Books & Resources

In Teaching for transfer: A guide for designing learning with real-world application, author Michael McDowell provides F–12 teachers with a road map for reconfiguring classroom instruction to ensure that students learn to expertly apply their knowledge and skills to different contexts. McDowell outlines three levels of complexity in learning – (1) surface, (2) deep and (3) transfer – and explains that while the foundational levels of surface and deep are essential and allow students to understand and relate ideas, transfer-level work is key; it involves the interdisciplinary problem-solving students need to practice to become creative, well-rounded citizens who can meet and overcome unexpected challenges.

Enhance your students’ learning strengths with this set of full-colour SRA3 posters. Imagine a school where the motto is ‘Here, everyone gets smart’. Not just some students. Every student. In Neurodevelopmental differentiation: Optimising brain systems to maximise learning, clinical psychologist Andrew Fuller and educator Lucy Fuller make teachers’ working lives easier and more effective by helping them to detect what might be stopping students from achieving more success. This set of eleven posters features: how to use learning strengths to build success; your learning strengths; where you can use your learning strengths; descriptions of each individual learning strength.

In Neurodevelopmental differentiation: Optimising brain systems to maximise learning, clinical psychologist Andrew Fuller and educator Lucy Fuller make teachers’ working lives easier and more effective by helping them to detect what might be stopping students from achieving more success. Each of the chapters in this book is designed to help teachers and parents identify young people’s learning strength areas as well as ways to improve functioning in each of the eight unique brain systems: spatial reasoning, perceptual and motor skills, concentration and memory, planning and sequencing, thinking and logic, people smarts, language and word smarts, and number smarts. Use the set of colourful posters to complement your instruction and your development of each student’s unique learning strengths.

In Success for our youngest learners: Embracing the PLC at Work® process at the early childhood level, author Barbara W Cirigliano provides guidance for preK educators seeking to improve their schools with the Professional Learning Community (PLC) at Work process. She details how the foundational ideas and concepts of a successful PLC can work for teachers of young children. Embracing the PLC process at the early childhood level gives teachers invaluable tools to drive dramatic improvement and ensure that all students receive the best possible start to their education.

Authors Robert D Barr and Emily L Gibson recognise that poor students’ success depends on a new vision for public education that confronts the traumatising effects of poverty. In Building the resilient school: Overcoming the effects of poverty with a culture of hope, they present a sweeping review of the state of poverty and its effects on students, families and school staff. The authors then consider the actions and results of select schools that are addressing their students’ needs and fighting the epidemic of 21st century poverty with resilience and hope. Using this book, F–12 educators and leaders will learn how to create resilient schools and give their students the foundations they need to break the poverty cycle and build hopeful futures.

The era of ‘fake’ news demands an approach to curriculum that encourages students to question inconsistencies of ideas and opinions represented in texts and images. This important book offers opportunities for students and teachers to reflect on the current political, social and cultural climate. It helps students connect with social justice issues through inventive language exploration and critical examination of all forms of media. It encourages teachers to evaluate their core teaching beliefs and acknowledge the realities of their students’ lives so that all can achieve a richer understanding of our complex world. Teaching fairly in an unfair world offers practical activities, useful resources and classroom techniques for helping students make sense of the world around them.

In The big book of tools for collaborative teams in a PLC at Work®, author William M Ferriter provides educators with an invaluable toolkit full of resources designed to strengthen the practice of collaborative teams. The tools in this book furnish collaborative teams with structures that can help them solve problems they will inevitably encounter. Clearly organised around the four critical questions of professional learning communities (PLCs), the book thoroughly explores the core practices that efficient teams must master, provides supplementary templates for extending that learning, and offers targeted support to navigate the challenges that collaborative teams face.

How can teachers learn from each other, build relationships and develop the knowledge and skills they need for more successful classrooms? Mentoring each other offers practical ways teachers can support each other as they reflect on their practice, implement new strategies and strive for teaching excellence. Teachers will learn how to explore new ways to collaborate and learn from each other in formal and informal situations. Designed to support a system that is seeing an increase in new teachers, this timely book demonstrates that a mentoring relationship can benefit both new and experienced teachers. Full of strategies that are practical and easy to implement, the book offers solutions to common questions, opportunities and challenges that face teachers every day.

The PLC at Work® model helps teachers around the world produce better outcomes for their students. But when it comes to putting theory into practice, many find themselves unsure of what to do in collaborative team meetings and how it all translates to the classroom. With Collaborative teams that work, leading PLC experts and authors Colin Sloper and Gavin Grift take the confusion out of the collaborative process for school leaders and educators. Whether your school is just starting out on its PLC journey or your team is ready to take student learning to the next level, this essential guide will bring clarity and focus to your team meetings and generate real results for the students you serve. Carry Colin and Gavin’s decades of experience into your next cycle of learning with Collaborative teams that work.