Resources

This instructional packet is designed for educators of American History, Language Arts and Visual Arts, for grades 7 through 12. Lessons are designed using guided visual discovery methods with suggested subsequent research and discussion. Students will have the opportunity to understand major events spanning more than 200 years of American history in a creative exploratory manner by making visual discoveries and comparing the past with the present. By no means is this a comprehensive survey of American history, but a glimpse of history through the eyes of two America's most prominent painters.

The packet includes:

A study guide for teachers presented in a chronological format featuring paintings that reflect events such as the Revolutionary War, Civil War, World War I, World War II, Vietnam, the Watergate Era, and the Apollo space mission. Organized in five learning units, the study guide is complete with glossary and bibliography.

A student workbook with adaptable interdisciplinary activities geared toward National Learning Results.

A 28-minute video that highlights each of the five learning units with interviews and archival footage.

25 color reproductions for classroom use.

Goals:

To integrate the visual arts into interdisciplinary curricula through observation and discussion.

To help students develop visual thinking strategies and analytical skills.

To stimulate interest in American history through the work of N.C. Wyeth and James Wyeth.

Classroom Strategies/Classroom Management

Breaking the Culture of Bullying and Disrespect, Grades K-8

Best Practices and Successful Strategies

Beaudoin, Marie-Nathalie & Taylor, Maureen (2004)

Contents:

Part I: Laying Foundations

How Problems Develop: A Frog Story and a Shift in Perspective
Are Problems of Disrespect Inadvertently Supported?

Unraveling Assumptions: Educator’s Roles and Student’s Behaviors

Responding Effectively to Incidents of Bullying and Disrespect

Being Respectful and Open to Student’s Experiences

Making Changes Last for More Than a Week

Part II: Applications and Examples: Success Stories of Overcoming Bullying and Disrespect

Listening to Student’s Voices
Cultivating Respect, Appreciation, and Tolerance in School

Dealing With Disrespect and Bullying in the Classroom: The Bugging Bug Project

Working With Individual Students Around Bullying: Helping a Child Suffering From a "Bullying Spell"

Description:

Even in elementary school, students suffer from bullying and harassment at the hands of other students. Often, educators resort to using stricter forms of behavior modification to stop bullying. But usually this fails to solve the problem while threatening the student-teacher relationship.

Breaking the Culture of Bullying and Disrespect, Grades K-8 combines therapeutic knowledge with day-to-day educational experience to provide a comprehensive approach to a vast array of behavior-related problems. Authors Beaudoin and Taylor have interviewed and worked with hundreds of students and tested their strategies in more than 25 schools. The book includes numerous easy-to-implement activities along with programs and curricula appropriate for working with individual students, classes, and whole schools.

Written in a clear and practical way, this accessible resource includes:

* A whole program of practices and easily adaptable classroom activities
* Excerpts from interviews and conversations
* Reflective and frequently asked questions
* Examples of student work
* Tutorials, exercises, and a glossary.

By linking narrative and social constructionist ideas to educational realities, this indispensable guidebook provides functional strategies that promote respect, responsibility, and tolerance in students. The authors take into account the interaction of many larger contributing factors and examine how they are experienced in the unique context of students' lives.
Essential reading for teachers and principals in elementary and middle schools, this innovative text also offers authoritative guidance to counselors and school psychologists working with students in grades K-8.

Common-Sense Classroom Management:

Surviving September and Beyond in the Elementary Classroom

Lindberg, Jill A. & Swick, April M. (2002)

Contents:

Taking Care of Teacher Business
Creating a Positive Classroom Atmosphere

Working With Diverse Student and Family Populations

With-it-ness

Transitioning

Taking Care of Classroom Business

Organizational Time

Rewards

Consequences

Description:

An indispensable manual for new teachers, teacher trainers, and mentor teachers, this compact yet comprehensive book is chock-full of easy-to-implement techniques for creating a successful teaching and learning environment.

Through humor, drawings, and a conversational tone, this well-organized resource provides specific suggestions for how to teach effectively and efficiently, including practical tips on organization, planning, classroom atmosphere, discipline, rewards, and maximizing the usefulness of teacher aides.

The nuts-and-bolts approach offers invaluable, quick-reference insights into the most common issues and concerns faced by all teachers. Special highlights include:

Straightforward five-step-or-less strategies that can be adapted easily into any classroom

Outline of best practices for every aspect of a typical school day

"IDEA" sections throughout that tailor strategies to special education students and "LIGHT BULB" sections that work for K–1 students

Proven tactics for working with non-English speakers and dealing with challenging students

Comments:

"This is an invaluable, child centered "must-have" book for new and veteran teachers alike. It offers practical solutions that can be applied immediately in the classroom to the day-to-day challenges of teaching. The authors are to be commended for offering strategies that assume that all children will be included in today’s classrooms."
(Carol Topinka, Director, Division of Special Services, Milwaukee Public Schools)

How to Develop a Professional Portfolio:

A Manual for Teachers (Third Edition)

Campbell, Dorothy M. et al (2004)

Contents:

What You Need to Know about Portfolios
Guidelines for Assembling Your Portfolio

Electronic Portfolios

Organization of Portfolios around Teaching Standards

Using the Portfolio throughout a Teaching Career

Artifact Possibilities

Description:

This versatile and practical book helps pre-service and in-service teachers create a teaching portfolio that can be used effectively in their interviews and throughout their teaching careers.

This manual provides clear, manageable, step-by-step guidelines and tips for professional portfolio development that can be followed by teachers at all stages of their careers. This new edition now includes a chapter on Digital Teaching Portfolios to help students learn to create portfolios on the web or on CD-ROM.

Special Features:

Specific guidelines for assembling portfolios, step-by-step procedures for portfolio development, and tips on how to organize a portfolio to document achievement of professional goals (Chapter 2).

Explanations of national teaching standards that form the organizing system of the portfolio; scenarios of actual pre-service teaching activities that illuminate the standards (Chapter 4).

An extensive, annotated list of artifact possibilities helps students identify papers, projects, course assignments, etc. that can be used to document professional growth and competence (Chapter 5).

Includes specific interview questions and suggested responses, using the portfolio as a guide (Chapter 5).

