The Joyful Classroom

Students learn more—and with more joy—when lessons connect with their lives and interests while challenging them to stretch and grow. In this book, you'll find practical, ready-to-use strategies for creating active and exciting lessons. You'll learn about: Partnering and grouping students for optimum learning Using interactive learning structures such as Maître d' and Swap Meets to support active learning Incorporating acting, drawing, debating, and more into daily lessons while still meeting rigorous learning goals Infusing lessons with choices in what or how to learn to increase students ownership of their learning Incorporating student self-assessment tools to help children monitor and evaluate their own work and identify ways to improve their learning Filled with lesson plans, precise directions for interactive learning structures, planning guides, and more!

Discover motivating, personalized learning strategies that all of your students will love! Build an active, responsive, and inclusive classroom where every student benefits. Through step-by-step directions, reproducible handouts, classroom-tested examples, and specific guidelines, teachers and teacher teams will discover 60 activities to help you: Quickly and easily modify and adapt design instruction for diverse learners, including students with cultural, language, learning, physical, or sensory differences Transform lectures and whole-class discussions through dynamic, student-centered learning experiences Immerse students in discussion, debate, creative thinking, questioning, teamwork, and collaborative learning Flexibly co-plan and co-teach with a variety of school professionals The revised edition of this bestselling resource includes step-by-step directions, reproducible handouts, classroom-tested examples, and specific guidelines. Discover quick and easy ways to help all learners participate, contribute, and learn with this unique guide! "This book is a gold mine of strategies to increase engagement, participation, and JOY for all students in inclusive classrooms. The examples and implementation suggestions make is easy for K-12 teachers to select and apply strategies that make learning meaningful and fun." —Barb Gruber, Inclusion Facilitator Maryland Coalition for Inclusive Education "One of the many things I appreciate about this new edition is the range of its examples. Regardless of grade level or subject area, all K-12 teachers will find relevant gems here." —Kelly Chandler-Olcott, Associate Dean for Research Syracuse University

Students learn more, and with more joy, when offered intriguing lessons that connect with their lives and interests while challenging them to stretch and grow. This book provides ready-to-use strategies for creating active, exciting lessons; detailed directions for interactive learning structures; planning guides; and more!

"My wish," writes Berit Gordon, "is for there to be more joy and less struggle in a profession where people put in such tremendous effort and do such essential work." No matter what supports you might have in your school or district, you can take charge of your teacher growth and craft your own professional learning journey. The Joyful Teacherprovides a structure to help K-12 teachers across all content areas reflect on their professional development needs, set goals that work, and access practical strategies that will help them meet those goals. While anyone can pop in and pull out strategies for what's needed right now, the goals and strategies are organized in a progression to set teachers up for the most success and highest impact. Coaches and administrators will also find numerous ways to support the teachers they work with and help them feel and be effective. Each chapter begins with a self-assessment checklist to help you find which goal and strategy will be your entry point. Within each strategy you'll find step-by-step instructions, explanations for why and how the strategy works, a detailed "how to," supports and indicators to help you know if the idea is working, and references to help you continue exploring if you want to learn even more. Berit includes grade band suggestions and grade level modifications to help you make the strategy work best for you and your students. There is no "right" place to start and no goal that is more sophisticated or more important than any other. The Joyful Teacherhelps you prioritize what is most essential for what you need and choose goals and strategies that work for you and your students. Where will your journey begin?

The best-selling book of easy-to-implement classroom lessons from the world’s premier educational system—now available in paperback. Finland shocked the world when its fifteen-year-olds scored highest on the first Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a set of tests evaluating critical-thinking skills in math, science, and reading. That was in 2001; even today, this tiny Nordic nation continues to amaze. How does Finnish education—with short school days, light homework loads, and little standardized testing—produce students who match the PISA scores of other nations with more traditional “work ethic” standards? When Timothy Walker started teaching fifth graders at a Helsinki public school, he began a search for the secrets behind the successes of Finland’s education system. Highlighting specific strategies that support joyful K–12 classrooms and can be integrated with U.S. educational standards, this book, available in paperback for the first time, gathers what he learned and shows how any teacher can implement many of Finland's best practices. A new foreword by the author addresses the urgent questions of teaching, and living, in these pandemic times.

