This book shows you how to teach K-12 students to work in pairs and groups more effectively, so that true collaboration can happen in the classroom. Coming from their experience in social work and classroom teaching, Christina M. Krantz and Laura Gullette Smith explain the problems that can occur with traditional Think-Pair-Share models and offer refreshing solutions. They provide practical strategies to help students build collegial peer relationships, learn to share tasks, and hold deeper discussions. Each chapter offers useful strategies that you can implement immediately. This book includes an invaluable appendix of resources that the authors share when leading workshops, as well as rubrics, agendas, and classroom tools designed with the strategies covered in each chapter in mind.

A proven method for better teaching, better learning, and better test scores! This teacher-friendly book presents a step-by-step approach for implementing the Explicit Direct Instruction (EDI) approach in diverse classrooms. Based on educational theory, brain research, and data analysis, EDI helps teachers deliver effective lessons that can significantly improve achievement all grade levels. The authors discuss characteristics of EDI, such as checking for understanding, lesson objectives, activating prior knowledge, concept and skills development, and guided practice, and provide: Clearly defined lesson design components Detailed sample lessons Easy-to-follow lesson delivery strategies Scenarios that illustrate what EDI techniques look like in the classroom

Fresh, creative strategies guaranteed to enliven online training 101 Ways to Make Learning Active Beyond the Classroom provides proven, practical strategies, activities, and tips for those tasked with facilitating training in any subject area among alternative settings. Based on the best-selling Active Training approach, these methods have been designed by recognized experts, and are guaranteed to enliven any learning event. Readers will find a toolkit of ready-to-use exercises and tips for organizing, conducting, and delivering active learning, in alternative settings on the job or around the world. The book is organized in a way that allows trainers to quickly and easily identify strategies that hold the most promise for specific situations. Each strategy is illustrated with a case example that demonstrates the concepts in action. Two hundred tips organized in twenty how-to lists will prove invaluable for using Twitter, coaching virtually, encouraging informal learning, opening interactive virtual learning sessions, and much more. Coverage includes best practices for social media and informal learning, common e-learning tools, as well as guidance toward using a full gamut of tools from gamification and simulation to serious games and m-learning. Active training encourages participants to use their brains to study ideas, solve problems, and apply what they've learned. It's a fast-paced, fun, supportive, and personally engaging environment. This book shows training facilitators the proven techniques that help learners get more out of the material. Design a more engaging learning environment Improve delivery with optimized technology Utilize effective learning tools and practical strategies Learn best practices for social media, coaching, virtual learning, and more Learners need to figure things out by themselves, ask questions, practice skills, and transfer skills and knowledge to the job. With proven strategies designed by industry leaders, 101 Ways to Make Learning Active Beyond the Classroom is the indispensable guide to the design and delivery of effective alternative ways to learn.

In the wake of initiatives such as No Child Left Behind and the use of high-stakes testing, the emphasis in schools has been on drill and practice for the test. Genuine understanding and critical thinking have been increasingly shortchanged. As a result, students have fewer opportunities to advance their insight into cognitive and emotional challenges, even though both teachers and parents recognize the importance of developing deliberative and reflective thinking skills. This book uniquely combines two things. First, it provides resources for classroom teachers in grades 3 – 6 that make it possible for them, at a moment’s notice, to take advantage of a teachable moment by drawing students into productive intellectual discussions. Second, it gives the reader an overview of the rationale and the research base for engaging students in educational activities that are truly intellectual and that are not limited to training for testing success.

What are some lessons learned from the pandemic? We learned that, in times of crises, the humanitarian needs of students, families, and ourselves must be a top priority. We learned that forming effective partnerships with families and communities is essential to the health and well-being of our children. We were offered a blunt reminder that a system designed to serve the interests of a privileged few was destined to fail our historically underserved students, especially our millions of multilingual learners. Above all, we learned that the “normal” many of us have yearned for was never good enough—that we must envision a “better world,” where we build on our multilingual students’ unique assets and cultivate their inner brilliance. Only then will we deliver on their promise. It’s this “better world,” a world in which communities, schools, and classrooms work together as a “whole-child ecosystem,” Beyond Crises: Overcoming Linguistic and Cultural Inequities in Communities, Schools, and Classrooms sets out to create. Taking a look from the outside in, Debbie Zacarian, Margarita Calderón, and Margo Gottlieb address three critical arenas: 1. Imagining Communities describes how to design and enact strengths-based family and community partnerships, including the critical importance of identifying, valuing, and acknowledging each member’s assets and competencies, and the ways recent crises have amplified their struggles. 2. Imagining Schools takes an up-close look at policies, structures, and now irrelevant ways of schooling that call for change and how we might reconfigure professional development to ensure every teacher and administrator is dedicated to the well-being and success of our multilingual learners. 3. Imagining Classrooms demonstrates how to optimize learning opportunities—both virtual and face-to-face—so our diverse students grow cognitively, linguistically, and social-emotionally, and accentuate their talents in knowing and using multiple languages in linguistically and culturally sustainable environments. “Student and family, classroom, school, and local community are not silos unto themselves,” Debbie, Margarita, and Margo insist. “They are part of a larger whole that is interrelated and interconnected and, even, interdependent on each other. By forming stronger alliances, we can realize the power of truly working, socializing, and flourishing together.” Beyond Crises is the first critical step forward.

Collaborative teaching, or co-teaching, is a powerful way to support the learning of students with diverse learning needs. But how do you know when you’re doing it right? And if you’re not, what can you do about that? Authors Wendy W. Murawski and Wendy W. Lochner introduce the Collaborative Teaching Improvement Model of Excellence (CTIME), a continuous improvement model that embraces personalized professional learning to ensure that teachers meet the core competencies for co-teaching without burning out along the way. Incorporating a systematic application of collaborative groups, data analysis, microteaching, feedback, and collegial support, CTIME is the culmination of the best research in the field. As Murawski and Lochner walk you through their data-driven, no-fail model of co-teaching, you’ll learn about The CTIME process and how it works. Co-teaching core competencies measured schoolwide and at the classroom level. Assessment of progress toward mastery. Co-teaching action plans. Professional learning communities and schoolwide improvement. Co-teaching communities of practice and microteaching. Co-teaching facilitation, feedback, and reflection. Offering a practical approach to achieving mastery of the co-teaching core competencies, this book provides dozens of strategies, resources, and templates that can be used by district-level administrators, principals, and co-teaching teams. If you’re ready to examine your co-teaching practices to make sure you’re achieving the best possible outcomes for your students, then Beyond Co-Teaching Basics is for you.

This is a truly innovative and practical book which aims to support schools in rethinking where teaching and learning in primary science and technology should take place. The authors challenge how and where science is taught, so that teachers maximise the potential of the school environment to develop scientific skills and concepts, across all areas of science, not just the biological elements. This will entail changing the approach to science and technology in schools by reconsidering where scientific skills and concepts are taught.