Mosaic of Thought


Book Description

Straightforward and jargon-free, Mosaic of Thought is relevant to all literature-based classrooms, regardless of level. It offers practical tools for inservice teachers, as well as essential methods instruction for preservice teachers at both the undergraduate and graduate level.




Essentials of Assessing, Preventing, and Overcoming Reading Difficulties


Book Description

Practical, effective, evidence-based reading interventions that change students' lives Essentials of Understanding and Assessing Reading Difficulties is a practical, accessible, in-depth guide to reading assessment and intervention. It provides a detailed discussion of the nature and causes of reading difficulties, which will help develop the knowledge and confidence needed to accurately assess why a student is struggling. Readers will learn a framework for organizing testing results from current assessment batteries such as the WJ-IV, KTEA-3, and CTOPP-2. Case studies illustrate each of the concepts covered. A thorough discussion is provided on the assessment of phonics skills, phonological awareness, word recognition, reading fluency, and reading comprehension. Formatted for easy reading as well as quick reference, the text includes bullet points, icons, callout boxes, and other design elements to call attention to important information. Although a substantial amount of research has shown that most reading difficulties can be prevented or corrected, standard reading remediation efforts have proven largely ineffective. School psychologists are routinely called upon to evaluate students with reading difficulties and to make recommendations to address such difficulties. This book provides an overview of the best assessment and intervention techniques, backed by the most current research findings. Bridge the gap between research and practice Accurately assess the reason(s) why a student struggles in reading Improve reading skills using the most highly effective evidence-based techniques Reading may well be the most important thing students are taught during their school careers. It is a skill they will use every day of their lives; one that will dictate, in part, later life success. Struggling students need help now, and Essentials of Understanding and Assessing Reading Difficulties shows how to get these students on track.




School’s Choice


Book Description

Access issues are pivotal to almost all charter school tensions and debates. How well are these schools performing? Are they segregating and stratifying? Are they public and democratic? Are they fairly funded? Can apparent successes be scaled up? Answers to all these core questions hinge on how access to charter schools is shaped. This book describes the incentives and pressures on charter schools to restrict access and examines how charters navigate those pressures, explaining access-restricting practices in relation to the ecosystem within which charter schools are created. It also explains how charters have sometimes responded by resisting the pressures and sometimes by surrendering to them. The text presents analyses of 13 different types of practices around access, each of which shapes the school’s enrollment. The authors conclude by offering recommendations for how states and authorizers can address access-related inequities that arise in the charter sector. School’s Choice provides timely information on critical academic and policy issues that will come into play as charter school policy continues to evolve. Book Features: Examines how charter schools control who gains and retains access.Explores policies and practices that undermine equitable admission and encourage opportunity hoarding.Offers a set of policy recommendations at the state and federal level to address access-related issues.




Public Education in Colorado


Book Description




Teaching Machines


Book Description

How ed tech was born: Twentieth-century teaching machines--from Sidney Pressey's mechanized test-giver to B. F. Skinner's behaviorist bell-ringing box. Contrary to popular belief, ed tech did not begin with videos on the internet. The idea of technology that would allow students to "go at their own pace" did not originate in Silicon Valley. In Teaching Machines, education writer Audrey Watters offers a lively history of predigital educational technology, from Sidney Pressey's mechanized positive-reinforcement provider to B. F. Skinner's behaviorist bell-ringing box. Watters shows that these machines and the pedagogy that accompanied them sprang from ideas--bite-sized content, individualized instruction--that had legs and were later picked up by textbook publishers and early advocates for computerized learning. Watters pays particular attention to the role of the media--newspapers, magazines, television, and film--in shaping people's perceptions of teaching machines as well as the psychological theories underpinning them. She considers these machines in the context of education reform, the political reverberations of Sputnik, and the rise of the testing and textbook industries. She chronicles Skinner's attempts to bring his teaching machines to market, culminating in the famous behaviorist's efforts to launch Didak 101, the "pre-verbal" machine that taught spelling. (Alternate names proposed by Skinner include "Autodidak," "Instructomat," and "Autostructor.") Telling these somewhat cautionary tales, Watters challenges what she calls "the teleology of ed tech"--the idea that not only is computerized education inevitable, but technological progress is the sole driver of events.




Phenomenal Teaching


Book Description

"Teaching for agency and understanding works for everyone. So, start where you are, use what you have, teach whoever comes through your door." - Wendy Ward Hoffer Phenomenal Teaching is a professional development workshop in a book. The text charts a pathway for teachers to cultivate agency and foster understanding for every learner. It provides research, classroom examples, planning tools, and opportunities to use your background knowledge and talk back to the text. This book is interactive and intentionally designed with lots of open space to be your personal thought playground as you navigate this journey. Graphic organizers invite you to think and plan, and each chapter closes with an invitation for reflection. Chapter one explores the critical foundation for effective teaching - our purpose and beliefs as teachers. Chapters two through seven offer six instructional approaches that, when used together, can make all the difference for student learning: planning, community, workshop, thinking strategies, discourse, and assessment. Wendy asks questions and expects a response. "Write in this book." She says, "I truly invite you to write all over it - annotate, underline, ask, respond. You will learn more, have a record of your thinking, and it will be more fun."




High-Impact Instruction


Book Description

Small changes can lead to big results! Best-selling author Jim Knight presents the high-leverage strategies that make the biggest difference in student learning. Featuring checklists, numerous observation tools, and online videos of teachers implementing the practices, this revolutionary book focuses on the three areas of high-impact instruction: Content planning, including using guiding questions, learning maps, and formative assessment Instructional practices such as the use of thinking prompts, effective questions, challenging assignments, and experiential learning Community building, in which you shape a classroom culture that promotes well-being, creativity, learning, and high expectations




Rural School Buildings


Book Description




Learning Outside The Lines


Book Description

Learning with YOUR purpose in mind -- not your parents', not your teacher's, not your school's Every day, your school, your teachers, and even your peers draw lines to measure and standardize intelligence. They decide what criteria make one person smart and another person stupid. They decide who will succeed and who will just get by. Perhaps you find yourself outside the norm, because you learn differently -- but, unlike your classmates, you have no system in place that consistently supports your ability and desire to learn. Simply put, you are considered lazy and stupid. You are expected to fail. Learning Outside the Lines is written by two such "academic failures" -- that is, two academic failures who graduated from Brown University at the top of their class. Jonathan Mooney and David Cole teach you how to take control of your education and find true success -- and they offer all the reasons why you should persevere. Witty, bold, and disarmingly honest, Learning Outside the Lines takes you on a journey toward personal empowerment and profound educational change, proving once again that rules sometimes need to be broken.




How to Design an Advisory System for a Secondary School


Book Description

When Mark Goldberg first visited a school with an advisory system, he was impressed by the way such a system personalizes school for secondary students, provides a shared professional experience for the adults in a school, and improves home-school relations. He decided that if given the opportunity, he would bring an advisory program to a secondary school. Later, when he became founding administrator of a high school, he started an advisory system. This book is based on his experiences. Goldberg explains why an advisory system is important, what it requires, and how to tailor the concept to a particular school to provide an enriched experience for students, staff, and parents. An advisory system stresses the advisor-advisee relationship and ensures that every student is known well by at least one adult in a school. That adult--a teacher, administrator, librarian, or other staff member--becomes the student's advocate and the first person the student seeks out to discuss school problems with or to get advice about where to turn for assistance with more serious issues. Such a relationship enhances the student's school life, from course selection to decisions about the future. This practical book provides a comprehensive look at a unique system for personalizing secondary school so students get the most out of their years in school and are better prepared for life after graduation.