In-service teachers learn how maintaining portfolios affects professional growth and ways of using portfolios to accomplish goals in classrooms and school districts (Chapter 5).

In Appendix C, a sample brochure called “Portfolio At-A-Glance” illustrates how to summarize the contents of a portfolio to make it more understandable to a reviewer.

Appendix D provides a glossary of terms important to portfolio development.

Secrets for Secondary High School Teachers:

How to Succeed in Your First Year

Kottler, Ellen & Kottler, Jeffrey A. & Kottler, Cary J. (2004)

Contents:

Learning Your Way Around the School
Organizing Your Room

Knowing Your Students

Dressing for Success

Beginning and Ending Your Class on the First Day

Developing Plans for Instruction and Assessment

Managing Time and Paperwork

Avoiding Boredom—Theirs and Yours

Eating Lunch

Connecting With Students

Communicating With Parents

Dealing With Difficult Students

Getting Involved in Activities

Networking With Professionals

Using a Substitute

Taking Care of Yourself to Minimize Stress

Planning for Your Future

Description:

In this updated version of the successful Secrets for Secondary School Teachers, you will learn tangible ways to supercharge your teaching skills, while avoiding the pitfalls common to beginning teachers. Offering a unique blend of perspectives and "insider" insights into secondary education, a seasoned high school teacher, a long-time educator and counselor, and a recent high school graduate join forces to impart proven tips and tools.

This indispensable guide combines practical applications of your preservice coursework with straightforward portrayals of what you can expect during your first days, weeks, semesters, and years in the classroom.

Already packed with winning ideas and real-life scenarios, this newest edition has added:

A new chapter on developing plans for instruction and assessment
Rubrics—both holistic and analytic

A-to-Z list of assessments

Expanded information on multiple intelligences and diverse learning populations

Suggestions for students with attention deficits

Stress source chart

Technology tips

Reduce your stress, hone your skills, and be "in the know" with this invaluable resource.

Teaching 101:

Classroom Strategies for the Beginning Teacher

Glanz, Jeffrey (2004)

Contents:

Why Does Teaching Matter?
What Makes a Good Teacher?

Who Are the Students in My Class?

How Should I Write Lesson Plans?

Can I Effectively Manage My Classroom?

How Can I Help My Students Learn?

How Can I Best Incorporate State and District Curriculum Standards?

How Can I Begin to Incorporate Technology Into My Teaching?

How Should I Assess and Grade My Students?

How Can I Build a Professional Portfolio?

Description:

Teaching 101, one of the most comprehensive introductions to teaching available, is a book that inspires, encourages, and provides essential knowledge and skills for becoming an exceptional teacher at any level. Reader-friendly, easy to understand, and practical, this is a book from which you’ll learn and continue to reference throughout your career.

Teaching 101 is packed with helpful hints and best practices covering essential topics and issues in today’s classrooms, including:
Additional resources include questions and activities at the end of each chapter, essential readings for further study, key Web sites, and an engaging self-assessment instrument for reflection. Teaching is a lifelong journey of self-expression and self-discovery. Let Teaching 101 be your guide along the way.

Diversity and Multicultural Education

Common Sense about Uncommon Knowledge:

The Knowledge Bases for Diversity

Smith, Pritchy G. (1998)

Contents:

Toward Defining Culturally Responsible and Responsive Teacher Education
Knowledge Base 1: Foundations of Multicultural Education

Knowledge Base 2: Sociocultural Contexts of Human Growth and Psychological Development in Marginalized Ethnic and Racial Cultures

Knowledge Base 3: Cultural and Cognitive Learning Style Theory and Research

Knowledge Base 4: Language, Communication and Interactional Styles of Marginalized Cultures

Knowledge Base 5: Essential Elements of Cultures

Knowledge Base 6: Principles of Culturally Responsive Teaching and Culturally Responsive Curriculum Development

Knowledge Base 7: Effective Strategies for Teaching Minority Students

Knowledge Base 8: Foundations of Racism

Knowledge Base 9: Effects of Policy and Practice on Culture, Race, Gender, and Other Categories of Diversity

Knowledge Base 10: Culturally Responsive Diagnosis, Measurement, and Assessment

Knowledge Base 11: Sociocultural Influences on Subject-Specific Learning

Knowledge Base 12: Gender and Sexual Orientation

Knowledge Base 13: Experiential Knowledge

A Final Word: Justice

Description:

Smith provides a key reference for teacher education practitioners, researchers, and students in this monograph. Through bibliographic essays, Smith defines 13 knowledge bases for diversity, identifies key elements of each knowledge base, discusses the status of the work in the area, and describes a wealth of resources. Among the knowledge bases defined are: Essential Elements of Cultures; Effective Strategies for Teaching Minority Students; Foundations of racism; Culturally Responsive Diagnosis, Measurement, and Assessment; and Gender and Sexual Orientation. A complete list of references is provided. This is an excellent research tool for faculty and graduate students.

Multicultural Education in a Pluralistic Society

Sixth Edition (2004 Multimedia Edition)

Gollnick, Donna M. & Chinn, Philip C. (2004)

Contents:

Foundations of Multicultural Education
Class

Ethnicity and Race

Gender

Exceptionality

Religion

Language

Age

Education That Is Multicultural

Description:

Experience culturally responsive teaching in a whole new way!

Using seven microcultures as the basis for understanding pluralism and multicultural education, the authors integrate critical pedagogy with research on effective teaching. Now the revolutionary Exploring Diversity: A Video Case Approach CD-ROM and accompanying content presented in the 2004 Multimedia Edition of Multicultural Education in a Pluralistic Society, Sixth Edition, connects chapter concepts and culturally responsive teaching through real-world classroom application!

Making the Classroom Connection:

New! Four video cases engage pre-service teachers as they observe how teachers in real classrooms recognize and celebrate their students' cultural, ethnic, linguistic, and socioeconomic diversity. Video cases encompass primary grades through secondary school.
New! Feedback on each lesson from multiple stakeholders, including experts, the literature, the teacher, and a student from the video segment, provide observers with multiple viewpoints.
New! Readers are introduced to culturally responsive teaching and the elements of its implementation in the classroom.
New! Video-case descriptions end with discussion questions to guide pre-service teachers' video-case observations.
New! Reflection boxes encourage readers to reflect on culturally responsive teaching and how they plan to implement it in their future classrooms.
New! Performance assessments and scoring rubrics linked to INTASC principles provide concrete resources for readers to implement culturally responsive teaching in their future classroom.

