New Releases by Douglas Fisher

While social and emotional learning (SEL) is most familiar as compartmentalized programs separate from academics, the truth is, all learning is social and emotional. What teachers say, the values we express, the materials and activities we choose, and the skills we prioritize all influence how students think, see themselves, and interact with content and with others. If you teach kids rather than standards, and if you want all kids to get what they need to thrive, Nancy Frey, Douglas Fisher, and Dominique Smith offer a solution: a comprehensive, five-part model of SEL that''s easy to integrate into everyday content instruction, no matter what subject or grade level you teach. You''ll learn the hows and whys of Building students'' sense of identity and confidence in their ability to learn, overcome challenge, and influence the world around them. Helping students identify, describe, and regulate their emotional responses. Promoting the cognitive regulation skills critical to decision making and problem solving. Fostering students'' social skills, including teamwork and sharing, and their ability to establish and repair relationships. Equipping students to becoming informed and involved citizens. Along with a toolbox of strategies for addressing 33 essential competencies, you''ll find real-life examples highlighting the many opportunities for social and emotional learning within the K–12 academic curriculum. Children’s social and emotional development is too important to be an add-on or an afterthought, too important to be left to chance. Use this books integrated SEL approach to help your students build essential skills that will serve them in the classroom and throughout their lives.

Select the right task, at the right time, for the right phase of learning How can you best help K–2 students to become assessment-capable visible learners in mathematics? This book answers that question by showing Visible Learning strategies in action in high-impact mathematics instruction. Walk in the shoes of K–2 teachers as they mix and match strategies, tasks, and assessments, demonstrating that it’s not only what works, but when. A decision-making matrix and grade-leveled examples help you leverage the most effective teaching practices at the most effective time to meet the surface, deep, and transfer learning needs of every young student.

Select the right task, at the right time, for the right phase of learning How do you generate that lightbulb “aha” moment of understanding for your students? This book helps to answer that question by showing Visible Learning strategies in action in high-impact mathematics classrooms. Walk in the shoes of teachers as they engage in the countless micro-decisions required to balance strategies, tasks, and assessments, demonstrating that it’s not only what works, but when. A decision-making matrix and grade-leveled examples help you leverage the most effective teaching practices at the most effective time to meet the surface, deep, and transfer learning needs of every student.

Select the right task, at the right time, for the right phase of learning It could happen in the morning during homework review. Or perhaps it happens when listening to students as they struggle through a challenging problem. Or maybe even after class, when planning a lesson. At some point, the question arises: How do I influence students′ learning—what’s going to generate that light bulb "aha" moment of understanding? In this sequel to the megawatt best seller Visible Learning for Mathematics, John Almarode, Douglas Fisher, Joseph Assof, John Hattie, and Nancy Frey help you answer that question by showing how Visible Learning strategies look in action in the mathematics classroom. Walk in the shoes of high school teachers as they engage in the 200 micro-decisions-per-minute needed to balance the strategies, tasks, and assessments seminal to high-impact mathematics instruction. Using grade-leveled examples and a decision-making matrix, you’ll learn to Articulate clear learning intentions and success criteria at surface, deep, and transfer levels Employ evidence to guide students along the path of becoming metacognitive and self-directed mathematics achievers Use formative assessments to track what students understand, what they don’t, and why Select the right task for the conceptual, procedural, or application emphasis you want, ensuring the task is for the right phase of learning Adjust the difficulty and complexity of any task to meet the needs of all learners It’s not only what works, but when. Exemplary lessons, video clips, and online resources help you leverage the most effective teaching practices at the most effective time to meet the surface, deep, and transfer learning needs of every student.

“When students know how to learn, they are able to become their own teachers.” —Nancy Frey, Douglas Fisher, and John Hattie Imagine students who describe their learning in these terms: “I know where I’m going, I have the tools I need for the journey, and I monitor my own progress.” Now imagine the extraordinary difference this type of ownership makes in their progress over the course of a school year. This illuminating book shows how to make this scenario an everyday reality. With its foundation in principles introduced in the authors’ bestselling Visible Learning for Literacy, this resource delves more deeply into the critical component of self-assessment, revealing the most effective types of assessment and how each can motivate students to higher levels of achievement.

Engaging Students for Success Through Purposeful Design Every teacher wants engaged students. No student wants to be bored. So why isn’t every classroom teeming with discussion and activity centered on the day’s learning expectations? Engagement by Design gives you a framework for making daily improvements in engaging your students, highlighting opportunities that offer the greatest benefit in the least amount of time. You’ll learn how focusing on relationships, clarity, and challenge can make all the difference in forging a real connection with students. Engagement by Design puts you in control of managing your classroom’s success and increasing student learning, one motivated student at a time.

