Minding the Achievement Gap One Classroom at a Time, May/2012

Do teachers have the power to close achievement gaps? Here's a book that boldly claims they do and lays out a blueprint for how to do something now to help students who are falling short of standards. Regardless of the student population you need to address—English language learners, special education, or just the unmotivated and hard to teach—this book equips you with planning, teaching, and assessment practices that support more effective learning in every student. Learn how to make small, specific adjustments every day, on a classroom-by-classroom basis, to:

Improve all students’ access to, interaction with, and mastery of lesson content.

Design daily lessons that clarify learning goals and use high-yield learning strategies.

Encourage students to seek feedback and reflect on their progress.

By focusing on teaching habits that are deliberate and purposeful, the authors help you:

Reach academically at-risk students who don’t “do school” well and appear unmotivated by increasing their engagement and helping them become master learners.

Boost the academic achievement of English language learners by addressing content and language goals and monitoring their progress toward both language acquisition and knowledge acquisition during pull-out or inclusion classroom time.

Improve the performance of special education students by synchronizing teaching and assessment between co-teachers or intensifying instruction and feedback in a pull-out or resource classroom.