What Works
Together, research, practice, local needs assessments, and a commitment to collaboration create a roadmap for what works to educate the whole child. Use this section to get the resources you need to identify and address challenges in educating the whole child such as bullying and implement evidence-based practices such as arts integration. Explore each topic to get free resources from experts and practitioners committed to building your capacity to educate the whole child. Come back each month as we focus on a new topic of critical importance to educating the whole child.
Topic of the Month
Engaging Learning Strategies
Learning is active, engaging, and social. Students need to be engaged and motivated in their learning before they can apply higher order, creative thinking skills. They are most engaged when they themselves are part of constructing meaning, not when teachers do it for them. By encouraging students to meet challenges creatively, collaborate, and apply critical thinking skills to real-world, unpredictable situations inside and outside of school, we prepare them for future college, career, and citizenship success.
Effective classroom instruction that embraces both high standards and accountability for students' learning can be project-based, focused on service and the community, experiential, cooperative, expeditionary ... the list goes on. These engaging learning strategies are grounded in instructional objectives, provide clear feedback, and enable students to thrive cognitively, socially, emotionally, and civically.
Whole Child Examples
Elementary Example
School Grows as a Caring School Community
Over the past seven years, Bowles Elementary School's Caring School Community model has moved from a "trait of the month" approach to a deeper, more comprehensive approach tied to curriculum and content.
Recent Examples
Elementary Example
School Models Character Despite Challenges
Elementary Example
Bringing New Students and Families into the Community
Elementary Example
A SAFE Approach: Successful Appropriate Foundation to Educate All Children
Elementary Example
Town Meetings and Shared Grade-Level Planning