Imagine a school with a diverse student body where everyone feels safe and valued, and all—regardless of race, culture, home language, sexual orientation, gender identity, academic history, and individual challenges—have the opportunity to succeed with interesting classes, projects, and activities. In this school, teachers notice and meet individual instructional needs and foster a harmonious and supportive environment. All students feel empowered to learn, to grow, and to pursue their dreams. This is the school every student needs and deserves. In Building Equity, Dominique Smith, Nancy Frey, Ian Pumpian, and Douglas Fisher, colleagues at San Diego’s innovative Health Sciences High & Middle College, introduce the Building Equity Taxonomy, a new model to clarify the structural and interpersonal components of an equitable and excellent schooling experience, and the Building Equity Review and Audit, survey-based tools to help school and teacher leaders uncover equity-related issues and organize their efforts to achieve Physical integration Social-emotional engagement Opportunity to learn Instructional excellence Engaged and inspired learners Built on the authors’ own experiences and those of hundreds of educators throughout the United States, this book is filled with examples of policy initiatives and practices that support high-quality, inclusive learning experiences and deliver education that meets critical standards of equality and equity.

Teach with optimum impact to foster deeper expressions of literacy Whether through direct instruction, guided instruction, peer-led and independent learning—every student deserves a great teacher, not by chance, but by design. In this companion to Visible Learning for Literacy, Fisher, Frey, and Hattie show you how to use learning intentions, success criteria, formative assessment and feedback to achieve profound instructional clarity. Chapter by chapter, this acclaimed author team helps put a range of learning strategies into practice, depending upon whether your K–5 students are ready for surface, deep, or transfer levels of understanding.

This 6-12 companion to Visible Learning for Literacy shows teachers how to use learning intentions, success criteria, formative assessment and feedback to achieve profound instructional clarity, putting a range of learning strategies into practice.

Rich tasks, collaborative work, number talks, problem-based learning, direct instruction…with so many possible approaches, how do we know which ones work the best? In Visible Learning for Mathematics, six acclaimed educators assert it’s not about which one—it’s about when—and show you how to design high-impact instruction so all students demonstrate more than a year’s worth of mathematics learning for a year spent in school. That’s a high bar, but with the amazing K-12 framework here, you choose the right approach at the right time, depending upon where learners are within three phases of learning: surface, deep, and transfer. This results in “visible” learning because the effect is tangible. The framework is forged out of current research in mathematics combined with John Hattie’s synthesis of more than 15 years of education research involving 300 million students. Chapter by chapter, and equipped with video clips, planning tools, rubrics, and templates, you get the inside track on which instructional strategies to use at each phase of the learning cycle: Surface learning phase: When—through carefully constructed experiences—students explore new concepts and make connections to procedural skills and vocabulary that give shape to developing conceptual understandings. Deep learning phase: When—through the solving of rich high-cognitive tasks and rigorous discussion—students make connections among conceptual ideas, form mathematical generalizations, and apply and practice procedural skills with fluency. Transfer phase: When students can independently think through more complex mathematics, and can plan, investigate, and elaborate as they apply what they know to new mathematical situations. To equip students for higher-level mathematics learning, we have to be clear about where students are, where they need to go, and what it looks like when they get there. Visible Learning for Math brings about powerful, precision teaching for K-12 through intentionally designed guided, collaborative, and independent learning.

For every teacher it''s different, but you know who they are for you—the students who are "hard to teach." Maybe they''re reading far below grade level. Maybe they''re English learners. Maybe they have diagnosed learning disabilities or behavioral issues. Maybe they''re underachieving for reasons that are unknown. They have been overlooked or underserved or frustrated, and they''re not learning as they should. Until now. Until you. How to Reach the Hard to Teach presents a thoughtful and practical approach to achieving breakthrough success with linguistically and culturally diverse students who struggle in school. Combining elements of the SIOP® Model and the FIT Teaching® approach, authors Jana Echevarría, Nancy Frey, and Douglas Fisher take stock of what we know about excellent instruction and distill it into five guiding principles: Set high expectations. Provide access to the core curriculum. Use assessment to inform instruction. Attend to language development—both English and academic. Create a supportive classroom climate. You''ll learn specific practices associated with each principle and see how real-life teachers are employing these practices in their classrooms so that all students have the opportunity to learn and receive optimal support for that learning. Every teacher has had the experience of seeing a "hard to teach" student in a new light and realizing all he or she might achieve. This book is about shining that light of possibility on the students who challenge us most, interrogating our beliefs, and taking action to ensure they receive the best instruction we have to offer.

