Give your lesson plans a makeover!Would you rather listen to a lecture or play classroom Jeopardy? Research shows that the most successful learning happens when teachers talk less and engage their students in actively applying concepts. This book shows you how to enhance lessons with 95 research-based strategies that work for all subjects and grade levels. In addition, the authors explain the research on student learning, describe best practices, and provide tools for analyzing your lessons. This step-by-step guide shows how to remodel lessons to:Align with the Common Core State StandardsDevelop 21st century skillsEngage students Enhance content learningThe bookAEs evidence-based Present-Apply-Review (PAR) model is highly effective for addressing shortfalls in student learning. Included are diagrams, examples, clear instructions for connecting lessons to CCSS anchors, and a guide to sharing the strategies in a professional learning setting. Why teach tomorrowAEs adults with yesterdayAEs lessons? Amplify your arsenal with storyboarding, Socratic role-play, Wikis, peer huddles, and moreuand watch learning soar!a
Avoid "analysis paralysis" and just get started! Now that most states have adopted the new Common Core State Standards, the next major challenge is to simplify and implement them by 2014. That is why it is important to begin this work now. Joe Crawford, Milken Award-winning educator and author of Using Power Standards to Build an Aligned Curriculum, shares his proven process for building a viable local curriculum based on the CCSS. Readers will find: A system for creating local standards from the CCSS Methods for connecting the common, formative assessments to quarterly instructional objectives Ways to scaffold learning expectations Examples taken from districts where CCSS is currently implemented Included are helpful charts and graphs plus access to Internet-based software for mapping the CCSS to curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Schools cannot continue to do what they have always done and expect a different result. This book explains how to facilitate learning for all students while taking advantage of the new culture, technology, and norms of today's learning environment.
This book will provide information and insight to educational leaders that will enhance their ability to lead, guide, and support the classroom teacher. These insights will be provided through an examination of five neuroscience principles. Readers will be given opportunities not only to find overt links to how these principles unfold in classrooms, staff rooms, and board rooms, but will also be encouraged to find connections to their own unique contexts (both professionally and personally) along the way. Each of the five principles presented will include information about the neuroscience behind the principle. Focus questions and real stories will be used to clarify the context of each principle. These anecdotes will include examples of how we see and experience these principles in action. Specific strategies of how the principle might be exemplified in a K-12 school setting will be included. At certain points throughout the book, content questions will be posed to assist the reader in their own processing and understanding of this complex material.
Using the Brain's Natural Learning Process to Create Today's Curriculum
"Applying the natural human learning process described in the book transformed my students' ability to learn. No teacher, new or experienced, should enter any classroom without a copy of this book." -Patricia Jamie Lee, Educational Consultant Many Kites Press, St. Paul, MN Teach students to take responsibility for their own success! This updated edition of the bestselling book on the brain's natural learning process brings new research results and applications in a power-packed teacher tool kit. Rita Smilkstein shows teachers how to create and deliver curricula that help students become the motivated, successful, and natural learners they were born to be. Updated features include: Guidelines for using the six-step Natural Human Learning Process (NHLP) for lesson planning and test preparation New information on how technology and Internet research affect student learning Practical methods for giving all students the tools they need to achieve The author translates her unique research on students' critical and creative thinking into classroom strategies and sample lesson plans that will help to create a successful learning environment. Building on the content that earned the author an Educator's Award of the Year from the Delta Kappa Gamma International Society, We're Born to Learn provides teachers with practical methods for giving all students the metacognitive, motivational, and technological tools they need to take responsibility for their own achievement.
"This handbook synthesizes the best of educational research in an easily accessible format. Educators will find it an effective roadmap for leading their schools to organizational excellence, effective instruction, and optimum student achievement." -Brenda P. Dean, Assistant Superintendent Hamblen County Schools, Morristown, TN "The author clearly makes the case for the principal to be THE instructional and curricular leader of his or her school site. Principals who embrace this CAN and WILL make the difference for students!" -Marianne L. Lescher, Principal Kyrene Elementary School District, Tempe, AZ Practical guidance for spearheading curriculum development and change This comprehensive guide walks principals through the curriculum development and renewal process with encouragement, hitting the hard issues of doing more with less, integrating technology, overcoming resistance to change, and improving student outcomes. The authors incorporate the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) and the Educational Leadership Constituent Council (ELCC) standards for principals as they relate to curriculum leadership. Highlights include step-by-step guidance for: Developing a culture that is conducive to curriculum advancement Working collaboratively with personnel Integrating state and national standards into school curriculum Maximizing professional development opportunities Connecting curriculum to instruction The Principal's Guide to Curriculum Leadership is ideal for practicing and aspiring public and private school administrators. Special features include discussion questions, case studies, activities, specialized curriculum models, resources, and references.
