While assessments may not be the most exciting aspect of education, when implemented intentionally, they hold significant value for the learning success of each student. According to educators, the goal of educational assessments is, “ongoing, visible, lifelong learning, and assessments can serve as valuable tools before, during, and after lessons to support and validate student progress”.

Gardening, one of the world’s oldest hobbies, is universally associated with nutrition, physical health, and community beautification. Today, June 6, as we celebrate National Gardening Exercise Day, it’s the perfect time to reflect on the benefits that gardens offer students. Beyond physical exercise and fresh produce, gardens provide a unique opportunity for students to connect with nature and enhance their overall wellness.

The Kendall Hunt Religious Publishing Division (RPD) takes pride in our extensive experience crafting customized curricula materials tailored to meet the unique needs of various educational settings. When standard curricula fall short, custom publishing becomes the solution, and we possess the resources and expertise to create detailed and specific curricula that align with your educational mission.

A standards-based classroom emphasizes student understanding, ongoing assessment, and alignment with clear learning objectives.

By incorporating these principles, educators create an environment that supports student growth and achievement. Most importantly, it supports the fact that all students deserve to learn and advance their knowledge.

It is essential that students be given ample experiences that will equip them with the necessary skills needed to solve real life problems, gather and evaluate evidence, and make sense of information.

Encouraging interest in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) has produced positive results for students, especially young girls. Some of the benefits are:

Do you know what essential questions are and how they can benefit your students and classroom?

Here’s a question for you: Do you use essential questions in your classroom?

Here’s an essential question for you: Why should you use essential questions in your classroom?

Project-based learning (PBL) is an effective way of teaching that lets students become the directors of their own learning and the teacher becomes the guide on the journey to discovering the solutions to an essential question within a proposed project. PBL is the act of learning through identifying a real-world problem and developing a corresponding solution. Students show what they learn as they move through a new and engaging project.

Before we close the books and say goodbye to 2023, we wanted to reflect on the things that brought great success and many blessings throughout this year.

With a fresh year before us, the Kendall Hunt PreK–12 Religious Publishing Department (RPD) is taking a moment to look back at the one we’re leaving behind!

It should go without saying that the most effective teaching isn’t about following a list of the most popular evidence-based tools and strategies but having qualities that address the fundamental human need of a diverse classroom community to support a more well-rounded learning experience. These teachers possess traits like empathy, kindness, and deep respect for the lives of each individual student.

This time of year, we make plans for the late fall and winter seasons and there is no better time to inspire and introduce your students to the positive benefits of journaling. Overall, journaling can be a valuable tool for personal development and academic success in school-age children.

“Build it and YOU Have Come!” became the mantra for the 2023 Educators’ Convention in Phoenix AZ on August 6-10th where over 6,000 educators merged to discover Something Better on their Journey to Excellence in Education. The setting was perfect and the positive buzz throughout the convention center was so contagious, that one didn’t even notice the 104 degrees plus temperatures outside…it was dry heat!

Kendall Hunt is a proud platinum sponsor of the 2023 Educators’ Convention. We cannot wait to talk face-to-face with teachers and educators to learn more about their experiences using their customized faith-based programs and what we could do or help to provide in order to make their 2023-2024 school year the best it can be!

Makers create, tinker with old technology, and invent new things. It's do-it-yourself at its best. Maker teachers inspire their students to dream up their own inventions, experiment, fail and experiment again until they've made something personally meaningful. Maker education is a combination of hands-on learning and project-based learning.  —USC Rossier’s Guide to Maker Education

As the summer season approaches, we gather with family and friends to enjoy more of the things we love, it’s important to teach the young learners in our lives the importance of counting our blessings.

Customized curriculum, such as Pathways2.0 and ByDesign Science, emphasizes collaborative learning because of its proven positive impacts on the student experience. There are many benefits of collaborative learning, but students don’t always see it that way. So many students have expressed their distaste for group projects that there’s now an official term for the phenomenon: “group-hate,” or the negative feelings that people have toward working in groups.

What is Kendall Hunt’s Pathways2.0 curriculum?

