Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction


Ralph W. Tyler - 1969
    Quite simply, his book outlines one way of viewing an instructional program as a functioning instrument of education.The four sections of the book deal with ways of formulating, organizing, and evaluating the educational objectives that have been chosen for the curriculum. Tyler emphasizes the fact that curriculum planning is a continuous cyclical process, involving constand replanning, redevelopment, and reappraisal. Substitution of such an integrated view of an instructional program for hit-or-miss judgment as the basis for curriculum development cannot but result in an increasingly effective curriculum.

Mechanically Inclined: Building Grammar, Usage, and Style into Writer's Workshop


Jeff Anderson - 2005
    As a middle school teacher, Jeff Anderson also discovered that his students were not grasping the basics, and that it was preventing them from reaching their potential as writers. Jeff readily admits, “I am not a grammarian, nor am I punctilious about anything,” so he began researching and testing the ideas of scores of grammar experts in his classroom, gradually finding successful ways of integrating grammar instruction into writer's workshop.Mechanically Inclined is the culmination of years of experimentation that merges the best of writer's workshop elements with relevant theory about how and why skills should be taught. It connects theory about using grammar in context with practical instructional strategies, explains why kids often don't understand or apply grammar and mechanics correctly, focuses on attending to the “high payoff,” or most common errors in student writing, and shows how to carefully construct a workshop environment that can best support grammar and mechanics concepts. Jeff emphasizes four key elements in his teaching:short daily instruction in grammar and mechanics within writer's workshop;using high-quality mentor texts to teach grammar and mechanics in context;visual scaffolds, including wall charts, and visual cues that can be pasted into writer's notebooks;regular, short routines, like “express-lane edits,” that help students spot and correct errors automatically.Comprising an overview of the research-based context for grammar instruction, a series of over thirty detailed lessons, and an appendix of helpful forms and instructional tools, Mechanically Inclined is a boon to teachers regardless of their level of grammar-phobia. It shifts the negative, rule-plagued emphasis of much grammar instruction into one which celebrates the power and beauty these tools have in shaping all forms of writing.

Mark. Plan. Teach.: Save Time. Reduce Workload. Impact Learning.


Ross Morrison McGill - 2018
    This brand new book from Ross Morrison McGill, bestselling author of 100 Ideas for Secondary Teachers: Outstanding Lessons and Teacher Toolkit, is packed full of practical ideas that will help teachers refine the key elements of their profession. Mark. Plan. Teach. shows how each stage of the teaching process informs the next, building a cyclical framework that underpins everything that teachers do.With teachers' workload at record levels and teacher recruitment and retention the number one issue in education, ideas that really work and will help teachers not only survive but thrive in the classroom are in demand. Every idea in Mark. Plan. Teach. can be implemented by all primary and secondary teachers at any stage of their career and will genuinely improve practice. The ideas have been tried and tested and are supported by evidence that explains why they work, including current educational research and psychological insights from Dr Tim O'Brien, leading psychologist and Visiting Fellow at UCL Institute of Education.Mark. Plan. Teach. will enable all teachers to maximise the impact of their teaching and, in doing so, save time, reduce workload and take back control of the classroom.

Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea


Charles Seife - 2000
    For centuries, the power of zero savored of the demonic; once harnessed, it became the most important tool in mathematics. Zero follows this number from its birth as an Eastern philosophical concept to its struggle for acceptance in Europe and its apotheosis as the mystery of the black hole. Today, zero lies at the heart of one of the biggest scientific controversies of all time, the quest for the theory of everything. Elegant, witty, and enlightening, Zero is a compelling look at the strangest number in the universe and one of the greatest paradoxes of human thought.

500 Great Books for Teens


Anita Silvey - 2006
    Until now, there's been no accepted guide to what's good, bad, or indifferent in the flood of books coming off the presses in the hot new category of young-adult publishing. If it's true that you can't judge a book by its cover, it is especially true for teen books, as publishers take aim at a new class of readers. The books land on shelves without a history, and so there is no standard by which to judge them.Anita Silvey, one of the country's leading authorities on books for young people, has interviewed teenage readers all over the country and immersed herself in young-adult books, with an emphasis on books published in the last five years. The result is this invaluable and very readable guide for parents, teachers, librarians, booksellers, reading groups, and of course teens themselves.With its extended essays describing 500 selections, parents will quickly see what their teenagers are actually reading -- and will be able to find good books to introduce them to. Teachers can spot excellent additions to summer reading lists. Booksellers can move customers from one favorite to a host of others in the same genre. Librarians can round out collections. Book groups -- for adults, teens, or both -- will have hundreds of new titles to consider.500 Great Books for Teens is divided into twenty-one sections, including adventure and survival, politics and social history, horror, romance, war and conflict, fantasy, plays, graphic novels, poetry, memoir, and spirituality. Every section offers up classics, but the majority of titles are new. In "Beyond the 500," Silvey compiles a number of useful lists, including books organized by geographic location and historical period, as well as recommended audio books.