Popular Features of the Sixth Edition:

Additional Critical Incidents appear at the end of every chapter.
New sections discuss hate groups, school violence, social justice, culturally responsible teaching, and teaching for democracy.
New Video Insights facilitate in-depth class discussion in every chapter.

The Companion Website,www.prenhall.com/chet_gollnick_multicult_7 , includes chapter summaries, multiple choice tests, web links, a message board, chat, and essay modules that expand upon the text.

From Standards to Success

Description:

In this era of accountability and high-stakes testing, school leaders must find more sophisticated ways to help all students succeed. But how can districts make adequate yearly progress without a coherent system for addressing state standards? In From Standards to Success, education professor Mark R. O’Shea introduces the Standards Achievement Planning Cycle (SAPC), a comprehensive protocol for meeting the standards. To illustrate his multi-layered approach, O’Shea takes readers to a fictional school as it prepares to install the SAPC. We meet the superintendent, who organizes the district for curriculum reform; the principal, who supervises standards-based instruction; and the teachers, who collaboratively plan lessons and evaluate their students’ work. From teacher observation to student assessment, O’Shea offers innovative strategies to help school leaders
* identify and analyze which standards are most important
* select appropriate curriculum materials and resources
* provide instructional planning time for teachers
* create a benchmark-testing program
* design effective professional development

Checklists at the end of each chapter highlight best practices, and sample lessons show how to plan curriculum that enables students to meet state standards. The result is a thorough and sensible guide to realizing the promise of standards-based education. Mark R. O’Shea is a professor of education at California State University–Monterey Bay. He is the founder and executive director of the Institute for the Achievement of Academic Standards.

Sustaining change in schools:

How to overcome differences and focus on quality

Description:

Daniel P. Johnson uses research and examples to outline how to successfully implement and sustain meaningful change in a school community. He links research in personality and group dynamics to develop what he calls the four Ps: Purpose, Parameters, Principles, and Priorities. He discusses how a balance in these concepts is necessary to change the way school personnel and the community think about quality schools.

Johnson then shows what specific steps the Thompson School District in Loveland, Colorado took, and other school districts should take to promote and sustain quality school districts over time and across groups. The specific steps he identifies are: understanding the quality profile; asking quality questions; making quality a habit; focusing on success; and managing tasks and leading people.

Each chapter of this useful guide focuses on one of the steps and offers questions and activities stakeholders can use to create a shared commitment to quality schools. This guide helps the school and community focus on success for all students. As Johnson states, "Making every student a successful learner is therefore not just a desirable goal, but a moral obligation."

Multicultural Social Studies

Anita C. Danker (2005)

Description:

Focusing on the goals of student-centered learning while also attending to standards-driven mandates, this practical, “ How-to” volume provides educators with a way to integrate multicultural themes into the K-12 social studies curriculum. The author demonstrates how teachers can draw on the histories of their local school communities to help students connect to broader topics in U.S. history and explore crucial themes of diversity

Mentoring New Teachers

Hal Portner (2002)

Description:

"This book aptures the essence of mentoring and the process necessary to be an effective mentor."

Developmentally appropriate practice

Carol Gestwicki (1998)

Description:

What is "effective" special This new edition offers practical guidance for implementing developmentally appropriate practices for children from birth through age eight. It includes clear discussions and examples of what is best practice to nurture development of the whole child. Current issues such as readiness, whole language, multi-age grouping, and cultural diversity are addressed with an emphasis on child-centered curriculum. The application of theory to real situations, dialogues and interactions give direction to educators, caregivers, administrators and parents.

What every principal needs to know about special education?

Margaret J. McLaughlin, Victor Nolet (2003)

Description:

What is "effective" special education? How do I know if we are using the best possible interventions for our special education students? How can I get better results for these students? These are the questions that successful principals need to be asking. Special education law and practices are rapidly changing and principals need to know what those changes mean for their schools. The Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) are creating the need for every school leader to understand the foundation of good instruction and sound special education policy. What Every Principal Needs to Know About Special Education is designed to provide that foundation. It contains the information that every principal needs in order to effectively educate students with disabilities.

Differentiated instruction –using technology

Amy Benjamin (2005)

Description:

Like Amy Benjamin’s other books, this one is easy to read and simple to implement. It demonstrates that you can manage the complexities of differentiated instruction-and save time-by using technology as you teach. It showcases classroom-tested activities and strategies, which are easy to apply in your own classroom

Creating an inclusive school

Richard A. Villa, Jacqueline S. Thousand (2005)

Description:

In this comprehensive resource on inclusive schooling, administrators, general and special educators, and parents explore how inclusive education can support a diverse student body at all grade levels. They show how schools can meet standards and provide a "least restrictive environment" for students with disabilities by using cooperative learning, teaming, multi-age grouping, multicultural education, social skills training, and educational technology applications. And they explain how to facilitate change by using universal design principles and other curricular, instructional, assessment, and organizational practices. The authors examine the prevailing myths and the most frequently asked questions about inclusive education, and they provide an extensive list of resources. Woven through the book are the personal stories of people with disabilities and the educators and parents who work with them. As their voices make clear, inclusion is more than an educational buzzword; inclusion is a way of life, based on the belief that each individual is valued and belongs.

In there with the kids

David Kobrin (2004)

Description:

In There with the Kids presents the parallel working lives of two teachers, elementary teacher Hilary Coles and high school teacher Mel Stinko. We see these teachers (composites drawn from the authors' experience and observations in schools) as they plan lessons, interact with students, reflect on what happens in the classroom, and try always to do better. Through them we are prompted to think carefully about why some lessons work and others don't. Kobrin brings us into the classroom, where we hear the voices of individual students and see how their concerns influence what happens each day. He provides detailed reconstructions of student debates and includes the handouts, exams, and assessment instructions used for selected lessons. At the close of each chapter, he analyzes the characters' actions, the motives behind them, and their effects on events in the classroom.