Pathways2.0 is a comprehensive, easy-to-use elementary reading program with integrated language arts for grades 1-8. It addresses ten key principles: Reading instruction, spiritual growth, reading motivation, writing and expression, selective topics, reading comprehension, phonics skills, assessments, classroom management, and today’s focus spelling instruction.

When reviewing a new curriculum, it is important that there is a well-structured lesson plan to map out daily and weekly lessons year-round, also known as a pacing guide. By clearly identifying a lesson structure and preparing a well-organized curriculum you will have the upper hand in the management of your classroom.

Let’s talk pacing...

Working outside of a traditional classroom can be challenging. Here are four things to keep in mind as a multigrade educator.

Flexibility is a non-negotiable commodity.

For those of us who spent our formative years in traditional, single-grade K–12 classrooms, the idea of a multigrade classroom may seem like a foreign concept.

Multiple grades? In the same room? How well does that work?

Standards-based education is centered around the idea that there are specific elements of knowledge and skill that all students should know and be able to apply as a result of their own learning experience.

Did you know that the ByDesign Science program (grades 1-8), includes activities for student choice? Students can solve open inquiries and thought-provoking problems using their own ideas and ingenuity.  Inquiry labs often take place in groups where student drive their own learning with student-led activities.

We love this time of year! The weather is starting to change and there is no better time than now to introduce Project-Based Learning (PBL) into your classroom. PBL is the act of learning through identifying a real-world problem and developing a corresponding solution. Students show what they learn as they move through a new and engaging project from year to year.

For me, “summer reading” truly represented the best of times!

A smooth transition between elementary, middle, high school, and higher education happens with STEM curriculums.

It is essential that students be given ample experiences that will equip them with the skills needed to solve real life problems, gather and evaluate evidence, and make sense of information.

Early education is the backbone for inclusivity of women in STEM. Not only are girls able to pursue their love for scientific inquiry, but they are exposed to active exploration, observation, interaction, and discovery – which all are imperative to their development.

In the shadows of an ongoing pandemic, we continue to navigate our way to success. In doing so, we have nurtured relationships and developed strategies to become better communicators and people of faith.

When you consider what a kindergarten classroom would look and feel like when you first walk through the doors, do you envision a large, colorful room divided carefully into learning centers? Is it filled with bright, primary colors and a variety of shapes, manipulates, and materials for your child to explore, play, and share?

A well-structured lesson plan is essential to the success for any classroom. This takes preparation, planning, and are key elements in ensuring the lesson is systematic and effective. Learning activities guide and engage students towards achieving agreed learning outcomes. So what if the programs you are using already had a well-structured lesson plan embedded for you throughout each unit, chapter, and lesson?

When Larry Blackmer became vice president of the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) North American Division (NAD) Office of Education, he immediately realized the importance of a Christian-based science curriculum.

Have you ever wondered how you can use all the core resources in one useful curriculum? A curriculum that aligns with your core beliefs and standards?

The Quest for Teachable Moments

“When students begin to question the phenomena that they have observed, much of the task of teaching is complete and the learning begins,” Jarrell Gilkeson, former Associate Director of Education for the Atlantic Union, said. “The ByDesign elementary science textbook series stages the questioning, exploring, and explaining inquiry process to maximize the teachable moments in each student’s science education.”

The possibilities for the use of faith-based reading in the classroom are nearly limitless!

“Every teacher’s goal is to provide the best learning environment for their students. For the early childhood classroom, learning centers is the best developmentally appropriate practice” (McLennan, 2011). 

Are you looking for a Christian-Based high school biology program?

The Kendall Hunt PreK–12 Religious Publishing in collaboration with the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) North American Division (NAD) Office of Education developed a new Christian-based high school biology curriculum, ByDesign Biology!

Educators have faced unprecedented challenges in the past few years. When COVID-19 caused the world to come to a screeching halt, many schools and teachers had to learn new technologies and implement new strategies, all while driving learning.  Throughout all of this, if we have learned anything, it is the value in collaboration.

What is your individual learning style? Can you identify the preferred learning style of each of your students?

If you give it some thought, it is more likely than not that every possible learning style is represented in your classroom. That can make it difficult to provide a successful learning environment for all your students, but there is one method that will have all the present learning styles covered.

