Teaching Kids to Be Confident, Effective Communicators: Differentiated Projects to Get All Students Writing, Speaking, and Presenting

Build children’s proficiency in oral and written communication, promote social-emotional learning (SEL), and differentiate instruction as students work toward achieving learning standards while developing critical skills they’ll need throughout school and life.

This practical and unique resource presents classroom-tested research projects, called “openings,” in core curricular areas (language arts, social studies, science, math). Students research topics and present what they have learned to their peers with this kids-teaching-kids approach to differentiated, project-based learning.

Teaching Kids to Be Confident, Effective Communicators includes 18 openings, each one completely self-contained and ready to use. Also included are 12 “starter” openings, simpler projects that require no research so students can focus on learning and practicing presentation skills.

Teaching Kids to Be Confident, Effective Communicators features:

• 3 instructional levels: early (K–1), middle (2–3), and upper (4–6) elementary
• A primer on differentiation strategies, including examples for every opening
• A primer on social-emotional learning (SEL)
• Projects aligned with content standards in English/language arts, math, science, and social studies
• Ideas for modifying, adapting, and extending projects
• Nearly 100 reproducible student handouts and assessments
• Instructions and handouts for developing your own original openings
• A CD-ROM containing all of the book’s reproducible forms plus 3 bonus openings

In Teaching Kids to Be Confident, Effective Communicators, veteran educators Phil and Dori Schlemmer offer a fresh approach to building self-directed, lifelong learners: It’s differentiation with project-based learning where kids do the teaching.

Since teachers are in the best position to judge what works with their own students, each opening in Teaching Kids to Be Confident, Effective Communicators is completely flexible and adaptable. It’s easy to adjust requirements or subject matter. It’s even easy to combine elements from one opening with elements from another, and suggestions for doing so are included. And because each opening is grounded in SEL and content standards—and contains suggestions for differentiation strategies—all students can develop critical skills and learn rigorous content.

Teachers can assign one opening a year for a special research project, develop a series of openings to span the entire year, or do something in between. Openings are an excellent option for single classrooms or entire schools. This book even offers options for publishing openings for the student body, parents, and the community to enjoy.

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