Incorporate inquiry-based practices into your early childhood classroom or family child care program. Inspired by an approach to teaching and learning born in Reggio Emilia, Italy, The Language of Art emphasizes investigation anchored by drawing, painting, and other art activities. It provides:advice on setting up a studio space for art and inquirystudio explorations designed to give children a basic fluency in artsuggestions for documenting children's develo...

Typical art resources for teachers offer discrete art activities, but these don't carry children or teachers into the practice of using the languages of art. This resource offers guidance for teachers to create space, time, and intentional processes for children's exploration and learning to use art for asking questions, offering insights, exploring hypotheses, and examining experiences from unfamiliar perspectives.Inspired by an approach to teaching and learning born in Reggio Emi...

This book explores the contribution of and art and creativity to early education, and examines the role of the atelier (an arts workshop in a school) and atelierista (an educator with an arts background) in the pioneering pre-schools of Reggio Emilia. It does so through the unique experience of Vea Vecchi, one of the first atelieristas to be appointed in Reggio Emilia in 1970.Part memoir, part conversation and part reflection, the book provides a unique insider perspective on the p...

Practical ways to bring the practices of Reggio Emilia to your classroom.

In her new book, popular author Ann Lewin-Benham draws on her intimate knowledge and experience with the Reggio Approach to present 12 “best practices” inspired not only by Reggio, but also by play-based and Montessori approaches to early childhood education. These practices are demonstrated, one per chapter, with scenarios from classrooms, dialogues of children and teachers, and work samples showing the outcome of using each practice. Used together, the 12 best practices offer...

A classic work of advice, criticism, and inspiration for aspiring artists and lovers of art"Art when really understood is the province of every human being." So begins The Art Spirit, the collected words, teachings, and wisdom of innovative artist and beloved teacher Robert Henri. Henri, who painted in the Realist style and was a founding member of the Ashcan School, was known for his belief in interactive nature of creativity and inspiration, and the enduring powe...

100 TESOL Activities for Teachers is a teacher training manual and activity guide that has been used by teacher training groups from Korea, China, Japan, Iraq, Peru, Mexico and many other parts of the world as part of the popular TESOL Certificate Program: Teach English Now! from Coursera and Arizona State University. Designed to be practical, these techniques support the general need to communicate, interact, and make language come alive in the classroom. The manual is organized into 3 di...

Teaching Music through Composition offers a practical, fully multimedia curriculum designed to teach basic musical concepts through the creative process of music composition. Author and award-winning music educator Barbara Freedman presents classroom-tested ways of teaching composition with technology as a tool with which students can create, edit, save, and reproduce music. As Freedman demonstrates, technology allows a musical experience for all skill levels in opportunities neve...

Beverly Naidus shares her passion and strategies for teaching socially engaged art, offering, as well, a short history of the field and the candid views of more than thirty colleagues.A provocative, personal look at the motivations and challenges of teaching socially engaged arts, Arts for Change overturns conventional arts pedagogy with an activist's passion for creating art that matters.How can polarized groups work together to solve social and e...

First Published in 1979. Designed for all music teachers, this book provides a careful and clear examination of the fundamental concepts involved in music. Keith Swanwick investigates questions such as: What is music? Is music meaningful? Does music refine our feelings and emotions? If so, how? The discussion of questions forms a conceptual framework which will motivate further thinking and development in music education.

Banned Books Week is celebrated the last full week in September and strives to make the public aware of books that have been banned or challenged in schools and public libraries, as well as in bookstores and other venues. Founded in 1982, the event is sponsored by the American Library Association, American Booksellers Association, American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, American Society of Journalists and Authors, and the Association of American Publishers. The activities that...

Educators at all levels want their students to develop habits of self-directed learning and critical problem-solving skills that encourage ownership and growth. In The Learner-Directed Classroom, practicing art educators (PreK–16) offer both a comprehensive framework for understanding student-directed learning and concrete pedagogical strategies to implement student-direct learning activities in school. In addition, research-based assessment strategies provide educators with evide...