Kendall Hunt Publishing

At home the other night we were hard at work on a Social Studies project when I got to thinking about social studies resources for gifted students. I know that these materials can be hard to find and many teachers create their own gifted and talented lesson plans.

But there’s a great social studies curriculum for high ability learners: the Center for Gifted Education (CFGE) at The College of William & Mary. Have you checked it out? You can find it here on the Kendall Hunt Publishing website: http://www.kendallhunt.com/index.cfm?PID=219&PGI=251.

CFGE Social Studies offers great topics, including these, just to name a few:

• Gift of the Nile
• Ancient China
• The Civil War: It’s Causes and Effects
• The Road to the White House: Electing the American President
• Defining Nations: Cultural Identity and Political Tensions

And the program meets the needs of Grades 2 through 12. It even includes implementation support such as guidelines, learning centers and teaching models, along with additional resources. Where else can you find this? As the world gets smaller and smaller, it seems to me at least that our kids really need to learn about these things. Many gifted education books offer science and reading programs, but it seems social studies is a little harder to find.
Do your schools have talented and gifted resources for social studies? Tell me what you’re using and how you use them, I’d be really interested to know.
 

My son was recently invited to participate in an area Eco-Meet. They chose three fourth grade gifted students and two fifth grade students from each of the participating districts to make up that district’s team. This is quite the inquiry based science event, it seems! Each team member received a packet about an inch thick of materials they need to study to prepare. Additionally, they will be working with the gifted and talented teacher, who is the coach, each week leading up to the event in mid-May.

The Eco-Meet is a day long event held at a local park high above the Mississippi River. The park rangers and Army Corps of Engineers will involve the students in activities and presentations on different subjects, including Fish of the Mississippi. After each event, the teams will take a test. The tests will be graded and winners announced.

Volunteers, university students, scientists, engineers, other STEM professionals and, more broadly, members of the community are working together with educators and students to bring discovery-based science experiences to students in grades K-12."

There will be a nationwide celebration of this in early May with activities across the country. If you click on the "Projects" tab, you'll find that projects are posted from literally one end of the country to the other: Alaska to Florida, and California to Virginia. What a great way to encourage inquiry based science and the use of elementary school science textbooks, middle and high school chemistry and physics textbooks that use that learning model!

Kendall Hunt supports National Lab Day, so don't forget to check out all our inquiry based science programs! I'll keep you posted on what's coming up in the May celebration!
 

Remember, when you were a student? Didn’t you always wonder what was behind those mysterious doors labeled “Faculty Lounge?” I did. Well, Kendall Hunt Publishing now has a slightly different version of the faculty lounge. It’s where we’re putting all sorts of goodies on sale. And as we continue to build the lounge, you’ll not only find everything from elementary school textbooks to high school science textbooks on sale, you’ll find articles about our different specialties, including inquiry based science and talented and gifted resources.

Check it out here when you have a chance!

Kendall Hunt has some really good workshops coming up at NSTA National Convention at Philadelphia in March.  If you are headed there, make sure to check these out:

I guess it’s not THAT big a sale, but we do have some special pricing on classroom combo packs for our BSCS Science Track and Insights, our elementary school science textbooks and programs. Most classroom packs include a teacher’s guide, some student books, sometimes a lab kit; it varies by program and module. You can find them here: http://www.kendallhunt.com/insights and here: http://www.kendallhunt.com/tracks. Check them out and save some money!

NSTA’s NCSE (National Science Teachers Association’s National Conference on Science Education is getting closer! NSTA events always offer great opportunities for those of us in science text book publishing to share our outstanding inquiry based science programs. The NCSE is no exception. Whether it’s a high school biology textbook, a high school physics textbook, teacher edition textbooks, or any other science resource, we’ll be there ready to share our best work. See you there!
 

Not able to attend this year's NSTA conference? You can still download the full PDF presentation of each and every BSCS session (16 in all) by visiting the BSCS website. Session PDFs will be posted within 48 hours of presentations.

I’m wondering about the differences in public school textbooks versus those used in private and parochial schools. Do most private schools use different elementary school textbooks, or high school science textbooks than the surrounding public schools? 

This is something we’re talking about a lot here at Kendall Hunt as we’re expanding our offerings for private and parochial schools. It’s a good point, what’s the added value to paying for private school if the textbooks are the same? Of course I know there are other reasons people send their children to private school: religious considerations, class size, special classes, and many others; but wouldn’t it be an even greater incentive to tell parents, “Yes, we have a curriculum we designed ourselves, around the educational philosophy of our school.

KH has been publishing Pathways, a reading program used in Seventh Day Adventist schools, for several years now, and we will soon be publishing an elementary school science program to accompany it. We’re working on several other exciting projects too, so if you have a chance, take a look at our private & parochial school offerings!
 

Well, Kendall Hunt Publishing is for sure! And we’re taking some of our top authors, including Kelly Deters, author of Kendall Hunt Chemistry! So if you want to learn more about inquiry based science, any of our high school science textbooks and programs, or perhaps you’re interesting in discussing science textbook publishing with one of our reps, stop by and see us at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, March 18-21. And find out all about the special events planned by checking our convention schedule here.

If you have begun looking at elementary school science textbooks, many publishers create programs which have the illusion of inquiry in an effort to meet NSES. Few truly understand that inquiry is more than providing a hands-on activity. Biological Science Curriculum Study (BSCS) developed the 5e learning cycle, found in most of its Prek-12 curriculum, in an effort to prove student the opportunity to learn science through true inquiry.  

