Creating and Sustaining the Constructivist Classroom

Praise for the First Edition: 'Lots of fresh ideas, along with some very helpful suggestions' - Pamela Galvani, Teacher, Central Kitsap High School, Silverdale, Washington 'Should be immensely useful for any educator who wants to move past the tried-and-false traditional methods of classroom instruction' - Alfie Kohn, Author, Punished by Rewards Make constructivism work for you and your students! Taking students from passive spoon-fed knowledge to creation and acquisition of real learning: it sounds terrific. But how do you do it? This book shows you how. In this updated and expanded second edition, Marlowe and Page use a larger and clearer format to bring together constructivist theory with step-by-step guidance to make constructivist learning a reality in your classroom. Creating and Sustaining the Constructivist Classroom, Second Edition, includes the first hand experiences of practising teachers to help you understand the challenges and rewards you can expect from constructivism. The teachers' stories along with guidance from the authors give you a solid foundation on which to build your own student-created learning classroom.The authors provide: - Active learning examples to customize for any grade or classroom - Checklists to help you evaluate your starting point, progress, and goals - Practical assistance with issues surrounding student assessment, differentiation, and the inclusive classroom - Ideas for involving parents and community members - Ways to implement technology into the mix - Strategies to help new teachers implement constructivist principles Stimulate your students' creativity, autonomy, and independent thinking. Help raise their self-esteem and confidence. Get their minds working on proactive ways to bring real-world learning into their schoolwork. Encourage your students to discover new ways to search for information, process what they find out, and translate it into meaningful knowledge for themselves.