"The authors provide practical approaches to literacy instruction that are desperately warranted. They offer a prescription for using strategies, selecting text, making home-school connections, and building learning communities aimed at benefiting all students. In short, this is a text that is long overdue." --Alfred W. Tatum, Assistant Professor Northern Illinois University Make literacy MEANINGFUL in your classroom for students of ALL cultures! This book will allow teachers to use innovative strategies to promote engaged, inclusive literacy, and raise their students' appreciation for the cultural diversity in their own classroom communities. This resource celebrates awareness of individual, ethnic, cultural, linguistic, and economic diversity, and addresses all aspects of studies within the context of culturally responsive teaching. Field-tested with K-8 teachers, each strategy is described for use at beginning, intermediate, and advanced grade levels, and also helps teachers to individualize and accommodate special needs students. 50 Literacy Strategies for Culturally Responsive Teaching, K-8 addresses all aspects of language arts, reading, writing, speaking, and listening, and integrates math, science, and social studies, all within the context of culturally responsive teaching. Ways to include families and community members further strengthen the strategic effectiveness. The six major themes of this text cluster a wealth of easily adapted and implemented strategies around: Classroom community Home, community, and nation Multicultural literature events Critical media literacy Global perspectives and literacy development Inquiry learning and literacy learning This invaluable resource will allow every teacher to transform the classroom culture to one in which all cultures are valued and literacy becomes meaningful to all!
More versatile than mere number crunching and statistics, data can be an effective tool-even a powerful catalyst-for change within a school. By replacing cynicism with conviction, learning to harness data's power, and becoming good users of data to positively impact student achievement, school leaders can develop three crucial capacities: an inquiry habit of mind, data literacy, and a culture of inquiry. Lorna M. Earl and Steven Katz show educators how to become comfortable with data and provide valuable tools for school improvement teams to use in their work, including: o Vignettes to support group discussion o Activities for practicing the ideas and concepts in the book o Task sheets o Short case studies with actual school data that show how the full process works in a school To improve schools, data can and should be a vital force in the change process. Using this essential resource, school leaders, school teams, study groups, and students of education can all make sense of data to plan and reform for maximum benefit.
Creating a Knowledge Framework to Support School Improvement
"Implementing NCLB is an important guide to thinking about how to create the infrastructure to support sustained school improvement. Kimmelman's extensive experience as an educator coupled with his understanding of policymaking and research allow him to transcend the silos that too often constrain thinking about these issues." -Andrew J. Rotherham, Co-Director, Education Sector, Senior Fellow Progressive Policy Institute Member, Virginia Board of Education "This inspirational book provides a convincing and compelling call to action. Kimmelman provides plenty of practical examples and moves easily between specific applications and the big picture." -Michael Fullan, Professor OISE, University of Toronto "I believe this book should be read by every administrator and teacher leader. It provides a framework for schools to address the need for continuous school improvement in order to meet the expectations of NCLB." -Theron J. Schutte, Superintendent , Boone Community School District, IA How can NCLB directives be successfully applied to school improvement efforts? Meeting the requirements of NCLB is a monumental task. In a concise, straightforward manner, author Paul L. Kimmelman shows readers how to overcome this challenge by building organizational capacity through a knowledge model. This model provides a simple but effective framework for evidence-based continuous improvement that complies with the fundamental underpinnings of NCLB. Key features include: A context-setting overview of the politics and education initiatives that led to NCLB An analysis of what educational leadership means in an age of accountability Lessons in leadership from educators, scientists, explorers, and entrepreneurs Practical examples, reflective questions, and action ideas to help link concepts to specific applications Recommended resources, publications, and products to help build organizational capacity Intended for educators and administrators who have an active role in leading their school or district improvement activities, this book will also be an essential resource for focusing the efforts of school improvement and learning teams.
Get organized, plan effectively, and keep your school running smoothly! Developed for both aspiring and experienced elementary school principals, this unique resource-updated from the top-selling first edition-lays out everyday challenges and administrative necessities to help you plan strategically for the academic year. This month-by-month planning tool, designed by veteran administrators, helps you get off on the right foot in July to set your course for a successful school year. Its emphasis is to help principals develop the skills to foresee future calendar events, and to put into operation specific plans to maintain a calm learning environment. Chapters cover key tasks for each month, beginning in July, and contain: Overview of tasks Communications-letters, memos, correspondence, media relations, including sample documents Planning-workshops, orientations, field trips, fundraising activities Personnel-assignments, schedules, rosters, tenure recommendations Checklists to monitor progress with an assortment of tasks Resources to proactively plan and execute effective and decisive leadership The Elementary School Principal's Calendar offers a handy checklist for each month and the flexibility for modification, helping busy administrators avoid reinventing the wheel each year. It's an essential handbook for every principal faced with the complex challenge of managing all aspects of school administration!
