In Socratic Circles: Fostering Critical and Creative Thinking in Middle and High School , author Matt Copeland provides real-world examples and straightforward answers to frequent questions. He creates a coaching guide for both the teacher new to Socratic seminars and the experienced teacher seeking to optimize the benefits of this powerful strategy. Socratic Circles also shows teachers who are familiar with literature circles the many ways in which these two practices complement and extend each other.Effectively implemented, Socratic seminars enhance reading comprehension, listening and speaking skills, and build better classroom community and conflict resolution skills. By giving students ownership over the classroom discussion around texts, they become more independent and motivated learners. Ultimately, because there is a direct relationship between the level of participation and the richness of the experience, Socratic seminars teach students to take responsibility for the quality of their own learning.Filled with examples to help readers visualize the application of these concepts in practice, Socratic Circles includes transcripts of student dialogue and work samples of preparation and follow-up activities. The helpful appendices offer ready-to-copy handouts and examples, and suggested selections of text that connect to major literary works.As our classrooms and our schools grow increasingly focused on meeting high standards and differentiating instruction for a wide variety of student needs and learning styles, Socratic seminars offer an essential classroom tool for meeting these goals. Socratic Circles is a complete and practical guide to Socratic seminars for the busy classroom teacher.

    With carefully honed apparatus that helps students work with the challenging selections, Ways of Reading guides students through the process of developing intellectual skills necessary for college-level academic work by engaging them in conversations with key academic and cultural texts. It also bridges the gap between contemporary critical theory and composition so that instructors can connect their own scholarly work with their teaching.

    Barzun contrasts the ritual of education with the lost art of teaching. Twenty-one chapters deal with three major issues: the practice of teaching, the subject matter to be taught, and the institutional and cultural aspects of teaching.Jacques Barzun is a renowned scholar, teacher, and author who lectures widely since his retirement in 1993.

    In this practical guide, they provide savvy strategies for:--finding and storing fresh new mentor texts, from trusted traditional sources to the social mediums of the day --grouping mentor texts in clusters that show a diverse range of topics, styles, and approaches --teaching with lessons that demonstrate the enormous potential of mentor texts at every stage of the writing process.In chapters that follow the scaffolded instruction Allison and Rebekah use in their own classrooms, you'll discover how using mentor texts can unfold across the year, from inspiration and planning to drafting, revising, and "going public" in final publication. Along the way, you'll find yourself reaching every writer in the room, whatever their needs. "Our hope in this book," they write, "is to show you a way mentors can help you teach anything you need or want to teach in writing. A way that is grounded in the work of real writers and the real reading you do every day. A way that is sustainable and fresh, and will serve your students long after they leave your classroom."

    Part memoir and part investigation into the educational system, this collection of linked shorts is a compelling portrait of one teacher’s family history, her experience of being a student, and the persona she has to wear in the classroom.

    

    Using information gathered from interviews with over 100 social sector leaders, Jim Collins shows that his "Level 5 Leader" and other good-to-great principles can help social sector organizations make the leap to greatness.

    Like all teachers, Cris struggles to balance her student-centered instruction with school system mandates. Her recommendations are realistic and practical; she understands that what isn't manageable isn't sustainable.Cris describes the systems and structure she uses in her own classroom and shows teachers how to use assessments to monitor student growth and provide targeted feedback that enables students to master content goals. She also shares ways to bring students into the assessment cycle so they can monitor their own learning, maximizing motivation and engagement.So What Do They Really Know? includes a wealth of information:Lessons from Cris's classroomTemplates showing how teachers can use the workshop model to assess and differentiate instructionStudent work, including samples from linguistically diverse learners, struggling readers, and college-bound seniorsAnchor charts of student thinkingIdeas on how to give feedbackGuidelines that explain how conferring is different from monitoringSuggestions for assessing learning and differentiating instruction during conferencesAdvice for managing ongoing assessmentCris's willingness to share her own struggles continues to be a hallmark of her work. Teachers will recognize their own students and the challenges they face as they join Cris on the journey to figure out how to raise student achievement.

    A breath of fresh air in the competitive 'mine is best' atmosphere currently so divisive in the field of trauma therapy, each varied and complex case (presented in a variety of writing styles: case reports, session-by-session narratives, single session transcripts) is approached with a combination of methods ranging from traditional psychodynamic and cognitive approaches and applications of attachment theory to innovative trauma methods including EMDR and Levine's SIBAM model.Read on its own on or in conjunction with The Body Remembers, clinicians from all disciplines will discover new strategies and gain insight into how to combine various treatment models for increased success with traumatized clients.

    Dr. Elkind shows us the very real difference between the mind of a pre-school child and that of a school age child.