Ensuring that your students are getting the maximum benefits from Writing Workshops is imperative for overall academic growth.

Do your students look forward to reading with their friends in class? How can you foster the enjoyment of reading and provide the necessary confidence a student needs?

STEM , is an acronym that stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, continues to be a major focus for education in the United States. Classrooms across the nation are moving away from having teaching and learning happen in silos, but instead happens through the integration of inquiry across disciplines.

Welcome to Pathways2.0: A Journey to Excellence through Literacy! This program provides instruction in “cherishing the meaning of knowledge” through reading, writing, listening, and speaking.

As the weather starts to gets colder and students spend more time cooped up indoors after school each day, there is no better time to stress the importance of reading independently at home. Encourage your students to spend some (or most) of that time reading. For some students, this will seem much more appealing than it will for others. However, you can motivate all students and help them enjoy reading outside the classroom with these strategies:

This past summer, we posted a blog sharing five reasons we love Pathways2.0, our faith-based, customized reading and language arts curriculum for grades 1–8. But we didn’t ask you to take our word for it . . . we shared testimonies from parents and teachers across the country who love it, too!

The Pathways2.0 curriculum emphasizes independent student learning.

“The more you read, the more things that you’ll know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” —Dr. Seuss

At some point in their lives, most students want to become a teacher because it is one of the first career choices they are exposed to. Some students even view teaching as an easy job. Have you ever considered letting your students test out teaching as a career choice? This could be done at any grade level, with younger students likely needing a bit more guidance than your middle or high school students.

Did you know that every third bite of food we eat is a result of pollinators?

It’s true! Bees, butterflies, birds, and other pollinators help grow our food, keep our flowers blooming, and make our lands healthy. For many reasons, including lack of habitat, pollinators are struggling to survive.

“Working with Kendall Hunt Publishing to Customize Our Curriculum Has Exceeded Our Expectations!"

Many educators often experience frustration when trying to find the perfect resources for their needs.  When currently published curriculum offerings just don’t measure up to the standards that you have set for your classroom, custom publishing is a fantastic solution to get exactly what you need.

Though these quotes may seem cliché, the sentiment underlying them couldn’t be more accurate— when we work together and pool our collective resources, we stand a much greater chance of reaching our goals and retaining what we learn along the way.

Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, our already-digital world became even more so over the last year. Amid all the Zoom classes and virtual learning, students likely typed more of their assignments than they wrote by hand—and that may be a cognitive loss.

Last summer, we posted a blog sharing five reasons we love Pathways2.0, our faith-based, customized reading and language arts curriculum for grades 1–8. But we didn’t ask you to take our word for it . . . we shared testimonies from parents and teachers across the country who love it, too!

Today, we’re doing the same for our faith-based elementary science curriculum, ByDesign Science. Once again, we’re using the thoughts of those who know best: educators nationwide.

When you purchases a new electronic gadget these days, the instruction manual seems to fall into one of two categories: either it’s a book-length, meticulously detailed packet with dense language that sails over your head, or it’s one page of diagrams with little other information on assembly and operation. Either way, you, as the user, are left confused and frustrated, unsure how to even turn on your purchase, let alone use it to its fullest potential.

Welcome back to our two-blog series featuring the thoughts of Brianna Johnson, one of the first educators across the country to implement our brand-new ByDesign Biology program!

In the fall of 2020, Kendall Hunt (KH) Religious Publishing launched our latest curriculum, a brand-new high school biology program called ByDesign Biology. Already being used in more than 20 classrooms across the country, this faith-based curriculum offers high-quality, research-backed scientific information written and developed by the KH team and contributing writers.

As the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered schools in March of 2020, the focus of many parents, teachers, and administrators was on how students would make up the academic content they were going to miss. How would we ensure that students hit the educational milestones necessary to keep them on track?

Accurately and ethically measuring student knowledge was already a challenge before the COVID-19 pandemic turned the educational world upside down. From concerns about the inherent biases of standardized tests to the question of how to differentiate assessments for students’ learning styles, the issue of testing is complex … and trying to do it through a computer screen in a remote or hybrid learning environment makes it infinitely more complicated.

