Ready-to-Go Instructional Strategies That Build Collaboration, Communication, and Critical Thinking


Book Description

Craft a culture of engaging, student-centered learning! With over 50 years of experience in education, Alisa H. Braddy and Denise White have compiled this essential toolkit for teachers of any subject or grade level to inject life into their instruction. Suitable for teachers, administrators, or instructional coaches, this resource creates engaging lessons that bring agency and critical thinking to students’ learning. Step-by-step procedures for implementing the various strategies are provided in each chapter as well as: Actual scenarios and vignettes of strategies in action A matrix highlighting the benefits of each strategy Reflection questions to challenge readers’ thinking and generate action




Cultural Perspectives on Indigenous Students’ Reading Performance


Book Description

This book explores the contextual, particularly cultural-related, factors that may impact reading outcomes of young Indigenous learners in their early years, underpinned by the conceptual framework of cultural capital originated by Bourdieu. By drawing upon a participatory and exploratory case study, conducted at a regional school in Australia over a period of six months, it highlights the challenges that Indigenous students face in reading, and how the contextual factors contribute to Indigenous students’ development in reading skills and their reading performance. This book helps readers to gain a better and deeper understanding of Indigenous culture, the importance of the role that culture plays in Indigenous children’s literacy education, and how it shapes the way they learn and think.




The On-Your-Feet Guide to Blended Learning


Book Description

Blended learning is more than just "teaching with technology"; it allows teachers to maximize learning through deliberate instructional moves. This On-Your-Feet Guide zeroes in on one blended learning routine: Station Rotation. The Station Rotation model moves small groups of students through a series of online and off-line stations, building conceptual understanding and skills along the way. This On-Your-Feet-Guide provides: 7 steps to planning a Station Rotation lesson A full example of one teacher's Station Rotation A blank planning template for designing your own Station Rotation Helpful assessment strategies for monitoring learning at each station Ideas to adapt for low-tech classrooms or large class sizes Use blended learning to maximize learning and keep kids constantly engaged through your next Station Rotation lesson! Laminated, 8.5”x11” tri-fold (6 pages), 3-hole punched




From Equity Insights to Action


Book Description

Your Greatest Assets are Right Before Your Eyes: Your Multilingual Learners! Equity for multilingual learners (MLLs) means that students’ cultural and linguistic identities, backgrounds, and experiences are recognized as valued, rich sources of knowledge and their academic, linguistic, literacy, and social–emotional growth is ensured to the fullest potential. This ready-to-use guide offers practical, classroom-level strategies for educators seeking thoughtful, research-informed, and accessible information on how to champion equity for MLLs in a post-COVID era. Focused on the deliberate daily actions that all teachers of multilingual learners can take, this resource guide captures a compelling advocacy framework for culturally and linguistically responsive equity work, including Authentic examples of how educators understand and support MLLs through an equity lens Student portraits of multilingual learners’ experiences Accessible answers to essential how-to questions Robust professional learning activities Access to print and online resources for additional information Thoughtful probes throughout the guide help teachers develop student agency and foster pathways in their own practice and communication with multilingual learners.




Future Directions of Educational Change


Book Description

Future Directions of Educational Change brings together timely discussions on social justice, professional capital, and systems change from some of the leading scholars in the field of education. Engaging in theory and evidence-based debates covering issues such as literacy education, whole system reform, and teacher leadership, this volume argues that quality and equity are equally important in reshaping existing education systems both within the United States and globally. The authors offer contextual analyses of current educational research and practice while looking toward the future and offering thought-provoking arguments for challenging and rectifying the systemic inequalities within education today.




