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For any educator who hungers after real proof of which teaching strategies raise student achievement and by how much, this K–12 guide provides a banquet of research evidence, statistical data, and case studies. Distilling decades of information into a clear plan of action, the authors identify the following nine categories of instructional strategies that maximize student learning:

Identifying similarities and differences, summarizing and note talking, reinforcing effort and providing recognition, homework and practice, nonlinguistic representations, cooperative learning, setting objectives and providing feedback, generating and testing hypotheses, and questions/cues/advance organizers

Get comfortable with the strategies immediately with a host of classroom examples.  A wealth of charts, frames, rubrics, organizers, and other tools will help teachers use the strategies right away.

*Self-paced distance learning graduate course offered in conjunction with this text (Course #644). Visit our Courses tab for more details. 

According to research, summarization is one of the top nine most effective teaching strategies, but teachers often under use this technique because they think summarization is for written assignments only.

Here's a practical guide to written, spoken, artistic, and kinesthetic summarization techniques for individual assignments and group activities--just the thing to make it much easier and a lot more fun to use summarization on a regular basis throughout the curriculum. Explore 50 time-tested summarization strategies and get all the steps and clear examples you need to start using summarization to improve students' comprehension and boost their long-term memory.

*Self-paced distance learning graduate course offered in conjunction with this text (Course #716). Visit our Courses tab for more details.

In this expanded third edition of an ASCD best-seller, Thomas Armstrong updates you on multiple intelligences theory and its many applications to schools and classrooms. Included with the author's proven strategies are two new chapters on how to address common criticisms of the MI model and the success of international applications of MI theory. Plus, updates throughout the book keep you on top of new MI resources, tools, and materials.

*Self -paced distance learning graduate course offered in conjunction with this text (Course #5026). Visit our Courses tab for more details.

The easy-to-implement activities and strategies in this book will help middle and high school foreign language teachers enhance their students' success. It shows how to create a classroom in which students can actively experience and discover a foreign language. It applies to brain research, multiple intelligences, alternative assessment, technology and other educational innovations to the foreign language classroom.

*Self -paced distance learning graduate course offered in conjunction with this text (Course #970). Visit our Courses tab for more details.

Highly respected author and researcher David A. Sousa explains the latest neuroscientific findings in practical, understandable terms and discusses the impact this information has for teaching mathematics at all grade levels.

How the Brain Learns Mathematics covers the cognitive mechanisms for learning mathematics, the environmental and developmental factors that contribute to mathematics difficulties, and ways to differentiate mathematics instruction.

The text offers a unique and simplified four-step model for teaching mathematics to PreK–12 students that helps teachers consistently relate what learners experience in the classroom to concrete, real-world applications. Based on primary research, this groundbreaking text also examines:

• Children’s innate number sense and how the brain develops an understanding of number relationships
• Rationales for modifying lessons to meet the developmental learning stages of young children, preadolescents, and adolescents
• How to plan lessons in PreK–12 mathematics
• Implications of current research for planning mathematics lessons, including discoveries about memory systems and lesson timing
• Methods to help elementary and secondary school teachers detect mathematics difficulties
• Clear connections to the NCTM standards and curriculum focal points

Teachers of mathematics at all levels will find this book invaluable for making informed decisions about which instructional strategies and activities to use in creating a mathematics-friendly classroom.

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Comprehension and Collaboration: Inquiry Circles in Action occurs at the intersection of comprehension, collaboration, and inquiry and serves as a guide for teachers who want to realize the benefits of well-structured, student-led, cross-curricular projects. Stephanie Harvey (Strategies That Work and The Comprehension Toolkit series) and Harvey “Smokey” Daniels (Literature Circles and Mini-Lessons for Literature Circles):

*Self -paced distance learning graduate course offered in conjunction with this text (Course #5049; 3 semester graduate credits, as low as $320). Visit our home page for more details.

Schoolyard-Enhanced Learning shows how the school grounds—regardless of whether your school is in an urban, suburban, or rural setting—can become an enriching extension of the classroom. In this comprehensive handbook, Herb Broda blends theory and practice, providing readers with practical suggestions and teacher-tested activities for using the most powerful audio-visual tool available—the outdoors.

Emphasizing the practical, this innovative book offers teachers step-by-step guidance to help ensure success when they take a class outside. It provides:

•Background that helps present the case for outdoor learning: educational theory that supports the concept; overview of the terminology; research on the benefits related to student achievement; alignment of outdoor learning with current teaching practices.
•Ideas for making the schoolyard an effective outdoor classroom: the planning process; enhancing and maintaining the site; developing gardens and attracting wildlife; finding community resources and funding.
•Advice on working with a class outdoors: garnering administrative and parental support; considerations before going out; making the most of your outdoor time; using GPS as an educational tool; building on the outdoor experience back in the classroom.
•An array of proven activities that utilize the schoolyard: activities related to specific subject areas; activities that teach process skills; activities that encourage initiative and build community.

At a time when children's natural curiosity about the outdoors is eclipsed by the demands of busy schedules and the ever-present glow of video screens, schools may be the only place where they are encouraged to interact with nature. Schoolyard-Enhanced Learning can help teachers unlock the powerful learning experiences that exist just beyond the classroom door.

