based Writing in Action: Opportunities for Authentic Writing in the World Beyond the Classroom

By National Writing Project

Based on the insight that "places are everywhere," this NWP Radio show explores how educators are using place to support students in having authentic opportunities to learn, grow, and connect. Join this team of teacher-editors and -authors from Place-Based Writing in Action: Opportunities for Authentic Writing in the World Beyond the Classroom to explore what is possible when you tap into this "everywhere resource" to support writing in elementary through preservice classrooms.