Annenberg Media
Featured Online Workshops

Patterns, Functions, and Algebra
"Patterns, Functions, and Algebra" explores the "big ideas" in algebraic thinking. The course consists of 10 two-and-a-half hour sessions that each include video programming and interactive Web activities. The 10th session explores ways to apply the algebraic concepts you've learned in K-8 classrooms. You should complete the sessions sequentially. On the Web site for "Learning Math: Patterns, Functions, and Algebra," see this demonstration of equivalence through weights and balance, plus interesting algebra homework related to weights.

Teaching Math: A Video Library, K-4
See how the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics standards are used in elementary classrooms across America. Elementary teachers tap the excitement and energy of children from kindergarten through grade 4 as they solve problems, learn to make connections between concepts, and communicate and reason mathematically. Explore numerous contexts for exploring measurement with elementary students in "Teaching Math: A Video Library, K-4."

Inside Writing Communities: Grades 3-5
This is a video workshop that uses classroom footage to demonstrate the effectiveness of a writing workshop approach with upper elementary students. Ten teachers from across the country model and discuss teaching strategies, while nationally known experts in writing instruction comment on the research and theory behind the strategies being used. The workshop site includes links to Video on Demand, a downloadable Workshop Guide in PDF format, interactive activities, and more. There is a free registration required.

Science in Focus: Force and Motion, K-8
Explore science concepts in force and motion and come away with a deeper understanding that will help you engage your students in their own explorations. With science and education experts as your guides, learn more about gravity, friction, air resistance, magnetism, and tension through activities, discussions, and demonstrations. Extensive footage shot in real classrooms shows students learning and building on ideas as they explore the relationships among motion, force, size, mass, and speed. As you watch the students develop understanding through activities that connect science concepts to real-world phenomena, you will be asked to think about your own ideas on force and motion and compare them to what you observe.

Social Studies in Action: A Methodology Workshop, K-5
Social Studies in Action: A Methodology Workshop, K-5 captures innovative teaching practices, learning theories, and classroom activities designed to stimulate your teaching and enhance your curriculum. This eight-part workshop provides a methodology framework for teaching social studies, with a focus on creating effective citizens. Individual workshop sessions explore social studies themes, strategies for planning and teaching, and ways to connect social studies to the world beyond the classroom.

Making Meaning in Literature: A Workshop for Teachers, 6-8
"Making Meaning in Literature: A Workshop for Teachers, Grades 6-8 gives teachers like you — literature and language arts teachers working with middle grade students — two important opportunities. Its videos, Web site, and guide introduce the theory and practice of building active literary communities in your classroom. Together, these resources explain how effective readers engage in literature and how you can support your students as they become effective readers actively engaged in short stories, novels, poems, and drama. This Workshop also gives you a chance to think about what you are currently doing in your classroom, and examine principals and practices other teachers like yourself have adopted to see if they can enhance your work with students."

Teaching Multicultural Literature: A Workshop for the Middle Grades
Teaching Multicultural Literature: A Workshop for the Middle Grades introduces teachers to ethnically diverse American writers and offers dynamic instructional strategies and resources to make works meaningful for students. This workshop includes eight one-hour videos in which teachers model effective approaches — based on reader response, critical inquiry, cultural studies, and critical pedagogy — for using multicultural works in the classroom. In units that unfold over time, they also demonstrate activities and practices that engage students in critical discussions of race, class, and social justice, and empower them to take action for change. The featured teachers, along with leading educators, provide reflection and commentary throughout the programs. Authors share information on their works and about their lives through interviews and classroom visits. A robust Web site extends the video content with author biographies, synopses of the works, information on how to implement the teaching strategies, summaries of the video lessons, student work samples, resource materials, and annotated bibliographies. A downloadable guide includes short works of literature featured in the workshop, along with discussion questions, activities, and weekly assignments, to engage teachers in professional development and learning experiences similar to those they might provide in their own classrooms.

Write in the Middle: A Workshop for Middle School Teachers
"In this eight-part workshop, classroom video and insightful discussion illustrate effective ways teachers can help their students become confident and proficient writers. Middle school teachers from across the country share specific strategies they use with their students, and extensive video from each of their classrooms gives viewers an opportunity to see those strategies in action. The workshop explores several common themes that underlie effective writing instruction at the middle school level—providing engaging prompts, allowing student choice, modeling good writing, and using innovative approaches like multigenre writing. Some workshop videos feature aspects of the writing process, such as revision and pre-writing, while others illustrate successful strategies for teaching specific writing forms such as poetry or persuasive essays."

Insights Into Algebra 1: Teaching for Learning
"Insights Into Algebra 1: Teaching for Learning is an eight-part video, print, and Web-based professional development workshop for in-service teachers. Participants will explore strategies to improve the way they teach 16 topics found in most Algebra 1 programs. In each session, participants will view two half-hour videos and engage in activities designed to help them examine their teaching practice, implement what they are learning, share their experiences with other teachers, and reflect on their ongoing development. The Web site includes a wealth of resources that complement and extend the videos, including step-by-step guides to the lessons and teaching strategies presented in the videos. The workshop print guide provides everything you need to know to conduct this workshop, including discussion questions and activities for workshop participants. Use these components for professional development in two-hour weekly group sessions, or on your own."

Making Civics Real: A Workshop for Teachers
Making Civics Real is a video workshop for high school civics teachers. It includes eight one-hour video programs, a print guide to the workshop activities, and an accompanying Web site.Each of the eight programs presents authentic teachers in diverse school settings modeling constructivist teaching strategies.The goal of this workshop is to give teachers new resources and ideas to reinvigorate civic education.

Primary Sources: Workshops in American History
In this workshop, 12 high school history teachers explore the use of primary-source documents in the research and interpretation of American history. The programs feature informal lectures by prominent historians on pivotal events from the settlement of Jamestown to the Korean conflict and the Cold War. The teachers are led in discussions, debates, interviews, and role-playing as they investigate the original documents that “transmit the voices of America’s past.” Teachers will find that the activities in this workshop can be adapted and used in their own classrooms. The topics relate to programs from Annenberg/CPB’s instructional series, A Biography of America, which can be viewed in coordination with this workshop.

Teaching Foreign Languages K-12
The Teaching Foreign Languages workshop will help K–12 foreign language teachers improve their practice by making connections between the National Standards for Foreign Language Learning and current research in foreign language education. Workshop components include eight lively half-hour video programs with leading researchers and practicing teachers discussing how the standards play out in day-to-day classroom situations, a workshop guide available online and in print, and interactive activities on the Web. Become a student yourself as you watch the videos, complete a range of activities designed to stimulate your teaching, and prepare to conduct action research in your own classroom. You will come away with a deeper understanding of the national foreign language standards, and with ideas for implementing effective assessment strategies and working with learners across a range of language and skill levels.