A Local Assessment Toolkit to Promote Deeper Learning


Book Description

For years, educators have turned to the Hess Cognitive Rigor Matrices (CRM) when it comes to assessment. Now for the first time, the modules are packaged into one resource to help teachers evaluate the quality and premise of their current assessment system.




All the Things They Never Told You About Teaching


Book Description

Many teachers do not feel confident in their role, particularly as they are increasingly expected to address topics with their pupils that they feel ill-equipped to deal with. Co-authored by two highly experienced educators, All The Things They Never Told You About Teaching is an essential guide, supporting teachers in navigating those tricky, taboo subjects that sit outside of the national curriculum and may not have been fully explored during their teacher training. Each chapter unpacks and addresses a range of ‘myths’ and ‘truths’ behind these subjects in an accessible manner, helping teachers to develop their understanding and facilitate compassionate conversations about these topics. This includes, but is not limited to: Mental health Bullying Neurodiversity Gender diversity Sex and relationships Climate crisis A must read for anyone working in education, this book guides educators through sensitively addressing difficult topics within the classroom, creating a more compassionate and supportive learning environment for all.




The Primary Teacher's Guide To The New National Curriculum


Book Description

This guide gives an overview of the curriculum arrangements which took effect in August 1995. The book outlines the main changes to the original National Curriculum and gives examples of ways to teach the new curriculum, together with enquiry tasks to take the teacher forward. It also covers each of the subjects of the revised National Curriculum, locating them within a context of whole curriculum planning. Looking at issues of differentiation, the book explores those additional elements of the curriculum, such as cross curricular themes and drama, that primary schools will wish to cover.




Developing Reflective Practice: a Guide for Beginning Teachers


Book Description

This student friendly practical guide helps you get to grips with reflective practice in teaching, through bite-sized sections that are informative and quickly digestible. The book clearly explains some of the best-known theories on reflective practice and then shows how reflection on and in practice can have a positive impact on classroom performance. The very real problems faced by beginning teachers are brought to life through the use of rich case studies as well as extracts drawn from the reflective journals of those starting their teaching career. The illustrative case studies consider how reflective practice can inform your teaching practice, including: Preparing for teaching Fitting into your school Designing lessons Managing behaviour Planning for creativity Assessing effectively Developing essential teaching techniques Working effectively with your mentor Extending your professional practice at Master’s level An additional feature of the book is the inclusion of a number of new suggestions for developing reflective practice based on the authors’ experience of training new teachers and supporting beginning teachers. Through reflective tasks based on the real problems that beginning teachers face you can actively develop your understanding and confidence in this area. This book is essential reading for trainees and newly qualified teachers as well as those supporting new entrants to the profession.




Teaching Digital Natives


Book Description

Students today are growing up in a digital world. These "digital natives" learn in new and different ways, so educators need new approaches to make learning both real and relevant for today's students. Marc Prensky, who first coined the terms "digital natives" and "digital immigrants," presents an intuitive yet highly innovative and field-tested partnership model that promotes 21st-century student learning through technology. Partnership pedagogy is a framework in which: - Digitally literate students specialize in content finding, analysis, and presentation via multiple media - Teachers specialize in guiding student learning, providing questions and context, designing instruction, and assessing quality - Administrators support, organize, and facilitate the process schoolwide - Technology becomes a tool that students use for learning essential skills and "getting things done" With numerous strategies, how-to's, partnering tips, and examples, Teaching Digital Natives is a visionary yet practical book for preparing students to live and work in today's globalized and digitalized world.




Tweak to Transform


Book Description

Improving teaching is the key to genuine and sustainable school improvement. Improvement involves persuading teachers to change and develop their practice but, as anyone who has ever tried will testify, this is far from easy. The focus of Tweak to Transform is what head teachers and school leaders can do to manage the change process and improve the quality of teaching in a school. Essentially, Tweak to Transform is a practical handbook that seeks to address three questions. What do we know about change? What do we know about learning? What do we know about leading and managing the improvement process? While there is no single successful recipe for improving teaching in a school, this book attempts to establish some key principles. The result is a collection of thoughts, activities strategies and models that have been developed and successfully implemented in a wide range of schools.




Handbook of Research on Teaching


Book Description

The Fifth Edition of the Handbook of Research on Teachingis an essential resource for students and scholars dedicated to the study of teaching and learning. This volume offers a vast array of topics ranging from the history of teaching to technological and literacy issues. In each authoritative chapter, the authors summarize the state of the field while providing conceptual overviews of critical topics related to research on teaching. Each of the volume's 23 chapters is a canonical piece that will serve as a reference tool for the field. The Handbook provides readers with an unaparalleled view of the current state of research on teaching across its multiple facets and related fields.







Understanding by Design


Book Description

What is understanding and how does it differ from knowledge? How can we determine the big ideas worth understanding? Why is understanding an important teaching goal, and how do we know when students have attained it? How can we create a rigorous and engaging curriculum that focuses on understanding and leads to improved student performance in today's high-stakes, standards-based environment? Authors Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe answer these and many other questions in this second edition of Understanding by Design. Drawing on feedback from thousands of educators around the world who have used the UbD framework since its introduction in 1998, the authors have greatly revised and expanded their original work to guide educators across the K-16 spectrum in the design of curriculum, assessment, and instruction. With an improved UbD Template at its core, the book explains the rationale of backward design and explores in greater depth the meaning of such key ideas as essential questions and transfer tasks. Readers will learn why the familiar coverage- and activity-based approaches to curriculum design fall short, and how a focus on the six facets of understanding can enrich student learning. With an expanded array of practical strategies, tools, and examples from all subject areas, the book demonstrates how the research-based principles of Understanding by Design apply to district frameworks as well as to individual units of curriculum. Combining provocative ideas, thoughtful analysis, and tested approaches, this new edition of Understanding by Design offers teacher-designers a clear path to the creation of curriculum that ensures better learning and a more stimulating experience for students and teachers alike.




A Parents' Guide to Grading and Reporting


Book Description

Whether resulting from the educational fallout of the COVID-19 global pandemic or merely challenging the status quo, more schools are transitioning their grading practices away from traditional points and percentages and toward 21st century grading practices such as standards-based and proficiency-based grading. A Parents’ Guide to Grading and Reporting: Being Clear about What Matters assists parents and guardians in understanding what is involved in 21st century grading and how to become better partners with educators in efforts to understand students’ strengths and areas for improvement.