Purposeful Planning for Learning puts the passion and depth back into how teachers plan for learning in the primary classroom. Offering a unique perspective on what constitutes purposeful planning for learning, this book encourages a mindset where planning is integral to, supportive of and informed by learning, including learning that is social, emotional, physical and cognitive. Written by a variety of teacher educators and primary teachers, this book reconceptualises planning by focusing on different themes such as outdoor learning, assessment, questioning and inclusion, that all influence and inform planning. In each chapter, you can find: Voices of teachers and teacher educators The unpicking of practice and key terminology Vignettes that shed light on classroom life (examples from practice) and Opportunities for reflection (points to ponder) This cross-curricular resource provides aspirational, professional and practical insights into current issues that surround planning. It includes student and experienced qualified teacher insights which will serve as inspiration to support the reader in making real changes in their classroom.

The field of education has been and will continue to be essential to the survival and sustainability of the Black community. Unfortunately, over the past five decades, two major trends have become clearly evident in the Black community: (a) the decline of the academic achievement levels of Black students and (b) the disappearance of Black teachers, particularly Black males. Today, of the 3.5 million teachers in America’s classrooms (AACTE, 2010) only 8% are Black teachers, and approximately 2% of these teachers are Black males (NCES, 2010). Over the past few decades, the Black teaching force in the U.S. has dropped significantly (Lewis, 2006; Lewis, Bonner, Byrd, & James, 2008; Milner & Howard, 2004), and this educational crisis shows no signs of ending in the near future. As the population of Black students in K-12 schools in the U. S. continue to rise—currently over 16% of students in America’s schools are Black (NCES, 2010)—there is an urgent need to increase the presence of Black educators. The overall purpose of this edited volume is to stimulate thought and discussion among diverse audiences (e.g., policymakers, practitioners, and educational researchers) who are concerned about the performance of Black students in our nation’s schools, and to provide evidence-based strategies to expand our nation’s pool of Black teachers. To this end, it is our hope that this book will contribute to the teacher education literature and will inform the teacher education policy and practice debate.

Play is serious business. Whether it's reenacting a favorite book (comprehension and close reading), negotiating the rules for a game (speaking and listening), or collaborating over building blocks (college and career readiness and STEM), Kristi Mraz, Alison Porcelli, and Cheryl Tyler see every day how play helps students reach standards and goals in ways that in-their-seat instruction alone can't do. And not just during playtimes. "We believe there is play in work and work in play," they write. "It helps to have practical ways to carry that mindset into all aspects of the curriculum." In Purposeful Play, they share ways to: optimize and balance different types of play to deepen regular classroom learning teach into play to foster social-emotional skills and a growth mindset bring the impact of play into all your lessons across the day. "We believe that play is one type of environment where children can be rigorous in their learning," Kristi, Alison, and Cheryl write. So they provide a host of lessons, suggestions for classroom setups, helpful tools and charts, curriculum connections, teaching points, and teaching language to help you foster mature play that makes every moment in your classroom instructional. Play doesn't only happen when work is over. Children show us time and time again that play is the way they work. In Purposeful Play, you'll find research-driven methods for making play an engine for rigorous learning in your classroom.

In The Purposeful Planning Method, Matt East, one of the world's leading experts on productivityreveals how to spend more time on the projects, activities, and relationships that are most important and meaningful to you. If you've struggled with planning your day in the past, the problem isn't you. It's your system for planning. This book will teach you how to:Regain control of your timeBegin each day with clarity and purposeIdentify and achieve your most important priorities each dayAfter reading it, you will:Know exactly how to plan your day successfullyNever feel overwhelmed about your schedule againPerform at your peak every day Understand how the most successful people plan their timeReshape the way you think about planning and thrive in all areas of life!

The start point is your end-point: the learner. What kind of learner do you want to develop? What are the characteristics of an effective learner and how can we teach to support the development of these characteristics? If future employers are looking for people who can solve problems, think creatively and be innovative, what can we do, as part of our current curriculum provision to enable students to 'deliberately' practise this skill? If being intelligent is not, in fact, measured by your IQ score, and has far more to do with the ability to apply higher order thinking to unfamiliar contexts and create new solutions to existing problems, then what learning challenges can we design for Year 9 on a sunny Wednesday afternoon that will allow them to develop the emotional and intellectual resilience required to be able to do this? Full On Learning offers a range of tried & tested practical suggestions and ideas to construct the ideal conditions for the characteristics of effective learners to flourish. Shortlisted for the Education Resources Awards 2013, Secondary Resource - non ICT category and Educational Book Award category.

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.

This book "takes readers on a journey through many pathways to engaging and meaningful educational experiences. The text first discusses Perceptive Teaching and then explores five unique approaches to lesson planning: behaviorist, constructivist, aesthetic, ecological, and integrated social-emotional learning. Chapters end with a sample lesson that can be compared across approaches"--

In this practical guide, authors Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey offer a variety of strategies that K-12 teachers can use to craft effective, standards-based purpose statements, assignments, and tests across grade levels and content areas.

An essential resource for student and teacher clarity With the ever-changing landscape of education, teachers and leaders often find themselves searching for clarity in a sea of standards, curriculum resources, and competing priorities. Clarity for Learning offers a simple and doable approach to developing clarity and sharing it with students through five essential components: crafting learning intentions and success criteria co-constructing learning intentions and success criteria with learners creating opportunities for students to respond effective feedback on and for learning students and teachers sharing learning and progress The book is full of examples from teachers and leaders who have shared their journey, struggles, and successes for readers to use to propel their own work forward.

This volume is a research-based handbook demonstrating how to create and use standards based arts activities to teach across the content areas. This book establishes a constructive and reflective process (purposeful planning) designed to help teachers facilitate K-8 student understanding through arts-activity infusion across the curriculum. Throughout, readers will consider effective ways to use the arts across the standards-based classroom curriculum.