Creating Your Instructional Blueprint is a worktext designed to provide teachers with practical, research-based strategies to increase the likelihood of success in the classroom. This worktext is organized around four critical areas necessary for successful teaching: Starting the Year, Planning and delivering instruction, Monitoring learning and adjusting instruction, Enhancing Reading and Literacy Skills. New teachers, home-school teachers, and teachers returning after an absence will find valuable information in this text

Put your course online now, without sacrificing pedagogical quality Conquering the Content: A Blueprint for Online Course Design and Development, Second Edition is a highly practical guide to creating online courses. With guidance on incorporating learning theory into online course content, as well as a host of templates, learning guides, and sample files, this book furnishes instructors and instructional designers with the information and tools they need to design and develop their course content to better serve online students. This second edition introduces relevance statements and time-saving tips as well as content maps which provide a scaffold for content organization and help students anchor the topics in their memories for retrieval. Readers will gain expert insight and best practices for designing within the rapidly changing online learning environment and learn to incorporate recent advances that can improve student outcomes. Because the book is designed to focus on online teaching pedagogy, it won't go out of date as specific tools change. Nearly one-third of all students in higher education are taking at least one online class, and online hybrid classes are becoming more widespread. Distance learning is becoming the norm, but creating an online class is more complex than just posting course content on a website. Conquering the Content demonstrates how instructors can best revamp their course content to suit the online learning environment, and provides the tools and resources instructors need to transfer their effectiveness from the classroom to the online environment. Learn how to: Create student-friendly navigation structures that support what is known about the brain and learning Organize content based on priority, flow, and easy navigation Create assessments that work within the parameters of an online course "Chunk" information to facilitate better processing Time is of the essence in getting a course online, but it's important that pedagogy not get lost in the crush of new content. Course design is just as critical as course content when it comes to distance learning outcomes, and Conquering the Content provides a holistic and practical approach to effective online course development.

The Teaching Blueprint, makes teaching simple, pleasurable, and effective. It shows teachers what works best through the eyes of students and helps both avoid learning blocks. Its concepts and techniques are universal, spare the reader grueling theories, and help build effective teaching skills. With the Teaching Blueprint you will be able to: Prepare yourself mentally Know what makes a great teacher Connect with your students Understand the teaching process Begin your academic year correctly Prepare your students for lifelong learning Learn different teaching skills Evaluate progress Prevent or solve common problems Produce academic achievement

Designed to help K-5 teachers develop and implement a personalized plan for instruction in blended environments, this resource identifies key competencies and strategies for development.

This book familiarizes readers with course design elements; enables them to understand themselves as individuals and teachers; know their students; adapt to the learning environment; design courses that promote deep learning; and assess the impact of the teaching practices and design choices they have made. She provides tools to create a full syllabus, offers guidance on such issues as framing questions that encourage discussion, developing assignments with rubrics, and creating tests. The book is packed with resources that will help readers structure their courses and constitute a rich reference of proven ideas.

As technology continues to shift the educational landscape, most K-12 teachers' instructional strategies remain mostly unchanged. Discover how to enhance student learning in online and blended classrooms. This user-friendly resource offers direct guidance on the steps K-12 educators must take to facilitate online learning and maximize student growth using readily available digital tools. Each chapter includes suggestions, tips, and examples tied to pedagogical practices associated with learning online, so you can confidently and fully engage in the best practices with your students. Benefits Use technology tools like online classroom platforms and apps to foster digitally enhanced learning. Understand the benefits of learning online and its advantages over traditional real-world classrooms. Learn how to effectively facilitate digital learning experiences and organize the online learning space in a way that encourages comfort, motivation, and engagement. Study the challenges and opportunities teaching online offers. Gain strategies and examples to help initiate and sustain digital learning while engaging students. Contents Chapter 1: Understanding the Modality and the Moment Chapter 2: Planning Curriculum, Assessment, and Preinstruction Chapter 3: Preparing the Learning Experience Chapter 4: Initiating the Learning Experience Chapter 5: Maintaining the Momentum in the Learning Experience Chapter 6: Teaching Thoughtful Online Collaboration Chapter 7: Managing and Overcoming Toxic Conversations Chapter 8: Concluding the Learning Experience Concluding Thoughts

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.