Rethinking Rubrics in Writing Assessment


Maja Wilson - 2006
    But sometimes it's better to be unconventional. In Rethinking Rubrics in Writing Assessment, Maja Wilson offers a new perspective on rubrics and argues for a better, more responsive way to think about assessing writers' progress.Though you may sense a disconnect between student-centered teaching and rubric-based assessment, you may still use rubrics for convenience or for want of better alternatives. Rethinking Rubrics in Writing Assessment gives you the impetus to make a change, demonstrating how rubrics can hurt kids and replace professional decision making with an inauthentic pigeonholing that stamps standardization onto a notably nonstandard process. With an emphasis on thoughtful planning and teaching, Wilson shows you how to reconsider writing assessment so that it aligns more closely with high-quality instruction and avoids the potentially damaging effects of rubrics.Stop listening to the conventional wisdom, and turn instead to a compelling new voice to find out why rubrics are often replaceable. Open Rethinking Rubrics in Writing Assessment and let Maja Wilson start you down the path to more sensitive, authentic style of writing assessment.

We Got This.: Equity, Access, and the Quest to Be Who Our Students Need Us to Be


Cornelius Minor - 2018
    You want to make everything about reading or math. It's not always about that. At school, you guys do everything except listen to me. Y'all want to use your essays and vocabulary words to save my future, but none of y'all know anything about saving my now.In We Got This Cornelius Minor describes how this conversation moved him toward realizing that listening to children is one of the most powerful things a teacher can do. By listening carefully, Cornelius discovered something that kids find themselves having to communicate far too often. That my lessons were not, at all, linked to that student's reality.While challenging the teacher as hero trope, We Got This shows how authentically listening to kids is the closest thing to a superpower that we have. What we hear can spark action that allows us to make powerful moves toward equity by broadening access to learning for all children. A lone teacher can't eliminate inequity, but Cornelius demonstrates that a lone teacher can confront the scholastic manifestations of racism, sexism, ableism and classism by showing:exactly how he plans and revises lessons to ensure access and equity ways to look anew at explicit and tacit rules that consistently affect groups of students unequally suggestions for leaning into classroom community when it feels like the kids are against you ideas for using universal design that make curriculum relevant and accessible advocacy strategies for making classroom and schoolwide changes that expand access to opportunity to your students We cannot guarantee outcomes, but we can guarantee access Cornelius writes. We can ensure that everyone gets a shot. In this book we get to do that. Together. Consider this book a manual for how to begin that brilliantly messy work. We got this.

Rules in School: Teaching Discipline in the Responsive Classroom


Kathryn Brady - 2003
    With many examples from their own classrooms, three experienced teachers offer practical techniques to help you: * Establish clear expectations for behavior from day one* Teach students how to articulate their learning goals for school* Create classroom rules that connect to students' goals* Use techniques such as interactive modeling to teach positive behavior* Reinforce positive behavior with supportive teacher language* Quickly stop misbehavior* Restore positive behavior so that children retain their dignity and continue learning* Reinforce positive behavior with supportive teacher language

Classroom Management in the Digital Age: Effective Practices for Technology-Rich Learning Spaces


Heather Dowd - 2019
    Information accessibility grows while attention spans shrink. Media is king and yet teachers are expected to effectively harness it for learning while also managing the distractions technology tools bring. Keeping up with the times while keeping time-wasters and senseless screen staring down is new and difficult territory for the most seasoned educator.Don't fear the devices! In the willing teacher's hands, this is a new and welcome age to harness for exponential learning. It is a frontier where technology equipped teachers learn alongside students and utilize current tools to maximize collaboration, creativity, and communication in relevant ways. Classroom Management in the Digital Age guides and supports established and transitioning device-rich classrooms, providing practical strategy to novice and expert educators K-12. Update your own operating system for the digital age by Getting attention from those device focused facesEstablishing procedures for daily class routines that harness the power of technology toolsCultivating a culture of student ownership and responsibilityDeveloping routines that increase on-task behavior and lessen teacher anxietyCommunicating with parents on best practices and consistent school to home behaviorsDecreasing distraction with simple, helpful tipsLetting go of being the expert and taking charge by partnering in learningClassroom Management in the Digital Age offers teachers competency and confidence. If you have devices in your classroom already or if you're moving towards implementing tablets, iPads, Chromebooks, or any other device, Classroom Management in the Digital Age will partner with you in creating relevant classrooms where learning rules.

Restorative Circles in Schools: Building Community and Enhancing Learning


Bob Costello - 2010
    The book includes numerous stories about the way circles have been used in many diverse situations, discussion on the use of proactive, responsive and staff circles, and an overview of restorative practices, with particular emphasis on its relationship to circle processes.

Tools for Teaching: Discipline, Instruction, Motivation. Primary Prevention of Classroom Discipline Problems


Fredric H. Jones - 2000
    Jones describes how highly successful teachers produce orderly, productive classrooms without working themselves to death. This program is the whole package - discipline, instruction and motivation - described in the down-to-earth language of "how to" with plenty of examples for guidance. You will learn how to decrease classroom disruptions, backtalk, dawdling and helpless hand raising while increasing responsible behavior, motivation, independent learning and academic achievement.Like previous editions, the 3rd edition of Tools for Teaching: Discipline, Instruction, Motivation describes the specific skills of classroom management that increase learning while reducing teacher stress. Taken together, these skills provide the synergy required for both the primary prevention of discipline problems and a dramatic increase in teaching efficiency and time-on-task.WHAT'S NEW IN THE 3RD EDITION?The 3rd Edition includes the latest research on both successful teaching practices and the neuropsychology of skill building, as well as two completely new chapters.Chapter 8: Say, See, Do Teaching, reviews the ground-breaking work of John Hattie, Ph.D. Dr. Hattie places the extensive outcome research regarding different teaching methodologies onto a common scale so that their effectiveness can be directly compared. Many of the sacred cows of education do not fair so well, whereas variations of Say, See Do Teaching do extremely well.Chapter 20: Teaching Skills Efficiently, reviews the latest finds of neuropsychology concerning the amount of work needed to create mastery. Once again Say, See, Do Teaching leads the way. This new research provides critical information for teachers when making decisions about how to teach a given lesson.