Case-Method Teaching Is Elementary

Jo-Anne Naslund is an education librarian at the University of British
Columbia Library.

Written by two experienced elementary teachers, This guide provides a
step-by-step outline of how to write and use case studies with
elementary students. Case-method teaching can be a powerful
instructional strategy for developing students’ problem-solving and
thinking skills.

The authors begin by identifying problems they encountered when they
first tried case-method teaching. They describe lessons that incorporate
case studies, and they suggest ways to conduct debriefing sessions. The
goal is to be nonjudgmental and yet to encourage students to re-examine,
analyze, and challenge ideas.

Two kinds of case studies are presented: the mini case study (for
students in kindergarten to Grade 7) and the longer case study (for
students in Grades 4 to 7). Mini case studies consist of short
narratives built around children’s experiences. Longer case studies
include short narratives, but are rooted in the curriculum and may or
may not be taken from real-life situations. Eleven mini cases and two
longer cases are in-cluded, along with notes to the teacher, outlines of
the big ideas, reproducible black-and-white narratives, study questions,
and discussion questions for small groups. The mini case studies support
a personal planning curricula and involve such themes as relationships
and individual awareness and responsibility. Some deal specifically with
playing hockey, bicycle ownership, and bullying. The longer cases, which
are taken from science and social studies curricula, deal with
hibernation and fire safety. Although not the best curricular examples,
they are effective in demonstrating case-method teaching.

This practical and well-organized guide is recommended reading for
educators.