Get organized, plan effectively, and keep your school running smoothly! Developed for both aspiring and experienced elementary school principals, this unique resource-updated from the top-selling first edition-lays out everyday challenges and administrative necessities to help you plan strategically for the academic year. This month-by-month planning tool, designed by veteran administrators, helps you get off on the right foot in July to set your course for a successful school year. Its emphasis is to help principals develop the skills to foresee future calendar events, and to put into operation specific plans to maintain a calm learning environment. Chapters cover key tasks for each month, beginning in July, and contain: Overview of tasks Communications-letters, memos, correspondence, media relations, including sample documents Planning-workshops, orientations, field trips, fundraising activities Personnel-assignments, schedules, rosters, tenure recommendations Checklists to monitor progress with an assortment of tasks Resources to proactively plan and execute effective and decisive leadership The Elementary School Principal's Calendar offers a handy checklist for each month and the flexibility for modification, helping busy administrators avoid reinventing the wheel each year. It's an essential handbook for every principal faced with the complex challenge of managing all aspects of school administration!
Discover the many valuable resources available to support students with special needs! Working With Families and Community Agencies to Support Students With Special Needs addresses two of the most exciting facets of working with students with disabilities: "life-stage" issues (early intervention and effective transition) and collaboration (working with families and professionals). Ysseldyke and Algozzine explore the larger context of students' lives outside school, and how life-stage issues and collaboration interact with and influence instruction. Including a pretest, posttest, and key vocabulary terms, this informative resource offers valuable answers to the following questions: * What types of transition services exist and when are they necessary? What should educators know about early-childhood intervention? What issues should be considered when working with families? How can schools involve community agencies and businesses? What options are available to students with special needs after high school? What key program elements are critical to a student's success in the classroom and beyond?
An informative look at the factors that influence special education policies and practices! Education in the United States is driven by excellence and equity for all students. There is a tenuous balance, however, between society's desire to provide special education services and its ability to pay for them. Authors Jim Ysseldyke and Bob Algozzine examine the current educational landscape, focusing on the delivery of cost-effective, quality services to exceptional students. Public Policy, School Reform, and Special Education demonstrates how and why special education services are driven more by social, political, and economic factors than by actual changes in education, and the ways in which society's values and beliefs affect the distribution of limited resources. Special features include: Key vocabulary terms Case studies illustrating how social, political and economic factors work together to affect special education practices A pretest and posttest to help readers assess their understanding of school reform and restructuring Helpful books, articles, and organizations for further research and support
With the right modifications, students with sensory disabilities that affect how well they see and/or hear can participate fully in general education classes alongside their peers. Teaching Students With Sensory Disabilities discusses the defining characteristics and specific needs of students who are deaf, blind, or deaf-and-blind. Offering numerous practical classroom management tips and surprisingly easy instruction adjustments, this valuable resource shows teachers how they can teach in a highly effective manner that will foster the independence of students with visual and hearing impairments in the general education classroom. Including a pre-test, post-test, and key vocabulary terms, this highly informative guide discusses everything educators need to know about students with sensory disabilities, including: o Cognitive characteristics and issues o Academic characteristics and issues o Physical characteristics and issues o Behavioural characteristics and issues o Communication characteristics and issues
The concise guide to successfully teaching students with learning disabilities! What is to be done to help a student who does not have an obvious special education condition, but whose expected achievement on certain academic tasks falls short of his or her actual achievement-despite evidence-based instruction? Let Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities be your guide! This compact resource describes the characteristics associated with learning disabilities, and offers practical teaching strategies proven to increase the success rate of these students both in and outside the classroom. Highlights include: A pretest and posttest to help readers assess their understanding of the nature of learning disabilities and how they are best addressed Cognitive, academic, communicational, physical, and behavioral characteristics that are associated with learning disabilities Strategies to improve the work habits and study skills of students with learning disabilities and/or ADHD Highly effective methods for improving the performance of students with learning disabilities in reading, writing, and mathematics Key vocabulary terms