Applying standard-based constructivism

Pat Flynn (2004)

Description:

Many learning standards and core curricula demand that students demonstrate what they know, student cannot demonstrate if they sit passively in classrooms, listening to their teachers’ lectures. These standards call for a different set of teaching practices, based on constructivist theory. Constructivism is based on a body research that supports the position that understanding can’t be poured from one person’s head to another’s like water and that each of us creates our own picture of the world through our personal engagement with it. This book provides practical ways to apply constructivism in a teacher’s day-to-day classroom life.

Getting excited about data

Edie L. Holcomb (2004)

Description:

Holcomb's enlightening revision gives educators a useful, fun to read resource full of strategies, tools, and techniques for focusing on data. Presented with tales of real life experiences, this book gives the reader a ‘ready to use’ approach that is refreshingly practical.

Handbook on differentiated instruction for middle and highschool Ssheryn Spencer Northey (2005)

Description:

With its abundance of strategies and tips for middle and high school teachers, this book demonstrates how you can meet the diverse needs of your students. It shows you how to adjust the content you teach, the process in which you teach it, and the products you ask your students to give you. These strategies are practical, easy to implement, and are applied to social studies, English, science, mathematics, and the Arts.

Learning Strategies

Differentiation Through Learning Styles and Memory

Sprenger, Marilee (2003)

Contents:

Environments for Learning
Learning Strengths

A Matter of Memory

Differentiation Design: Remembering Visual

Differentiation Design: Remembering Auditory Information

Differentiation Design: Remembering by Doing

Putting It All Together

Description:

Create a learning environment that addresses the needs and learning styles of every student!

Traditional instruction and "paper and pencil" assessment are no longer sufficient for meeting the needs of our increasingly diverse student populations. Classrooms are packed with students possessing a myriad of educational backgrounds, cultures, abilities, and challenges. How do educators guide each student on his or her own individual path to educational success? Differentiation—by design!

Differentiation Through Learning Styles and Memory provides an essential overview of how the brain processes, stores, and retains information, and how teachers can guide students in accessing this information by utilizing their individual learning styles and strengths. This resource gives educators practical strategies and applications for accessing these "sensory pathways," connecting learned content to the real world.

This comprehensive resource includes:

Suggestions and examples for creating a learning environment that addresses students’ diverse learning needs—physical, social/emotional, and cognitive
Simple activities for helping students discover the best ways to retrieve information (e.g., mind mapping, debating, role playing, mnemonics, metaphors, rhymes, songs, repetition, and more)
Practical instructional strategies that address different learning strengths—visual, verbal, and kinesthetic
Memory profiles of sensory and memory pathways preferred by learners
Specific designs for differentiation in the classroom—starting with strengths and expanding outward

The road to academic success begins and ends with differentiation. When students have the tools for understanding their individual memory lanes, they will learn how their brains work best.

Mindful Learning:

101 Proven Strategies for Student and Teacher Success

Campbell, Linda (2003)

Contents:

Beginning With What Students Know: Activating Prior Knowledge
Active Learning: An Essential Classroom Ingredient

Ensuring Gender-Fair Instruction: Female and Male Students

Teaching Diverse Students: Addressing Language, Class, Culture, and Ability Differences in the Classroom

Assessing Student Performance

Some Concluding Thoughts

Description:

Here in one streamlined, user-friendly handbook are the 101 answers to the only question that really matters to teachers, "How can I make my teaching more effective?" With a firm grounding in research from the cognitive sciences and best classroom practices, these tried-and-true teaching strategies are assembled here in a ready-to-use, at-a-glance format, with all the checklists and forms any teacher needs to put them into practice.

A few of the "can’t miss" strategies teachers will find are:

Tapping students' background knowledge
Ways to teach with active learning processes
Proven methods to teach reading to diverse learners
How to run a classroom that is gender-fair
Proven ways to make assessment meaningful
Specific suggestions for defining and meeting the needs of English language learners and other diverse student populations, plus summaries of research that explain how and why the 101 strategies work

About the Author: Linda Campbell, Ph.D., has extensive experience at all levels of education, including as a former public school K-12 teacher, an NEA School Restructuring Specialist, and currently as a professor of Education at Antioch University Seattle. In addition to serving as the University’s Project Director for the Gates Foundation Early College Initiative for Native Youth, she is a consultant, and presenter. She also works with schools to promote the retention and achievement of Native American youth.

Problem-Based Learning in Middle and High School Classrooms:

A Teacher's Guide to Implementation

Lambros, Ann (2004)

Contents:

Problem-Based Learning: What and Why
PBL in the Middle School Classroom

PBL in the High School Classroom

And the Problem Is

Knowing You Did It

The Whole Picture

PBL Beyond the Middle and High School Classrooms

Description:

This teacher-friendly, jargon-free guide to Problem-Based Learning (PBL) offers teachers an exciting student-centered teaching method that engages learners at all levels in middle school and high school. PBL lessons encourage students to work together in groups to arrive at sound solutions, as well as to develop important self-directed learning skills that can be transferred to non-classroom situations. Author and PBL expert Ann Lambros further familiarizes educators with the PBL philosophy by outlining the many benefits obtained from PBL, including reading comprehension, social skill development, content retention, and student motivation.

This easy-to-use guide for teachers implementing PBL in the classroom includes:

Getting started with PBL in middle and high school classrooms
Developing problems for classroom use
Ready-to-use sample problems for different grade levels
Self and peer assessments for PBL
Problem-Based Learning in Middle and High School Classrooms offers a powerful technique for all levels of learning to equip students with the tools necessary to conquer the challenges they face today and in the future.

Getting Results with Curriculum Mapping:

Hayes Jacobs, Heidi (2004)

Description:

Curriculum maps are among the simplest yet most effective tools for improving teaching and learning. Because they require people to draw explicit connections between content, skills, and assessment measures, these maps help ensure that all aspects of a lesson are aligned not only with each other, but also with mandated standards and tests.

