01

Well Aware: Developing Resilient, Active, and Flourishing Students by Patrick Carney

 

There is no doubt that mental health has become a vital concern in our schools and communities. But beyond the focus on symptoms and disorders, there is a shift toward understanding that developing positive mental health is foundational to student academic achievement, effective life skills, and overall well-being. Positive mental health encompasses all students and supports the goals of prevention, inclusion, compassionate support, and healthy development. The goal of this resource is to provide you with the research-based evidence, tools, and strategies to help create that culture and support students’ healthy development in practical and effective ways. It is difficult to overstate the difference a teacher, or a school, can make in a child’s or youth’s mental health—not through expensive or sophisticated interventions— but through compassion, inclusion, encouragement, and effective instruction.

02

The Big Disconnect: Protecting Childhood and Family Relationships in the Digital Age by Catherine Steiner-Adair EdD.

 

Clinical psychologist Catherine Steiner-Adair takes an in-depth look at how the Internet and the digital revolution are profoundly changing childhood and family dynamics, and offers solutions parents can use to successfully shepherd their children through the technological wilderness.

 

03

Total Participation Techniques: Making Every Student an Active Learner by Pérsida Himmele

 

Providing easy-to-use alternatives to the "stand and deliver" approach to teaching that causes so many students to tune out--or even drop out--Total Participation Techniques presents dozens of ways to engage K 12 students in active learning and allow them to demonstrate the depth of their knowledge and understanding. The authors, Persida Himmele and William Himmele, explain both the why and the how of Total Participation Techniques (TPTs) as they explore the high cost of student disengagement, place TPTs in the context of higher-order thinking and formative assessments, and demonstrate how to create a "TPT-conducive classroom."

 

04

Voice Lessons: Classroom Activities to Teach Diction, Detail, Imagery, Syntax, and Tone by Nancy DeanJulia’s Letter

 

Nancy Dean, professor emerita at the P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School, University of Florida, is an experienced teacher, literacy coach, and curriculum specialist. Committed to school improvement and meaningful professional development, Nancy has worked extensively with teachers and school leaders in both urban and rural schools throughout the United States. She is the Associate Director for Professional Learning at the National Literacy Project and a national consultant in secondary literacy and literacy leadership. Nancy is a co-author of several books on adolescent literacy and the author of Voice Lessons: Classroom Activities to Teach Diction, Detail, Imagery, Syntax, and Tone and Discovering Voice: Lessons to Teach Reading and Writing of Complex Text.

05

Guided Inquiry: Learning in the 21st Century, 2nd Edition by Carol C. Kuhlthau

 

This dynamic approach to an exciting form of teaching and learning will inspire students to gain insights and complex thinking skills from the school library, their community, and the wider world.

• Identifies and explains the five kinds of learning accomplished through guided inquiry

• Includes a new chapter on how to meet current curricular standards throughout inquiry learning

• Introduces the Guided Inquiry Design framework

• Describes guided inquiry's unique approach to transforming learning in today's schools

• Discusses how to embed student research in the inquiry process at all grade levels

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06

IQ: A Practical Guide to Inquiry-Based Learning by Jennifer Watt

 

This professional resource provides a clear and practical tool for educators, curriculum leaders, and administrators! Highly visual and accessible, it explains the inquiry process and offers practical suggestions and tools for successfully implementing inquiry-based learning in the classroom.

07

Making Thinking Visible: How to Promote Engagement, Understanding, and Independence for All Learners by Ron Ritchhart

 

A proven program for enhancing students' thinking and comprehension abilities

Visible Thinking is a research-based approach to teaching thinking, begun at Harvard's Project Zero, that develops students' thinking dispositions, while at the same time deepening their understanding of the topics they study.  Rather than a set of fixed lessons, Visible Thinking is a varied collection of practices, including thinking routines?small sets of questions or a short sequence of steps?as well as the documentation of student thinking. Using this process thinking becomes visible as the students' different viewpoints are expressed, documented, discussed and reflected upon.

• Helps direct student thinking and structure classroom discussion

• Can be applied with students at all grade levels and in all content areas

• Includes easy-to-implement classroom strategies

08

The Genius Hour Guidebook: Fostering Passion, Wonder, and Inquiry in the Classroom by Denise Krebs

 

Promote your students’ creativity and get them excited about learning! In this practical new book, authors Denise Krebs and Gallit Zvi show you how to implement Genius Hour, a time when students can develop their own inquiry-based projects around their passions and take ownership of their work. Brought to you by MiddleWeb and Routledge Eye On Education, the book takes you step-by-step through planning and teaching Genius Hour. You’ll learn how to guide your students as they:

• Develop inquiry questions based on their interests;

• Conduct research to learn more about their topic of choice;

• Create presentations to teach their fellow students in creative ways; and

• Present their finished product for a final assessment.

 

09

Make Just One Change: Teach Students to Ask Their Own Questions by Dan Rothstein

 

The authors of Make Just One Change argue that formulating one’s own questions is “the single most essential skill for learning”—and one that should be taught to all students.
They also argue that it should be taught in the simplest way possible. Drawing on twenty years of experience, the authors present the Question Formulation Technique, a concise and powerful protocol that enables learners to produce their own questions, improve their questions, and strategize how to use them.

10

Having Hard Conversations by Jennifer Abrams

 

For many educators, confronting a colleague about a work-related issue can be a daunting matter. This insightful book helps educators speak with clarity and courage to directly address difficult situations within their schools.

Having Hard Conversations provides an interactive, personal approach to mastering the art of challenging conversations. The author's step-by-step strategy addresses a wide range of situations, including communication with supervisees, peers, and supervisors. Emphasizing that initiative and preparation are the keys to a successful conversation, this resource includes: thought-provoking questions and first-person accounts that help educators become more self-aware, effective communicators; advice on overcoming personal hesitation about expressing concerns; guidance on identifying goals for the conversation and choosing the best "what-where-and-when" for a productive discussion; and sample scripts and practical tools to help educators prepare for the conversation.