A Dominican-born academic tells the story of how the Great Books transformed his life—and why they have the power to speak to people of all backgrounds What is the value of a liberal education? Traditionally characterized by a rigorous engagement with the classics of Western thought and literature, this approach to education is all but extinct in American universities, replaced by flexible distribution requirements and ever-narrower academic specialization. Many academics attack the very idea of a Western canon as chauvinistic, while the general public increasingly doubts the value of the humanities. In Rescuing Socrates, Dominican-born American academic Roosevelt Montás tells the story of how a liberal education transformed his life, and offers an intimate account of the relevance of the Great Books today, especially to members of historically marginalized communities. Montás emigrated from the Dominican Republic to Queens, New York, when he was twelve and encountered the Western classics as an undergraduate in Columbia University’s renowned Core Curriculum, one of America’s last remaining Great Books programs. The experience changed his life and determined his career—he went on to earn a PhD in English and comparative literature, serve as director of Columbia’s Center for the Core Curriculum, and start a Great Books program for low-income high school students who aspire to be the first in their families to attend college. Weaving together memoir and literary reflection, Rescuing Socrates describes how four authors—Plato, Augustine, Freud, and Gandhi—had a profound impact on Montás’s life. In doing so, the book drives home what it’s like to experience a liberal education—and why it can still remake lives.

Learn how one boy struggles to work his way out of his family's cursed, bad luck by completing fun, challenging activities and lessons. This instructional guide for literature is the perfect tool to aid students in analyzing and comprehending this exciting story. Appealing and challenging cross-curricular lessons and activities were written to support this story and incorporate research-based literacy skills to help students become thorough readers. These lessons and activities work in conjunction with the text to teach students how to analyze and comprehend story elements in multiple ways, practice close reading and text-based vocabulary, determine meaning through text-dependent questions, and much more.

Paths to College and Career Jossey-Bass and PCG Education are proud to bring the Paths to College and Career English Language Arts (ELA) curriculum and professional development resources for grades 6–12 to educators across the country. Originally developed for EngageNY and written with a focus on the shifts in instructional practice and student experiences the standards require, Paths to College and Career includes daily lesson plans, guiding questions, recommended texts, scaffolding strategies and other classroom resources. Paths to College and Career is a concrete and practical ELA instructional program that engages students with compelling and complex texts. At each grade level, Paths to College and Career delivers a yearlong curriculum that develops all students' ability to read closely and engage in text-based discussions, build evidence-based claims and arguments, conduct research and write from sources, and expand their academic vocabulary. Paths to College and Career's instructional resources address the needs of all learners, including students with disabilities, English language learners, and gifted and talented students. This enhanced curriculum provides teachers with freshly designed Teacher Guides that make the curriculum more accessible and flexible, a Teacher Resource Book for each module that includes all of the materials educators need to manage instruction, and Student Journals that give students learning tools for each module and a single place to organize and document their learning. As the creators of the Paths ELA curriculum for grades 6–12, PCG Education provides a professional learning program that ensures the success of the curriculum. The program includes: Nationally recognized professional development from an organization that has been immersed in the new standards since their inception. Blended learning experiences for teachers and leaders that enrich and extend the learning. A train-the-trainer program that builds capacity and provides resources and individual support for embedded leaders and coaches. Paths offers schools and districts a unique approach to ensuring college and career readiness for all students, providing state-of-the-art curriculum and state-of-the-art implementation.

Paths to College and Career Jossey-Bass and PCG Education are proud to bring the Paths to College and Career English Language Arts (ELA) curriculum and professional development resources for grades 6–12 to educators across the country. Originally developed for EngageNY and written with a focus on the shifts in instructional practice and student experiences the standards require, Paths to College and Career includes daily lesson plans, guiding questions, recommended texts, scaffolding strategies and other classroom resources. Paths to College and Career is a concrete and practical ELA instructional program that engages students with compelling and complex texts. At each grade level, Paths to College and Career delivers a yearlong curriculum that develops all students' ability to read closely and engage in text-based discussions, build evidence-based claims and arguments, conduct research and write from sources, and expand their academic vocabulary. Paths to College and Career's instructional resources address the needs of all learners, including students with disabilities, English language learners, and gifted and talented students. This enhanced curriculum provides teachers with freshly designed Teacher Guides that make the curriculum more accessible and flexible, a Teacher Resource Book for each module that includes all of the materials educators need to manage instruction, and Student Journals that give students learning tools for each module and a single place to organize and document their learning. As the creators of the Paths ELA curriculum for grades 6–12, PCG Education provides a professional learning program that ensures the success of the curriculum. The program includes: Nationally recognized professional development from an organization that has been immersed in the new standards since their inception. Blended learning experiences for teachers and leaders that enrich and extend the learning. A train-the-trainer program that builds capacity and provides resources and individual support for embedded leaders and coaches. Paths offers schools and districts a unique approach to ensuring college and career readiness for all students, providing state-of-the-art curriculum and state-of-the-art implementation.

Strengthen programs of family and community engagement to promote equity and increase student success! When schools, families, and communities collaborate and share responsibility for students′ education, more students succeed in school. Based on 30 years of research and fieldwork, the fourth edition of the bestseller School, Family, and Community Partnerships: Your Handbook for Action, presents tools and guidelines to help develop more effective and more equitable programs of family and community engagement. Written by a team of well-known experts, it provides a theory and framework of six types of involvement for action; up-to-date research on school, family, and community collaboration; and new materials for professional development and on-going technical assistance. Readers also will find: Examples of best practices on the six types of involvement from preschools, and elementary, middle, and high schools Checklists, templates, and evaluations to plan goal-linked partnership programs and assess progress CD-ROM with slides and notes for two presentations: A new awareness session to orient colleagues on the major components of a research-based partnership program, and a full One-Day Team Training Workshop to prepare school teams to develop their partnership programs. As a foundational text, this handbook demonstrates a proven approach to implement and sustain inclusive, goal-linked programs of partnership. It shows how a good partnership program is an essential component of good school organization and school improvement for student success. This book will help every district and all schools strengthen and continually improve their programs of family and community engagement.

A triumphant tale of a young woman and her difficult childhood, The Glass Castle is a remarkable memoir of resilience, redemption, and a revelatory look into a family at once deeply dysfunctional and wonderfully vibrant. Jeannette Walls was the second of four children raised by anti-institutional parents in a household of extremes.