The Teacher Clarity Playbook, Grades K-12: A Hands-On Guide to Creating Learning Intentions and Success Criteria for Organized, Effective Instruction, Aug/2019

On a clear day, you can learn forever— that’s the adapted lyric you’ll be happily humming once you’ve covered this playbook, because you will have mastered using learning intentions and success criteria, the twin engines of Teacher Clarity. This template-filled guide shows you how to own it, do it, and live it—and your students will be more successful as a result.

Teacher clarity is both a method and a mindset, and it has an impressive effect size of 0.75 (Hattie, 2009). “It’s teaching that is organized and intentional,” explain Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, Olivia Amador, and Joseph Assof. “It brings a forthrightness and fairness to the classroom because student learning is based on transparent expectations. And when we are clear, our students can better plan and predict, set goals, and acquire a stronger sense of how to judge their own progress.“

 Succinct, smart, and swift, this book’s nine learning modules takes you systematically through a process that begins and ends with standards. With abundant cross-curricular examples that span grade levels, planning templates for every step, key professional learning questions, and a PLC guide with video and PowerPoints, you have the most practical planner for designing and delivering highly effective instruction:

1.  Identifying Concepts and Skills
2.  Sequencing Learning Progressions
3.  Elaborating Learning Intentions
4.  Crafting Success Criteria
5.  Modifying Learning Intentions to Include Language Expectations
6.  Determining the Relevance of the Learning
7.  Designing Assessment Opportunities
8.  Creating Meaningful Learning Experiences
9.  Establishing Mastery of Standards

Designed for PLCs or independent teacher use, The Teacher Clarity Playbook helps practitioners align lessons, objectives, and outcomes of learning seamlessly, so that the classroom hours flow productively for everyone. For any teacher striving to be more organized and have stronger relationships with students, this is the book that shows you how.

About the Authors:

Douglas Fisher, Ph.D., is Professor of Educational Leadership at San Diego State University and a leader at Health Sciences High & Middle College. He has served as a teacher, language development specialist, and administrator in public schools and non-profit organizations, including 8 years as the Director of Professional Development for the City Heights Collaborative, a time of increased student achievement in some of San Diego’s urban schools.  Doug has engaged in Professional Learning Communities for several decades, building teams that design and implement systems to impact teaching and learning.  He has published numerous books on teaching and learning, such as Assessment-capable Visible Learners and Engagement by Design.

Nancy Frey, Ph.D., is a Professor in Educational Leadership at San Diego State University and a leader at Health Sciences High and Middle College. She has been a special education teacher, reading specialist, and administrator in public schools. Nancy has engaged in Professional Learning Communities as a member and in designing schoolwide systems to improve teaching and learning for all students. She has published numerous books, including The Teacher Clarity Playbook and Rigorous Reading. 

Olivia Amador is a Professional Learning Consultant with Corwin. As an award-winning elementary school principal, former bilingual teacher, and reading and language arts specialist, her area of focus and expertise is in creating a culture of learning connected to high-impact practices, English language development, teacher collaboration, and leadership development.  

Joseph Assof is an 11^th and 12^th grade mathematics teacher and the math department chair at Health Sciences High and Middle College in San Diego, CA. He leads his department’s reform efforts to align to the Common Core Standards – with a focus on high quality instruction. He is a member of the San Diego County Math Leaders Task Force, whose mission is to support every student in meeting the rigorous expectations of the Common Core. Joseph’s classroom is featured in a number of Visible Learning for Mathematics, Grades K-12 videos.