The 5e learning cycle is an instructional design model that defines a learning sequence based on the on the experiential learning philosophy of John Dewey and the  experiential learning cycle proposed by David Kolb. Attributed to Roger Bybee of BSCS , the model presents a framework for constructivist learning theories and can be effectively used in teaching science.

The model

Engage

Here the task is introduced. Connections to past learning and experience can be invoked. A demonstration of an event, the presentation of a phenomenon or problem or asking pointed questions can be used to focus the learners' attention on the tasks that will follow. The goal is to spark their interest and involvement.

Explore

Learners should take part in activities that allow them to work with materials that give them a 'hands on' experience of the phenomena being observed. Simulations or models whose parameter can be manipulated by learners, so that they can build relevant experiences of the phenomena, can be provided. Questioning, sharing and communication with other learners should be encouraged during this stage. The teacher facilitates the process.

Explain

The focus at this stage is on analysis. The learner is encouraged to put observations, questions, hypotheses and experiences from the previous stages into language. Communication between learners and learner groups can spur the process. The instructor may choose to introduce explanations, definitions, mediate discussions or simply facilitate by helping learners find the words needed.

Elaborate/Extend

Using the understanding gained in the previous stages, now learners should be encouraged build and expand upon it. Inferences, deductions, and hypotheses can be applied to similar or real-world situations. Varied examples and applications of concepts learned strengthen mental models and provide further insight and understanding.

Evaluate

Evaluation should be ongoing and should occur at all stages, in order to determine that learning objectives have been met and misconceptions avoided. Any number of rubrics, checklists, interviews, observation or other evaluation tools can be used. If interest in a particular aspect or concept is shown, further inquiry should be encouraged and a new cycle can begin that builds upon the previous one. Inquiries may branch off and inspire new cycles, repeating the process in a spiraling fractal of interrelated concepts, where instruction is both structured and yet open to investigation.

Your erstwhile blogger has returned from the land of vacationers, fully refreshed and ready to blog. I don’t know if it was the time of year, or what, but while I was off I started wondering about the question in the headline of this post. How did we end up with “talented & gifted” resources, gifted education books, accelerated learning resources? Where did the terms come from?

So out of curiosity, I did a little research while I was off. It turns out there’s no general consensus as to the origin of the term “gifted.” And, in fact, as we’ve all known for years, there is quite a bit of controversy surrounding the use of the term. But that wasn’t the interesting part. Along the way I learned that what we call gifted education and curriculum for accelerated learners, etc. has been around, literally, for thousands of years. In the sixth and seventh centuries, under China’s Tang Dynasty, children identified as prodigies were summoned to the imperial court for advanced education. Also, Plato was a leading advocate of specialized education for those who were intellectually gifted.

Now, I knew that the Marland Report, A Nation at Risk, and the Jacob Javits Act more recently had memorable impacts on talented and gifted education, but I certainly had no idea how far back the origins went. See what happens when I have extra time on my hands!

I thought I'd share a little more information on our outstanding Professional Development department. They have recently become an affiliate of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills.

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills is the leading advocacy organization focused on infusing 21st century skills into education.  The organization brings together the business community, education leaders, and policy makers to define a powerful vision for 21st century education to ensure every child's success as citizens and workers in the 21st century by providing tools and resources to help facilitate and drive change.

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills Professional Development Affiliate Program equips individuals and organizations with resources and assistance in integrating 21st century skills into their professional development practice.
Kendall Hunt is a professional development affiliate of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills which supports the integration of 21st century skills into all aspects of teaching and learning.

Kendall Hunt's Professional Development experts can help with training and support for any of our programs, including our talented and gifted resources, and our science programs, from elementary school science textbooks, through our high school chemistry and physics programs. Check out what they can offer you!

Have you visited our Professional Development area? KH offers professional development support for many of our programs, including our accelerated learning resources. Here’s some news on a recent conference from our Professional Development Manager, Laura Lottes:

The Talented and Gifted Professional Development Conference held in Columbia, South Carolina November 18^th and 19^th was a big success! 

The conference was designed to provide training to both users and non-users of Kendall Hunt talented and gifted resources and curricula for high ability learners.  Eighty-six teachers from 29 elementary schools and administrators from the South Carolina Department of Education participated in the two-day event.  The participants had four topics to choose from including Math, Science, Language Arts and Social Studies.  Our author groups from Project M3 and the Center for Gifted Education at the College of William & Mary provided us with the resources for content of the workshops.

We are so grateful to our dedicated customers, as well as our future customers, who believe in life long learning and continuing education for their staff!

Last week I was part way through reading the sample chapter from our high school physics textbook, Physics That Works, which is available for download from our website here. So, I’m reporting back now that I’ve read the chapter from start to finish, all 23 pages of it. I really enjoyed it, and I learned a bunch of new things, including the difference between average speed and average velocity. I love all the callouts, Did You Know blurbs, the Focus Questions, and the integrated activities which seem like such a natural progression. It’s really quite engaging, for a high school science textbook (!) and I can see how the inquiry based science concepts are built right in and carry throughout the unit.

Now, I realize no one asked for a review (let alone and uneducated review) of PTW, but it’s pretty interesting to look at these books as an adult and see how the inquiry based science structure can make a difference in the way students learn.