Publisher description

Drawing on her neurology expertise and classroom experience, author Judy Willis examined decades of learning-centered brain research to determine what information was most valid and relevant for educators. The result is a comprehensive and accessible guide for improving student learning based on the best the research world has to offer. Willis takes a reader-friendly approach to neuroscience, describing how the brain processes, stores, and retrieves material and which instructional strategies help students learn most effectively and joyfully. You will discover how to captivate and hold the attention of your students and how to enhance their memory and test-taking success. You will learn how to know when students are ready for learning and when their brains need a rest. You will also learn how stress and emotion affect learning and how to improve student engagement. And you will find innovative techniques for designing assessments and adjusting teaching practices to ensure that all students reach their potential. No matter what grade or subject you teach, Research-Based Strategies to Ignite Student Learning will enrich your repertoire of teaching strategies so you can help students reach their full academic potential.

Read-i-cide: The systematic killing of the love of reading, often exacerbated by the inane, mind-numbing practices found in schools. Reading is dying in our schools. Educators are familiar with many of the factors that have contributed to the decline, poverty, second-language issues, and the ever-expanding choices of electronic entertainment. In this provocative book Readicide: How Schools are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It , author and teacher Kelly Gallagher suggests it is time to recognize a new and significant contributor to the death of reading: our schools. Readicide , Gallagher argues that American schools are actively (though unwittingly) furthering the decline of reading. Specifically, he contends that the standard instructional practices used in most schools are killing reading by:Valuing standardized testing over the development of lifelong readersMandating breadth over depth in instructionRequiring students to read difficult texts without proper instructional support and insisting students focus on academic textsIgnoring the importance of developing recreational readingLosing sight of authentic instruction in the looming shadow of political pressuresReadicide provides teachers, literacy coaches, and administrators with specific steps to reverse the downward spiral in reading-;steps that will help prevent the loss of another generation of readers.

Teaching isn't merely transmitting knowledge to students; it’s also about teaching students to approach learning in engaging and unexpected ways. In Sparking Student Creativity: Practical Ways to Promote Innovative Thinking and Problem Solving, author and researcher Patti Drapeau explores and explains research related to creativity and its relevance in today’s standards-based, critical thinking–focused classroom. The book vividly and comprehensively shows * How creative lessons can meet and extend the expectations of curriculum standards such as the Common Core State Standards, * How to incorporate creativity and assessment into daily classroom practices, * How to develop a "Creativity Road Map" to guide instruction, and * How to design lessons that prompt and support creative thinking. In addition, the book includes 40 “grab and go” ideas that infuse lesson plans with a spirit of exploration. No matter what grade levels or content areas you teach, Sparking Student Creativity will help you to produce creative lesson components that directly address critical content, target specific standards, and require thoughtful products from students as they grow into independent learners and become successful students and adults.

Thanks to unprecedented advances in brain science, we know more about the brain today than ever before. But what does that science tell us about how we learn? How can we capture the power of neuroscience research so that it benefits our students? Judy Willis and Malana Willis answer these questions with clarity and insight, translating recent research on the brain and learning into understandable concepts and practical strategies to use across the curriculum, spanning all grade levels from preK through postsecondary. In this revised and expanded edition of the bestselling Research-Based Strategies to Ignite Student Learning, readers will learn how to * Arouse students' curiosity and interest in pursuing wide-ranging topics, including those they might typically find boring. * Counteract the negative effects of stress, boredom, and frustration on memory. * Defuse undesirable behaviors that are the result of the brain's natural "fight/flight/freeze" response. * Incorporate the motivating characteristics of video gaming—including clear goals, achievable challenges, predictions, and continual feedback—into classroom learning. * Break through stereotypes that deter students from reaching their full potential. * Use the power of neuroscience research to develop students' executive function skills, such as focus, prioritization, organization, collaboration, critical analysis, and innovation. Willis and Willis describe how the brain converts a vast amount of sensory input into long-term memory and durable understanding, and how educators can use this knowledge to guide students to more successful experiences in school and beyond.

This resource provides an action plan for understanding what a student knows and how to build from it. It shows teachers how to integrate formative assessment, student metacognition, and motivational strategies to make goal setting an integral instructional strategy. It weaves research and case studies with practical strategies to demonstrate how goal setting, with clear learning intentions and scaffolded teacher support, can lead to high learning growth and student agency.

