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EKC

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Polish a unit of inquiry together: Is our central idea conceptual? Is it transferable with opportunities for making connections beyond the disciplines and beyond the inquiry? How might we be intentional with our timing? 

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Polish a unit of inquiry together: Is our central idea conceptual? Is it transferable with opportunities for making connections beyond the disciplines and beyond the inquiry? How might we be intentional with our timing? 

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Post your ideas, possibilities, and questions below for us to carry forward.

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Connect with educators around the world!

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Log into Facebook to start sharing and connecting with your friends, family, and people you know.

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Choice Words: How Our Language Affects Children's Learning

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Choice Words: How Our Language Affects Children's Learning

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Peter H. Johnston

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In productive classrooms, teachers don't just teach children skills: they build emotionally and relationally healthy learning communities. Teachers create intellectual environments that produce not only technically competent students, but also caring, secure, actively literate human beings.

Choice Words shows how teachers accomplish this using their most powerful teaching tool: language. Throughout, Peter Johnston provides examples of apparently ordinary words, phrases, and uses of language that are pivotal in the orchestration of the classroom. Grounded in a study by accomplished literacy teachers, the book demonstrates how the things we say (and don't say) have surprising consequences for what children learn and for who they become as literate people. Through language, children learn how to become strategic thinkers, not merely learning the literacy strategies. In addition, Johnston examines the complex learning that teachers produce in classrooms that is hard to name and thus is not recognized by tests, by policy-makers, by the general public, and often by teachers themselves, yet is vitally important.

This book will be enlightening for any teacher who wishes to be more conscious of the many ways their language helps children acquire literacy skills and view the world, their peers, and themselves in new ways.
eBook Available Through Major Retailers
We offer ebook editions for most of our print titles so you can access on your computer, tablet, or e-reader from several major retailers including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, OverDrive, and ebooks.com. View the full list of retailers here. For eBook purchases of 10+ please email us for a quote. Purchases of 20+ qualify for a bulk discount.

If you previously purchased an ebook from Stenhouse.com, they will remain available in your digital library.

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In productive classrooms, teachers don't just teach children skills: they build emotionally and relationally healthy learning communities. Teachers create intellectual environments that produce not only technically competent students, but also caring, secure, actively literate human beings.Choice Words shows how teachers accomplish this using their most powerful teaching tool:

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Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain

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Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain

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Zaretta Hammond

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From math, literacy, equity, multilingual learners, and SEL, to assessment, school counseling, and education leadership, our books are research-based and authored by experts on topics most relevant to what educators are facing today.

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Culturally Responsive Teaching and The Brain

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In this book, Zaretta Hammond draws on cutting-edge neuroscience research to offer an innovative approach for designing and implementing brain-compatible culturally responsive instruction.

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Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, and Nancy Akhavan

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Students learn to read and write best when their teachers balance literacy instruction. But how do you strike the right balance of skills and knowledge, reading and writing, small and whole group instruction, and direct and dialogic instruction, so that all students can learn to their maximum potential?

The answer lies in the intentional design of learning activities, purposeful selection of instructional materials, evidence-based teaching methods, and in strategic groupings of students based on assessment data. Together, these create the perfect balance of high impact learning experiences that engage and excite learners. In this hands-on essential guide, best-selling authors Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, and Nancy Akhavan help you define that balance for your students, lighting the path to implementing balanced literacy in your classroom. Their plan empowers you to integrate evidence-based approaches that include:

* Instructional materials comprised of both informational and narrative texts.
*The best uses of instructional delivery modes, including direct and dialogic instruction.
*Grouping patterns that work best to accomplish learning aims for different learners at different stages.
* Instruction in foundational skills and meaning making, including oral language, phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency,
vocabulary, comprehension, and writing.
* Technology used as a tool for increasing learning of a specific literary process.

All the tips and tools you need to realize the goal of balanced literacy learning are included, with classroom videos that show strategies in action. Tap your intuition, collaborate with your peers, and put the research-based strategies embedded in this roadmap to work in your classroom to implement or deepen a strong, successful balanced literacy program. Grow as a reading and writing teacher while leading your students to grow as readers and writers.

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All the tools and tips you need to strike the right balance of high impact learning and realize the goal of balanced literacy instruction in your classroom.

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Debbie Miller

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Introduction: We Can Do This

Asking Beautiful Questions

Paying Attention to What Doesn't Feel Right

Asking, "What If?": Creating Space for Possibility

Chapter One: What If Each Day's Teaching Focused on Children's Agency?

Finding Our Way to a Beautiful Question: The Disengaged Child

What's the Best That Could Happen? Agency Fosters Engagement

Imagining New Possibilities for a Child

Conferring to Support Access and Choice

Paying Attention During Independent Work Time

Conferring to Inquire and to Offer Community

Postscript

Chapter Two: What If We Made What Children Make and Do Our Priority?

Finding Our Way to a Beautiful Question: Workshop Planning

What's the Best That Could Happen? Meaningful Work

Planning for What Children Will Do First

Planning for What Teachers Will Do During Work Time

Figuring Out What to Teach

Playing with the Sequence

Taking Ownership

Chapter Three: What If Our Classroom Environment and Routines Offered Choice?