In Getting Results with Curriculum Mapping, Heidi Hayes Jacobs and her coauthors offer a wide range of perspectives on how to get the most out of the curriculum mapping process in districts and schools. In addition to detailed examples of maps from schools across the United States, the authors offer concrete advice on such critical issues as

Preparing educators to implement mapping procedures
Using software to create unique mapping databases
Integrating decision-making structures and staff development initiatives through mapping
Using software to create unique mapping databases
Helping school communities adjust to new curriculum review processes, and
Making mapping an integral part of literacy training

Teachers, administrators, staff developers, and policymakers alike will find this book an essential guide to curriculum mapping and a vital resource for spearheading school improvement efforts.

Heidi Hayes Jacobs is the author of Mapping the Big Picture: Integrating Curriculum and Assessment, K-12 and Interdisciplinary Curriculum: Design and Implementation. She is based in Rye, New York.

Mentoring

Mentoring New Teachers (Updated Edition)

Portner, Hal (2003)

Contents:

Relating
Assessing
Coaching
Guiding
Tips and Observations

Description:

With a new preface and new updated resources, Portner has contemporized his classic guide to teacher mentoring.

This book includes step-by-step instructions that offer experienced teachers information for becoming just as skilled at mentoring as they are at teaching. They’ll find out how to inspire their new colleagues, encourage them through the first (and toughest) months of teaching, and help them become better teachers.

Portner shows your teacher mentors how to:

Relate to their protégés in ways that establish good working rapport
Assess how the mentoring is progressing and make necessary adjustments
Coach protégés to help them continually improve their performance
Guide protégés from dependence on their mentors to self-reliance as effective teachers

The book includes specific activities and exercises to teach mentors behaviors that elicit trust, help them become more effective at the mentoring process, and methods for boosting protégés’ day-to-day effectiveness in the classroom.

Designed for school leaders, teacher mentors, prospective mentors, staff developers, and any educator interested in the professional development of new teachers.

Comments:

"A timely, instructive, and important book on mentoring new teachers. It provides direction and guidance and clearly outlines how to be a mentor."
(From the Foreword by Gerald N. Tirozzi, Executive Director, NASSP)

"This book captures the essence of mentoring and the process necessary to be an effective mentor."
(Kaye Dean, Elementary Principal, Sierra Vista, Arizona)

"An invaluable resource for anyone who is currently a mentor or planning to be one. I’ve not seen any other book like this—one that actually provides guidelines, and serves to facilitate an individual’s transition to the role of mentor. It models behavior by including clear and concrete examples and advice in a friendly manner."
(Norma Gluck, Regent Emeritus, New York State Department of Education)

"Provides a much-needed framework for quality mentoring of beginning teachers."
(Christine Brown, Director of Foreign Languages, Glastonbury Public Schools, Glastonbury, Connecticut)

Middle School

This We Believe... And Now We Must Act

Erb, Thomas Owen (2001)

Contents:

Preface: Mission - Improve Middle Level Education
The Imperative to Act
Educators Committed to Young Adolescents
Developing and Improving s Shared Vision
High Expectations for All
Advisory: Advocacy for Every Student
School, Family, and Community Partnership
A Positive School Climate
Curriculum That Is Challenging, Integrated, and Exploratory
Varied Teaching and Learning Approaches
Assessment and Evaluation That Promote Learning
Flexible Organizational Structures
Programs and Policies That Foster Health, Wellness, and Safety
Comprehensive Guidance and Support Services

Description:

This We Believe ...And Now We Must Act is of major assistance to educators and policy makers involved in ongoing middle grades reform efforts. This important volume provides a comprehensive, whole vision of schooling for the middle grades and makes more practical and accessible the basic concepts set forth in This We Believe: Developmentally Responsive Middle Level Schools. In addition to the expanded treatments of the 12 characteristics identified in that influential document, practitioners have provided observations of what one would “see, hear, or feel” if those characteristics were present in a school. This resource, in many ways a companion to Turning Points 2000, provides the guidance that middle schools need as they seek to achieve schools that are both academically sound and developmentally responsive. It needs to be readily available in every middle level school.

Professional Preparation of Middle Level Teachers
Profiles Of Successful Programs

C. Kenneth McEwin, Thomas S. Dickinson

Contents:

Middle Level Teacher Preparation in Perspective
Elizabeth City State University
Georgia Southwestern College
Highpoint University
The University of Kentucky
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
California State University San Marcos
San Francisco State University
University of Northern Colorado
Belmont Abbey College
University of Arkansas at Fayetteville
Willamette University
Maryville University
University of Wisconsin-Platteville
The Vermont Middle Grades Professional Development Collaborative

Description:

The most comprehensive volume yet of a topic universally recognized as a key to the continued success of the middle school movement - spezialized teacher preparation. In addition to a careful review of the status of middle level teacher education and the presentation of valuable generalizations guidelines to direct it, the book features full descriptions of forteen successful middle level teacher education programs.
These profiles are not bland descriptions of course and sequences, rather they are narratives filled with cutting-edge teacher education practices. The extent of field-based experiences, their variety, the high degree of genuine collaboration with public school teachers, and the modeling done by college faculty are impressive.
This book makes it evident that middle level teacher preparation, although long neglected, is now setting the pace for teacher education generally as middle level education itself has become the educational reform pacesetter.

Mentoring New Teachers (Updated Edition)

Portner, Hal (2003)

Contents:

Understanding Middle Schools and Young Adolescents
Developing the Curriculum and Organizing the School
Planning, Implementing, and Asessing Instruction
Guiding Students and Working with External Communities

Description:

The exceptional feature of this book is that it covers both middle school concepts and the basic information needed to understand young adolescents, ages 10-14. It provides the essential knowledge for middle school teaching including young adolescent development, organization, core and exploratory curricula, instructional strategies, and concepts. Distinguished by its skillful blending of research and practice, it enables readers to move from theory to practice. Chapter coverage explores how middle school educators provide culturally and gender responsive educational experiences for particular topics. Discussion of the latest technology gives today's teachers access to the vast world of information and helps them take advantage of the rapidly changing technological advances. Anecdotal accounts, case studies, and scenarios provide actual accounts of experiences with young adolescents and how middle school teachers have handled these situations and issues. For general education teachers at the middle school level.