    When she reluctantly agrees to care for Addie, a young Native Alaskan girl, she discovers she must seek help from the family she’s kept at arm’s length for years, and returns to the big home on Looking Lake and all her memories there.Her sister Tillie, the gardener, the artist, still has unspoken questions about the teenage accident with Emerson that claimed her legs from the knee down. Their aging mother Eve spreads her joy for life indiscriminately and wonders how she could ever have failed her daughters. Their neighbor Henry, the handsome sculptor, has his own silent history with Emerson, and knows more than he’s telling about her husband’s suicide.And ten-year-old Addie has come into this house full of strangers, bringing her own grief over her mother's illness, and an uncanny ability to recognize the aches these grown-ups carry inside themselves. As the five come together, new alliances are forged and old secrets are forced to the surface, weaving together questions of identity, forgiveness, and the bravery it takes to open our true selves to the ones we love.

    Teachers create intellectual environments that produce not only technically competent students, but also caring, secure, actively literate human beings.Choice Words shows how teachers accomplish this using their most powerful teaching tool: language. Throughout, Peter Johnston provides examples of apparently ordinary words, phrases, and uses of language that are pivotal in the orchestration of the classroom. Grounded in a study by accomplished literacy teachers, the book demonstrates how the things we say (and don't say) have surprising consequences for what children learn and for who they become as literate people. Through language, children learn how to become strategic thinkers, not merely learning the literacy strategies. In addition, Johnston examines the complex learning that teachers produce in classrooms that is hard to name and thus is not recognized by tests, by policy-makers, by the general public, and often by teachers themselves, yet is vitally important.This book will be enlightening for any teacher who wishes to be more conscious of the many ways their language helps children acquire literacy skills and view the world, their peers, and themselves in new ways.

    It is for teachers who refuse to harden their hearts, because they love learners, learning, and the teaching life." - Parker J. Palmer [from the Introduction] Teachers choose their vocation for reasons of the heart, because they care deeply about their students and about their subject. But the demands of teaching cause too many educators to lose heart. Is it possible to take heart in teaching once more so that we can continue to do what good teachers always do -- give heart to our students?In The Courage to Teach, Parker Palmer takes teachers on an inner journey toward reconnecting with their vocation and their students -- and recovering their passion for one of the most difficult and important of human endeavors.

     Stories have the power to captivate listeners and to ignite their imaginations. Our brains crave stories - it's how history was recorded before people learned how to write - but what makes a great story? How can you create and deliver stories which keep your listeners transfixed? Based on Intensive Research on Brain Science, Storytelling, Screenwriting and Public Speaking I spent the last four years studying and evaluating thousands of speakers - some great ones, and others who (to put it mildly) needed a lot of help. I read over two hundred books on the art of public speaking, storytelling and screenwriting, attended countless seminars on the subject and devoured every piece of information I could get on the art of presenting. This book is the result of my intensive research. In it, you will find powerful storytelling and speaking techniques that are used by some of the world’s best speakers to help win audiences over to their way of thinking. If you want to master the art of public speaking, you must master the art of storytelling. In this book, you will discover the public speaking and storytelling techniques used by some of the best public speakers in the world. More specifically, you will learn how to: •Create an opening that instantly hooks your audience into your speech •Keep your audience on the edge of their seats with a spellbinding story •Use the suspended story to keep your audience intrigued •Bring your characters to life •Turn your stories into mental movies for your audience •Create and deliver a speech your audience will remember and talk about for years •Keep ratcheting up the suspense by increasing the intensity of your conflicts •Customize your speech (and your story) for your audience •Add organic humor to your speeches and stories without resorting to jokes •Use anchors to make your points memorable •Use tough-watch logic to inspire your audience •Create smooth transitions to ensure your speech flows logically •Create analogies and metaphors to make your message memorable •Give your audience dialogue to build rapport with them •Add a you-focused check-in to relate with your audience •Use vocal variety to spice up your speech •Create a memorable and repeatable catch-phrase using “the rule of opposites” •Add credibility to your speeches and stories •Take an element out of your story and put it into your audience’s lives •Creatively summarize your main points •Tell a story and deliver a speech that your audience will remember and talk about for years What Makes This Book Different? This book is unlike most books on the subjects of public speaking and storytelling.

    Christensen is recognized as one of the country's finest teachers. Her latest book shows why. Through story upon story, Christensen demonstrates how she draws on students' lives and the world to teach poetry, essay, narrative, and critical literacy skills. Teaching for Joy and Justice reveals what happens when a teacher treats all students as intellectuals, instead of intellectually challenged. Part autobiography, part curriculum guide, part critique of today's numbing standardized mandates, this book sings with hope -- born of Christensen's more than 30 years as a classroom teacher, language arts specialist, and teacher educator. Practical, inspirational, passionate: this is a must-have book for every language arts teacher, whether veteran or novice. In fact, Teaching for Joy and Justice is a must-have book for anyone who wants concrete examples of what it really means to teach for social justice.