The themes of attending to individual needs, providing assessment-driven instruction, and creating long-term, focused professional development plans are solid and consistent throughout.

How can schools develop a shared vision that embraces the aspiration of all members of the school community? How can members of a learning community work together to build the knowledge and processes needed for student success? This book describes a professional development model that supports educators and families in learning and growing together. It offers a theoretical framework and practical guidance for renewing the capacity of schools to produce positive results for all children. * Part I: Cornerstones discusses concepts, assumptions, and leadership qualities of an effective school-based staff development model. * Part II: Process presents lively case studies and activities that show how to build professional learning communities. It describes strategies to help teams engage in meaningful dialogue and discovery. * Part III: Tools for Learning is filled with practical, field-tested staff development tools that complement the process of building school-based professional learning communities. This book embraces principles of collegiality, inquiry, learning, and community. It is written by practitioners for practitioners in the hope that collegial learning will be a renewing force in schools during these times of change. Note: This product listing is for the Adobe Acrobat (PDF) version of the book.

In the third edition of Learning by Doing: A Handbook for Professional Learning Communities at Work®, authors Richard DuFour, Rebecca DuFour, Robert Eaker, Thomas W. Many, and Mike Mattos provide educators with a comprehensive, bestselling guide to transforming their schools into professional learning communities (PLCs). In this revised version, contributor and Canadian educator Karen Power has adapted the third edition for Canadian educators, emphasizing how Canadian educators can effectively improve learning for each student across their unique and widely diverse provinces and territories. Rewritten so that the scenarios, research, and language appropriately meet the needs of Canadian educators, this version is packed with real-world strategies and advice that will assist readers in transforming their school or district into a successful PLC.

Discover how to effectively use technology to support students' literacy development. New classroom uses for technology are introduced in this easy-to-use resource that help educators enhance students' attention, engagement, creativity, and collaboration in reading and learning. Great for struggling readers, this book provides strategies for making content-area connections and using digital tools to develop reading comprehension.

This practitioner resource and course text has given thousands of K-12 teachers evidence-based tools for helping students--particularly those at risk for reading difficulties--understand and acquire new knowledge from text. The authors present a range of scientifically validated instructional techniques and activities, complete with helpful classroom examples and sample lessons. The book describes ways to assess comprehension, build the skills that good readers rely on, and teach students to use multiple comprehension strategies flexibly and effectively. Each chapter features thought-provoking discussion questions. Reproducible lesson plans and graphic organizers can be downloaded and printed in a convenient 8 1/2" x 11" size. New to This Edition *Chapters on content-area literacy, English language learners, and intensive interventions. *Incorporates current research on each component of reading comprehension. *Discusses ways to align instruction with the Common Core State Standards. *Additional instructional activities throughout.

Building Online Learning Communities further explores the development of virtual classroom environments that foster a sense of community and empower students to take charge of their learning to successfully achieve learning outcomes. This is the second edition of the groundbreaking book by Rena Palloff and Keith Pratt and has been completely updated and expanded to include the most current information on effective online course development and delivery. A practical, hands-on guide, this resource is filled with illustrative case studies, vignettes, and examples from a wide variety of successful online courses. The authors offer proven strategies for handling challenges that include: Engaging students in the formation of an online learning community. Establishing a sense of presence online. Maximizing participation. Developing effective courses that include collaboration and reflection. Assessing student performance. Written for faculty in any distance learning environment, this revised edition is based on the authors many years of work in faculty development for online teaching as well as their extensive personal experience as faculty in online distance education. Rena M. Palloff and Keith Pratt share insights designed to guide readers through the steps of online course design and delivery.

Provides specific information on how to transform schools into results-oriented professional learning communities, describing the best practices that have been used by schools nationwide.

Student learning communities (SLCs) are more than just a different way of doing group work. Like the professional learning communities they resemble, SLCs provide students with a structured way to solve problems, share insight, and help one another continually develop new skills and expertise. With the right planning and support, dynamic collaborative learning can thrive everywhere. In this book, educators Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, and John Almarode explain how to create and sustain student learning communities by - Designing group experiences and tasks that encourage dialogue; - Fostering the relational conditions that advance academic, social, and emotional development; - Providing explicit instruction on goal setting and opportunities to practice progress monitoring; - Using thoughtful teaming practices to build cognitive, metacognitive, and emotional regulation skills; - Teaching students to seek, give, and receive feedback that amplifies their own and others' learning; and - Developing the specific leadership skills and strategies that promote individual and group success. Examples from face-to-face and virtual K–12 classrooms help to illustrate what SLCs are, and teacher voices testify to what they can achieve. No more hoping the group work you're assigning will be good enough—or that collaboration will be its own reward. No more crossing your fingers for productive outcomes or struggling to keep order, assess individual student contributions, and ensure fairness. Student Learning Communities shows you how to equip your students with what they need to learn in a way that is truly collective, makes them smarter together than they would be alone, creates a more positive classroom culture, and enables continuous academic and social-emotional growth.

Studies of effective teaching practices have continued to validate the need for explicit and systematic instruction in basic reading skills, and Bill Honig uses this research to shed new light on an old problem—how to help all students become fluent readers. Teaching Our Children to Read grows out of the experiences of scores of dedicated teachers and their success in the classroom. This book explores current research from the leading experts in the field, and presents new instructional strategies that bring all students to higher levels of literacy. Highlights from Teaching Our Children to Read include: • Phonics instruction and fluency • Connected practice with decodable text • Multisyllabic word instruction • Spelling, vocabulary, and concept development • Strategic reading, book discussions, and text organization • Literacy benchmarks, assessment, and intervention This is an essential resource for educators, administrators, policymakers, and parents concerned about how to successfully teach our children to read. Teaching Our Children to Read points the way to implementing the best research-based practices in adopting reading materials, training teachers, and providing the necessary school leadership.

'The authors provide practical approaches to literacy instruction that are desperately warranted. They offer a prescription for using strategies, selecting text, making home-school connections, and building learning communities aimed at benefiting all students. In short, this is a text that is long overdue' - Alfred W. Tatum, Assistant Professor, Northern Illinois UniversityMake literacy meaningful in your classroom for students of all cultures.This book will allow teachers to use innovative strategies to promote engaged, inclusive literacy, and raise their students' appreciation for the cultural diversity in their own classroom communities. This resource celebrates awareness of individual, ethnic, cultural, linguistic, and economic diversity, and addresses all aspects of studies within the context of culturally responsive teaching. Tried-and-tested by teachers, each strategy is differentiated to help teachers to individualize and accommodate special needs students.50 Literacy Strategies for Culturally Responsive Teaching addresses all aspects of language arts, reading, writing, speaking, and listening, and integrates math, science, and social studies, all within the context of culturally responsive teaching. Ways to include families and community members further strengthen the strategic effectiveness.The six major themes of this text cluster a wealth of easily adapted and implemented strategies around:- Classroom community- Home, community, and nation- Multicultural literature events- Critical media literacy- Global perspectives and literacy development- Inquiry learning and literacy learningThis invaluable resource will allow every teacher to transform the classroom culture to one in which all cultures are valued and literacy becomes meaningful to all.