Collaborate, Communicate, and Differentiate!: How to Increase Student Learning in Today's Diverse Schools, May/2011

"An all-in-one book—a lighthearted and well grounded introduction to collaboration, how it can improve education for all children, and its role in effectively educating students with special needs. Murawski and Spencer tell it like it is, and they do so with humor and straight talk."
—Lynne Cook, Professor, School of Education
California State University, Dominguez Hills

"As a kid who struggled in school, this is the book that I wish every one of my teachers had read. It is a stunning achievement and huge step forward to making all schools inclusive of all learners!"
—Johnathan Mooney, Author, The Short Bus: A Journey Beyond Normal

Collaboration 101 for teachers, parents, and school communities

Teachers in both general and special education classrooms are being asked to collaborate to give all students access to the general education curriculum. The challenge is that teachers receive very little training in how to work together to educate students successfully. Do you wonder how to get started, how much time it will take, and what the results will be? Collaborate, Communicate, and Differentiate! addresses those issues and more, taking collaboration out of the abstract and supplying easy-to-use strategies that apply to daily tasks such as

1. Planning and differentiating instruction
2. Communicating with families
3. Using Universal Design for Learning to form instruction
4. Assessing students with diverse backgrounds and abilities
5. Co-teaching
6. Coordinating with all staff members

This reader-friendly text ties each strategy to the goal of improving student outcomes. Included are vignettes, In a Nutshell and Eye on the Research quick-reference guides, reproducible forms, Principal Points to share with administrators, and a companion website. Educators who have wondered how to make collaboration reasonable, feasible, and time-efficient will find the answers in this book!

About The Author:
Wendy Murawski is an associate professor and graduate coordinator at California State University, Northridge, in the Department of Special Education. She is an experienced co-teacher (for K–12 and university, general and special education) and an accomplished presenter. She is often requested to work with state departments, districts, and schools; present keynote addresses at conferences; and provide training seminars. Murawski has won prestigious awards including the Dissertation Award from the Division of Learning Disabilities and a Publication Award from the Division of Research for the Council for Exceptional Children, and she was the 2004 California Teacher Educator of the Year. Murawski’s research in the area of co-teaching has been widely disseminated through her numerous publications. Murawski is the author of Co-Teaching in the Inclusive Classroom: Working Together to Help ALL Your Students Find Success, an extensive resource handbook on co-teaching, as well as the co-creator of the CTSS (Co-Teach Solutions System) software. Her educational consulting company, 2 TEACH LLC, was created to provide professional development specifically in the areas of inclusive education, collaboration, and co-teaching. Murawski is a dynamic speaker who utilizes humor, personal experience, and research-based methods in her seminars while keeping them in the context of practical, ready-to-use strategies for general and special educators to implement in their inclusive classrooms. Murawski holds a master’s degree in special education, an EdS in educational administration, and a PhD in special education with an emphasis in research, collaboration, and co-teaching.