''Fisher''s book will appeal to scholars interested in historical macroeconomics and the industrial revolution. It suggests promising directions for future research, and it contains vast amounts of useful information. In time, specialists may find it to be an indispensable reference.''- Gary Richardson, Journal of Economic History In this study of the European economy from 1700 to 1910, the macroeconomic data from five countries is examined both descriptively and analytically (using structural and time-series methods). The UK receives three chapters, in view of the extensive literature in that case, while France, Germany, Italy and Sweden are each covered in a separate chapter.

This volume documents the economic integration of the European national economies over the period 1850-1913. The authors concentrate on the macroeconomic aspects of this integration, focusing on measures of aggregate output and monetary aggregates as they relate to policy concerns, such as those surrounding the implementation of the gold standard, as well as the possible interaction of nominal and real factors in both growth and cycles. They also date the `European'' cycle and show a close coincidence across nations.

What is FIT Teaching? What is a FIT Teacher? The Framework for Intentional and Targeted Teaching®—or FIT Teaching®—is a research-based, field-tested, and experience-honed process that captures the essentials of the best educational environments. In contrast to restrictive pedagogical prescriptions or formulas, FIT Teaching empowers teachers to adapt the most effective planning, instructional, and assessment practices to their particular context in order to move their students’ learning from where it is now to where it should be. To be a FIT Teacher is to make a heroic commitment to learning—not just to the learning of every student in the classroom, but to the professional learning necessary to grow, inspire, and lead. This book introduces the powerful FIT Teaching Tool, which harnesses the FIT Teaching approach and presents a detailed continuum of growth and leadership. It’s a close-up look at what intentional and targeting teaching is and what successful teachers do to Plan with purpose Cultivate a learning climate Instruct with intention Assess with a system Impact student learning Designed to foster discussion among educators about what they are doing in the classroom, the FIT Teaching Tool can be used by teachers for self-assessment; by teacher peers for collegial feedback in professional learning communities; by instructional coaches to focus on the skills teachers need both onstage and off; and by school leaders to highlight their teachers’ strengths and value. Join authors Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, and Stefani Arzonetti Hite for an examination of what makes great teachers great, and see how educators at all grade levels and all levels of experience are taking intentional steps toward enhanced professional practice.

Ensure students demonstrate more than a year’s worth of learning during a school year Renowned literacy experts Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey work with John Hattie to apply his 15 years of research, identifying instructional routines that have the biggest impact on student learning, to literacy practices. These practices are “visible” because their purpose is clear, they are implemented at the right moment in a student’s learning, and their effect is tangible. Through dozens of classroom scenarios, learn how to use the right approach at the right time for surface, deep, and transfer learning and which routines are most effective at each phase of learning.

There is a big difference between assigning complex texts and teaching complex texts No matter what discipline you teach, learn how to use complexity as a dynamic, powerful tool for sliding the right text in front of your students’ at just the right time. Updates to this new edition include How-to’s for measuring countable features of any written work A rubric for analyzing the complexity of both literary and informational texts Classroom scenarios that show the difference between a healthy struggle and frustration The authors’ latest thinking on teacher modeling, close reading, scaffolded small group reading, and independent reading

A teacher presents a lesson, and at the end asks students if they understand the material. The students nod and say they get it. Later, the teacher is dismayed when many of the students fail a test on the material. Why aren’t students getting it? And, just as important, why didn’t the teacher recognize the problem? In Checking for Understanding, Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey show how to increase students’ understanding with the help of creative formative assessments. When used regularly, formative assessments enable every teacher to determine what students know and what they still need to learn. Fisher and Frey explore a variety of engaging activities that check for and increase understanding, including interactive writing, portfolios, multimedia presentations, audience response systems, and much more. This new 2nd edition of Checking for Understanding has been updated to reflect the latest thinking in formative assessment and to show how the concepts apply in the context of Fisher and Frey’s work on gradual release of responsibility, guided instruction, formative assessment systems, data analysis, and quality instruction. Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey are the creators of the Framework for Intentional and Targeted (FIT) Teaching™. They are also the authors of numerous ASCD books, including The Formative Assessment Action Plan: Practical Steps to More Successful Teaching and Learning and the best-selling Enhancing RTI: How to Ensure Success with Effective Classroom Instruction and Intervention.