Word Matters: Teaching Phonics and Spelling in the Reading/Writing Classroom


Gay Su Pinnell - 1998
    Hailed for its practical, systematic approach, the book showed hundreds of thousands of teachers how to address the needs of the whole classroom as well as individual readers. Now, with the publication of Word Matters, Pinnell and Fountas offer K-3 teachers the same unparalleled support, this time focusing on phonics and spelling instruction.Word Matters presents essential information on designing and implementing a high-quality, systematic literacy program to help children learn about letters, sounds, and words. The central goal is to teach children to become "word solvers": readers who can take words apart while reading for meaning, and writers who can construct words while writing to communicate. Where similar books are narrow in focus, Word Matters presents the theoretical underpinnings and practical wherewithal of word study in three contexts:word study that includes systematically planned and applied experiences focusing on the elements of letters and wordswriting, including how children use phoneme-grapheme relationships, word patterns, and principles to develop spelling abilityreading, including teaching children how to solve words with the use of phonics and visual-analysis skills as they read for meaning.Each topic is supported with a variety of practical tools: reproducible sheets for a word study system and for writing workshop; lists of spelling minilessons; and extensive word lists, including frequently used words, antonyms, synonyms, and more. Armed with these tools-and the tried-and-true wisdom of Gay Su Pinnell and Irene Fountas-teachers can help students develop not just the "essential skills," but also a joyful appreciation of their own literacy.

The Unstoppable Writing Teacher: Real Strategies for the Real Classroom


M. Colleen Cruz - 2015
    Real hard. In The Unstoppable Writing Teacher she takes on the common concerns, struggles, and roadblocks that we all face in writing instruction and helps us engage in the process of problem solving each one.From dealing with writing workshop skeptics to working with students both gifted and challenged, and of course combating that eternal barrier-lack of time-Colleen offers tried-and-true strategies to address and overcome obstacles.For the struggles unique to you, she includes a "Name Your Monster" section that helps you identify your own individual roadblocks and even offers sustainable support through her blog, colleencruz.com. "We can't solve all the problems we're faced with in writing instruction," Colleen promises, "but we can choose how to respond to them. And our responses will make all the difference."What makes you unstoppable, or what's stopping you? Connect with Colleen on her blog at www.colleencruz.com/blog.htm or on Twitter, #unstoppablewritingteacher.

50 Myths and Lies That Threaten America's Public Schools: The Real Crisis in Education


David C. Berliner - 2014
    With hard-hitting information and a touch of comic relief, Berliner, Glass, and their Associates separate fact from fiction in this comprehensive look at modern education reform. They explain how the mythical failure of public education has been created and perpetuated in large part by political and economic interests that stand to gain from its destruction. They also expose a rapidly expanding variety of organizations and media that intentionally misrepresent facts. Many of these organizations suggest that their goal is unbiased service in the public interest when, in fact, they represent narrow political and financial interests. Where appropriate, the authors name the promoters of these deceptions and point out how they are served by encouraging false beliefs.This provocative book features short essays on important topics to provide every elected representative, school administrator, school board member, teacher, parent, and concerned citizen with much food for thought, as well as reliable knowledge from authoritative sources.

From Cover to Cover: Evaluating and Reviewing Children's Books


Kathleen T. Horning - 1997
    An authoritative reviewer in her own right, Kathleen Horning provides practical guidelines for reading critically, evaluating an initial response, answering questions raised during the first reading, putting a response into words, balancing description with criticism, and writing reviews for a particular audience.

Hacking Classroom Management: 10 Ideas To Help You Become the Type of Teacher They Make Movies About (Hack Learning Series Book 15)


