This influential book inspires preschool and elementary teachers to experience the joys and rewards of using two activities — Choral Counting & Counting Collections — regularly in their classrooms and in their partnerships with families. These playful, yet intentional, activities will engage children deeply and creatively with ideas of number and operations, and mathematical sense-making through counting. For teachers who want to jump-start student participation and deepen mathematical understanding, this can be your go-to guide.
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Our youngest learners thrive when their learning environment is one that celebrates curiosity, exploration, and imagination. This comprehensive resource sets the stage for play-based learning that will help children build a strong literacy foundation, as well as successfully negotiate the choices they make in real life.
A perfect blend of theory and instruction, Invitations to Play offers background and strategies for you to explore all aspects of playful learning. It shows you how to
Invitations to Play gives new and experienced teachers a road map to involve and engage their young students in all forms of literacy learning.
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Do you feel prepared to initiate and facilitate meaningful, productive dialogues about race in your classroom? Are you looking for practical strategies to engage with your students?
Inspired by Frederick Douglass’s abolitionist call to action, “It is not light that is needed, but fire,” Matthew Kay has spent his career learning how to lead students through the most difficult race conversations. Kay not only makes the case that high school classrooms are one of the best places to have those conversations, he also offers a method for getting them right.
Kay provides candid guidance on:
With the right blend of reflection and humility, Kay asserts, teachers can make school one of the best venues for young people to discuss race.
On Twitter: #NotLight
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What do you need for a well-run classroom full of engaged students? Kathy Lundy takes you step-by-step through the nitty-gritty details of creating a classroom that works for you and your students. This honest look at the complexity of teaching introduces you to strategies that work and classroom management tips that make a difference. From building a safe and inclusive classroom, to teaching with imagination and
innovation, to engaging with your mentors, Stand Up & Teach will help you become the teacher you want to be.
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Discover key strategies for making words the core of classroom instruction and engagement. Literacy guru Larry Swartz offers novel ways to expand students’ interest in and facility with words and word power — day by day, word by word. This practical resource is designed to help students discover why words matter as they build vocabulary; gain confidence to spell new and difficult words; develop word recognition and process un-
familiar words when reading; increase understanding of words in the content areas; inquire about word meanings and derivations; play with and celebrate words and language; and much more!
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With the concise and readable BrainWords, you will learn how children’s brains develop as they become readers and discover ways you can take concrete steps to promote this critical developmental passage. Introducing their original, research-based framework of “brain words”—dictionaries in the brain where students store and automatically access sounds, spellings, and meanings—the authors offer a wealth of information that will transform your thinking and practice:
With the insights and strategies of BrainWords, you can meet your students where they are and ensure that more of them read well, think well, and write well.
Coming in February 2019 — Pre-Order today!
In this eagerly awaited sequel to No More “I’m Done!” grades 3–8 teachers will find the inspiration and tools to shift from a teacher-directed writing program to a student-propelled workshop model. Drawing on a wealth of Writer’s Workshop experience in upper elementary and middle school classrooms, the book provides strategies to help you engage and support writers as they discover their voices and take charge of their own learning. It shares tips on how to establish the spaces, routines, and tone to run a highly productive writing time. As it clarifies misconceptions about writing and workshops, No More "How Long" serves up an immensely readable blend of activities, anecdotes, and advice that will energize and inspire your students.
Coming in February 2019 — Pre-Order today!
In freewriting, we write continuously: we begin with a prompt and keep our pen or pencil moving throughout the entire duration. We do not stop to question or censor ourselves; we do not concern ourselves with spelling, punctuation, capitalization, or grammar; we do not let critical thoughts creep into our freewriting time. The book shows teachers how to use freewriting to help kids write well and more, regardless of grade level, subject, time of day, or time of year. It is not a difficult process to implement and yet it makes a significant difference in teacher attitudes, student confidence, and, ultimately, student writing abilities.
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This manageable approach to close reading will help you harness the big thinking in your young learners' inquisitive minds. The book showcases ways that close reading can teach even the youngest students new ways to enjoy texts, think about them critically, and share that thinking with peers and adults. Little Readers, Big Thinkers offers a trove of valuable insights:
With this book as your guide, close reading will become your students’ stepping stone to a lifelong love of reading.
