Engaging lessons with planning sheets and evaluation checklists to help students master the essentials of a short, focused writing assignment.

Shows you how to teach students to write well.

Interactive Writing is specifically focused on the early phases of writing, and has special relevance to prekindergarten, kindergarten, grade 1 and 2 teachers.

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.

Prompted to Writeoffers help for teachers who are preparing their students for "high stakes" writing tests. This book features fifteen in-depth and reproducible lesson units to help students develop proficiency in crafting essays in all subjects, building their vocabulary and reading comprehension skills, and assessing the quality of their written work. The lessons cover a variety of essay genres and are useful in preparing students for state-mandated writing tests, school entrance and exit exams, and the SAT. Each lesson includes guided pre-writing and planning activities and concludes with a timed writing task (complete with a revision/edition checklist) and a customized scoring guide. Student writing samples are provided along with extensive instructional and assessment guidance.

Weaving together the latest knowledge and best practices for teaching children to read, this indispensable text and professional resource provides a complete guide to differentiated instruction for diverse learners. Uniquely integrative, the book places the needs of English language learners and students with disabilities front and center instead of treating them as special topics. Accessible chapters on each of the core components of literacy clearly demonstrate how to link formal and informal assessment to evidence-based instruction. Special features include Research Briefs, Tech Tips, Internet Resources, Reflection and Action Questions, and dozens of reproducible student activities and assessment tools.