Leaders for a Movement
Professional Preparation and Development of Middle Level Teachers and Administrators

Andrews, Gayle P. (2003) and Anfara Jr., Vincent A.

Contents:

Professional Preparation and Development of Middle Level Teachers
Professional Preparation and Development of Middle Level Administrators
Resources

Description:

This third volume of The Handbook of Research in Middle Level Education focuses on the teachers and administrators who work with young adolescents (ages 10-15). In Part I, middle level advocates and researchers share their views on the professional preparation and development of middle level teachers. In Part II, the spotlight shines on administrators and questions are posed and debated about what it takes to be a leader at the middle level. Part III, "Resources," includes valuable documents and instruments such as course syllabi, classroom observation instruments , an interview guide and protocols, and a questionnaire for use with students in middle level teacher preparation programs. This is an excellent resource for school improvement planning.

Middle School Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment

Vincent A. Anfara, Jr. and Sandra L. Stacki (2002)

Contents:

Curriculum Integration
Exploratory Education
Developmental Appropriateness Versus Academic Rigor
Culturally Responsive Instructional Processes
Every Student and Every Teacher
Authentic Curriculum
The Relationship between Middle-Grades Teacher Certification and Teaching Practices
Character Education Infused Into Middle Level Education
Reculturing Middle Schools to Use Cross-Curricular Portfolios to Support Integrated Learning
Enabling "Algebra for All" with a Facilitated Instructional Program
Cohorts in Middle Level Teacher Preparation

Description:

The diverse chapters in this excellent book approach curriculum, instruction, and assessment issues from a number of different viewpoints. The curriculum chapters focus the reader on exploratory education, curriculum integration, academic rigor, and authentic curriculum. Chapters on "culturally responsive instruction", teacher certification, and "reculturing middle schools" offer a unique look at middle level reform. This new book is a must read. Co-published by Information Age Publishing and National Middle School Association

Meet me in the Middle
Becoming an Accomplished Middle-Level Teacher

Wormeli, Rick (2001)

Contents:

Creating a Culture of Learning
Higher Student Achievement Through Innovative and Accomplished Practice
Extending Our Professional Practices

Description:

The author lays out a clear vision of what responsive middle level teaching should be. This is a book for all reasons - help for the novice teacher, support for the mid-career teacher wanting to improve her craft, and inspiration and confirmation for the later-career teacher as well. Part I creates a culture of learning, leading to Part II and many specific ideas on promoting higher student achievement through innovative and accomplished practice. Part III cycles back to the middle school context - effective teams, teacher-student advisories, outdoor adventures, and working with parents.

Partnerships

School, Family, and Community Partnerships:

Your Handbook for Action

Epstein, Joyce L. et al (2002)

Contents:

A Comprehensive Framework
Using the Framework in Practice: Stories From the Field
Taking an Action Team Approach
Conducting Workshops
Selecting Materials for Presentations and Workshops
Strengthening Partnership Programs in Middle and High Schools
Developing State and District Leadership for Partnerships
Implementing Teachers Involve Parents in Schoolwork (TIPS)
Planning and Evaluating Your Partnership Program
Networking for Best Results on Partnerships

Description:

This research-based framework of six types of involvement guides state and district leaders, school principals, teachers, parents, and community partners to form Action Teams for Partnerships—dynamic groups that plan, implement, evaluate, and continually improve family and community involvement for student success.

Corwin’s first edition of this Handbook, created by researchers at Johns Hopkins University with input from educators and parents, has been a best-seller for years. Now, Joyce L. Epstein and her colleagues offer even more tools and strategies—innovations tested for more than fifteen years that are being used by leaders in schools, districts, and state departments of education across the country to create partnership programs that support school improvement goals.

With this new second edition, you’ll learn how to:

Involve the community in school, family, and community partnerships
Organize more effective Action Teams for Partnerships
Strengthen partnership programs in middle and high schools
Implement interactive homework for students to show and share with their families
Organize successful volunteers in the middle grades
Conduct state and district leadership activities to help schools develop partnership programs

Plus, you’ll find new examples of successful partnership activities linked to school goals for students, new planning and evaluation tools, and new guidelines and materials for conducting effective training workshops on partnerships.

It’s a valuable and time-tested approach with tools that you can use today to build a comprehensive, inclusive, goal-oriented, and permanent program of partnership!

Comments:

"School, Family, and Community Partnerships is a one-stop survival guide for anyone engaged in starting or improving partnership programs. The detailed, practical information links research findings to effective practices in a most helpful way."

(Jane Grinde, Director, Bright Beginnings/Family-School-Community Partnerships, and Ruth Anne Landsverk, Families in Education Coordinator, Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction)

"The research base is evident, and the second edition of the handbook is designed to help educators actually get things done. Everything is included to launch an effective Action Team and to develop a program that links family involvement to school improvement and student achievement."

(Arty Dorman, Director of Family & Community Involvement, Saint Paul Public Schools, Saint Paul, Minnesota)

"The second edition of the Handbook for Action is full of advice, good examples, and information for leaders in elementary, middle, and high schools—all based on research. This is an important resource for anyone trying to improve partnerships that support student achievement."
(Wendy Harwin, School-Family-Community Partnerships Project Coordinator, Connecticut State Department of Education)

Performance Assessment

Assessing Education Candidate Performance:

A Look at Changing Practices

Elliott, Emerson J., Project Director

NCATE – National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (2003)

Contents:

Introduction to the Assessment Examples Project
Committee Review Part A: Criteria Applied on Qualities and Uses of Assessments
Committee Review Part B: Committee Consideration of Cost, Efficiency, and Innovative Elements
Example Locator By Type and Use of Assessment
Excerpts from Examples
Performance Assessment in Higher Education: Selected Resources

Description:

This handbook includes a collection of examples of state-of-the-art assessment practices. The 120-page handbook includes rubrics, examples of teacher work sample methodology, and other forms of assessment. Assessing Education Candidate Performance is the culmination of the work of NCATE's Assessment Examples Project Committee led by Emerson J. Elliott.

