Books published by Solution Tree Press

With foreword by Rick WormeliMerging educational neuroscience with a formative assessment process and differentiated instruction, LeAnn Nickelsen and Melissa Dickson developed a four-step cycle of instruction -- (1) chunk, (2) chew, (3) check, and (4) change -- that has the power to double the speed of student learning. Compatible with any subject area, the book's brain-friendly teaching strategies and plentiful tools are designed to help transform students into active learners and independent thinkers.Educational neuroscience- and research-based teaching strategies to improve student achievement:Combine brain science with a formative assessment process and differentiated instruction to maximize student learning.Examine effective teaching strategies and differentiation practices so you can bump it up or break it down according to student needs.Consider the four-step instructional cycle and understand the components of chunk, chew, check, and change.Explore how the formative assessment process can double the speed of learning.Learn how to plan instruction and preassess efficiently so that daily learning targets and formative assessments enable each student to meet standards.Receive templates and teaching strategies that can be easily differentiated and implemented in daily lesson plans.Contents:Introduction: Maneuver Your Footwork With Four StepsPart I: Setting Up Your Classroom Dance FloorChapter 1: Choreograph Your Instruction With the Cha-Cha StepsChapter 2: Move Smoothly From Broad Ideas to Smaller IdeasChapter 3: Get to Know Your Dance Partners Part II: Putting the Steps TogetherChapter 4: Take Step One: Chunk (Instruct)Chapter 5: Take Step Two: Chew (Learn)Chapter 6: Take Step Three: Check (Evaluate)Chapter 7: Take Step Four: Change (Differentiate)Chapter 8: Finesse the Chunk, Chew, Check, and Change CycleEpilogue: Swing Into Action With the Four Steps

This book is unique in that it goes beyond individual teacher assistance to provide creative systems that work in concert with a student's literacy education. This easy-to-use reference guide provides K8 teachers with practical strategies to motivate all students to develop their reading abilities across grade levels and content areas. Focus on what early-literacy instruction and intervention struggling students should receive and what tips parents should know to help struggling readers. With instructional practices that can be adapted for a wide range of academic interventions, this book shows educators where to start in building an action plan for student literacy achievement. It is an ideal professional development resource for team study and discussion.BenefitsGain insight into the early signs of reading struggles.Examine relevant theory and research related to literacy, including the fundamental elements of reading that need to work in balance in literacy instruction.Review questioning strategies to help students broaden their understanding when reading challenging texts.Explore graphic organizers that can engage higher-level thinking skills.Survey a toolbox of instructional practices for supporting literacy in inclusive classrooms.Study a blueprint for success for literacy programs.ContentsIntroductionThe Struggling ReaderKey Elements of Balanced Literacy ProgramsEffective Early Literacy InterventionVocabulary StrategiesHelping Students Become Word WiseGraphic OrganizersMaking Thinking VisibleContent StrategiesNavigating Informational TextQuestioning TechniquesFostering Higher-Level ThinkingDeveloping an Action Plan for SuccessAppendix: Teacher's ToolboxReferences and ResourcesIndex

Social mobility--the chance, through education, to achieve greater success compared to one's parents--is one of the most compelling issues of our time. In Moving, renowned professor, government adviser, and global change agent Andy Hargreaves shares candid, poignant and occasionally hilarious personal experiences of social mobility. Deeply revealing, emotionally direct, and intellectually insightful, the book begins in 1950s Northwest England and takes readers up to Hargreaves's university education in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Hargreaves openly shares how class movement has affected him throughout life, links his narrative to classic and contemporary research and realities, and calls on society to reverse the increasing levels of social immobility and inequity worldwide.Use this resource to inspire your work in increasing learning for every student:Learn, through the author's research and firsthand account, how issues surrounding mobility, equity, and education in the 20th century are still reflected in 21st-century life.Understand the obstacles of socially mobile students as they negotiate schoolwork, poverty, cultural collisions, and personal hardship. Witness how Hargreaves's experiences of testing, selection, ADHD, inspiring and uninspiring teaching, whole-child inclusion, and elitist exclusion are still alive and well in education today.Study three alternative scenarios for the future of social mobility that highlight the best ways to address both mobility and equity and to deal with the strains experienced by students who succeed in becoming mobile.Contents:Preface and AcknowledgmentsTable of ContentsAbout the AuthorChapter 1: Move On UpChapter 2: No One Likes Us; We Don't CareChapter 3: How the Light GetsChapter 4: End of EdenChapter 5: Worlds ApartChapter 6: Higher LovesChapter 7: The Full MontyChapter 8: The Bigger PictureIndexEndnotes