The book is divided into three parts: Out of the Gate contains easy ideas to help you get started, More Reasons to Write shows you how to teach across genre, both fiction and nonfiction writing, and Refining Writing addresses everything you need to know about revision, grammar, punctuation, and assessment. In every chapter you'll find two running features: 1) “Try This”, ready-to-use lessons for you and your students; and 2) “Yeah But” where Barry answers the real questions and concerns he's collected from teachers around the country.

    In most subjects, the majority of twelfth-grade Black students do not have even a "partial mastery" of the skills and knowledge that the authoritative National Assessment of Educational Progress calls "fundamental for proficient work" at their grade. No Excuses marshals facts to examine the depth of the problem, the inadequacy of conventional explanations, and the limited impact of Title I, Head Start, and other familiar reforms. Its message, however, is one of hope: Scattered across the country are excellent schools getting terrific results with high-needs kids. These rare schools share a distinctive vision of what great schooling looks like and are free of many of the constraints that compromise education in traditional public schools. In a society that espouses equal opportunity we still have a racially identifiable group of educational have-nots—young African Americans and Latinos whose opportunities in life will almost inevitably be limited by their inadequate education. When students leave high school without high school skills, their futures—and that of the nation—are in jeopardy. With successful schools already showing the way, no decent society can continue to turn a blind eye to such racial and ethnic inequality.

    Prone to fantasy and unruffled by inconsistency, preschool children are frequently baffled by the first lessons of early schooling. Trained to gently resist the child's illogic, teachers sometimes create just the incomprehension and anxiety they mean to avoid. In Wally's Stories, Vivian Paley shows that none of this need be so.Wally's Stories is itself a story: the story of the evolution of a kindergarten classroom in which Paley learned to stop fighting childish fantasy and instead make use of it to stimulate the very best brand of thinking her five-year-olds can muster. Stories also lie at the heart of her classroom: stories that are first told by one of the children, then transcribed by the teacher, and then acted out by the class in dramatic productions of their own design. Paley shows that in the course of creating their own dramatic world, five-year-olds are capable of thought and language far in advance of what they accomplish in traditional classroom exercises. The children's stories also become a vehicle that they can use to explain themselves to their teacher and to one another. Together, teacher and children develop an unusual environment, one that is logical and literate, based on rules of fairness, friendship, and fantasy.Vivian Paley's book is as refreshing as her teaching method--a new kind of book about a new kind of classroom.

    But what does quality mean? What does it look like in real classrooms? It looks like the teaching in this book. -Steven Zemelman, Harvey Smokey Daniels, and Arthur Hyde Best Practice is back, and with it Steve Zemelman, Smokey Daniels, and Arthur Hyde invite you to greet today's most important educational challenges with proven, state-of-the-art teaching. Linguistic diversity, technology, Common Core, high-stakes testing-no matter the hurdle, Best Practice teaching supports powerful learning across our profession. Best Practice , Fourth Edition, is the ultimate guide to teaching excellence. Its framework of seven Best Practice Structures and cutting-edge implementation strategies are proven across the grades and subject areas. BP4 creates common ground for teachers, leaders, and principals by recommending practices drawn from the latest scientific research, professional consensus, and the innovative classrooms of exemplary teachers.BP4 puts top-quality teaching at the fingertips of individual practitioners by sharing real-life instructional scenes that define classroom excellence, increase learning, and improve students' life opportunities. It's also more valuable than ever to PLCs and school reform initiatives thanks to:plans and strategies for exceeding state and Common Core Standards cohesive principles and common language that strengthen professional collaboration classroom vignettes that show teachers and kids at work chapters on reading, writing, math, science, and social studies that support unified instructional goals special attention to technology in the classroom, special education, ELLs, struggling readers, and the arts. This new educational era demands highly-effective, high-quality instruction that makes a difference for students. Fortunately with Zemelman, Daniels, and Hyde's help every educator can be a world-class, life-changing teacher-a Best Practice teacher.

    Understanding Youth bridges the gap between adolescent development theory and practice.Nakkula and Toshalis explore how factors such as social class, peer and adult relationships, gender norms, and the media help to shape adolescents’ sense of themselves and their future expectations and aspirations.

