Lessons to Prepare Your Students for Standardized Assessments and for Life
Enhance your students' writing skills and boost their scores on standardized writing tests! In today's high-stakes environment, standardized test scores not only gauge student performance, but are also linked to a school's status and the funding it receives. This helpful resource provides educators with a classroom-tested writing curriculum that has proven to boost student scores on standardized writing tests while helping them develop skills for lifelong writing success. The authors offer structured, day-to-day lesson plans linked to national standards; easy-to-use writing tools; and carefully crafted, unscripted lessons that cover a scope and follow a sequence that aims for student success. This curriculum is designed to help you: Become a confident writing teacher Prepare your students for all practical applications of writing Provide students with the analytical tools and skills they need to succeed on standardized writing tests Accommodate students' strengths and weaknesses Create confident readers and writers of your most reluctant students Your students need more than writing prompts and grammar lessons to ensure they will have lifelong writing success. Finally--a way for teachers to provide quality writing instruction that allows them to meet testing demands on time and with confidence!
Each of these exercises is a self-contained unit with clear instructions, handouts, discussion suggestio ns and a concise explanation of the research-base for each a ctivity. They are designed as effective classroom learning t ools. '
Improving Comprehension Skills for Test Day--and Beyond
Empower your students to skillfully analyze and respond in writing to any comprehension question! Helping students comprehend what they read is a challenging goal, but even more daunting is teaching students to answer comprehension questions in writing. Based on the author's interactions with her students, this innovative text presents a five-step method that has proven not only to help students improve their literacy skills for standardized tests but also, and more important, to help them respond to what they read in your classroom and beyond. This resource presents a process that requires only two 30-minute sessions per week and can be used across content areas and grade levels. Using the built-in scaffolding, students quickly learn how to dismantle even the most challenging comprehension questions and respond to them in clear, sophisticated paragraphs. Numerous rubrics are included, empowering students to: Analyze and respond effectively in writing to comprehension questions Develop and enhance critical vocabulary skills Learn to assess their own work Recognize what constitutes powerful writing Enhance your students' ability and confidence to skillfully analyze and respond in writing to any comprehension question!
Improving Comprehension Skills for Test Day--and Beyond
Empower your students to skillfully analyze and respond in writing to any comprehension question! Helping students comprehend what they read is a challenging goal, but even more daunting is teaching students to answer comprehension questions in writing. Based on the author's interactions with her students, this innovative text presents a five-step method that has proven not only to help students improve their literacy skills for standardized tests but also, and more important, to help them respond to what they read in your classroom and beyond. This resource presents a process that requires only two 30-minute sessions per week and can be used across content areas and grade levels. Using the built-in scaffolding, students quickly learn how to dismantle even the most challenging comprehension questions and respond to them in clear, sophisticated paragraphs. Numerous rubrics are included, empowering students to: Analyze and respond effectively in writing to comprehension questions Develop and enhance critical vocabulary skills Learn to assess their own work Recognize what constitutes powerful writing Enhance your students' ability and confidence to skillfully analyze and respond in writing to any comprehension question!
'Geometry is often given less time in the teaching timetable than other aspects of mathematics. This book encourages practitioners to think about and raise its profile, indeed achieving what its title suggest' - Primary Practice `This creative, innovative and fascinating book/CD package is one you "MUST BUY". All prospective, new and experienced teachers of mathematics can use it to transform their teaching. All readers can use it to reignite their fascination with mathematics' - Professor Sylvia Johnson, Sheffield Hallam University 'This book exudes activity and interactivity. Moreover, it provides challenge in the context of a significant pedagogy, one that is not just present but actually made explicit. It is undoubtedly a book to learn geometry with, but also one to learn to think more deeply about geometry, about its nature and essence, and also about its teaching and learning' - David Pimm Developing Thinking in Geometry enables teachers and their support staff to experience and teach geometric thinking. As well as discussing key teaching principles, the book and accompanying interactive CD include many activities that encourage readers to extend their own learning, and consequently their teaching practices. The book is constructed around the following key themes: - invariance; - language and points of view; - reasoning using invariance; - visualising and representing. These themes draw on teaching principles developed by the team at the Open University's Centre for Mathematics Education which has a 20-year track record of innovative approaches to teaching and learning geometry. This is a 'must have' text for all primary mathematics specialists, secondary and Further Education mathematics teachers and their support staff. Anyone who wishes to create an understanding and enthusiasm for geometry based upon firm research and effective practice, will enjoy this book. This is the course reader for the Open University Course ME627 Developing Geometric Thinking