In World War I, 104 African American doctors joined the United States Army to care for the 40,000 men of the 92nd and 93rd Divisions, the Army''s only black combat units. The infantry regiments of the 93rd arrived first and were turned over to the French to fill gaps in their decimated lines. The 92nd Division came later and fought alongside other American units. Some of those doctors rose to prominence; others died young or later succumbed to the economic and social challenges of the times. Beginning with their assignment to the Medical Officers Training Camp (Colored)--the only one in U.S. history--this book covers the early years, education and war experiences of these physicians, as well as their careers in the black communities of early 20th century America.

ASCD Bestseller! Classroom management is traditionally a matter of encouraging good behavior and discouraging bad by doling out rewards and punishments. But studies show that when educators empower students to address and correct misbehavior among themselves, positive results are longer lasting and more wide reaching. In Better Than Carrots or Sticks, longtime educators and best-selling authors Dominique Smith, Douglas Fisher, and Nancy Frey provide a practical blueprint for creating a cooperative and respectful classroom climate in which students and teachers work through behavioral issues together. After a comprehensive overview of the roots of the restorative practices movement in schools, the authors explain how to Establish procedures and expectations for student behavior that encourage the development of positive interpersonal skills; Develop a nonconfrontational rapport with even the most challenging students; and Implement conflict resolution strategies that prioritize relationship building and mutual understanding over finger-pointing and retribution. Rewards and punishments may help to maintain order in the short term, but they''re at best superficially effective and at worst counterproductive. This book will prepare teachers at all levels to ensure that their classrooms are welcoming, enriching, and constructive environments built on collective respect and focused on student achievement.

Discover proven methods to enhance teaching and learning schoolwide. Identify questions educators should ask to guarantee a positive classroom culture where students learn from each other, not just teachers. Explore ways to adapt learning in response to students’ individual needs, and gain strategies and tools to create clear learning targets, prepare effective lessons, and successfully assess instruction.

This is the eBook of the printed book and may not include any media, website access codes, or print supplements that may come packaged with the bound book. Note: This is the bound book only and does not include access to the Enhanced Pearson eText. To order the Enhanced Pearson eText packaged with a bound book, use ISBN 0134170733. Practical, straightforward, and affordable, this guide gives middle and secondary school teachers the tools they need to support their students’ comprehension and success in literacy and in content area learning. The classroom-proven strategies and procedures included are taken from the authors’ and their colleagues’ experience in middle and secondary classrooms. Each chapter opens with a vignette from an actual classroom to show readers effective teaching in action and to give them a look at how the chapter’s instructional approach works within content area teaching. Research-based rationales for each strategy follow the vignettes and provide an in-depth look at how to implement the strategy, along with examples of each strategy across the curriculum. The Enhanced Pearson eText features embedded video and assessments. Improve mastery and retention with the Enhanced Pearson eText* The Enhanced Pearson eText provides a rich, interactive learning environment designed to improve student mastery of content. The Enhanced Pearson eText is: Engaging. The new interactive, multimedia learning features were developed by the authors and other subject-matter experts to deepen and enrich the learning experience. Convenient. Enjoy instant online access from your computer or download the Pearson eText App to read on or offline on your iPad® and Android® tablet.* Affordable. The Enhanced Pearson eText may be purchased stand-alone or with a loose-leaf version of the text for 40-65% less than a print bound book. * The Enhanced eText features are only available in the Pearson eText format. They are not available in third-party eTexts or downloads. *The Pearson eText App is available on Google Play and in the App Store. It requires Android OS 3.1-4, a 7” or 10” tablet, or iPad iOS 5.0 or later.

Fisher & Frey’s answer to close and critical reading Learn the best ways to use text-dependent questions as scaffolds during close reading and the big understandings they yield. But that’s just for starters. Fisher and Frey also include illustrative video, texts and questions, cross-curricular examples, and an online facilitator’s guide—making the two volumes of TDQ a potent professional development tool across all of K–12. The genius of TDQ is the way Fisher and Frey break down the process into four cognitive pathways: What does the text say? How does the text work? What does the text mean? What does the text inspire you to do?

Fisher & Frey’s answer to close and critical reading Learn the best ways to use text-dependent questions as scaffolds during close reading and the big understandings they yield. But that’s just for starters. Fisher and Frey also include illustrative video, texts and questions, cross-curricular examples, and an online facilitator’s guide—making the two volumes of TDQ a potent professional development tool across all of K–12. The genius of TDQ is the way Fisher and Frey break down the process into four cognitive pathways: What does the text say? How does the text work? What does the text mean? What does the text inspire you to do?

