Every teacher knows the challenge of trying to engage reluctant readers and struggling writers—students whose typical response to a writing prompt is a few sentence fragments scribbled on a sheet of paper followed by an elaborate shrug of the shoulders. The best way to engage less confident readers and writers is to give them something powerful to think about. The Discourse and Writing Cycle explores writing as a means to focus student thinking, fuel deeper learning, and build complex understanding in English, social studies, math, and science. This field-tested approach from well-respected experts Eleanor Dougherty, Laura Billings, and Terry Roberts is designed for use in grades 4–12. The book explores the three interrelated sequences of the cycle—the Discourse Sequence, the Transition to Writing Sequence, and the Writing Sequence—and includes classroom examples and sample lesson plans from across the content areas. The cycle will inspire you as a teacher and help you to inspire your students to write with confidence and competence. “How often we dim or extinguish the creative sparks that can come from good writing! William Butler Yeats proclaimed that ‘Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.’ This book lights the fire for the teaching of writing.” —John Hattie, author of the Visible Learning books

In this groundbreaking new book, Richard Gentry clears the fog that has long shrouded early literacy development and illuminates beginning reading instruction with major new insights from decades of research. Gentry's unifying, comprehensive theory shows how reading and writing develop in fi ve phases:

A revolutionary approach to writing that will teach you how to express yourself fluently and with confidence for the rest of your life.

Follow along as this New York Times bestselling author details the astonishing scientific discovery of the code to unleashing the human immune system to fight in this "captivating and heartbreaking" book (The Wall Street Journal). For decades, scientists have puzzled over one of medicine's most confounding mysteries: Why doesn't our immune system recognize and fight cancer the way it does other diseases, like the common cold? As it turns out, the answer to that question can be traced to a series of tricks that cancer has developed to turn off normal immune responses -- tricks that scientists have only recently discovered and learned to defeat. The result is what many are calling cancer's "penicillin moment," a revolutionary discovery in our understanding of cancer and how to beat it. In The Breakthrough, New York Times bestselling author of The Good Nurse Charles Graeber guides readers through the revolutionary scientific research bringing immunotherapy out of the realm of the miraculous and into the forefront of twenty-first-century medical science. As advances in the fields of cancer research and the human immune system continue to fuel a therapeutic arms race among biotech and pharmaceutical research centers around the world, the next step -- harnessing the wealth of new information to create modern and more effective patient therapies -- is unfolding at an unprecedented pace, rapidly redefining our relationship with this all-too-human disease. Groundbreaking, riveting, and expertly told, The Breakthrough is the story of the game-changing scientific discoveries that unleash our natural ability to recognize and defeat cancer, as told through the experiences of the patients, physicians, and cancer immunotherapy researchers who are on the front lines. This is the incredible true story of the race to find a cure, a dispatch from the life-changing world of modern oncological science, and a brave new chapter in medical history.

Breakthrough to Meaning is exactly what teachers are looking for: a resource full of new, thoughtful strategies that help children interact with texts in deeper, more authentic ways. - Donald H. Graves I especially liked the emphasis on teacher demonstration and how teachers challenged children to broaden their perspectives and to develop an understanding of other points of view. - Carol Avery What if there were a single literacy strategy that helped learners of all ages across all contexts read critically, write reflectively, think deeply - and, yes, even improve their performance on standardized reading and writing assessments? There is. It's called the subtext strategy, and in Breakthrough to Meaning, you'll find out how it can help children improve in virtually every aspect of their learning. The power of the subtext strategy is its ability to use numerous entryways into learning - including not only reading and writing but also art and drama - to bridge the multiple literacies kids bring to school and the demands of conventional print. It's a fresh, manageable way to work depth and breadth into literacy instruction while building students' skills and abilities in important areas such as critical literacy, reading and writing narratives or persuasive essays, media literacy, and standardized testing. Subtexting leads children to explore different perspectives, helping them understand characters, authors, and situations, even ones quite unlike their own. They'll also learn to think and write in more informed and sensitive ways as they respond to an audience's needs, making Breakthrough to Meaning ideal for tackling a variety of genres, including on-demand writing. Breakthrough to Meaning's smart, specific, and easy-to-implement subtext-based reading, writing, and thinking lessons address the major needs of the contemporary classroom. It includes practical instructional strategies, links to national content standards, vignettes of teachers and students using subtexting, techniques for improving the assessment and instruction of English language learners through subtexting, as well as graphic organizers, charts, and compelling examples of student work. Breakthrough to Meaning is a novel and practical across-the-curriculum resource that improves students' abilities to make meaning, respond to texts, and write in powerful ways.

As a boy, Raun Kaufman was diagnosed by multiple experts as severely autistic, with an IQ below 30, and destined to spend his life in an institution. Years later, Raun graduated with a degree in Biomedical Ethics from Brown University and has become a passionate and articulate autism expert and educator with no trace of his former condition. So what happened? Thanks to The Son-Rise Program, a revolutionary method created by his parents, Raun experienced a full recovery from autism. (His story was recounted in the best-selling book Son-Rise: The Miracle Continues and in the award-winning NBC television movie Son-Rise: A Miracle of Love.) In Autism Breakthrough, Raun presents the ground-breaking principles behind the program that helped him and thousands of other families with special children. Autism, he explains, is frequently misunderstood as a behavioral disorder when, in fact, it is a social relational disorder. Raun explains what it feels like to be autistic and shows how and why The Son-Rise Program works. A step-by-step guide with clear, practical strategies that readers can apply immediately—in some cases, parents see changes in their children in as little as one day—Autism Breakthrough makes it possible for these special children to defy their original often-very-limited prognoses. Parents and educators learn how to enable their children to create meaningful, caring relationships, vastly expand their communications, and to participate successfully in the world. An important work of hope, science, and progress, Autism Breakthrough presents the powerful ideas and practical applications that have already changed the lives of families all over the world.

"A clear and insightful look at why teaching must be conceived as constant learning about learning. The analysis of past failed reforms and the general conditions needed for success is well-stated and illuminating." —Grant Wiggins Authentic Education Redesign classroom instruction to transform learning for both students and teachers! Breakthrough presents a revolutionary new approach to educational reform, breaking away from the conventional paradigm to help educators create focused instruction, transform the classroom experience, and dramatically raise—and sustain—performance levels for students and teachers alike. This book provides the breakthrough concepts needed for developing precise, validated, data-driven instruction personalized to each and every student. Synthesizing the best of current instructional models, this framework focuses on the components of the Triple P Breakthrough Model: Personalization—meaningful, student-centered classroom interactions; Precision—using formative assessments to monitor individual student progress; and Professional Learning—daily, ongoing learning for all educators. Helping educators create expert instructional systems while breaking through the "prescription trap," the authors introduce unique elements of the Breakthrough model, including: Improvement by design Assessment for learning Critical learning instructional paths Mapping instructional paths Smart use of data to drive instruction Locking in ongoing improvement Breakthrough establishes the tipping point for moving toward personalized, high-quality instruction and learning in the classroom to ensure continuous improvement and ongoing academic success.

The former National Director of Education for Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics. presents his do-it-yourself program for increasing reading speed and boosting comprehension. This program distills fundamental principles and skills chat can be learned at home with the help of the drills and exercises provided. And because it lets readers choose their own materials and set their own pace, it's the ideal method for busy people juggling a full schedule.