Finding Our Way to a Beautiful Question: Frustration over Supplies

What's the Best That Could Happen? Managing Their Own Work

Being Intentional in Our Language

Cocreating Routines

Designing Agentive Environments

Chapter Four: What If We Owned the Units We Are Asked to Teach?

Finding Our Way to a Beautiful Question: The Units We're Given

Are These the Right Goals?

Which Texts Work Best?

How Will We Know When We're Done?

How Can This Happen Within Daily Workshop?

What's the Best That Could Happen? Perfection in Imperfection

Chapter Five: What If Read-Aloud Sustained Children's Independent Thinking?

Finding Our Way to a Beautiful Question: The Wisdom in Children's Thinking

Expecting Brilliance

Finding Time for Read-Aloud

Reading Aloud for Joy

Teachers and Children Thinking Aloud

What's the Best That Could Happen? Being Inspired to Act

Conclusion: In Pursuit of Beautiful Questions

We all have difficult moments in our teaching, and without a question to drive us forward, we can get stuck. But that difficult moment might be the question we need to ask ourselves. Questions can bring a positive attention, creating a presence in the moment. When I ask children, "Are you the kind of kid who...?", I'm inviting them to imagine a new possibility for themselves, one in which they have more power than they did before. I want those new possibilities for teachers, too. Are you the kind of teacher who is ready to try something new, something that will make your students stronger, more joyful readers and bring you greater joy in your work? I think you are.

Asking questions leads to opportunities-it's about growth, openness, and a willingness to change, which top-down models don't allow. It's a way for us to focus our thinking and be present in the lives we've chosen to live. Asking the question is the essential behavior of teaching. It's not a perfect call-and response but a messy business of wondering, stumbling, and figuring things out. It requires bravery and commitment, but that's what teaching is. It's a joyful, creative, purposeful profession. If you feel you've lost even some of your passion for teaching, I would love to help give it back to you. So, in this book, we'll talk about creating beautiful questions about the teaching of reading. To help you take on the process of asking beautiful questions, I'll share how I got to some beautiful questions about teaching reading and what I did with them as I worked with teachers in classrooms across the country.

This book is about owning our teaching and making decisions based on who we are and what's best for the children in our classroom today. That all sounds ambitious and brave... and the work is-teaching is-but it happens in so many small and simple ways. My wish is for you to think about what you do and ask your own beautiful questions, so that you and your children can thrive and view yourselves and each other as valuable, idea-filled, creative, and contributing humans who own your teaching and learning. Be open and receptive to possibilities! Think: "What if we did it this way?"

"A one-of-a-kind book, full of wisdom and heart. Debbie Miller inspires educators to step back and question everything-challenging us to rethink and reinvent the ways we teach. What's the best that could happen? Read this book and it will help you find your own answer to that beautiful question."

-Warren Berger, author of A More Beautiful Question and The Book of Beautiful Questions
"Debbie Miller is a magician with children, and in What's the Best That Could Happen? she hands us her magic wand. With honesty, humility, and optimism, she shares her thoughts and actions about teaching and learning. Run-don't walk-to conjure up this essential book!"
-Stephanie Harvey, coauthor of The Comprehension Toolkit series, From Striving to Thriving, and Strategies That Work
"Debbie Miller is suggesting something revolutionary. She is suggesting the way to ensure all students learn is to intentionally and persistently expect not just capability but brilliance from them."
-Gretchen Morgan, author of Innovative Educators: An Action Plan for Teachers

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"One of the great joys of teaching is anticipating children's brilliance." In What's the Best That Could Happen?, Debbie Miller confronts a challenge all

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Dr. Jan Burkins & Kim Yaris

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Following up on Reading Wellness, Jan Burkins and Kim Yaris explore how some traditional scaffolding practices may actually rob students of important learning opportunities and independence. Who's Doing the Work? suggests ways to make small but powerful adjustments to instruction that hold students accountable for their own learning.

Educators everywhere are concerned about students whose reading development inexplicably plateaus, as well as those who face challenging texts without applying the strategies they've been taught. When such problems arise, our instinct is to do more. But when we summarize text before reading or guide students when they encounter difficult words, are we leading them to depend on our support? If we want students to use strategies independently, Jan and Kim believe that we must question the ways our scaffolding is getting in the way.

Next generation reading instruction is responsive to students' needs, and it develops readers who can integrate reading strategies without prompting from instructors. In Who's Doing The Work?, Jan and Kim examine how instructional mainstays such as read-aloud, shared reading, guided reading, and independent reading look in classrooms where students do more of the work. Classroom snapshots at the end of each chapter help translate the ideas in the book into practice.

Who's Doing the Work? offers a vision for adjusting reading instruction to better align with the goal of creating independent, proficient, and joyful readers.

Learn more about Who's Doing the Work? Lesson Sets.

