Elementary Education Textbooks

Teaching Early and Elementary STEM

Contributors: Lange, Robertson, Price, and Craven

Publisher: East Tennessee State University

License: CC BY-NC

This Open Access Educational textbook, "Teaching Early and Elementary STEM", was written to support pre-service early childhood and elementary teachers in their journey to become facilitators of science, technology, engineering, and math, or “STEM,” and "integrated STEM" in their future classrooms. Students who read and use this text will deepen their understanding of “STEM” and “integrated STEM,” learn what early childhood and elementary students need to know and be able to do in relation to STEM, and understand ways to create activity plans and implement current research-based approaches to teaching and pedagogy. This text arose out of our Early/Elementary STEM Collaboration project, which started in 2017 with the intention of increasing the quality of teacher preparation in STEM across early childhood and elementary education. The team is composed of math and science education professors, classroom in-service teachers, and pre-service teachers in pre-school through fifth grade. We are driven by the values of collaboration, strengths-based approaches to teaching and learning, constructivist philosophy of teaching and learning, and applied STEM experiences to increase access and equity. Our model of preparing pre-service teachers has been published elsewhere in more detail (Robertson, Nivens, & Lange, 2019). We built this open access product to include the following: 1) completely new content that includes input from our team as well as examples of integrated STEM learning experiences; 2) adaptations of existing resources, and; 3) compilations of existing free resources (e.g., Next Generation Science Standards).

(1 review)

Teaching Math for Emergent Bilinguals: Building on Culture, Language, and Identity

Contributors: I and Martinez

Publisher: Iowa State University

License: CC BY-NC-SA

This book is designed for pre-service/in-service teachers and others who will work or work with K–12 students who have linguistically and culturally diverse backgrounds, especially students of other languages (English language learners/Emergent bilingual/multilingual). The core concept of this course is helping teachers understand the needs of various Emergent Bilinguals (a.k.a. English language learners (ELLs)/English Learners (ELs), learn to use their language and culture as a resource in mathematics classrooms and implement research-based instructional strategies that are effective to teach mathematics for Emergent Bilinguals.

(5 reviews)

Building Democracy for All: Interactive Explorations of Government and Civic Life

Contributors: Maloy and Trust

Publisher: EdTech Books

License: CC BY-NC-SA

Designed as a core or supplementary text for upper elementary, middle and high school teachers and students, Building Democracy for All offers instructional ideas, interactive resources, multicultural content, and multimodal learning materials for interest-building explorations of United States government as well as students’ roles as citizens in a democratic society. It focuses on the importance of community engagement and social responsibility as understood and acted upon by middle and high school students—core themes in the 2018 Massachusetts 8th Grade Curriculum Framework, and which are found in many state history and social studies curriculum frameworks around the country.

(1 review)

Exploring Physical Phenomena

Contributors: van Zee and Gire

Publisher: Oregon State University

License: CC BY-SA

This course is intended for prospective and practicing elementary and middle school teachers. By exploring physical phenomena in class, you will learn science in ways in which you are expected to teach science in schools or in informal settings such as afterschool programs, youth group meetings, and museum workshops. This course also is appropriate for general science students and others interested in exploring some of the physical phenomena underlying global climate change.

(2 reviews)

Trauma Informed Behaviour Support: A Practical Guide to Developing Resilient Learners

Contributors: Ayre and Krishnamoorthy

Publisher: University of Southern Queensland

License: CC BY-SA

If we want to impact the world of children who have experienced trauma then we must change not only ourselves and our classroom, but we must change our schools, our organisations, and our systems of care for children. We must all speak out for these children who have no voice to bring awareness of new educational and mental health approaches to children who will become tomorrow’s failed adults unless they receive our understanding and our help.

(4 reviews)

Parenting and Family Diversity Issues

Contributor: Lang

Publisher: Iowa State University

License: CC BY-NC-SA

This book has been created for students and all individuals who work with children and families (e.g., educators, parents, caregivers, direct support workers, etc.) in diverse contexts. It is imperative to understand how and what factors may influence child outcomes across the lifespan. Therefore, key concepts related to parenting, child-rearing, care-giving, and parenting education are outlined in this textbook to provide historical, theoretical, and practical perspectives across vast settings and developmental domains.

(5 reviews)

Sharing Our Knowledge: Best Practices for Supporting English Language Learners in Schools

Contributor: Prokopchuk

Publisher: OPENPRESS.USASK.CA

License: CC BY

To complete the course ECUR 415.3: Current Issues in EAL, students are required to submit a final paper that reflects their growing knowledge about English as an Additional Language (EAL). EAL is the term used in Saskatchewan to describe students who speak languages other than English and require adequate levels of English to be successful with the school curriculum.

(7 reviews)

Trauma-Informed School Practices: Building Expertise To Transform Schools

Contributors: Berardi and Morton

Publisher: George Fox University Library

License: CC BY-NC-SA

This textbook represents the combined insight and experience of Morton, a k12 educator, and Berardi, a psychotherapist, both of whom are also university educators with extensive work experience serving districts and their teachers seeking to incorporate trauma-informed principles into their school culture and classroom. The authors identify that the field of education is now ready to deepen its level of response to the paradigm shift created by advances in neuroscience and traumatology. Hence, the primary focus is on identifying and applying trauma-informed educator competencies needed to transform districts, schools, educators, classrooms, and the field of education itself, while also including community members such as parents and board members in these processes - a total system makeover. At the conclusion of this text, the student, educator, or mental health professional will have a deeper understanding of what trauma-informed practice requires of them. This includes practical strategies on how to transform our learning communities in response to the devastating effect of unmitigated stress and trauma on our student's ability to learn and thrive throughout the lifespan.

(14 reviews)

Mathematics for Elementary Teachers

Contributor: Manes

Publisher: University of Hawaii Manoa

License: CC BY-SA

This book will help you to understand elementary mathematics more deeply, gain facility with creating and using mathematical notation, develop a habit of looking for reasons and creating mathematical explanations, and become more comfortable exploring unfamiliar mathematical situations.

(16 reviews)

Steps to Success: Crossing the Bridge Between Literacy Research and Practice

Contributor: Munger

Publisher: Open SUNY

License: CC BY-NC-SA

Steps to Success: Crossing the Bridge Between Literacy Research and Practice introduces instructional strategies linked to the most current research-supported practices in the field of literacy. The book includes chapters related to scientifically-based literacy research, early literacy development, literacy assessment, digital age influences on children's literature, literacy development in underserved student groups, secondary literacy instructional strategies, literacy and modern language, and critical discourse analysis. Chapters are written by authors with expertise in both college teaching and the delivery of research-supported literacy practices in schools. The book features detailed explanations of a wide variety of literacy strategies that can be implemented by both beginning and expert practitioners. Readers will gain knowledge about topics frequently covered in college literacy courses, along with guided practice for applying this knowledge in their future or current classrooms. The book's success-oriented framework helps guide educators toward improving their own practices and is designed to foster the literacy development of students of all ages.

(26 reviews)