Accessible and hands-on yet grounded in research, this book addresses the "whats," "whys," and "how-tos" of integrating literacy instruction and the arts in grades K-8. Even teachers without any arts background will gain the skills they need to bring music, drama, visual arts, and dance into their classrooms. Provided are a wealth of specific resources and activities that other teachers have successfully used to build students'' oral language, concepts of print, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, and writing, while also promoting creativity and self-expression. Special features include reproducible worksheets and checklists for developing, evaluating, and implementing arts-related lesson plans.

This popular text, now in its Fourth Edition, introduces pre-service and in-service teachers to the most current theories and methods for teaching literacy to children in elementary schools. The methods presented are based on scientific findings that have been tested in many classrooms. A wealth of examples, hands-on activities, and classroom vignettes--including lesson plans, assessments, lists of children''s literature books to fiction and nonfiction texts, and more--illustrate the methods and bring them to life.The text highlights the importance of teaching EVERY child to become competent in all of the nuances and complexities of reading, writing, and speaking. The value of reflection and peer discussion in learning to expand their students'' literacies is emphasized. Readers are encouraged to reflect on their own experiences with reading and teaching throughout their lifetimes--experiences that will serve well in learning to teach reading. "Your Turn" boxes invite readers to think about their views of the material presented, and to talk with colleagues and teachers about their "best ways" of learning this new information. "Did You Notice?" boxes engage readers in observation and analysis of methods and classroom situations discussed in the text. Teachers'' stories serve as models of successful teaching and to draw readers into professional dialogue about the ideas and questions raised. End-of-chapter questions and activities provide additional opportunities for reflection and discussion. All of these pedagogical features help readers expand and refine their knowledge in the most positive ways. Topics covered in Teaching Reading to Every Child, Fourth Edition: *Getting to Know Your Students as Literacy Learners; *Looking Inside Classrooms: Organizing Instruction; *Assessing Reading Achievement; *The Importance of Oral Language in Developing Literacy; *Word Identification Strategies: Pathways to Comprehension; *Vocabulary Development; *Comprehension Instruction: Strategies At Work; *Content Area Learning; *What the Teacher Needs to Know to Enable Students'' Text Comprehension; *Writing: Teaching Students to Encode and Compose; *Discovering the World Through Literature; *Technology and Media in Reading; *Teaching Reading to Students Who Are Learning English; *All Students are Special: Some Need Supplemental Supports and Services to Be Successful; and *Historical Perspectives on Reading and Reading Instruction. New in the Fourth Edition: *A new chapter on technology with state-of-the-art applications; *A new chapter with the most up-to-date information on how vocabulary is learned and on how it is best taught, responding to the national renewed interest in vocabulary instruction; *A new section on Readers/Writer''s workshop with a focus on supporting student inquiry and exploration of multiple genres; *A more comprehensive chapter on literature instruction and the role of literature in the reading program with examples that support students'' multigenre responses; *A discussion of literary theories with examples for classroom implementation; *Broader coverage of the phases of reading development from the pre-alphabetic stage to the full alphabetic stage; *A more inclusive chapter on writing instruction; and *A thoroughly revised chapter on teaching reading to students who are learning English, including extensive information on assessment and evaluation.

