Tune Up Your Teaching And Turn On Student Learning

Two teaching experts offer methods for maximizing student comprehension in all areas of education—with extensive research and practical examples. All teachers want their students to think, learn, and understand. In this helpful guide, veteran educators Dr. JoAnn Jurchan and Dr. Chuck Downing examine what successful teachers are doing—and not doing—to achieve those goals. Often without realizing it, many teachers provide students ways to complete their assignments with minimal effort or comprehension. The problem is how to avoid the “TMI” trap—because Too Much Information can stifle critical thinking. Tune Up Your Teaching provides clear and detailed methods teachers can use to raise the level of both thinking and learning in their classrooms. Written in a conversational style, Jurchan and Downing use concrete examples in all core areas of education. To clarify critical points, the authors include “He Said She Said” dialogues providing insight into their thought process. Neither a “cookbook” nor a “one size fits all” solution, Tune Up Your Teaching instead describes a research-based process that can be personally tailored by any teacher to her or his situation.

Teachers want their students to think, learn, and understand. Some teachers are more successful than others in achieving those goals. Two veteran educators provide a clear and detailed description of how to help teachers change their methods and raise the level of both thinking and learning in their classrooms.

What is understanding and how does it differ from knowledge? How can we determine the big ideas worth understanding? Why is understanding an important teaching goal, and how do we know when students have attained it? How can we create a rigorous and engaging curriculum that focuses on understanding and leads to improved student performance in today's high-stakes, standards-based environment? Authors Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe answer these and many other questions in this second edition of Understanding by Design. Drawing on feedback from thousands of educators around the world who have used the UbD framework since its introduction in 1998, the authors have greatly revised and expanded their original work to guide educators across the K-16 spectrum in the design of curriculum, assessment, and instruction. With an improved UbD Template at its core, the book explains the rationale of backward design and explores in greater depth the meaning of such key ideas as essential questions and transfer tasks. Readers will learn why the familiar coverage- and activity-based approaches to curriculum design fall short, and how a focus on the six facets of understanding can enrich student learning. With an expanded array of practical strategies, tools, and examples from all subject areas, the book demonstrates how the research-based principles of Understanding by Design apply to district frameworks as well as to individual units of curriculum. Combining provocative ideas, thoughtful analysis, and tested approaches, this new edition of Understanding by Design offers teacher-designers a clear path to the creation of curriculum that ensures better learning and a more stimulating experience for students and teachers alike.

Learn how approaching assessment through the lens of social and emotional learning can help ensure fair, equitable assessment; enhance learning; and improve students' emotional health.

The moment is right for critical reflection on what has been assumed to be a core part of schooling. In Ungrading, fifteen educators write about their diverse experiences going gradeless. Some contributors are new to the practice and some have been engaging in it for decades. Some are in humanities and social sciences, some in STEM fields. Some are in higher education, but some are the K-12 pioneers who led the way. Based on rigorous and replicated research, this is the first book to show why and how faculty who wish to focus on learning, rather than sorting or judging, might proceed. It includes honest reflection on what makes ungrading challenging, and testimonials about what makes it transformative. CONTRIBUTORS: Aaron Blackwelder Susan D. Blum Arthur Chiaravalli Gary Chu Cathy N. Davidson Laura Gibbs Christina Katopodis Joy Kirr Alfie Kohn Christopher Riesbeck Starr Sackstein Marcus Schultz-Bergin Clarissa Sorensen-Unruh Jesse Stommel John Warner

The author of "Stories of the Courage to Teach" now scrutinizes powerful times of inspiration in a high school classroom and reveals how to make these special moments happen more often.

Learn what a flipped classroom is and why it works, and get the information you need to flip a classroom. You’ll also learn the flipped mastery model, where students learn at their own pace, furthering opportunities for personalized education. This simple concept is easily replicable in any classroom, doesn’t cost much to implement, and helps foster self-directed learning. Once you flip, you won’t want to go back!

An authoritative guide for improving teaching, learning, and literacy in content area classrooms This book introduces teachers to the Disciplinary Literacy instructional framework developed by the Institute for Learning, University of Pittsburgh. Grounded in the Principles of Learning developed by acclaimed educator Lauren Resnick, the framework is designed to prepare students, grades 6 and up, to master the rigorous academic content learning required for college success. Unlike 'generic' teaching models, the framework is specifically tailored for each of the content disciplines. Highly practical, the book shows teachers how to integrate literacy development and thinking practices into their routine content instruction, with separate chapters devoted to math, science, history, and English/language arts. The book also shows how school instructional leaders can support teachers in learning and using this instructional approach. Offers an innovative approach for improving literacy, thinking, and content learning in secondary students Includes detailed instructional guidance plus numerous classroom examples of lessons, dialogs, and teaching routines Features chapters on each of the content areas-math, science, language arts, and social sciences Provides leadership guidance in implementing the method Foreword written by internationally acclaimed educator and cognitive scientist Lauren Resnick