Endless Possibilities: Generating Curriculum in Social Studies and Literacy

Many of our classrooms' best innovations occur behind closed doors, never to be known to others. So Pat Cordeiro decided to enter some of those classrooms, asking the teachers to describe their own experiences in generating curriculum that integrates social studies, literacy, and whole language.

What results is a book so full of practical ideas that teachers across the grades can attempt, adapt, and integrate any one of them into current practice. The teachers profiled have all undergone evolution and development-their accounts of classroom life, practice, and curriculum focus on where they've been and where they're going. They explore what it means to generate curriculum with their students and to share the responsibility and joys of deciding what and how the students learn.

Pat's last chapter features remarks on learning and adaptability. She asks: How can teachers from other grades or in other settings adapt, stretch, and evaluate ideas from the contributors? What are some of the mechanisms that made these programs work? How can a generative curriculum help?

Endless Possibilities is for any teacher seeking new, effective ideas, as well as college instructors of social studies and language arts methods.

After teaching elementary school, grades 1-6, for eighteen years, Pat Cordeiro is now an associate professor at Rhode Island College. A past president of the Whole Language Teachers Association and prolific author, she is currently investigating and supporting the teacher's role in upper-grade whole language classrooms.