Learn more about Who's Doing the Work? Independent Library Collections.
eBook Available Through Major Retailers
We offer ebook editions for most of our print titles so you can access on your computer, tablet, or e-reader from several major retailers including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, OverDrive, and ebooks.com. View the full list of retailers here. For eBook purchases of 10+ please email us for a quote. Purchases of 20+ qualify for a bulk discount.

If you previously purchased an ebook from Stenhouse.com, they will remain available in your digital library.

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Following up on Reading Wellness, Jan Burkins and Kim Yaris explore how some traditional scaffolding practices may actually rob students of important learning opportunities and independence. Who's Doing the Work? suggests ways to make small but powerful adjustments to instruction that hold students accountable for their own learning.

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Dr. Katie Egan Cunningham

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Children come to school to become better readers, writers, and thinkers, but they also walk into classrooms hoping to be happy. Katie Cunningham argues that happiness must be as much of a priority in teaching as proficiency or achievement. When teachers intentionally design curriculum with joy at it…

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Lester Laminack & Katie Kelly

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Books as bridges enable readers to speak freely, think deeply, and take action. In Reading to Make a Difference, Lester and Katie build on the work of

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EKC

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Attributes of a strong central idea...

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One Central Idea: Between, Across, and Beyond the Disciplines

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One Central Idea: Between, Across, and Beyond the Disciplines

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EKC

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PYP G3 Central Idea and Staggered Timing 

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One Central Idea Between, Across, and Beyond the Disciplines with Staggered Timing 

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One Central Idea Between, Across, and Beyond the Disciplines with Staggered Timing 

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EKC

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PYP G3 Central Idea and Staggered Timing

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I wonder where the ES is as a whole on these three variations of planning for learning. I also wonder where my grade level is prior to this school year.

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I wonder where the ES is as a whole on these three variations of planning for learning. I also wonder where my grade level is prior to this school year.

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Word study for the year could be addressing three concepts: patterns, form, and communication.

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strategic awareness of planning for learning structures

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strategic awareness of planning for learning structures

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We need to bring to our collaborative agenda discussion and determination of which structure we want to use.

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human-centered
relevant to our world
transferable: time, place, context
conceptual: > or =2 concepts
not prescriptive
opens for different interpretations
succinct; clarity
not subject-specific, yet relevant to all/most subjects

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not subject based
conceptual
crosses disciplines
true everywhere
important

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Central ideas: how can we make them more conceptually based and transiciplinary?

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The discussion about about what makes a strong central idea was really insightful

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The discussion about about what makes a strong central idea was really insightful

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Could we go over conferring strategies that we could employ in workshop? Even anecdotal or notetaking strategies for conferring would be a great reminder/spur.

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Targeting transferable skills and knowledge.

What do we want our kids to understand about the topic?

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The team understands the conceptual nature of the PYP.

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A strong central idea should be conceptual, between, across and beyond disciplines.

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Think about unpacking one central idea and using one word (concept) consistently throughout the unit in all classes (studio as well). At the end of the unit, assess how well the students understand the concept by their use of the word in each class.

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"What do we want our kids to understand about...?"

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EKC

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Conferring to Amplify Inquiry & Honor Agency

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Conferring to Amplify Inquiry & Honor Agency

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EKC

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EKC

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Post artifacts—reflections, pictures, video—below. Bring victories, challenges, and wonderings to our next session.

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EKC

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Hammond (2015) based on Kleinfeld (1975)

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Tell me more about the idea behind the Forever Stance. I am wondering the rationale for its naming, for its purpose. The parts make sense.

PS- I see a resource here for me to explore after Session 2.

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I am looking forward to getting to know the students better in different areas so I can better anticipate how much support they might need.

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I need to assemble my conferring toolkit so conferring becomes more effective.

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Ask questions to amplify inquiry... everywhere.

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Break down of the "Teach", Coach in, and Link

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Keep the dimensions of assessment within our perspective, so we use assessment mostly for learning.

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Want to create a system to record, monitor and track students progress.

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Want to create a system to record, monitor and track students progress.

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Asking students questions to get them into writing. Example: How is it going?, what can I help you with?

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Asking students questions to get them into writing. Example: How is it going?, what can I help you with?

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Feed up, feed back, feed forward- Goal, progress and specific.

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Jeff Anderson & Whitney La Rocca

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Planning Sheet for a Grammar/Conventions Inquiry

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Planning Sheet for a Grammar/Conventions Inquiry

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EKC

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Possible Lesson Sequence (adapt to YOUR kids!)

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Possible Lesson Sequence (adapt to YOUR kids!)

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Free resource from Stenhouse

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Free resource from Stenhouse

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Let's build off of the focus on Approaches to learning ( and teaching) as it leads to transdisciplinarity.

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The 'micro progression' is definitely a big thing to help manage our conferring time

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The 'micro progression' is definitely a big thing to help manage our conferring time

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mini-lesson on what to do next when conferencing is occurring in the classroom

co-create a micro-progression or a process chart for this

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Lets look at the place of grammar in the literacy workshop.

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It's about teacher clarity. It's about transfer!

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"Remember" our .....

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Conferencing Guide and Conference  Questions

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Conferencing Guide and Conference  Questions

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Link - often includes forever stance/statement followed by "what is your plan"