Reflection

Reflective Practice in Action:

80 Reflection Breaks for Busy Teachers

Farrell, Thomas S.C. (2004)

Contents:

Introduction to Reflective Practice
Why Reflect?
Preparing Teachers for Reflective Practice
Getting Started With Reflective Practice
Providing Opportunities for Reflective Practice
Group Discussion to Aid Reflective Practice
Classroom Observation to Aid Reflective Practice
Journal Writing to Aid Reflective Practice
Creating a Teaching Portfolio to Aid Reflective Practice
Generating Topics for Reflection

Description:

Strongly believing that educators should always reflect on their day’s work, teacher and writer Thomas S. C. Farrell designed this new book with busy teachers in mind. The 80 reflection breaks featured can be used as individual discussion starters or as part of a comprehensive professional growth plan that is perfect for teachers at all levels. Farrell makes focusing on reflective practice easy by allowing readers to browse through the complete selection of reflective breaks in the table of contents to find their areas of interest and concern.

Each reflection break is set within a context of theory, practice, and strategies in the following areas:

Spicing up "routine teaching" and reflection after each class
Conducting action research and creating a portfolio
Reflecting individually or in groups and setting up guidelines for group reflection
Communicating and reflecting effectively and devoting enough time to reflection

Reflective Practice in Action has a versatile format, inviting educators to reflect on their past actions in the classroom, and offering practical suggestions to improve and energize their professional growth, teaching methods, and classroom strategies.

What Every Teacher Should Know

What Every Teacher Should Know:

The 10 Book Collection

Tileston, Donna W. (2004)

Description:

This slipcase collection of 10 compact volumes offers a complete training curriculum for teachers that covers all required essentials for teacher induction, mentoring, and support programs. The collection can be used for teacher certification and re-certification programs, as well as for fast-track alternative certification programs. Additional highlights embedded within each individual volume include assessment pre-tests and post-tests, resources, and content about urban learners, making this training program ideal for preparing highly qualified teachers for today’s challenging classrooms, particularly in urban areas.

The entire collection allows instructors and staff developers to offer comprehensive teacher training that meets the requirements of the No Child Left Behind legislation. Individual works can be purchased separately and cover "What Every Teacher Should Know About . . ."

Diverse Learners—research-based approaches to working with diverse learners
Student Motivation—steps teachers can take to motivate and challenge students

Learning, Memory and the Brain—holistic approach to student learning

Instructional Planning—long and short-term goals for lesson planning

Effective Teaching Strategies—a bag of teaching tools for the written, taught, and assessed curriculum

Classroom Management and Discipline—effective tools to minimize or prevent the most common discipline problems

Student Assessment—and the implications of standards-based instruction in the classroom

Special Learners—effective tools to help students with special needs achieve school success
Media and Technology—media that work for each of the student modalities

The Profession and Politics of Teaching—effective partnerships with parents, teaching peers, mentor teachers, administrators, and teacher organizations

Contents of the Individual Works:

Book 1: What Every Teacher Should Know About Diverse Learners

Influences
How Are We Diverse?
Recognizing the Sign of Bias
The Road to Closing the Achievement Gap
Which Teaching and Learning Strategies Make the Most Difference in Closing the Gap?
Working With Diversity: A Teacher’s Checklist

Book 2: What Every Teacher Should Know About Student Motivation

What Is Motivation and Why Does It Matter?
What Are the Roots of Motivation?
Motivation to Begin a Lesson or Task
How Do We Encourage Students to Finish the Task?
A Model for Developing Motivation in the Classroom
A Model for Facilitating Motivation

Book 3: What Every Teacher Should Know About Learning, Memory, and the Brain

Learning With the Mind, Heart, and Body
How Do We Acquire and Process Information?
Working Memory
Long-Term Memory Pathways
Teaching for Declarative and Procedural Knowledge
Building a Model to Facilitate Learning

Book 4: What Every Teacher Should Know About Instructional Planning

The Principles of Instructional Planning
Using Standards as a Guide
What Do Students Need to Know?
What Do Students Need to Be Able to Do?
Where Is the Evidence of Learning?
How Do We Plan Meaningful Learning Experiences?
Putting Planning Into Practice
Building a Model for Planning

Book 5: What Every Teacher Should Know About Effective Teaching Strategies

Making Good Decisions About Instructional Strategies
Choosing Effective Teaching Strategies for Beginning Activities
Working With Declarative Information: Teaching for Meaning
Procedural Knowledge: Teaching Strategies That Work
Graphic Organizers: Strategies for Thinking
Using Verbal Strategies in the Classroom
Anatomy of a Lesson

Book 6: What Every Teacher Should Know About Classroom Management and Discipline

Old-Fashioned Discipline
The Basis for Off-Task Behavior
Dealing With Difficult Students
Planning That Facilitates Positive Behavior
Using Cooperative Learning Skills as a Guide
A Model for Classroom Management

Book 7: What Every Teacher Should Know About Student Assessment

Making Decisions About Assessment
Identifying and Enhancing Student Understanding
Formats for Teacher-Made Tests
Testing for Intelligence
Performance Tasks
Using a Matrix or Rubric
Building Aligned Assessments
State and National Assessments

Book 8: What Every Teacher Should Know About Special Learners

Differentiation and the Brain
Who Is At Risk and What Can We Do About It?
Special Education Students in the Regular Classroom
Gifted Education: Differentiation

Book 9: What Every Teacher Should Know About Media and Technology

The Importance of Media in the Classroom
Using Media to Plan and Introduce a Lesson
Using Media for Teaching
Using Media to Enhance Student Products
Viewing the Big Picture: Keeping Up

Book 10: What Every Teacher Should Know About the Profession and Politics of Teaching

The Politics of Teaching
Being Part of a Learning Community
Working With Parents
What Does the Future Hold?

The Big Picture
Education Is Everyone's Business

Littky, Dennis (2004)

Contents:

The Real Goals of Education
Kids, Schools, and the Bigger Picture
Atmosphere and School Culture
One Student at a Time
Learning Through Interests and Pursuing Passions
Real Work in the Real World
Giving Families Back Their Power
Measuring What Matters in a Way That Matters
Make It Happen

Description:

What is the purpose of education? What kind of people do we want our children to grow up to be? How can we design schools so that students will acquire the skills they'll need to live fulfilled and productive lives?
These are just a few of the questions that renowned educator Dennis Littky explores in The Big Picture: Education Is Everyone's Business. The schools Littky has created and led over the past 35 years are models for reformers everywhere: small, public schools where the curriculum is rich and meaningful, expectations are high, student progress is measured against real-world standards, and families and communities are actively engaged in the educational process.

