Many educators appreciate the value of interest-based learning, but struggle with the management and facilitation of individual and small-group projects in a limited space and time allocation. This easy-to-read guide: Features a step-by-step plan for managing Genius Hour, passion projects, Makerspaces, and more. Includes time-saving planning templates, checklists, and charts. Supports students' intrinsic motivation for learning, agency, voice, and problem-solving and critical thinking skills. Provides a systematic and practical approach to interest-based learning. Can be implemented and adapted by an individual teacher, department, or team. Chapters also include techniques for helping students identify their interests, frame their goals and questions, create project plans and timelines, self-assess their progress, and share their work with real-world audiences.

An innovative professional development strategy that facilitates change, improves instruction, and transforms school culture! Instructional coaching is a research-based, job-embedded approach to instructional intervention that provides the assistance and encouragement necessary to implement school improvement programs. Experienced trainer and researcher Jim Knight describes the "nuts and bolts" of instructional coaching and explains the essential skills that instructional coaches need, including getting teachers on board, providing model lessons, and engaging in reflective conversations. Each user-friendly chapter includes: First-person stories from successful coaches Sidebars highlighting important information A "Going Deeper" section of suggested resources Ready-to-use forms, worksheets, checklists, logs, and reports

Explains the theory and practice behind making a project-based system work.

It's no secret that in today's complex world, students face unparalleled demands as they prepare for college, careers, and active citizenship. However, those demands won't be met without a fundamental shift from traditional, teacher-centered instruction toward innovative, student-centered teaching and learning. For schools ready to make such a shift, project-based learning (PBL) offers a proven framework to help students be better equipped to tackle future challenges. Project Based Teachers encourage active questioning, curiosity, and peer learning; create learning environments in which every student has a voice; and have a mastery of content but are also comfortable responding to students' questions by saying, "I don’t know. Let's find out together." In this book, Suzie Boss and John Larmer build on the framework for Gold Standard PBL originally presented in Setting the Standard for Project Based Learning and explore the seven practices integral to Project Based Teaching: Build the Culture Design and Plan Align to Standards Manage Activities Assess Student Learning Scaffold Student Learning Engage and Coach For each practice, the authors present a wide range of practical strategies and include teachers' reflections about and suggestions from their classroom experiences. This book and a related series of free videos provide a detailed look at what's happening in PBL classrooms from the perspective of the Project Based Teacher. Let's find out together. A copublication of ASCD and Buck Institute for Education (BIE).

Learn how to connect your curriculum planning to children's interests and thinking. With this book, educators will discover a systematic way for using documentation to design curriculum that emerges from children's inquiries, what they wonder, and what they want to understand. Get strategies for designing a classroom environment at the start of the year to facilitate emergent inquiry curriculum. Each chapter guides teachers to document and reflect on their thinking through each of the five phases of a cycle of inquiry process, including observing, interpreting the meaning of the play they see, and developing questions to engage children.

SCROLL TO THE SUPPORT MATERIAL SECTION BELOW FOR COMPANION RESOURCES! I Is for Inquiry takes a unique approach to helping teachers in the elementary grades create lessons and sustain inquiry in their classrooms. This colorful, illustrated alphabet book explores 26 (including X and Z) key ideas and skills in inquiry-based teaching and learning, such as collaboration, dialogue, evidence, hypothesis, and scaffolding. Each short chapter: Summarizes one inquiry element that can be built into students' experiences. Uses straightforward language and examples. Includes a classroom vignette and suggestions for using the concept. Shares selected references and related Internet-based resources. Helps teachers build self-confidence about teaching through inquiry. This book will serve as a familiar and fun resource for busy teachers at any point in their careers. Using the inquiry vocabulary and repertoire of concepts, teachers can build curriculum and share ideas with colleagues, making inquiry in the classroom as approachable as ABC!

This practical book provides teachers with step-by-step guidance for developing a class culture that welcomes curiosity and ignites social action. Student-driven inquiry has a lasting impact on learning, yet questions posed from students’ own contexts rarely serve to shape their understanding of the outside world. The authors show teachers how to use literature to introduce characters and worlds that exist outside of their students’ lived experiences. Through this exposure, students can develop questions that seek to build empathy for others, which ultimately positions young people to be change agents in their communities and in the larger world. This book translates ideas from theorists in critical literacy, student motivation, and culturally responsive pedagogy into practical approaches for the English language arts and social studies classroom (6–12). Each chapter poses questions designed to get teachers thinking about how to use mind-opening texts with students to address social problems. Book Features: Shows teachers how to use literature to help students navigate a shifting world.Equips students with the skills to advocate for themselves and others, including using digital tools in meaningful, effective ways. Asks students to face controversial points-of-view head on and interrogate the world in which they live. Includes examples of discussions that lead to projects and opportunities that allow youth to do work in the community.Demonstrates how to move theory into practice, providing teachers with the rationale for using inquiry as disruption if questioned by stakeholders.Contains a scope and sequence that outlines an entire year devoted to inquiry, as well as how to break it down into individual units and lessons.