'Geometry is often given less time in the teaching timetable than other aspects of mathematics. This book encourages practitioners to think about and raise its profile, indeed achieving what its title suggest' - Primary Practice `This creative, innovative and fascinating book/CD package is one you "MUST BUY". All prospective, new and experienced teachers of mathematics can use it to transform their teaching. All readers can use it to reignite their fascination with mathematics' - Professor Sylvia Johnson, Sheffield Hallam University 'This book exudes activity and interactivity. Moreover, it provides challenge in the context of a significant pedagogy, one that is not just present but actually made explicit. It is undoubtedly a book to learn geometry with, but also one to learn to think more deeply about geometry, about its nature and essence, and also about its teaching and learning' - David Pimm Developing Thinking in Geometry enables teachers and their support staff to experience and teach geometric thinking. As well as discussing key teaching principles, the book and accompanying interactive CD include many activities that encourage readers to extend their own learning, and consequently their teaching practices. The book is constructed around the following key themes: - invariance; - language and points of view; - reasoning using invariance; - visualising and representing. These themes draw on teaching principles developed by the team at the Open University's Centre for Mathematics Education which has a 20-year track record of innovative approaches to teaching and learning geometry. This is a 'must have' text for all primary mathematics specialists, secondary and Further Education mathematics teachers and their support staff. Anyone who wishes to create an understanding and enthusiasm for geometry based upon firm research and effective practice, will enjoy this book. This is the course reader for the Open University Course ME627 Developing Geometric Thinking
`Professor Harlen has, once again, provided the leading text on primary science. This eminently readable book sets out a clear account of our understanding of learning, teaching and assessment and, through the skilful use of examples, explores the implications of this for science teachers of pupils aged five to 12. By emphasizing the importance of research evidence and the way in which it should underpin practice, this new edition challenges everyone involved in science education to reflect again on whether we are providing the most appropriate learning opportunities for our pupils. It is certainly a book which will be highly recommended, referred to on many occasions and used extensively' - Dr Derek Bell, Chief Executive, The Association for Science Education This thoroughly revised and completely up-to-date new edition provides an excellent theoretical framework for teaching science that is firmly grounded in classroom practice and covers all stages of education for students aged five to 12 years. The author details a constructivist view of learning, which recognizes that children already have ideas about the world in which they live, and gives advice on how teachers can help children to develop their understanding and change their perception to a more scientific view. A particular feature is the focus on formative assessment as a framework for discussion on how to help students develop their understanding, enquiry skills and positive attitudes to scientific investigation. The wide range of topics covered include: The nature of students' learning in science The goals of science education Gathering and interpreting information about students' 's ideas Helping development of scientific ideas Gathering and interpreting evidence of students' enquiry skills and attitudes Strategies for helping development of students' qnquiry skills and attitudes The learner's role in learning Summarising and reporting learning Motivating learning Teachers and children's questions Resources for learning science Managing science in the school Each chapter features useful summaries, points for reflection and further reading, making this acclaimed book indispensable reading for all primary and practitioners and students who want a book that will authoritatively inform, inspire and instruct their science teaching.
Modeling Effective Writing, Reading, and Thinking Strategies for Student Success
Everybody wins when you practice the workshop approach in high school English! Do you find that preparing for standardized tests interferes with teaching advanced thinking, reading, and writing skills in a meaningful way? Do you want to balance test preparation with more creative activities? Success in school and beyond depends on one's ability to read fluently, write coherently, and think critically. This handbook uses the workshop model for exponentially increasing adolescents' abilities in these three key areas. This practical guide addresses the daily running and practice of a workshop-based classroom, using research and the author's own experiences to illustrate how to establish a workshop that: Fosters lasting learning while reinforcing the skills needed for standardized tests Teaches audience and purpose as a vehicle to style and structure Provides a supportive and lively environment in which students are comfortable enough to take risks and share original ideas Try Urbanski's approach to teaching literacy analysis and mentoring student writers, and discover just how rewarding the workshop experience can be!
"Purposeful, realistic . . . and clearly written....the book renews my excitement for teaching writing, and for new teachers, the text offers suggestions from a voice of experience-all within the framework of NCLB legislation for differentiating teaching based on learners' needs." -Julia Weinberg, Instructor University of Nevada, Reno Give students the power to express their thinking in writing and to use writing as a process for learning! How can we improve students' ability to write "constructed response" to high stakes content area test items? How can we open for them the writing pathway to exploring and understanding informational texts? How can we help them develop the essential traits of proficient writing? Nationally recognized experts in literacy with experience in elementary, middle school, and university classrooms as well as consulting expertise, Barone and Taylor meld theoretical and practical considerations about writing instruction to explain how to teach each child to: Self-monitor to improve writing skills Grow in ability to write successful constructed response Use writing to process and stretch their own thinking Prepare for high stakes writing assessment Improving Students' Writing, K-8 brings together real-life examples, rubrics, reproducible aids and how-to's for getting the most out of your writers.