"Drawing on Christine Sleeter's review of research on the academic and social impact of ethnic studies commissioned by the National Education Association, this book will examine the value and forms of teaching and researching ethnic studies. The book employs a diverse conceptual framework, including critical pedagogy, anti-racism, Afrocentrism, Indigeneity, youth participatory action research, and critical multicultural education. The book provides cases of classroom teachers to 'illustrate what such conceptual framework look like when enacted in the classroom, as well as tensions that spring from them within school bureaucracies driven by neoliberalism.' Sleeter and Zavala will also outline ways to conduct research for 'investigating both learning and broader impacts of ethnic research used for liberatory ends'"--

The authors of Igniting Your Teaching with Educational Technology are here to reduce the stress of learning how to use technology in the first few years of teaching. As fellow educators, we understand the challenges you may experience and have written this textbook to support you in your learning. Ultimately, we want you to be to navigate the waters of educational technology without it becoming an additional burden on top of everything else on your plate as a preservice or first-year teacher. We have over one-hundred years of combined, total teaching experience, in various capacities, grade levels, and content areas. Igniting Your Teaching with Educational Technology addresses six core themes that are of great significance when using technology in one's teaching. * Chapter 1: Classroom Management explores classroom management tools for classrooms of all ages of students. * Chapter 2: Learning Management Systems discusses learning management systems that are likely to be central in your student teaching experience and as a first-year teacher. * Chapter 3: Assessing Learning addresses measuring student learning using technology, using both formative and summative approaches. * Chapter 4: Collaboration Tools outlines tools you can utilize with your students as well as your colleagues and professors to contribute to the creation of a resource together. * Chapter 5: Selection of Educational Technology describes how preservice teachers can select technological tools and applications for various experiences and situations they may encounter as teachers. * Chapter 6: Professional Development via Social Media provides information regarding how to use social media to network with other teachers as well as to grow professionally as an educator.

Thanks to unprecedented advances in brain science, we know more about the brain today than ever before. But what does that science tell us about how we learn? How can we capture the power of neuroscience research so that it benefits our students? Judy Willis and Malana Willis answer these questions with clarity and insight, translating recent research on the brain and learning into understandable concepts and practical strategies to use across the curriculum, spanning all grade levels from preK through postsecondary. In this revised and expanded edition of the bestselling Research-Based Strategies to Ignite Student Learning, readers will learn how to * Arouse students' curiosity and interest in pursuing wide-ranging topics, including those they might typically find boring. * Counteract the negative effects of stress, boredom, and frustration on memory. * Defuse undesirable behaviors that are the result of the brain's natural "fight/flight/freeze" response. * Incorporate the motivating characteristics of video gaming—including clear goals, achievable challenges, predictions, and continual feedback—into classroom learning. * Break through stereotypes that deter students from reaching their full potential. * Use the power of neuroscience research to develop students' executive function skills, such as focus, prioritization, organization, collaboration, critical analysis, and innovation. Willis and Willis describe how the brain converts a vast amount of sensory input into long-term memory and durable understanding, and how educators can use this knowledge to guide students to more successful experiences in school and beyond.

American higher education needs a major reframing of student learning outcomes assessment Dynamic changes are underway in American higher education. New providers, emerging technologies, cost concerns, student debt, and nagging doubts about quality all call out the need for institutions to show evidence of student learning. From scholars at the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA), Using Evidence of Student Learning to Improve Higher Education presents a reframed conception and approach to student learning outcomes assessment. The authors explain why it is counterproductive to view collecting and using evidence of student accomplishment as primarily a compliance activity. Today's circumstances demand a fresh and more strategic approach to the processes by which evidence about student learning is obtained and used to inform efforts to improve teaching, learning, and decision-making. Whether you're in the classroom, an administrative office, or on an assessment committee, data about what students know and are able to do are critical for guiding changes that are needed in institutional policies and practices to improve student learning and success. Use this book to: Understand how and why student learning outcomes assessment can enhance student accomplishment and increase institutional effectiveness Shift the view of assessment from being externally driven to internally motivated Learn how assessment results can help inform decision-making Use assessment data to manage change and improve student success Gauging student learning is necessary if institutions are to prepare students to meet the 21st century needs of employers and live an economically independent, civically responsible life. For assessment professionals and educational leaders, Using Evidence of Student Learning to Improve Higher Education offers both a compelling rationale and practical advice for making student learning outcomes assessment more effective and efficient.