If you've ever wished that learning math could be more joyful and playful for young learners, you're not alone. In Joyful Math: Invitations to Play and Explore in the Early Childhood Classroom, kindergarten teacher Deanna Pecaski McLennan opens her classroom doors to share the practical, yet innovative ways she integrates mathematical play throughout the school day. Each chapter of this easy-to-navigate, photo-filled book focuses on specific strategies, activities and examples of mathematical play within literacy, art, and outdoor explorations. Inside Joyful Mathyou'll find: A photo guide, including suggested tools and materials, to setting up a classroom environment and space that fosters mathematical curiosity and joy Dozens of open-ended and teacher-guided mathematical activities that are simple to set up and full of mathematical possibility Practical tips for including mathematical play across the day Suggestions and examples of ways to document and share children's learning experiences with families and communities Joyful Math will inspire educators to make space for joy and play in early childhood mathematics and give them the tools to make this vision a reality.

About This Book: Joyful Literacy Interventions describes a research-based, comprehensive classroom intervention approach that promises over 90% literacy success for all children by the end of third grade when implemented in its entirety.The stage is set in a playful primary classroom learning environment. While play is critical in early learning classrooms where child development theories must prevail, vulnerable children need more than play. Play is simply not enough! This book is also about explicit skill instruction in preschool, kindergarten and first and second grade-as a top priority. What makes this book unique is that Janet describes how to implement a skill-mastery model invisibly in a play-based environment through games, play, inquiry and targeted small group instruction. Janet's passion and determination to make a difference for disadvantaged children shines through in Joyful Literacy Interventions. Her book is based on the most recent literacy research such as the NELP (National Early Literacy Panel, 2008) report, which is a meta-analysis of 500 exemplary literacy studies conducted in the last decade. This compelling research highlights the factors that have the most lasting effect on future reading success if implemented in the early years. Alphabetic principles, phonological awareness, shared reading and shared writing, rapid automatized naming, and use of children's names as a key instructional strategy are featured prominently.In Joyful Literacy Interventions Janet has merged the recommendations of the NELP Report with her 40 years of experiences as a primary teacher and administrator; her recent PhD in Language, Literacy and Early Learning and the experiences of 200 classroom sites where her approach was field-tested.She has designed a unique assessment and tracking system that facilitates skill development and differentiated instruction in the midst of a playful and inquiry-based learning center classroom. It elegantly provides the teacher with detailed data to inform daily instruction for small "like-need" groups. Vulnerable children get the "catch-up" instruction they require while feeling safe and happy. Janet describes how to joyfully implement play and the essential literacy skills so that vulnerable children will thrive in classroom-based interventions. The book weaves nine essential research-based components into practical classroom applications. Each chapter describes essential skills, concepts and experiences needed for literacy success for all children. Implemented together the result is a holistic classroom experience that promises literacy success for many disadvantaged children.The first seven chapters provide the reader with: Janet's wisdom that evolved over 40 years in her experiences as teacher, principal, superintendent and professor; a synopsis of the latest, persuasive research; key references to other popular authors; teacher implementation stories from Janet's pilot sites; hundreds of practical ideas for the reader to implement; and colored photos throughout the book that illustrate possibilities and results. The chapters' topics address: a dynamic classroom environment; assessment and tracking; the essential literacy skills; learning center design; word recognition; shared reading and writing; and involving families in practice literacy activities at home.Chapter 8 provides a checklist that describes the ideal classroom by listing the research-based criteria and observable indicators in a classroom when full implementation is achieved. Chapter 9 describes a district and a classroom case study from Janet's 200 pilot sites. Joyful Literacy Interventions weaves the essential components together into practical classroom applications that are already proving to be highly effective for disadvantaged children.This book is a "must-read" for advocates of vulnerable children.

Creating Joyful Classrooms is a practical response to the malaise in America’s schools created by high stakes testing, disrespect for the teaching profession, and resources being redirected to charter schools and private school vouchers. Classroom teachers feel helpless and students feel hapless. Joy has left the building. This book offers the antidote to return joy and passion to teaching and learning. Whether a beginning teacher or a seasoned veteran, this book shows the way back to timeless child-centered best practices that engage young children and increase academic achievement. As joyful classrooms multiply, their success will drive out the poisonous rancor of cynicism and despair to become beacons of hope for children everywhere. This book also makes the case for changing the status quo in the elementary school. The standard traditional grade school is failing to meet the needs of children growing up in the information age. Elementary schools must evolve into multi-grade, multi-dimensional safe havens that challenge children academically, while remembering to cherish childhood. Based upon the theory of invitational education, this book provides specific strategies, along with classroom management tools, to create highly engaging classrooms for young children. It also offers inspiring stories of heroic teachers who beat the odds to bring joy back to school. It’s not too late for a better tomorrow.