American high schools have never been under more pressure to reform: student populations are more diverse than ever, resources are limited, and teachers are expected to teach to high standards for all students. While many reformers look for change at the state or district level, the authors here argue that the most local contexts—schools, departments, and communities—matter the most to how well teachers perform in the classroom and how satisfied they are professionally. Their findings—based on one of the most extensive research projects ever done on secondary teaching—show that departmental cultures play a crucial role in classroom settings and expectations. In the same school, for example, social studies teachers described their students as "apathetic and unwilling to work," while English teachers described the same students as "bright, interesting, and energetic." With wide-ranging implications for educational practice and policy, this unprecedented look into teacher communities is essential reading for educators, administrators, and all those concerned with U. S. High Schools.
This New York Times bestselling novel from acclaimed author Walter Dean Myers tells the story of Steve Harmon, a teenage boy in juvenile detention and on trial. Presented as a screenplay of Steve's own imagination, and peppered with journal entries, the book shows how one single decision can change our whole lives. Monster is a multi-award-winning, provocative coming-of-age story that was the first-ever Michael L. Printz Award recipient, an ALA Best Book, a Coretta Scott King Honor selection, and a National Book Award finalist. Monster is now a major motion picture called All Rise and starring Jennifer Hudson, Kelvin Harrison, Jr., Nas, and A$AP Rocky. The late Walter Dean Myers was a National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, who was known for his commitment to realistically depicting kids from his hometown of Harlem.
The expectations of what it is to be a teacher are as high as ever. An Introduction to Teaching, which is the second edition of the well-established textbook Learning to Teach, provides a fully up-to-date introduction to the process and practice of teaching, and the personal and professional skills that successful teaching requires. This comprehensive update of the first edition is written in accordance with the Teacher Training Association and DfES guidelines, and provides in-depth coverage of all the modules included in the teacher training programme. Taking into account recent developments in policy and practice, contributors have incorporated new material covering teaching and classroom management, new approaches to planning, targeting effective learning, introduction to professional requirements and continuing professional development. The book also includes key chapters on the following: the National Curriculum children's learning the use of IT planning and preparation teaching and classroom management special educational needs working with parents.
Introduction to Teaching: Making a Difference in Student Learning, Second Edition is the ideal text for aspiring teachers. Acclaimed authors Gene Hall, Linda Quinn, and Donna Gollnick thoroughly prepare teacher education candidates to make a difference as teachers, presenting first-hand stories and evidence-based practices while offering a student-centered approach to learning. The authors target one of the biggest challenges facing many of today’s schools—making sure that all students are learning—and help teachers make student learning the primary focus in all that they do. From true-to-life challenges that teachers will face (high-stakes testing, student learning assessments, low teacher retention, Common Core Standards) to the inspiration and joy they will discover throughout their teaching careers, this text paints a realistic picture of the real life of a teacher.
Middle and High School Teaching: Methods, Standards, and Best Practicesis an interactive textbook that is fully integrated with PowerPoint slides, a web site, assessments to meet NCATE and INSTASC standards, and basal secondary level textbook chapters for each of the content areas. The text includes a chapter on standards, history, current issues and strategies for each of the major content areas: English, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, World Languages, Fine and Performing Arts, and Physical and Health education. Providing unique coverage for differentiated instruction at the college level, the text integrates standards and methods for general and specific subject matter by drawing on professional education association web sites, covering traditional methods topics, and providing authentic assignments. The text is ideal for courses in secondary general methods, curriculum and instruction, introduction to teaching, or for the first course of a two-part sequence in specific methods. Web-based resources, including PDF copies of middle and high school basal textbook content, lesson-planning templates, ERIC documents for current issues, and PowerPoint slides for each chapter, enable professors to easily choreograph their instruction for classes of mixed majors or single major, and courses of varying size that may be taught completely or partly online. The book and its ancillary materials scaffold the learning experience by presenting topics in a logical sequence, beginning with an introduction to the challenges of the profession, followed by differences between middle schools and high schools, basic skills across the curriculum, approaches to teaching diverse learners, planning, methods, and assessment, and concluding with trends, standards, and differences between the disciplines. Instructors can choose from and modify more than 100 authentic assignments, which are tied to NCATE and INTASC standards, ranging from interviewing middle school students to creating lesson plans. In addition, special emphasis is placed on such topics as motivation theory and techniques for diverse learners and integrating basic skills and literacy into subject field planning and instruction. Straightforward, easily readable, and concise.The text is organized into compact topics (rather than dense chapters) and includes aBest Practicesfeature, which engages students in reading their textbook Authentic content chapters from middle and high school textbooks.Available at the web site, downloadable PDF copies of basal textbook chapters (from McDougal Littell) across the subject areas enable students to apply methods learned from the textbook's lesson- planning activities and assignments. More than 100 potential assignments.Instructors can select and modify presented assignments to best suit their students' and course needs. Each assignment is tied to an INTASC/NCATE standard for ease of documentation or portfolio development. Coverage and integration of key national standards.The book integrates The Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC) standards, The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) standards, The Goals 2000 legislation, The No Child Left Behind legislation, and the content standards defined by the professional organizations into a coherent structure for preservice teachers. Practical pedagogy.Supportive features includeTeacher's Tipsboxes with practical ideas and strategies for the classroom, Question boxes to encourage critical thinking,For the Reflective Practitionerquotes and insights, authenticAssignments,lists ofBest Practices,and web resources.