    Most Christians believe God doesn’t care, one way or the other, how our children are schooled or what methods are employed. This book will use Scripture to prove otherwise. What you read in this book will radically challenge your assumptions and preconceived ideas. - Discover the true purpose of an education and how this affects and influences students - Explore a truly Biblical philosophy of education and how it compares to traditional schooling - Learn to apply a Biblical worldview strategically and systematically to core subjects of education There is almost no topic that is as relevant to the future of Christianity or as controversial as the education of children. Students in school classrooms spend thousands of hours being instructed by people who are not their parents. There is almost no way to calculate what a powerful force this is for influence. From rules to help students reason to information that will help you be a more effective teacher, this book shows the vital importance of “why” in asking students to learn the “what” and “how” of any subject. The future of your child’s education and, therefore, his or her life is ultimately in your hands as a parent. Open your mind and your heart to God’s Word and His truth. Much is at stake. Ask Him to give you discernment to help you understand how He sees the issue of education.

    Moss and Susan M. Brookhart contend that improving student learning and achievement happens in the immediacy of an individual lesson--what they call today's lesson--or it doesn't happen at all.The key to making today's lesson meaningful? Learning targets. Written from students' point of view, a learning target describes a lesson-sized chunk of information and skills that students will come to know deeply. Each lesson's learning target connects to the next lesson's target, enabling students to master a coherent series of challenges that ultimately lead to important curricular standards.Drawing from the authors' extensive research and professional learning partnerships with classrooms, schools, and school districts, this practical book- Situates learning targets in a theory of action that students, teachers, principals, and central-office administrators can use to unify their efforts to raise student achievement and create a culture of evidence-based, results-oriented practice. - Provides strategies for designing learning targets that promote higher-order thinking and foster student goal setting, self-assessment, and self-regulation. - Explains how to design a strong performance of understanding, an activity that produces evidence of students' progress toward the learning target. - Shows how to use learning targets to guide summative assessment and grading. Learning Targets also includes reproducible planning forms, a classroom walk-through guide, a lesson-planning process guide, and guides to teacher and student self-assessment.What students are actually doing during today's lesson is both the source of and the yardstick for school improvement efforts. By applying the insights in this book to your own work, you can improve your teaching expertise and dramatically empower all students as stakeholders in their own learning.

    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!

    "Basics of Web Design: HTML5 and CSS3, 2e "covers the basic concepts that web designers need to develop their skills: Introductory Internet and Web concepts Creating web pages with HTML5 Configuring text, color, and page layout with Cascading Style Sheets Configuring images and multimedia on web pages Web design best practices Accessibility, usability, and search engine optimization considerations Obtaining a domain name and web host Publishing to the Web

    But it is also the planning, the thinking, the writing, the journey: all I've been putting into my teaching for the last two decades. This is the book I wanted when I was first given ninth graders and a list of novels to teach. This is a book of vision and hope and joy, but it is also a book of genre units and minilessons and actual conferences with students." -Penny Kittle What makes the single biggest difference to student writers? When the invisible machinery of your writing processes is made visible to them. "Write Beside Them "shows you how to do it. It's the comprehensive book and DVD that English/language arts teachers need to ensure that teens improve their writing. Across genres, Penny Kittle presents a flexible framework for instruction, the theory and experience to back it up, and detailed teaching information to help you implement it right away. Each section of "Write Beside Them "describes a specific element of Kittle's workshop:Daily writing practice: writer's notebooks and quick writes Instructional frameworks: minilessons, organization, conferring, and sharing drafts Genre work: narrative, persuasion, and writing in multiple genres Skills work: grammar, punctuation, and style Assessment: evaluation, feedback, portfolios, and grading. All along the way, Kittle demonstrates minilessons that respond to students' immediate needs, and her Student Focus sections profile and spotlight how individual writers grew and changed over the course of her workshop. In addition, "Write Beside Them" provides a study guide, reproducibles, writing samples from Penny and her students, suggestions for nurturing your own writing life, and a helpful FAQ. Best of all, the accompanying DVD takes you right inside Penny's classroom. Its video clips explicitly model how to make the process of writing accessible to all kids. Penny Kittle's active coaching and can-do attitude alone will energize your teaching and inspire you to write with your students. But her strategies, expert advice, and compelling in-class video footage will help you turn inspiration into great teaching. Read "Write Beside Them "and discover that the most important influence for all young writers is their teacher. Write Beside Them debuts as the field's most comprehensive, contemporary, and practical book on high school writing. Kittle not only tells how a skillful writing teacher operates, she shows you on the accompanying DVD, with clips of kids at work in every stage of a writing workshop. And all this glorious teaching happens with real, sometimes struggling kids who remind us of our own classrooms and students. Write Beside Them "is the whole package." -Harvey Daniels Author of "Content-Area Writing" and "Subjects Matter" Click here to view a sample video from the DVD.

