Introduces teachers to six highly effective strategies that every reader can use when grappling with texts. Using a range of engaging classroom activities, teachers can guide students through the strategies of Making Connections, Visualising, Questioning, Inferring, Summarising and Synthesising.

Middle level teachers are unique not just by virtue of the level of students they teach but also by the ways in which they teach. This monograph emphasizes strategies that actively engage students of all ability levels, promote collaboration, provide for various levels of concrete and abstract thought, and foster student inquiry. The monograph presents approaches to assessing reading and writing, cooperative learning, vocabulary development, reading comprehension, and critical thinking and to other topics that are directly reflective of current research. It provides step-by-step procedures along with classroom examples in a convenient and serviceable format, and its research-based teaching strategies are applicable to all subject areas. The introduction offers an overview of the research on prevailing versus preferred instructional practices in middle schools and discusses what can be done to improve instruction in five basic areas: (1) approaches to teaching; (2) lesson planning and implementation; (3) classroom instructional resources; (4) instructional activities and arrangements; and (5) promotion of higher order thinking. The monograph emphasizes the following groups of strategies: 1 and 2 are concerned with assessing reading and writing performance; 3 through 9 center around cooperative learning as it relates to various topics; 10 through 13 show practical ways to develop students' vocabulary with example spanning curricular areas. The remaining strategies deal with improving students' comprehension and appreciation of what they read. (NKA)

Successful teaching techniques informed by the latest research about how kids’ brains work. Teachers are forever searching for ways to help students raise test scores or improve memory and organizational skills. Brain research is finally beginning to show them how they can shape their daily teaching practices to best meet these kinds of needs, and more, in their students. But how is a teacher to make sense of all the studies, research reports, and papers? How can you know what will actually work in the classroom? In this book, Kimberly Carraway, a leading educator and “teacher of teachers,” not only summarizes the most essential principles of how the brain learns, but also unpacks hundreds of ready-to-use applications of research in the classroom, translating the science into teaching strategies and learning activities that optimize student outcomes. Transforming Your Teaching is not about doing more. It’s about doing things more effectively. With brain-based tips for instructional design, knowledge assessment, and the enhancement of learning skills like time management, note-taking, attention, reading comprehension, organization, and memory, this user-friendly book will empower teachers, administrators, and parents to maximize retention and classroom success for their K-12 students.