Books

Rev up robotics shows educators how to begin incorporating robotics in tandem with computational thinking into content area lessons or electives. Part 1 covers the basics, defining robotics and sharing real-world applications along with how to teach foundational skills for computational thinking and computer science. Part 2 shows robotics in practice within the context of content areas and features lesson plans mapped to academic and technology standards, including the ISTE Standards and the Computer Science Teacher Association Standards. Part 3 offers advice on pedagogy and teaching strategies backed by research from the learning sciences, and shares approaches to teaching robotics using project-based learning or as part of after-school clubs or robotics competitions.

Make the Future! Hands-On Sustainability Lessons for Years 7 and 8 is a resource for secondary classrooms that gives real meaning to the idea of sustainability. Created in line with the Australian Curriculum: Design and Technologies, this book empowers students to make a tangible difference to the environment - and their future. Make the Future! combines traditional skills and cutting-edge research to create authentic, purposeful activities that will show your students positive change is not just feasible - it is delicious, stylish, economical and fun!

In Best Practices at Tier 2: Supplemental Interventions for Additional Student Support, Secondary, authors Bob Sonju, Sharon V. Kramer, Mike Mattos and Austin Buffum offer Years 6-12 teachers proven response to intervention (RTI) strategies for responding to students who need additional support after core instruction. The authors explain that a school functioning as a professional learning community (PLC) is essential to effectively implementing RTI. Using this book, teachers and administrators will discover fundamental practices and tools to support students through a schoolwide, collaborative effort.

In NOW Classrooms, Grades 6-8, authors Meg Ormiston, Lauren Slanker, Jennifer Lehotsky, Megan K. Flaherty, Janice Conboy and Whitney Cavanagh stress that real transformational school change focuses on robust teaching and learning, not the ever-evolving devices that may enhance that change. This book presents practical, classroom-tested lessons that grades 6-8 teachers and instructional coaches can use to prime students to actively learn and solve real-world problems. Sets of topical lessons progressively increase in depth and complexity for readers to choose from based on students’ needs. Using these lessons, grounded in the essential four C skills, teachers can connect technology to key learning-area outcomes and prepare students to succeed in the 21st century.

Jacob's Ladder targets reading comprehension skills in high-ability learners by moving students through an inquiry process from basic understanding to critical analyses of text. Students in Years 7-8 will learn to comprehend and analyse any reading passage after completing the activities in Jacob's Ladder, Years 7-8 (2nd ed.). Using skill ladders connected to short stories, poetry and biographies, students move from lower-order, concrete thinking skills to higher-order, critical thinking skills. The ladders include multiple skills necessary for academic success, covering common English curricular goals such as sequencing, determining cause and effect, classifying, inferencing and recognising main ideas. The second edition includes new readings and ladders for students to use.

The Affective Jacob's Ladder Gifted Reading Comprehension Program uses a models approach to scaffold student learning and promote inquiry-based discussions of texts. This series of Jacob's Ladder books focuses specifically on supporting advanced students' social-emotional needs through the discussion of reading selections in the following genres: short stories and media, poetry, and speeches, essays and biographies. New ladders were specifically designed for this series and derived from relevant theories about empathy, risk and resilience, achievement motivation, and mindsets and practices for cultivating talent. The Affective Jacob's Ladder guides provide teachers with an explanation of the nature and substance of the theoretical constructs for each ladder.

Classrooms today include a diversity of readers, and teachers are called upon to meet the needs of all learners. In particular, they must help students think critically and communicate effectively using visual, print and digital text. Personalized Reading highlights four different types of readers - the struggling reader, the reluctant reader, English learners and advanced readers - and presents ways to use technology tools to accommodate their different reading styles. The strategies and classroom-ready ideas in this book will help secondary educators incorporate technology to promote reading, critical thinking and digital literacy.

Access to high-quality computer science (CS) instruction has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years. Thanks to this movement, more students start the middle years with some foundational knowledge of CS and coding. This new set of creative skills empowers students to express themselves in compelling ways, but students still need opportunities and support to develop and hone those skills. This book helps classroom teachers develop activities and projects to encourage computational thinking and coding skills, and to build bridges between those skills and practice. For maths, science, English and Humanities and Social Science teachers, the resources in this book provide guidance to start integrating coding into their classes to complement and strengthen existing instruction.

Jacob's Ladder targets reading comprehension skills in high-ability learners by moving students through an inquiry process from basic understanding to critical analyses of text. Students in Years 6-7 will learn to comprehend and analyse any reading passage after completing the activities in Jacob's Ladder, Years 6-7 (2nd ed.). Using skill ladders connected to short stories (picture books) and poetry, students move from lower-order, concrete thinking skills to higher-order, critical thinking skills. The ladders include multiple skills necessary for academic success, covering common English curricular goals such as sequencing, determining cause and effect, classifying, inferencing and recognising main ideas. The second edition includes new readings and ladders for students to use.

In Teaching the Best Practice Way, Harvey Daniels and Marilyn Bizar present seven basic teaching structures that make classrooms more active, experiential, collaborative, democratic and cognitive, while simultaneously meeting best practice standards across learning areas and throughout the year levels. Each chapter begins with an essay outlining one key method, providing its historical background and research results, and then describing the structure's vital features. The book shares new research studies that validate the principles and activities of best practice teaching, along with lists of recommended materials that support each of the seven methods.

How can teachers create a lively social network of literacy learning where talk is the foundation? How can classroom talk be encouraged and guided so that students become fluent and effective oral communicators? This book proposes everyday activities that will answer these questions and help literacy flourish. The authors recognise the important role "talk" plays in developing the reading and writing abilities that students need. The book offers strategies where oral language takes centre stage and is fostered through engaging activities in F-8 classrooms. Literacy Out Loud argues that listening and speaking, or talk, is at the heart of a vibrant classroom. It shows teachers how to nurture dynamic classroom talk that is essential in its own right and makes all learning possible.

Cultivating Readers introduces a six-step approach for nurturing and growing complete readers who have the will to read. This remarkable book shows how to create classrooms where students understand the value of reading, intimately know who they are as readers, and receive joy and pleasure from text. Based on extensive classroom experience, this practical resource explores six essential steps you need to build a powerful reading community by sharing your reading life, knowing your students, modelling the habits of a reader, making the WHY of reading visible, creating the space and nourishing the will. Cultivating Readers includes everything you need to take reading instruction beyond teaching the skills to addressing the will.