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Lawyers. Accountants. Computer programmers. That’s what our parents encouraged us to become when we grew up. But Mom and Dad were wrong. The future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind. The era of “left brain” dominance, and the Information Age that it engendered, are giving way to a new world in which “right brain” qualities-inventiveness, empathy, meaning-predominate. That’s the argument at the center of this provocative and original book, which uses the two sides of our brains as a metaphor for understanding the contours of our times.

In this insightful and entertaining book, which has been translated into 20 languages, Daniel H. Pink offers a fresh look at what it takes to excel. A Whole New Mind reveals the six essential aptitudes on which professional success and personal fulfillment now depend, and includes a series of hands-on exercises culled from experts around the world to help readers sharpen the necessary abilities. This book will change not only how we see the world but how we experience it as well.

*Self -paced distance learning graduate course offered in conjunction with this text (Course #5048). Visit our Courses tab for more details.

Literacy in the twenty-first century means more than just reading and writing. Today's students must learn how to interpret and communicate information through a variety of digital and print-based media formats, using imagery, online applications, audio, video, and traditional texts.

In Engaging the Eye Generation, library media specialist and National Board Certified Teacher Johanna Riddle draws on twenty-five years of education experience to show teachers how to update the curriculum for twenty-first century learners. Technology neophytes need not despair. Johanna suggests enhancements ranging from low-tech to high-tech and explains how teachers, even those with limited technology skills, can effectively guide students to proficiency. Each chapter—filled with meaningful and motivating activities—thoughtfully explains how to elevate traditional learning and add new layers to students' reading comprehension, critical thinking, and communication skills. Through proven methods and practical examples, teachers will discover how to:

•use multiple literacies to weave together standards and disciplines;
•identify and apply appropriate tools to ensure relevant information literacy;
•integrate information and research skills;
•and design rubrics collaboratively with students so all learners can effectively assess the learning process.

To help students meet the challenges of a rapidly evolving world, teachers must become comfortable in the twenty-first-century learning community. Engaging the Eye Generation is accessible, manageable, and inspiring; it will help teachers bridge the generational gap with enthusiasm and savvy.

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Science teachers, like all teachers, start each school year with high hopes and expectations for students to succeed. They plan their lessons, scramble to get the necessary equipment, and work hard to engage their students. However, despite good intentions and best-laid plans, not all students do well in science classes, and even fewer achieve mastery. We see the effects of this all around us. Student performance on national and international assessments, including science assessments, is poor. More and more adults are unable to understand the scientific issues that affect their lives and society. The media reports that national economic competitiveness is at stake. It s clear that something must be done now to help science teachers put power behind their hopes and expectations for student achievement.

Designing Effective Science Instruction: What Works in Science Classrooms is meant to help teachers focus on what can and must be done. It draws upon recent research in science education, most notably a well-designed study of science classrooms which sheds light on possible reasons for poor student performance in science (Weiss et al. 2003; Banilower et al. 2008). This research study and subsequent report on effective science instruction revealed that, in a national sample of science classrooms, about two-thirds of science lessons observed were of low quality. In other words, too many science students sit passively, never being asked to make sense of the content that teachers deliver. Too many science activities masquerade as science lessons and fail to develop students understanding of science concepts. Too many teachers lower their expectations and avoid teaching a rigorous science curriculum. The pressure teachers feel to meet student achievement goals is immense. With emerging research findings about how students learn and how to teach effectively, guidance for teachers is available

For the busy teacher on-the-run, veteran teacher Jim Burke has created The Teacher's Essential Guide series, a collection of slender, quick-read guides that offers you targeted solutions to your most pressing instructional needs: how to build motivation, use meaningful assessment to monitor student learning and assign grades, create purposeful homework, use technology in ways that enhance learning, teach essential study skills, learn breakthrough grouping strategies, and create lessons that engage all students.

Burke's solutions are based on research and his experience as a veteran teacher. Effective Instruction will help you zone in on the essentials that really matter, streamlining and simplifying your teaching while boosting student engagement and achievement.

Two perennial problems for secondary teachers: how to make the most of that all-too-short period of time between the bells, and how to keep students "turned on" to a subject that sometimes threatens to become meaningless.

David Johnson taught math for 33 years, and he's found some practical solutions to both problems. In this, his third book, Johnson further elaborates his teaching philosophy, sharing with good humor the mistakes and successes he has experienced while motivating his students to achieve.

Maximize learning in today’s inclusive classrooms. In inclusive classrooms, students with special educational needs are treated as integral members of the general education environment. Inclusion interventions honor the belief that all students are capable of meeting high expectations. The goal of inclusion is more than just preparing students to pass standardized tests and increasing academic levels. Gain strategies to offer the academic, social, emotional, and behavioral benefits that allow students to achieve their highest potential. Students with developmental needs may also have behavioral, social, emotional, or communication goals included in that general education setting. Inclusion interventions connect the instruction to each student’s unique needs.

This book encourages educators and learners to work together effectively as a team to achieve inclusive schools within accepting and inclusive worlds.