    Gathered from the latest research on dyslexia along with early practices which have been overlooked in the test-intensive school environment, a successful dyslexia tutor shares the tools of her trade because she believes that it's a crime to let bright children grow up illiterate!

    In his new book, Well Spoken, veteran teacher and education consultant Erik Palmer shares the art of teaching speaking in any classroom. Teachers will find thoughtful and engaging strategies for integrating speaking skills throughout the curriculum. Palmer stresses the essential elements of all effective oral communication, including: • Building a Speech: Audience, Content, Organization, Visual Aids, and Appearance • Performing a Speech: Poise, Voice, Life, Eye Contact, Gestures, and Speed • Evaluating a Speech: Creating Effective Rubrics,  Guiding Students to ExcellenceWell Spoken contains a framework for understanding the skills involved in all effective oral communication, offers practical steps and lesson ideas that any teacher needs to successfully teach speaking in a variety of situations—from classroom discussions to  formal presentations—and includes a set of tools for students—from how to grab the audience’s attention to how to use emphatic hand gestures and adjust speed for effect.Discover why, year after year, students returned to Palmer’s classroom to thank him for teaching them how to be well spoken. You may find, after reading this book, that you have become a better speaker, too.

    Marzano provides an in-depth exploration of what he calls one of the most powerful weapons in a teacher's arsenal. An effective standards-based, formative assessment program can help to dramatically enhance student achievement throughout the K-12 system, Marzano says. Drawing from his own and others' extensive research, the author provides comprehensive answers to questions such as these:* What are the characteristics of an effective assessment program?* How can educators use national and state standards documents as a basis for creating a comprehensive, topic-based assessment system?* What types of assessment items and tasks are best suited to measuring student progress in mastering information, mental procedures, and psychomotor procedures?* Why does the traditional point system used for scoring often lead to incorrect conclusions about a student's actual knowledge?* What types of scoring and final grading systems provide the most accurate portrayal of a student's progress along a continuum of learning?In addition to providing teachers with all the tools they need to create a better assessment system, Classroom Assessment and Grading That Work makes a compelling case for the potential of such a system to transform the culture of schools and districts, and to propel K-12 education to new levels of effectiveness and efficiency.

    With equal parts humanity, insanity, and profanity, Frank Stepnowski, a twenty year veteran of the academic wars, offers unique insight into a world everybody knows about but very few understand. "Step" as he was re-christened by his students, pulls no punches in the classroom, and takes no prisoners in his writing debut. The title, which comes from a line that the author heard many times throughout his career, is both a confession and a confirmation. "I wanted a book," he explains, "that would make people laugh out loud but also open their eyes to just how insane the teaching profession can get. With that in mind, the book is a riotous success, providing searing insight into the classroom and giving an iconoclastic voice to a profession that often goes unheard. Why Are All the Good teachers Crazy? is a wake up call for some, a rallying cry for others, and an invitation to laugh and learn for everyone.Based on actual events, the vivid imagery, colorful characters, and incendiary dialogue of this nuclear powered novel will take readers on a roller coaster ride that they will be talking about long after the ride is over.

    This book is about making those encounters as compelling as we can make them." -Harvey "Smokey" Daniels and Steven ZemelmanWe are specialists to the bone-in science, math, social studies, art, music, business, and foreign language. But now, the Common Core and state standards require us to help our students better understand the distinctive texts in our subject areas. "Nobody's making us into reading teachers," write Smokey Daniels and Steve Zemelman, "but we must become teachers of disciplinary thinking through our students' reading."If this shift sounds like a tough one, Subjects Matter, Second Edition is your solution. Smokey and Steve, two of America's most popular educators, share exactly what you need to help students read your nonfiction content closely and strategically: 27 proven teaching strategies that help meet-and exceed-the standards how-to suggestions for engaging kids with content through wide, real-world reading a lively look at using "boring" textbooks motivating instruction that's powered by student collaboration specifics for helping struggling readers succeed.Subjects Matter, Second Edition enables deep, thoughtful learning for your students, while keeping the irreverent, inspiring heart that's made the first edition indispensable. You'll discover fresh and re-energized lessons, completely updated research, and vibrant vignettes from new colleagues and old friends who have as much passion for their subjects as you do."We'll be using methods particular to our fields as well as engaging reading materials that help students understand and remember our content better," write Smokey and Steve. "We can realize that vision of the light going on in kids' heads and maybe fill them with enthusiasm about the amazing subject matter that we have to offer. Sound good? Let's get to work." Read a sample chapter from Subjects Matter, Second Edition.