Differentiated Instructional Strategies


Book Description

The best new ideas for differentiating instruction You know that differentiation is the best way to reach each and every student in your classroom, but where do you begin? For more than a decade, educators everywhere have unlocked the mysteries of differentiation with this best-selling book. Now newly revised and updated, this practical resource helps you adjust your teaching with: Strategies to reach more learners through engagement and choice A new lesson on unit planning with a template for planning from the Common Core State Standards A focus on acceleration, critical thinking, equity, and support to give students the best learning opportunities




Instructional Strategies for Effective Teaching


Book Description

Discover the keys to improving student learning and success. Taking a practical approach to instructional delivery, the authors outline research-based strategies and illustrate how teachers, coaches, and administrators can use them to enhance their everyday practices. Organized around 10 methods of instruction, this user-friendly guide will help you dig deep into classroom discussion, concept mapping, inquiry-based learning, and more.




Using Debate in the Classroom


Book Description

Debate holds enormous potential to build 21st century skills such as critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and conflict resolution in the K-12 classroom, but teachers often struggle to implement and contextualize it effectively. Using Debate in the Classroom draws on research from a variety of academic disciplines to explain the benefits of debate across subject areas, and describes how teachers can use debate to enliven their curriculum and support the aims of the Common Core. Topics include: Introducing debate as a pedagogical practice to engage students, improve school culture, and disrupt the school to prison pipeline. Using debate to teach critical literacy and improve students’ reading, writing, and speaking skills. Implementing role-playing techniques to strengthen information literacy and reasoning skills. Building students’ empathy, perspective-taking skills, and cultural humility as they confront difficult social issues through debate. Appendices provide a variety of tools to assist K-12 teachers in implementing debate in the classroom, including ready-made debate activities, student handouts, and a step-by-step guide to introducing students to debate in just one week.




Moving Beyond Quadrant A


Book Description

In Moving Beyond Quadrant A, Bernadette Lambert skillfully elucidates the Rigor/Relevance Framework(R) and corresponding Rigor, Relevance, and Engagement Rubrics in terms you've likely not considered, but well know. By thinking of these cornerstones of effective instruction as familiar concepts you use regularly in your day-to-day life, you will find yourself effortlessly modeling rigor and relevance for your students. You will naturally begin to invite them to be active, engaged agents in their education. All it takes is a simple perspective shift, one that moves you beyond Quad A of the Framework and into a Quad D attitude, which Lambert guides you through with interest and ease. Moving Beyond Quadrant A is no tedious academic text. Lambert weaves in history, cultural references, academic research, and observations from her decades as a teacher and coach in the classroom. She takes care to ensure you have fun as you become a student of the Rigor/Relevance Framework and Rubrics, providing strategic instructional tactics to boot. For those seeking to gain control of their classrooms, not simply collect yet more Band-Aid techniques to cover over the same old problems, Lambert reminds you that all you have to do is get started. You will find the motivation to do just that in Lambert's inspiring words.




Preparing Teachers for Deeper Learning


Book Description

Preparing Teachers for Deeper Learning answers an urgent call for teachers who educate children from diverse backgrounds to meet the demands of a changing world. In today’s knowledge economy, teachers must prioritize problem-solving ability, adaptability, critical thinking, and the development of interpersonal and collaborative skills over rote memorization and the passive transmission of knowledge. Authors Linda Darling-Hammond and Jeannie Oakes and their colleagues examine what this means for teacher preparation and showcase the work of programs that are educating for deeper learning, equity, and social justice. Guided by the growing knowledge base in the science of learning and development, the book examines teacher preparation programs at Alverno College, Bank Street College of Education, High Tech High’s Intern Program, Montclair State University, San Francisco Teacher Residency, Trinity University, and University of Colorado Denver. These seven programs share a common understanding of how people learn that shape similar innovative practices. With vivid examples of teaching for deeper learning in coursework and classrooms; interviews with faculty, school partners, and novice teachers; surveys of teacher candidates and graduates; and analyses of curriculum and practices, Preparing Teachers for Deeper Learning depicts transformative forms of teaching and teacher preparation that honor and expand all students’ abilities, knowledges, and experiences, and reaffirm the promise of educating for a better world.