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Students at the Center: Personalized Learning with Habits of Mind
Educators' most important work is to help students develop the intellectual and social strength of character necessary to live well in the world. The way to do this, argue authors Bena Kallick and Allison Zmuda, is to increase the say students have in their own learning and prepare them to navigate complexities they face both inside and beyond school. This means rethinking traditional teacher and student roles and re-examining goal setting, lesson planning, assessment, and feedback practices. It means establishing classrooms that prioritize
- Voice—Involving students in "the what" and "the how" of learning and equipping them to be stewards of their own education.
- Co-creation—Guiding students to identify the challenges and concepts they want to explore and outline the actions they will take.
- Social construction—Having students work with others to theorize, pursue common goals, build products, and generate performances.
- Self-discovery—Teaching students to reflect on their own developing skills and knowledge so that they will acquire new understandings of themselves and how they learn.
Based on their exciting work in the field, Kallick and Zmuda map out a transformative model of personalization that puts students at the center and asks them to employ the set of dispositions for engagement and learning known as the Habits of Mind. They share the perspectives of educators engaged in this work; highlight the habits that empower students to pursue aspirations, investigate problems, design solutions, chase curiosities, and create performances; and provide tools and recommendations for adjusting classroom practices to facilitate learning that is self-directed, dynamic, sometimes messy, and always meaningful.
Assessment Literacy for Educators in a Hurry
What is assessment literacy? It's a handful of fundamental understandings about the testing concepts and procedures that influence educational decisions. And it just might be the most cost-effective means of real school improvement.
With characteristic humor and aplomb, assessment expert W. James Popham strips away the psychometrician-speak and condenses the complexities of educational testing to six practical and action-oriented understandings about validity, reliability, fairness, score reporting, formative assessment, and affective assessment.
This book is for busy educators at the classroom and leadership levels who want
- Tests that are worth the valuable time they take to administer.
- Tests that accurately measure what student have learned.
- Tests that fairly reflect teacher and school effectiveness.
- Tests that provide the instructionally useful data that will help students learn faster and better.
Assessment Literacy for Educators in a Hurry is the fastest route to acquiring the measurement moxie necessary to understand and advocate for better assessment practices and build a case for stopping ineffective and harmful ones. In just a few hours' time, you can pick up the knowledge you need to do a whole lot of good—for your students, yourself, and our schools.
The Formative Five: Fostering Grit, Empathy, and Other Success Skills Every Student Needs
For success in school and life, students need more than proficiency in academic subjects and good scores on tests; those goals should form the floor, not the ceiling, of their education. To truly thrive, students need to develop attributes that aren’t typically measured on standardized tests. In this lively, engaging book by veteran school leader Thomas R. Hoerr, educators will learn how to foster the “Formative Five” success skills that today’s students need, including
- Empathy: learning to see the world through others’ perspectives.
- Self-control: cultivating the abilities to focus and delay self-gratification.
- Integrity: recognizing right from wrong and practicing ethical behavior.
- Embracing diversity: recognizing and appreciating human differences.
- Grit: persevering in the face of challenge.
When educators engage students in understanding and developing these five skills, they change mindsets and raise expectations for student learning. As an added benefit, they see significant improvements in school and classroom culture. With specific suggestions and strategies, The Formative Five will help teachers, principals, and anyone else who has a stake in education prepare their students—and themselves—for a future in which the only constant will be change.
Empower: What Happens When Students Own Their Learning
As teachers, leaders, and parents, we have the opportunity to be the guide in our kids' education and unleash the creative potential of each and every student. In a world that is ever changing, our job is not to prepare students for something; instead, our role is to help students prepare themselves for anything.
In Empower, A.J. Juliani and John Spencer provide teachers, coaches, and administrators with a roadmap that will inspire innovation, authentic learning experiences, and practical ways to empower students to pursue their passions while in school.
Compliance is expecting students to pay attention. Engagement is getting students excited about our topics, interests, and curriculum. But when we empower students, they crave learning that is both meaningful and relevant to their life, now and in the future.
Empower is for you if ...
* You are a teacher eager to get students making, designing, and creating their own learning path in (and out of) the classroom
* You are a superintendent, district administrator, or principal who is leading change and working to help your staff thrive in a twenty-first-century learning environment
* You are a coach, staff developer, or teacher leader who is crafting professional learning experiences and wants to encourage colleagues to be the guide on the ride
Empower is focused not only on what happens when students own their learning but also on how to reach a place where that is possible in the midst of standards, set curriculum paths, and realities of school that we all have to deal with. Written by real educators who are still working in schools and with teachers, Empower will provide ways to overcome these challenges and turn them into opportunities for our learners to be unabashedly different and remarkable.
Teaching Students to Drive Their Brains: Metacognitive Strategies, Activities, and Lesson Ideas
Research suggests that metacognition is key to higher student achievement, but studies of classroom practice indicate that few students are taught to use metacognition and the supporting cognitive strategies that make learning easier. You can teach metacognition to your students, so why wouldn't you? This book shows you how.
