Enrichment Clusters: A Practical Plan for Real-World, Student-Driven Learning

In today's atmosphere of high pressure to "get the scores up," teachers and students find themselves faced with more structured, scripted lessons that allow for little creativity and exploration. Both groups, however, deserve a balanced educational environment that includes exciting opportunities to delve into areas of strong interest. Student-driven enrichment clusters challenge the entire school--students, teachers, staff, parents, and community volunteers--to investigate and engage in topics as professionals, applying advanced content and authentic methods to develop products and services for real-world audiences. Step-by-step guidelines show administrators how to set up an Enrichment Cluster Program within the regular school week, train staff and community volunteers, create successful clusters, assess student products, evaluate the program, and more. Easy-to-use staff development activities and dozens of reproducibles will help schools get the program up and running with minimal time and funding. Grades K-9