Mike Roberts - 2017
    He shows you how to create an amazing learning environment that actually makes discipline, rules and consequences obsolete, no matter if you're a new teacher or a 30-year veteran teacher. Teachers they make movies about are innovative, engaging, and beloved Hacking Classroom Management is about putting the F word--FUN--into your teaching, and Mike Roberts shows you how to do this, while meeting your standards and teaching your curriculum.  Hacking Classroom Management shows you how to Build lasting relationships with your students Maximize teaching time Reduce behavior issues Enhance student ownership Improve parental involvement Experts love the Movie Teacher philosophy "No matter what grade you teach, there’s something of great value inside. Two Big Thumbs UP!" -Alan Sitomer, CA Teacher of the Year and Author of Short Writes"Immensely fun and illuminating to read!" -Jeffery D. Wilhelm, Distinguished Professor of English Education at Boise State University"Hollywood might not make a movie about you, even if you read and apply every suggestion in this book, but you and your students are much more likely to feel like classroom stars because of it." -Chris Crowe, English Professor at BYU, Past President of ALAN, author of Death Coming Up the Hill, Getting Away with Murder: The True Story of the Emmett Till Case; Mississippi Trial, 1955; and many other YA booksWave Goodbye to classroom management issuesGrab Hacking Classroom Management today, become a movie teacher tomorrow, and forget about classroom management FOREVER!

Rethinking Teacher Supervision and Evaluation: How to Work Smart, Build Collaboration, and Close the Achievement Gap


Kim Marshall - 2009
    Marshall proposes a broader framework for supervision and evaluation that enlists teachers in improving the performance of all students. Emphasizing trust-building and teamwork, Marshall's innovative, four-part framework shifts the focus from periodically evaluating teaching to continuously analyzing learning. This book offers school principals a guide for implementing Marshall's framework and shows how to make frequent, informal classroom visits followed by candid feedback to each teacher; work with teacher teams to plan thoughtful curriculum units rather than focusing on individual lessons; get teachers as teams involved in low-stakes analysis of interim assessment results to fine-tune their teaching and help struggling students; and use compact rubrics for summative teacher evaluation.This vital resource also includes extensive tools and advice for managing time as well as ideas for using supervision and evaluation practices to foster teacher professional development.

Doing School: How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed-Out, Materialistic, and Miseducated Students


Denise Clark Pope - 2001
    Veteran teacher Denise Pope follows five highly regarded students through a school year and discovers that these young people believe getting ahead requires manipulating the system, scheming, lying, and cheating. On the one hand, they work hard in school, participate in extracurricular activities, serve their communities, earn awards and honors, and appear to uphold school values. But on the other hand, they feel that in order to get ahead they must compromise their values. In short, they “do school”—that is, they are not really engaged with learning nor can they commit to such values as integrity and community.The words and actions of these five students—two boys and three girls from diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds—underscore the frustrations of being caught in a “grade trap” that pins future success to high grades and test scores. Their stories raise critical questions that are too important for parents, educators, and community leaders to ignore. Are schools cultivating an environment that promotes intellectual curiosity, cooperation, and integrity? Or are they fostering anxiety, deception, and hostility? Do today’s schools inadvertently impede the very values they claim to embrace? Is the “success” that current assessment practices measure the kind of success we want for our children?

The Math Myth: And Other STEM Delusions


Andrew Hacker - 2015
    Why, he wondered, do we inflict a full menu of mathematics—algebra, geometry, trigonometry, even calculus—on all young Americans, regardless of their interests or aptitudes?The Math Myth expands Hacker’s scrutiny of many widely held assumptions, like the notions that mathematics broadens our minds, that mastery of azimuths and asymptotes will be needed for most jobs, that the entire Common Core syllabus should be required of every student. He worries that a frenzied emphasis on STEM is diverting attention from other pursuits and subverting the spirit of the country.In fact, Hacker honors mathematics as a calling (he has been a professor of mathematics) and extols its glories and its goals. Yet he shows how mandating it for everyone prevents other talents from being developed and acts as an irrational barrier to graduation and careers. He proposes alternatives, including teaching facility with figures, quantitative reasoning, and understanding statistics.The Math Myth is sure to spark a heated and needed national conversation not just about mathematics but about the kind of people and society we want to be.

Communication Skills Training: How to Talk to Anyone, Connect Effortlessly, Develop Charisma, and Become a People Person


James W. Williams - 2020
    

Every Child a Super Reader


Pam Allyn - 2016
    When we take children's key strengths and immerse them in an intellectually invigorating, emotionally nurturing, literature-rich community, we grow "super readers"—avid readers who consume texts with passion, understanding, and a critical eye.Organized around the 7 Strengths inherent in super readers (belonging, curiosity, friendship, kindness, confidence, courage, and hope), this powerful resource helps children:• Develop reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills • Learn comprehension strategies• Build a robust vocabulary• Deepen analytical prowess and an ability to talk and write about text• Develop empathy, a strong identity as a reader, and an expanded understanding of the worldFeaturing stirring reading and writing lessons, robust assessment tools, ready-to-share Family Guides, and embedded videos that illuminate the 7 strengths and more, Every Child a Super Reader shows teachers, parents, caregivers, and out-of-school providers why reading is the ultimate super power, opening a world of possible for every student.