Making Middle School - by Steve Fulton & Cynthia D Urbanksi (Paperback)

About the Book

"Explores the intersections between critical literacy and science through make-based activities in the middle school classroom, allowing students to work in community to challenge themselves, be creative, and wonder about their world"--

Book Synopsis

Making Middle School is the story of eighth-grade English teacher Steve Fulton and science teacher Tiffany Green's explorations of the intersections between critical literacy and science through maker spaces alongside their students.

Steve and Tiffany, with thinking partner Cindy Urbanski, use the idea of make to center student learning in their classrooms as well as to democratize learning, back-loading English and science standards while front-loading the current focus on STEAM.

Making--following one's own desire to create--is based on principles of connected learning, where students work in community to challenge themselves, to be creative, and to wonder about their world. Making represents a pathway directed by the learner and allowed to unfold organically, without a scripted route or destination. By looking up close at the real work of teachers and students, Fulton and Urbanski illustrate the rich and real applications of a make-based approach in today's middle school classrooms.

Review Quotes

"As an educator committed to culturally and linguistically responsive pedagogy and conscious of a diverse society's expectations and needs, I believe in fostering critical literacy and science with maker spaces as a unique and innovative approach. Diverse communities will benefit in terms of their critical literacy and STEAM work. In particular, maker spaces can help culturally diverse students who need a space to share their stories and teachers who want to provide spaces for these funds of knowledge that are not part of the standard curriculum." - Fatima Seyma Kizil (Sheyma), Syracuse University