This book is for both big "E" and small "e" educators:

For principals and district administrators who want to change the way schools are run.
For teachers who want students to learn passionately.
For college admissions officers who want diverse applicants with real-world learning experiences.
For business leaders who want a motivated and talented workforce.
For parents who want their children to be prepared for college and for life.
For students who want to take control over their learning . . . and want a school that is interesting, safe, respectful, and fun.
For anyone who cares about kids.

Here, you'll find a moving account of just what is possible in education, with many of the examples drawn from the Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center ("The Met") in Providence, Rhode Island--a diverse public high school with the highest rates of attendance and college acceptance in the state and a dropout rate of less than five percent. The Met exemplifies personalized learning, one student at a time.

The Big Picture is a book to re-energize educators, inspire teachers in training, and start a new conversation about kids and schools, what we want for both, and how to make it happen.

Building Background Knowledge For Academic Achievement:
Research On What Works In Schools

Marzano, Robert J. (2004)

Contents:

The Importance of Background Knowledge

Six Principles for Building an Indirect Approach

Tapping the Power of Wide Reading and Language Experience

Building Academic Background Knowledge Through Direct Vocabulary Instruction

Six Steps to Effective Vocabulary Instruction

Defining an Academic Vocabulary

Setting up a Schoolwide or Districtwide Program

Description:

In Building Background Knowledge for Academic Achievement, Robert J. Marzano shows how a carefully structured combination of two approaches--sustained silent reading and instruction in subject-specific vocabulary terms--can help overcome the deficiencies in background knowledge that hamper the achievement of many children.

Readers will learn

The principles that underlie an effective sustained silent reading program
A five-step process for using sustained silent reading to enhance background knowledge
The defining characteristics of effective vocabulary instruction
A six-step process for direct instruction in vocabulary in each discipline
The vocabulary terms critical to students’ success in every academic subject

Vignettes suggest how the recommended reading and vocabulary instruction programs might be implemented in elementary schools, middle and junior high schools, and high schools. The book also includes a list of 7,923 vocabulary terms culled from the national standards documents and other publications, organized into 11 subject areas and 4 grade-level categories.

With its research-based recommendations and step-by-step approach, Building Background Knowledge equips educators with the tools they need to help close the achievement gap and enable all students to succeed.

How to thrive as a teacher leader

Gabriel, John G.(2005)

Contents:

Organizational Leadership: Nuturing Leadership in Your School
Strategic Leadership: Assembling Your Team
Interpersonal Leadership: Communicating Your Leadership
Adaptive Leadership: Navigating Challenges and Effecting Change
Motivational Leadership: Building Climate and Community
Instructional Leadership: Improving Student and Teacher Achievement

Description:

Every teacher who chairs a department, leads a committee, manages a team, coordinates a program, or mentors other teachers needs this hands-on resource to accomplish basic leadership tasks with speed and precision. Filled with tips and how-to's that are left out of most teacher education courses and inservice programs, the guide covers formal and informal tasks that teacher leaders at every grade level are expected to know but rarely do, such as

Building and maintaining successful teams
Planning and conducting results-oriented meetings, interviews, and conferences
Communicating effectively with fellow teachers, dealing with disagreements, and turning resistance into cooperation
Energizing colleagues and strengthening school morale
Observing and coaching other teachers
Implementing curricular and instructional reforms that lead to higher student achievement

Reports

Southern Regional Eduaction Board

For more information and reports, visit

www.sreb.org

Administation (Books)

Research in Classroom: Lorin W. Anderson & Robert B. Burns. Pergamon Press 1989.
What Every Principal Should Know About Transforming Schools: Volume 1 & 2. James Lewis, Jr. Ph.D. National Center to Save Our Schools 1996.
Tools & Activities For A Diverse Work Force: Anthony Patrick Carnevale & S. Kanu Kogod. McGraw-Hill 1996.
How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed-Ability Classrooms: Carol Ann Tolinson. ASCD 1995.
The Road to Open and Healthy Schools: Elementary and Middle School. Wayne K. Hoy and C. John Tarter. Corwin Press 1997.
The Road to Open and Healthy Schools: Middle and Secondary School. Wayne K. Hoy and C. John Tarter. Corwin Press 1997.

Video Tapes

Everybody`s Ethnic- Your invisible culture

Description:

Discover yourself by exploring other cultures. Culture is like eye color. Your eye color is obvious to anyone who sees you. But you cannot see the color of your own eyes without some kind of reflection. Everybody’s ethnic helps viewers hold a mirror to their own culture.

Diversity Prints

1. Shorewood Art Programs for Education
      · Native American Art: Teacher's guide 7poster prints
      · Multi-cultural 1: study guide for teachers 11poster prints
      · Women Artists: Teacher's guide 8 poster prints

2. Philadelphia Museum of Art Teaching Posters and Resource Book
· Mexican Art: 2 books, 5 laminated prints

3. Take 5: Crystal Productions
· Urban Environments: teacher's guide and five glossy prints
· Women Artists: teacher's guide and five glossy prints

4. Rings: Five Passions in World Art
· Spiral bound teacher's guide, overhead transparencies and 15 poster prints

5. Multicultural Art Print Series from the Getty Center for Education in the Arts
     · Pacific Asian Art: 5 prints and teacher's guide
     · Architecture and Art: Cultural Heritage Sites 5 prints and teacher's guide
     · Arts of India: 5 prints and teacher's guide
     · Selected American Indian Artifacts: 5 prints and teacher's guide
     · Mexican American Art: 5 prints and teacher's guide
     · Women Artists of the Americans: 5 prints and teacher's guide
     · African American Art: 5 prints and teacher's guide

Prints Sets to be checked out as a set with the teacher's guide and supplementary materials (if applicable).
Prints cannot be checked out individually! No exceptions!

Southeastern Louisiana University

Resources

Center for Educational Services and Research