Teaching with Mathematical Argument can help support students as they reason through math problems, shifting the focus from “the answer” to the processes that lead to clearer understanding. Cynthia McBride likes the inclusion of assessment and parent communication advice.
Rebecca Crockett’s one-size-fits-all math station rotations weren’t meeting the needs of all her students. In Math Workstations in Action she found a clear explanation and a set of steps to organize workstations around needed fluencies and to gauge student progress.
Reading, Writing, Rigor by Nancy Boyles offers practical tools to increase student learning in reading and writing. Boyles packs 199 pages with information, including numerous resources, strategies, and techniques to support teachers, writes consultant Anne Anderson.
Ruth Culham’s Teach Writing Well is practical and goes step-by-step through incorporating writing traits into any classroom writing program while undergirding practice with a sense of exuberance and discovery. Reviewer Sarah Cooper can’t wait for fall to try Culham’s ideas.
Glen Pearsall’s Fast and Effective Assessment focuses on making life easier for teachers while improving students’ learning and understanding, writes consultant Anne Anderson. Pearsall includes lots of ideas and efficient tools to create feedback that benefits students.
To level, or not to level? Like many educational dilemmas there is no simple right or wrong answer. Literacy coach and author Regie Routman explores the limited role book leveling might play in supporting students to become engaged, deeply comprehending, joyful readers.
In the 2nd edition of Fair Isn’t Always Equal Rick Wormeli employs patience and innovation along with multiple examples across disciplines and grade levels to explain how assessment works in differentiated classrooms, writes teacher Jennifer Randall. Essential reading!
If we expect students to achieve mastery, teaching consultant Rick Wormeli says, we must provide helpful feedback, document progress, and inform our instructional decisions with pertinent performance data. Yet many conventional grading practices render our data useless.
David Palank’s Class Hacker is so enthusiastically and conversationally presented and informative that it needs to get into the hands of teachers in order to change instruction, writes former principal and writer Mary Langer Thompson.
No matter where you are in your journey to understand grading, this book can help, says middle school teacher Emily Prissel. Susan Brookhart does a nice job of presenting important ideas succinctly and clearly, while giving practical advice and ready-to-use strategies.