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This thoughtful book identifies three essential elements in a coherent approach to secondary math pedagogy: academic safety, quality tasks, and effective facilitation. With the guidance in Necessary Conditions, you’ll be equipped to design classroom experiences that build students’ self-confidence; create dynamic lessons that include meaningful assessment; and facilitate routines and discussions that increase students’ access to conceptual mathematics.
Coming in September 2018 — Pre-Order today!
The act of writing doesn’t just convey our thinking; it shapes our thinking. Discover “quick writes”—short, frequent bursts of low-stakes writing that allow young students to explore on paper. This purposeful approach offers ways for children to create a rich array of writing, nurturing a broad range of skills: metacognitive skills, and a mindset of reflection, motivation, and gratitude. Spark! provides practical, enjoyable tools that meet your students where they are in their writing development, and produce tangible results — increased volume and stamina; deeper thinking and discovery of voice; more effective and confident communication; the exploration and appreciation of the diverse thinking of others; and much, much more.
On Twitter: #QuickWriting
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This practical book shows you how to get to know the needs and abilities of your students and help them make sense of math concepts. Designed to enhance your professional learning, the book shows you how to notice, interpret, confirm, and respond to student thinking. You will discover how to structure learning experiences around key number concepts — quantity, counting, relating, and representing — developed across various strands: patterning and algebra, numbers and operations, measurement, geometry, and data and probability. Powerful examples of questions and prompts guide you to create a classroom where students get the support they need as they develop confidence in their number sense.
On Twitter: #makingsensenumber
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This remarkable book explores the essential steps for planning lessons that grab the attention of students and make them care about their learning, from activating prior knowledge and sparking curiosity; to focusing on content, skills, and inquiry; to reviewing work and finding students’ next steps. Built around the three key areas that are most important to meaningful learning — content, pedagogy, and building rapport with students — this practical book shows you how to make every lesson engaging, impactful, and even fun!
On Twitter: #InspMeaningfulLearning
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An essential guide to mindfulness activities and strategies that help students cultivate the skills they need for self-regulation, stress management, and learning. Simple activities and practices throughout the book are designed to strengthen areas of the brain that allow students to better manage their attention, emotions, and behavior in the classroom and beyond. Child-friendly language is used to explain mindfulness, physiology, and brain science.
This practical book shows you how to incorporate mindfulness in your classroom practice in just minutes a day, and includes definitions, teaching tips, and activities for
This comprehensive resource offers step-by-step instructions, scripts, activity sheets, ready-to-use templates, and scientific insights. Based on extensive classroom experience, this highly readable book includes stories from teachers who successfully incorporate mindfulness in their classroom practice.
Ideal for new and experienced teachers, Fostering Mindfulness is committed to building skills that nurture attention, cognitive and emotional development, and overall well-being.
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How can teachers balance the needs of busy overwhelming classrooms with the needs of their own health and well-being? This remarkable book shows you hwow embracing a healthy lifestyle is not only beneficial for teachers, but for students, classrooms, and schools, too. It suggests that teachers can reduce the amount of time they work outside the classroom and still be a motivated and engaged teacher. Promoting a healthy work–life balance for teachers, the book explores how to avoid burnout while still creating an effective learning community in your classroom. The conversational tone of the book, along with a wealth of anecdotal examples, will make this highly readable resource an invaluable guide for every educator.
On Twitter: #teachingwell
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In this exciting sequel to the bestselling Making Number Talks Matter, you’ll delve further into the power of Number Talks! Through real stories, you’ll meet teachers who are learning to listen closely to students and prompting them to figure things out for themselves. You’ll learn how they make on-the-spot decisions, continually advancing and deepening the conversation. Personal and accessible, the book highlights:
Bring your classroom alive as students question, challenge, and debate their way to new math discoveries!
On Twitter: #DiggingDeeper
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In The Art of Comprehension, Trevor A. Bryan introduces his signature method for enhancing students’ understanding and thinking about all texts — both written and visual. By using what he calls “access lenses” (such as faces, body language, sound/silence) you can create a more student-centered classroom.
Bryan’s approach allows all students to engage meaningfully with texts and join the classroom conversation. With this comes the greatest reward of all: confidence and independence for all kinds of learners.
On Twitter: #artofcomprehension
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