Begin With a Box

Begin With a Box: Building a Hands-On Resource for Teaching and Learning provides community and classroom educators with a comprehensive step-by-step guide for building a valuable curriculum resource developed by master teacher Carol Cohen called a Teaching Box.

What is a Teaching Box, and why build one?

• A Teaching Box is an interdisciplinary educational resource housed in a cardboard box. However, the Teaching Box is anything but simple. It is the ultimate tool for creative lesson planning that steps way outside the box (pardon the pun!), meeting the gold standard for project-based learning.
• A Teaching Box is a curriculum unit located inside a box complete with a variety of tools for teaching across the curriculum to learners across the multiple intelligences.
• A Teaching Box includes the following components: three-dimensional objects, print/media, primary sources, field trips, and lesson plans.
• A Teaching Box is a 21st century teaching tool. It successfully combines advancements in technology with tools that replicate an in-person experience.
• A Teaching Box encompasses everything needed to make any topic-from biographical studies to the phases of the moon to a specific period in history-come alive in a hands-on and meaningful way.

Begin With a Box goes beyond the worksheet to provide educators with ideas for creative curriculum planning across grades and subject areas. In the book, Cohen focuses on holistic and interdisciplinary hands-on learning including major subject areas like English language arts, social studies, history, math, and the arts. In engaging prose, Cohen explores educational theory as well, providing a pedagogically sound resource for partnering theory and practice. Throughout the chapters, Cohen offers real-life examples and photographs of Teaching Boxes creatively built and delivered by over a thousand students spanning two decades of her career.

About the Author

Carol L. Cohen has spent her life dedicated to teaching and learning. She teaches Social Studies Methods and Literacy in the Graduate School of Education at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Visit her website at http://www.carollcohen.com.