Metacognition is a tool that helps students unlock their brain's amazing power and take control of their learning. Educational researchers and professional developers Donna Wilson and Marcus Conyers have been exploring and using the explicit teaching of metacognition for years, and in this book they share a practical way to teach preK–12 students how to drive their brains by promoting the following practices:
- Adopt an optimistic outlook toward learning,
- Set goals,
- Focus their attention,
- Monitor their progress, and
- Engage in practices that enhance cognitive flexibility.
Wilson and Conyers explain metacognition and how it equips students to meet today's rigorous education standards. They present a unique blend of useful metaphors, learning strategies, and instructional tips you can use to teach your students to be the boss of their brains. Sample lessons show these ideas in a variety of classroom settings, and sections on professional practice help you incorporate these tools (and share them with colleagues and parents) so that you are teaching for and withmetacognition.
The Motivated Brain: Improving Student Attention, Engagement, and Perseverance
Informed by new findings on the nature of the brain's seeking system, internationally renowned educators Gayle Gregory and Martha Kaufeldt have identified key brain-friendly strategies for improving student motivation, knowledge acquisition, retention, and academic success. In this book, readers will learn
* The science behind the motivated brain and how it relates to student learning.
* Strategies for preparing a motivational environment and lesson.
* Strategies for creating engaging learning experiences that capitalize on the brain's natural ways of learning.
* Strategies for improving depth of knowledge, complex thinking, and synthesis to get students into the ever-desired state of flow.
* How attention to the neuroscience of motivation will improve the classroom environment and student learning.
The Motivated Brain shows teachers how to harness the power of their students' intrinsic motivation to make learning fun, engaging, and meaningful.
A Handbook for Personalized Competency-Based Education
In K-12 education's growing movement of competency-based education and personalized learning, both contradictory and overlapping definitions come up around these two terms. To clear up this confusion, A Handbook for Personalized Competency-Based Education delves into the components of a personalized competency-based education (PCBE) system.
This handbook explores approaches, strategies, and techniques that schools and districts should consider as they rethink traditional instruction to fit a PCBE system and support student learning. The authors share examples of how to use proficiency scales, standard operating procedures, behavior rubrics, personal tracking matrices, and other tools to aid in instruction and assessment.
Benefits
- Receive clear guidance on implementing a personalized competency-based education (PCBE) system.
- Determine what content to focus on and what standards to prioritize in personalized instruction.
- Read vignettes that illustrate the shifts that should occur to foster PCBE.
- Learn how a flexible PCBE learning environment of student agency can foster self-efficacy.
- Understand the variety of assessments available for measuring student proficiency in a PCBE system.
Social and Emotional Learning in Action: Experiential Activities to Positively Impact School Climate
The New Art and Science of Teaching
This title is a greatly expanded volume of the original Art and Science of Teaching, offering a competency-based education framework for substantive change based on Dr. Robert Marzano's 50 years of education research. While the previous model focused on teacher outcomes, the new version places focus on student learning outcomes, with research-based instructional strategies teachers can use to help students grasp the information and skills transferred through their instruction. Throughout the book, Marzano details the elements of three overarching categories of teaching, which define what must happen to optimize student learning: students must receive feedback, get meaningful content instruction, and have their basic psychological needs met.
Gain research-based instructional strategies and teaching methods that drive student success:
- Explore instructional strategies that correspond to each of the 43 elements of The New Art and Science of Teaching, which have been carefully designed to maximize student engagement and achievement.
- Use ten design questions and a general framework to help determine which classroom strategies you should use to foster student learning.
- Analyze the behavioral evidence that proves the strategies of an element are helping learners reach their peak academic success.
- Study the state of the modern standards movement and what changes must be made in K-12 education to ensure high levels of learning for all.
- Download free reproducible scales specific to the elements in The New Art and Science of Teaching.
The Handbook for the New Art and Science of Teaching
Rely on this comprehensive guide to help you implement the teaching methods of Dr. Robert J. Marzano's The New Art and Science of Teaching framework, which includes over 330 specific instructional strategies, 43 instructional elements, and 10 design questions. Each chapter outlines actionable steps, tips, and examples of implementation that will set you (and your students) up to succeed with this powerful framework in your classroom.
Added insight into Marzano's research-based instructional strategies and teaching methods:
- Learn the history of Robert J. Marzano's framework of teaching methods first laid out in his best-selling The Art and Science of Teaching.
- Thoroughly examine the updated The New Art and Science of Teaching framework for competency-based education.
- Explore numerous instructional strategies that correspond to each of the 43 elements of The New Art and Science of Teaching.
- Acquire examples that will assist in the realization of the instructional strategies discussed throughout the book.
- Discover strategies that will improve both the mental and physical environment of the classroom to better support student success.
- Reimagine how to develop relationships with students and generate student engagement. Access free reproducibles that will assist in implementing The New Art and Science of Teaching framework in classrooms
The New Art and Science of Classroom Assessment
Shift to a new paradigm of classroom assessment that is more accurate, meaningful, and authentic. The New Art and Science of Classroom Assessment explores the inadequacies of traditional assessment methods and details how to use classroom assessment to its full potential. Step by step, the authors outline a clear path for transitioning to more holistic assessment methods that truly reflect course curriculum and student progress.