Several months into remote or hybrid learning, you might be looking for ways to shake things up a bit, especially those of you who teach the youngest (and most wiggly) students. Even if you’ve heard them before, a little reminder could spark a new idea, so here are four tips for teaching kindergarten in a hybrid/remote setting, plus notes on how our Kindergarten Stepping Stones program can help!

Take advantage of location

Stephanie Heath Nash is a classroom teacher with more than 20 years of experience teaching everything from kindergarten through eighth grade, with the majority of her time spent in grades K–2. In addition to her classroom experience, Stephanie also played a key role in the writing and development of the Kendall Hunt Religious Publishing Division’s revised Pathways2.0 curriculum for grades 1 and 2.

To say it has been “quite the year” would be an understatement.

From the COVID-19 pandemic to the movements for racial justice and the turmoil of the election, the country has dealt with issues of an unprecedented magnitude during the last year. The field of education has had its own challenges, most notably a sudden pivot to remote and virtual learning.

Teamwork makes the dream work.

Divide and conquer.

Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.

Though these quotes may seem cliché, the sentiment underlying them couldn’t be more accurate— when we work together and pool our collective resources, we stand a much greater chance of reaching our goals and retaining what we learn along the way.

As students and teachers return to classrooms this fall, many are doing so in a hybrid environment, blending digital and in-person education to keep students and staff members safe in the world of COVID-19.

When you purchase a new electronic gadget these days, the instruction manual seems to fall into one of two categories: either it’s a book-length, meticulously detailed packet with dense language that sails over your head, or it’s one page of diagrams with little other information on assembly and operation. Either way, you, as the user, are left confused and frustrated, unsure how to even turn on your purchase, let alone use it to its fullest potential.

“It is entirely possible to study science in a sound way with critical thinking skills, looking at the facts and the way things work, without dismissing faith out of hand. Faith and science are not at odds when you objectively examine the evidence.”

—Sara, Heart and Soul Homeschooling blog

As we continue into the month of August, in any other year, teachers would be knee-deep in curricular planning and classroom décor, excitedly preparing name tags and lesson plans for the start of another great school year.

But as we are all more than aware, this isn’t “any other year.”

Every year, Merriam-Webster Dictionary selects a “word of the year,” based on searches of its online dictionary as well as the general political and cultural climate of that year. Recent selections have included they as a singular nonbinary pronoun in 2019, justice in 2018, and feminism in 2017.

After a stressful spring and summer, students and teachers alike are in search of something to smile about as they return to school this fall. And from an educator’s perspective, what’s more smile-inducing than a curriculum that a student actually wants to learn?

Here are four factors that make students want to learn … and the ways in which the Kendall Hunt RPD’s customized curriculum ByDesign Science delivers in each category!

It’s no secret that we here at the Kendall Hunt Religious Publishing Department (RPD) love Pathways2.0, our customized, faith-based reading and language arts program for grades 1–8. And we’re not the only ones!

Educators nationwide love our new curriculum as much as we do. We’ve compiled five key reasons why our users love Pathways2.0, and we bet you and your students will love it just as much as they did!

One of the most popular aspects of the Kendall Hunt Religious Publishing Division (RPD)’s ByDesign Science curriculum for grades 1–8 is the fact that it spans so many grades, providing schools and families with consistency as the student progresses through the curriculum.

The end of the 2020 school year was a bumpy road as COVID-19 forced us to transition abruptly to at-home education. No one, from students to teachers to parents, emerged from the changes unscathed.

Except, that is, for those students and parents who were at home already.

The Kendall Hunt Religious Publishing Division (RPD) is proud of our years of experience in crafting customized curricular materials tailored for your specific educational situation. Custom publishing is the answer when standard curricula just don’t fit the needs and mission of your traditional or nontraditional classroom, and we have the resources and expertise to create a curriculum as specific and detailed as your educational setting demands.

Educators nationwide have had their lives turned upside down by COVID-19. Classrooms have emptied, schools have shuttered, and lessons have moved online. We here at the Kendall Hunt Religious Publishing Division (RPD) salute you for the amazing work you have done and are doing to keep your students learning under such challenging circumstances.

