Teachers' Curricular Decision Making in Response to a New Social Studies Textbook

1995 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 121-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Heckley Kon
2004 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 180-186
Author(s):  
Phyllis Whitin

My fourth-grade class had just completed an exploration of pentominoes (polygonal shapes with an area of five square units). Finding all twelve shapes gives children valuable geometric problem-solving practice by highlighting transformations (flips, slides, and turns) and congruence (shapes can be differently oriented, yet congruent). Before moving on to another lesson, I realized that the students might use the same twelve shapes to examine perimeter and area. Eleven of the shapes have a perimeter of twelve units. Only one shape yields a different perimeter, ten units (see fig. 1). The children had limited experience with perimeter and area; I doubted that they understood that shapes with a fixed area could have perimeters of different lengths. Because they were so familiar with the pentominoes, I felt that this material would give them a good opportunity to address these concepts in more detail. Although I did expect them to calculate the perimeters and areas of the twelve shapes, I did not foresee that the children's follow-up discussion would open an opportunity for problem-posing explorations. This article describes my evolving curricular decision making, the children's investigations, and what I learned from this unanticipated experience.


1997 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-110
Author(s):  
Dorothy H. Evensen (Deegan) ◽  
Jill D. Salisbury ◽  
Bonnie J. F. Meyer

Sex Education ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 623-634 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa L. Carrion ◽  
Robin E. Jensen

Author(s):  
William B. Russell ◽  
Stewart Waters

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