Learn how you can develop authentic assessment for learning in the classroom:
- Explore a new perspective on effective assessment for learning, including classroom, interim, and year-end assessments (from formative assessment to summative assessment).
- Learn how to create a curriculum that provides clear guidance as to what should be assessed.
- Acquire strategies for assessing four general types of skills: (1) cognitive skills, (2) knowledge-application skills, (3) metacognitive skills, and (4) general behavior skills.
- Develop expertise with classroom assessment tools, such as the types of declarative content, selected response items, and short constructed response questions.
- Download free reproducible tables and checklists to assist in implementing new methods of assessment design.
The New Art and Science of Teaching Reading
Only when teachers have in-depth knowledge of reading skill and literacy development can they deliver best-practice reading assessment and instruction to students. The New Art and Science of Teaching Reading presents a compelling model for the stages of reading development, structured around five key topics: (1) foundational skills, (2) word recognition, (3) reading fluency, (4) vocabulary, and (5) reading comprehension. More than 100 reading-focused instructional strategies are laid out in detail to help teachers ensure every student becomes a proficient reader. Guide students at all stages of literacy development, from learning the basic concepts of print to demonstrating advanced reading comprehension.
Discover a research-based reading model to guide your instruction:
- Understand how to best utilize The New Art and Science of Teaching framework for teaching reading comprehension and other reading skills.
- Explore a reading model that addresses how to articulate content, implement specific instructional strategies, and navigate reading-related issues that might arise in the classroom.
- Understand which elements of instruction are best suited for teaching reading.
- Explore how general strategies for teaching can be employed alongside specific strategies to enhance teaching, enrich learning and literacy development, and improve the classroom environment.
- Access free reproducibles, including exercises, games, and readings for the classroom.
The New Art and Science of Teaching Writing
For educators to be effective, they must intentionally select and implement research-based instructional strategies and conduct assessments. Using a clear and well-organized structure, the authors apply the strategies and techniques originally presented in The New Art and Science of Teaching by Robert J. Marzano to the teaching and assessment of writing skills, as well as some associated reading skills. In total, the book shares more than 100 strategies across grade levels and subject areas.
Use effective teaching methods to reach desired writing learning outcomes and student success:
- Understand which instructional strategies are best suited to teaching writing skills, and gain specific examples for implementing these strategies.
- Learn how to utilize general and specific strategies to improve the learning environment of the classroom and obtain desired student learning outcomes for writing.
- Fine-tune your writing curriculum to achieve student success by developing and assessing writing skills with the book's instructional techniques.
- Examine samples of writing rubrics, proficiency scales, and checklists, and learn effective teaching methods to use them as assessment and instructional tools.
- Utilize an advance organizer as a quick reference of all strategies to assist you in designing writing curriculum and planning lessons.
- Access and download free reproducible activities, rubrics for assessing student writing, writing assessment examples, writing checklists, and more for classroom use.
ASCD Quick Reference Guides
ASCD Quick Reference Guides cover fundamental education topics in a handy format that's perfect for time-pressed individuals or groups. Each guide is multi-panel, 8.5"x11", and laminated.
- Personalizing Learning in Your Classroom: Explanations for the four attributes of personalized learning, tips to build student readiness in the classroom, and descriptions of the seven elements of progressively student-driven learning.
- Flipping the Learning: An overview of how to flip your classroom and use technology to support best practices in student learning. The guide also features ways to overcome common hurdles and mistakes, tips for effective flipped videos, and sample flipped lessons.
- Understanding Differentiated Instruction: This guide covers the key terms, principles, and practices of differentiation and provides teachers with low-prep strategies for getting started. It is a perfect introductory resource for understanding how to better reach and teach all students.
- Integrating SEL into Everyday Instruction: Discover an empowering and effective approach to SEL that shifts it from a standalone curriculum to its natural place as an essential part of learning.
- How to Create High-Quality Assessments: The Stronge and Associates team shares guiding principles for creating high-quality assessments, plus how to build an assessment blueprint and recommendations for writing test items.
- Creating a Trauma-Sensitive Classroom: 12 practical, easy-to-implement strategies to help students living with trauma thrive in the classroom are presented.
- Getting Started with Project Based Learning: John Larmer describes the benefits of project based learning, outlines seven key project-based teaching practices, and offers tips for designing high-quality projects.
- The Formative Assessment Learning Cycle: In this guide, experts Susan Brookhart and Jay McTighe show how best to incorporate the formative learning cycle into everyday instruction. They offer techniques for sharing learning targets, assessment activities to use in the classroom, and strategies for providing student feedback.
- Increasing Rigor in the Classroom: Rigor expert Barbara R. Blackburn offers teachers tips for designing rigorous instruction and assessment that advance student learning.
Glenn Plummer
Email: glenn.plummer@regina.org
Location: 2150 Rochester Avenue, Iowa City, IA, United States
Phone: 319-321-4234
Twitter: @gap_4