Sharing the stories of educators working in a diverse range of international contexts, Being a Teacher uses personal narratives to explore effective teaching and learning in global settings. Demonstrating how personal values influence pedagogical practice, and asking how practice can be improved, authors reflect on their experiences not just as teachers, but also as learners, to offer essential guidance for all prospective educational professionals. The book focuses on teacher narratives as a vehicle for consideration of teacher professionalism, and as a way of understanding issues which are important to teachers in different contexts. By sharing and analysing these narratives, the book discusses the increasing complexity of teaching as a profession, and considers the commonality within the narratives. Each chapter includes graphic representations of analysis and encourages its reader to reflect critically on central questions, thereby constructing their own narrative. Being a Teacher provides an in-depth and engaging insight into the education system at a global level, making it an essential read for anyone embarking on a teaching career within the international education market.
Develop a deep understanding of mathematics by grasping the context and purpose behind various strategies. This user-friendly resource presents high school teachers with a logical progression of pedagogical actions, classroom norms, and collaborative teacher team efforts to increase their knowledge and improve mathematics instruction. Explore strategies and techniques to effectively learn and teach significant mathematics concepts and provide all students with the precise, accurate information they need to achieve academic success. Combine student understanding of functions and algebraic concepts so that they can better decipher the world. Benefits Dig deep into mathematical modeling and reasoning to improve as both a learner and teacher of mathematics. Explore how to develop, select, or modify mathematics tasks in order to balance cognitive demand and engage students. Discover the three important norms to uphold in all mathematics classrooms. Learn to apply the tasks, questioning, and evidence (TQE) process to ensure mathematics instruction is focused, coherent, and rigorous. Gain clarity about the most productive progression of mathematical teaching and learning for high school. Watch short videos that show what classrooms that are developing mathematical understanding should look like. Contents Introduction Equations and Functions Structure of Equations Geometry Types of Functions Function Modeling Statistics and Probability Epilogue: Next Steps Appendix: Weight Loss Study Data References Index
Are you ready to plan your best lessons ever? With so many demands and so much content available for teachers, we need to put a higher value on an often-overlooked skill: planning learning experiences that will both engage and inspire our students, by design, over time. Planning Powerful Instruction is your go-to guide for transforming student outcomes through stellar instructional planning. Its seven-step framework—the EMPOWER model—gives you techniques proven to help students develop true insight and understanding. You’ll have at your fingertips: the real reasons why students engage—and what you must do to ensure they do a framework to help you create, plan, and teach the most effective units and lessons in any subject area more than 50 actionable strategies to incorporate right away suggestions for tailoring units for a wide range of learners downloadable, ready-to-go tools for planning and teaching Whether you are a classroom teacher, an instructional leader, or a pre-service teacher, Planning Powerful Instruction will forever change the way you think about how you teach and the unique value you bring to your learners.
Winner of the 2018 Exemplary Research in Social Studies Award presented by the National Council for the Social Studies Many social studies teachers report feeling apprehensive about discussing potentially volatile topics in the classroom, because they fear that administrators and parents might accuse them of attempting to indoctrinate their students. Wayne Journell tackles the controversial nature of teaching politics, addressing commonly raised concerns such as how to frame divisive political issues, whether teachers should disclose their personal political beliefs to students, and how to handle political topics that become intertwined with socially sensitive topics such as race, gender, and religion. Journell discusses how classrooms can become spaces for tolerant political discourse in an increasingly politically polarized American society. In order to explore this, Journell analyzes data that include studies of high school civics/government teachers during the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections and how they integrated television programs, technology, and social media into their teaching. The book also includes a three-year study of preservice middle and secondary social studies teachers' political knowledge and a content analysis of CNN Student News.