EDUCATION / Leadership

This popular text, now in its Fourth Edition, introduces pre-service and in-service teachers to the most current theories and methods for teaching literacy to children in elementary schools. The methods presented are based on scientific findings that have been tested in many classrooms. A wealth of examples, hands-on activities, and classroom vignettes--including lesson plans, assessments, lists of children''s literature books to fiction and nonfiction texts, and more--illustrate the methods and bring them to life.The text highlights the importance of teaching EVERY child to become competent in all of the nuances and complexities of reading, writing, and speaking. The value of reflection and peer discussion in learning to expand their students'' literacies is emphasized. Readers are encouraged to reflect on their own experiences with reading and teaching throughout their lifetimes--experiences that will serve well in learning to teach reading. "Your Turn" boxes invite readers to think about their views of the material presented, and to talk with colleagues and teachers about their "best ways" of learning this new information. "Did You Notice?" boxes engage readers in observation and analysis of methods and classroom situations discussed in the text. Teachers'' stories serve as models of successful teaching and to draw readers into professional dialogue about the ideas and questions raised. End-of-chapter questions and activities provide additional opportunities for reflection and discussion. All of these pedagogical features help readers expand and refine their knowledge in the most positive ways. Topics covered in Teaching Reading to Every Child, Fourth Edition: *Getting to Know Your Students as Literacy Learners; *Looking Inside Classrooms: Organizing Instruction; *Assessing Reading Achievement; *The Importance of Oral Language in Developing Literacy; *Word Identification Strategies: Pathways to Comprehension; *Vocabulary Development; *Comprehension Instruction: Strategies At Work; *Content Area Learning; *What the Teacher Needs to Know to Enable Students'' Text Comprehension; *Writing: Teaching Students to Encode and Compose; *Discovering the World Through Literature; *Technology and Media in Reading; *Teaching Reading to Students Who Are Learning English; *All Students are Special: Some Need Supplemental Supports and Services to Be Successful; and *Historical Perspectives on Reading and Reading Instruction. New in the Fourth Edition: *A new chapter on technology with state-of-the-art applications; *A new chapter with the most up-to-date information on how vocabulary is learned and on how it is best taught, responding to the national renewed interest in vocabulary instruction; *A new section on Readers/Writer''s workshop with a focus on supporting student inquiry and exploration of multiple genres; *A more comprehensive chapter on literature instruction and the role of literature in the reading program with examples that support students'' multigenre responses; *A discussion of literary theories with examples for classroom implementation; *Broader coverage of the phases of reading development from the pre-alphabetic stage to the full alphabetic stage; *A more inclusive chapter on writing instruction; and *A thoroughly revised chapter on teaching reading to students who are learning English, including extensive information on assessment and evaluation.

Data. Does the word make you cringe? Does it evoke feelings of guilt? Are you unsure how to distill it and use it effectively? Grab this book and learn how to empower yourself and your school community with information gleaned from your school''s data. Experienced educators and authors offer simple instructions that can help focus school improvement efforts and result in increasing teacher expertise--a factor that positively affects the quality of life for students long after they have left the classroom. Accepting responsibility for such far-reaching influence requires educators to adopt instructional improvement as a standard by which a school needs to operate and as a means to collaborate and interact with one another. More than that, though, instructional improvement is an important component of successful schools. Learn how to improve instruction by * Collecting the right data--the right way. * Incorporating relevant data into everyone''s daily life. * Resisting the impulse to set brand-new goals every year. * Never settling for "good enough." * Anticipating changes--big and small, local and federal. * Collaborating and avoiding privatized practice. * Involving all stakeholders in identifying problems, setting goals, and analyzing data. * Agreeing on what constitutes high-quality instruction and feedback. The challenge is to understand that data--not intuition or anecdotal reports--are tools to be used in getting better at teaching students. And teaching students effectively is what schools are all about. Following the guidance in this book, overcome uncertainty and concerns about data as you learn to collect and analyze both soft and hard data and use their secrets for instructional improvement in your school.

Explore strategies for integrating the Common Core State Standards for English language arts for grades K–2 in this interdisciplinary resource, which focuses on areas of instruction, curriculum, assessment, and intervention. You’ll also learn how to implement the CCSS within the powerful PLC at WorkTM process. Critical chapter-opening questions guide discussion and help you leverage the CCSS to optimize student learning.

What does it feel like to walk into your school? Is it a welcoming place, where everyone feels valued? Most school improvement efforts focus on academic goals, instructional models, curriculum, and assessments. But sometimes what can make or break your learning community are the intangibles--the relationships, identity, and connections that make up its culture. Authors Fisher, Frey, and Pumpian believe that no school improvement effort will be effective unless school culture is addressed. They identify five pillars that are critical to building a culture of achievement: 1. Welcome: Imagine if all staff members in your school considered it their job to make every student, parent, and visitor feel noticed, welcomed, and valued. 2. Do no harm: Your school rules should be tools for teaching students to become the moral and ethical citizens you expect them to be. 3. Choice words: When the language students hear helps them tell a story about themselves that is one of possibility and potential, students perform in ways that are consistent with that belief. 4. It''s never too late to learn: Can you push students to go beyond the minimum needed to get by, to discover what they are capable of achieving? 5. Best school in the universe: Is your school the best place to teach and learn? The best place to work? Drawing on their years of experience in the classroom, the authors explain how these pillars support good teaching and learning. In addition, they provide 19 action research tools that will help you create a culture of achievement, so that your school or classroom is the best it can be. After reading this book, you''ll see why culture makes the difference between a school that enables success for all students and a school that merely houses those students during the school day.