"This book is comprehensive, rich, and engaging. Quality teaching follows quality planning, and this is the resource you need for cutting-edge curriculum design." -Lynn Erickson, Curriculum Consultant Mill Creek, WA "I am delighted to incorporate this book into my graduate courses as I train teachers to design instruction that guides students through rigorous and authentic learning." -Thomas P. Hebert, Professor Department of Educational Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA A powerful model for linking student learning to the world How would classrooms be different if curriculum could be qualitatively differentiated so that learners not only accumulate information, but also experience the power of knowledge? The empirically based Parallel Curriculum Model shows teachers how to create a meaningful, emotive, and engaging curriculum that helps children apply what they learn to their lives. Each chapter offers specific unit and lesson plans created by master elementary teachers that can be put into practice immediately. Included are field-tested and standards-based strategies that: Focus on parallel themes in literacy, science, mathematics, and social studies Help students deepen knowledge, think metaphorically, solve problems, and identify with subject matter Challenge all learners according to their interests and abilities Create authentic, joyful, and active student involvement All students should have the opportunity to benefit from multifaceted learning experiences, and this inspiring book gives educators the methods to make it happen. The text is rich with vignettes, visuals, samples, reproducibles, and assessment tools. The possibilities are unlimited!
"This is the first book that I have encountered, in all my years of leading districts through curriculum alignment, that makes the process manageable and doable." -Jody L. Ware, Superintendent Mundelein Consolidated High School, IL "This book will allow schools and districts to effectively align standards, curriculum, and assessments to establish continuity between departments and across grade levels." -Sharon Madsen Redfern, Principal Highland Park Elementary School. Lewistown, MT Align your curriculum for success with Power Standards Schools continually face the challenge of developing a useful, aligned curriculum that can effectively support student achievement and assessment. This book gives administrators and teachers the tools to make it happen. Award-winning educator Joe Crawford describes how to build the aligned curriculum that is so crucial to student success. The key is identifying Power Standards-the most critical skills that all learners must have. These skills are then taught in a logical sequence of instruction throughout the year. Key benefits of this process include: A standards-based curriculum developed by teachers and leaders Consistent objectives throughout the school A common assessment system for measuring student success A one-page curriculum outline that eases communication with all stakeholders This manual is loaded with examples, practical advice, and checklists. Readers also have access to a corresponding Web-based software package that facilitates the process electronically and stores the curriculum plan on the Internet. Lead your school to excellence with Power Standards!
Curriculum and subject leadership in schools has recently gained substantial attention from both researchers and policy-makers. The Teacher Training Agency (TTA) has reinforced the importance of subject leadership in school improvement, proposing a new measure of such leadership competence through the creation of national subject leader standards ......
The study of curriculum, beginning in the early 20th century, first served the areas of school administration and teaching and was used to design and develop programs of study. The field subsequently expanded and drew upon disciplines from the arts, humanities, and social sciences to examine larger educational forces and their effects upon the individual, society, and conceptions of knowledge. Curriculum studies now embraces an array of academic scholarship in relation to personal and institutional needs and interests while it also focuses upon a diverse and complex dynamic among educational experiences, practices, settings, actions, and theories. The Encyclopedia of Curriculum Studies provides a comprehensive introduction to the academic field of curriculum studies for the scholar, student, teacher, and administrator. This two-volume set serves to inform and to introduce terms, events, documents, biographies, and concepts to assist the reader in understanding aspects of this rapidly changing, expansive, and contested field of study. Key Features Displays different perspectives by having authors contribute independent essays on the nature and future of curriculum studies Presents a unique and in-depth treatment of the Twenty-Sixth Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education (NSSE), a 1927 publication that has taken on legendary dimensions for the field of curriculum studies Contains bibliographic entries which feature specific publications by curriculum leaders that helped to define the field Helps readers to learn unfamiliar terms and concepts, to become more comfortable with specialized phrases, and to understand the many significant and perplexing concepts and questions that characterize the field Key Themes Biography and Prosopography Concepts and Terms Content Descriptions Influences on Curriculum Studies Inquiry and Research Nature of Curriculum Studies Organizations, Schools, and Projects Publications Theoretical Perspectives Types of Curricula The Encyclopedia of Curriculum Studies offers the careful reader a surprisingly revealing depiction of the conventions, mores, and accepted research and writing practices of the field of curriculum studies as it continues to expand and change. Availability in print and electronic formats provides students with convenient, easy access, wherever they may be.