During the shift to online education, it’s easy to assume that reading and language arts teachers have it easier than some of their colleagues because it’s easy to teach reading at home, right? After all, many schools already do read-at-home programs, and students can just pick up a book and read. Problem solved!

Well … maybe not exactly.

Eighteen years ago, when Larry Blackmer became vice president of the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) North American Division (NAD) Office of Education, he immediately realized the importance of a Christian-based science curriculum.

“I could not in good conscience put an evolutionary, anti-Christian textbook on an Adventist kitchen table when the students took their books home,” Blackmer said.

I was once enrolled in a course called Professional Writing, where we discussed not only workplace communication but also basic principles of graphic design. My professor’s catchphrase that semester was “naming gives you power.” If we were able to articulate why we made the design choices we made—and articulate them using authentic design terminology—our work would be stronger.

In the school library, students may wander the shelves aimlessly, pulling books at random, only to return them unread or unfinished because the difficulty, the subject matter, or the writing style simply wasn’t a good match. Not every book is for everyone, but it’s hard to know what you’ll like at first glance … especially if you don’t want to judge the book by its cover (which you shouldn’t, of course).

Have you heard of the Reggio Emilia approach to education?

Do you group students by ability level, placing the high achievers with their dedicated peers? Or do you strategically split up those high achievers, hoping their motivation will inspire the less enthusiastic learners?

The first option is homogeneous grouping, also known somewhat infamously as ability grouping. Lately, it’s caught a lot of flak from educators who say that it can reinforce negative student self-conceptions and doesn’t always improve the quality of education.

My first taste of literature circles came in sixth grade, when our teacher put a list of five books on the board. The book we chose, she said, would form the group with whom we would share and discuss that text for the next few weeks.

Kendall Hunt PreK–12 Religious Publishing is excited to have collaborated with the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) North American Division (NAD) Office of Education on a brand-new Christian-based high school biology curriculum, ByDesign Biology! The new program is being rolled out and implemented in classrooms for the fall of 2020.  Here are just a few of the exciting features of our innovative, customized curriculum, with input from our program writers and contributors at the NAD!

The tremendous power of a river is diminished when it is fragmented into little streams. However, when the streams are channeled together, it then can develop a deep flow. So it is with learning.

—Author and educator Ben Johnson

 “Tell me about your picture.”

 “What does your story say?”

“Busywork”: every student’s nightmare. The word conjures flashbacks of endless fill-in-the-blank packets, “educational” videos with surface-level question sheets, and insultingly easy problem sets.

In the digital era, the written word is being replaced with the typed. But even as physically writing messages becomes less common, the importance of handwriting is still relevant … for multiple reasons.

Whether you’re a homeschool parent or an administrator of a private or religious school, it can be a challenge to find a faith-based curriculum that addresses your students’ academic needs while also nurturing their spiritual growth. We at Kendall Hunt Religious Publishing Division (RPD) offer faith-based curricula, developed in connection with Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) educators, that do exactly that.

Project-based learning (PBL) is a research-backed educational method that puts students in the driver’s seat of their learning. By focusing on student choice, open-ended inquiry, and learning through projects and problem solving, PBL builds creativity and critical thinking skills.

The Pathways 2.0 reading and language arts program is built around award-winning, developmentally appropriate trade books that students love to read. These trade books include classics such as Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan and new bestsellers like Linda Sue Park’s A Long Walk to Water.

“How many pages do you want?”

“How long should our presentation be?”

“How many sources should we have?”

These questions may be common in your classroom, but it’s important to know that when your students ask them, it’s not always out of a desire to shirk extra work. Students aren’t necessarily asking to see how much they have to do, but merely to understand what’s expected of them so that they start off the project or paper on the right foot.

“When you’re in middle school …”

Several times a week, our fifth-grade teacher waxed poetic about the increased rigor that awaited us in sixth grade. We would have to turn in our homework the moment we walked into the classroom, he said, and if the bell rang before we did so, it wouldn’t be accepted. Retakes would not be offered. Homework assignments would be longer and more arduous. We needed to start preparing now, he exhorted us, passing out another review packet.

A slide in the cafeteria?

For one school, it’s all part of the culture of “surprise and delight.”