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In this second edition of Independent Reading Inside the Box, Lisa Donohue shares what she has learned from the many teachers who have used her simple approach to reading response. Lisa describes how teachers can do even more to strengthen student comprehension, language and thinking skills. Full of new ways to monitor, assess and support students as they are actively engaged in their reading, the book remains committed to the premise that independent-reading time is purposeful and directly connected to classroom instruction.

The Essentials for Achieving Rigour series of instructional guides helps educators become highly skilled at implementing, monitoring and adapting instruction. Readers can put the guides to practical use immediately, adopting day-to-day examples as models for application in their own classrooms.

In Inside PLCs at Work, authors Craig Dougherty and Casey Reason take the readers on a journey to Sheridan County School District 2, a school network that has implemented the Professional Learning Community at Work process to great success, to provide an in-depth view of the vast benefits successful implementation can have. F-12 teachers and administrators will develop a thorough understanding of the PLC process by exploring its foundational concepts and qualities; learn about the successful implementation at Sheridan County School District 2; understand how to implement the PLC process in their own schools in a nuanced and meaningful fashion; utilise real-world examples to garner further insight into the PLC process; and gain helpful tools to guide their work during the PLC journey.

In Grading From the Inside Out, Tom Schimmer establishes that the time for grading reform is now. Traditional grading procedures no longer work due to vast changes in pedagogy and assessment. While F-12 teachers and administrators may feel hesitant about moving away from past practices or making profound changes in grading, and while it may be challenging, a change in grading to a standards-based mindset is essential for effective instruction and assessment. To help readers develop standards-based mindsets about grading, Schimmer proposes a grading paradigm based on a new approach to reporting student achievement.

Starting a movement helps to sustain and support the energy and purpose of schools as they transform into professional learning communities (PLCs). The authentic alignment model helps bridge the gulf between principles and practice to cultivate an environment where a PLC soars rather than stalls. Educators will learn to express, clarify and align their beliefs so that they are meaningful to teachers, staff and other stakeholders; create a maximum buy-in among all members of the school community; use the authors' authentic alignment model to help keep their actions aligned to their schools' mission and vision; and reinforce the researched, results-proven PLC within their school culture.

Based on extensive research, this highly readable book explores a wide range of recommended titles that cover a spectrum of developmental stages for readers of chapter books to young adult novels. It presents novels around popular themes and features guest voices that include innovative teachers, librarians, booksellers and students. Numerous activities and literacy events form the core of this valuable resource. Reproducible pages include response activities, reflection tools, assessment profiles and inventories for easy classroom use. Committed to nurturing the love of reading, the book invites readers to dig deeper in their understanding and appreciation of books by responding through writing, discussion, the arts, media and more.

Effective vocabulary instruction is particularly vital in the content areas, where the specialised language used by 'insiders' often creates a barrier to understanding for those new to the subjects. In Inside Words, Janet Allen merges recent research and key content-area teaching strategies to show teachers how to help students understand the academic vocabulary found in textbooks, tests, articles and other informational texts. The instructional tools in the book are presented alphabetically and offer support in these key areas: building background knowledge; teaching words that are critical to comprehension; providing guidance during reading and writing; developing a conceptual framework; and assessing students' understanding of words and concepts.

This comprehensive textbook introduces readers to the most influential theories and models of reading and literacy, ranging from behaviourism and early information-processing theories to social constructionist and critical theories. Focusing on how these theories connect with different curricular approaches to literacy instruction (preschool to Year 12), the author shows how they both shape and are shaped by everyday literacy practices in classrooms. Readers are invited to explore detailed vignettes that offer a practice-based view of theories as they are brought to life in the classroom. This book devotes substantial attention to linguistically and culturally diverse classrooms and 21st-century technologies.

Welcome to Mary Cowhey's Peace Class, where Year 1 and Year 2 students view the entire curriculum through the framework of understanding the world and trying to do their part to make it a better place. Woven through the book is Mary's unflinching and humorous account of her own roots in a struggling Irish Catholic family and her early career as a community activist. Her students learn to make connections between their lives, the books they read, the community leaders they meet and the larger world. If you find yourself limited by teach-to-the-test pressures, this is the book that will make you think hard about how you spend your time with students.

You may be able to design creative, compelling lessons. But if your classroom is chaotic or its inhabitants are disrespectful, your students will not be learning well. And you will be anywhere from dissatisfied to miserable! Kim Campbell knows the ins and outs of classroom management. She's a real, live, practising middle years teacher with a great gift of humour, a straight-talking approach and a parade of 12- to 15-year-old culturally mixed students to keep her honest. This is her story of what works, what doesn’t and what she’s learned from her students, parents and colleagues. In the manner of a teacher having a chat with another teacher, Kim shares strategies, stories and ideas for how to stop creating behaviour and management problems yourself, and more.

This set contains two of Tom Hierck's timeless resources: I Am the Future and What Do You Make? I Am The Future: A Book About Students and Those Who Teach Them reminds teachers that teaching is hard work, and will help them keep what is most important in mind as they approach each day: their students. What Do You Make? A Book for and About Teachers aims to inspire teachers and remind them of the connection they make to kids and how important this connection is. Every student needs a significant adult in school. As teachers, we have the best opportunity to fill this role. Teachers do make a difference.

Get past the knowing-doing gap with the practical tools and actionable steps in Standards-Based Learning in Action: Moving from Theory to Practice. Authors Tom Schimmer, Garnet Hillman and Mandy Stalets offer implementation practices and processes that rightly compare students' comprehension to performance standards instead of comparing them to each other. The approach also gives explicit guidance for separating behaviours from academics. Delve into the research or go directly to the action plans and effective communication strategies for talking to students and parents about the classroom changes that occur while transitioning to standards-based learning.