About the Book
For more than a year now, we educators have been tested and tested again. We’ve been stretched, we’ve been pulled, we’ve been put through the wringer. But now it’s time to "rebound." It’s time to bounce back, come back better, and benefit from the many lessons learned to reignite engagement, accelerate learning, and move forward with fresh optimism and better systems for schooling.
Enter Doug Fisher, Nancy Frey, Dominique Smith, and John Hattie, whose Distance Learning Playbooks have supported more than a half million educators across pandemic teaching and who are here now to advise you on this next, absolutely critical leg of our ongoing journey.
Complete with tools and strategies, prompts and exercises, Rebound: A Playbook for Rebuilding Agency, Accelerating Learning Recovery, and Rethinking Schools will help you:
- Address the collective traumas we have experienced during the pandemic and rebuild our sense of agency and self, so that we can attribute student success to both teachers’ and students’ efforts
- Evaluate what we have learned about remote teaching and learning to determine what to carry forward and what to leave behind
- Shift the narrative from learning loss to "learning leaps" and implement instructional and assessment practices that ensure our students reclaim lost knowledge, build skills, develop agency, and accelerate gains
- Redefine classrooms, learning experiences, the ways schools operate, and the very idea of schooling itself
"The greatest travesty that can arise for schools after 2020/21," Doug, Nancy, Dominique, and John write, "is to rush back to the old normal, and learn nothing, or little, about what worked well. That’s why this book has focused on rebounding, and taking the opportunity to create an even better schooling system, one that serves even more students, and focuses more on what matters most."
"Let′s agree not to reduce the impact that our expectations have on students′ learning. What if we talk about learning leaps instead of learning loss? What if we identify where students are in their learning and identify critical content that they must learn now to accelerate their performance in the future? And what if we raise our expectations for students rather than lower them?"
—Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, Dominique Smith, and John Hattie
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Module 1: Rebound
Module 2: Rebuilding Educator Agency
Module 3: Rebuilding the Agency of Students
Module 4: Recovering Learning Loss Through Curriculum
Module 5: Recovering Learning Loss Through Instruction
Module 6: Recovering Learning Loss Through Assessment
Module 7: Recovering Learning Loss Through Supportive Schoolwide Systems
Module 8: Learning Leaps that Mobilize Intervention Efforts
A Call to Action: Rethinking Schools
About the Author :
Douglas Fisher is a professor and chair of educational leadership at San Diego State University and a teacher leader at Health Sciences High and Middle College. Previously, Fisher was an early intervention teacher and elementary school educator. In 2022, he was inducted into the Reading Hall of Fame by the Literacy Research Association. He has published numerous articles on reading and literacy, leadership, and curriculum design, as well as books such as Your Introduction to PLC+, Welcome to Teaching, How Feedback Works, Teaching Reading, and RIGOR Unveiled. Fisher loves being an educator and hopes to share that passion with others.
Nancy Frey is a professor of educational leadership at San Diego State University and a teacher leader at Health Sciences High and Middle College. Her published titles include The Courage to Learn, The Art and Science of Coaching, How Scaffolding Works, and The Illustrated Guide to Visible Learning. Frey is a credentialed special educator, reading specialist, and administrator in California and learns from teachers and students every day.
Dominique Smith is an award-winning educator, author, and school leader who has dedicated two decades to transforming schools into inclusive, safe, and empowering spaces for students and educators alike. He currently serves as principal at Health Sciences High and Middle College in San Diego, California. Smith earned his doctorate in educational leadership from San Diego State University and a master of social work from the University of Southern California. His dual expertise in education and social work uniquely positions him to bridge the gap between academic success, emotional safety, and equitable school culture. A passionate advocate for belonging, restorative practices, and leadership development, Smith has co-authored several influential books through Corwin. In recognition of his commitment to fostering safe and supportive school environments, Smith received the National School Safety Award from the School Safety Advocacy Council. His TED Talk on building authentic relationships between students and teachers has inspired educators across the country to reimagine connection as the cornerstone of
effective teaching and learning. Through his leadership, writing, and speaking, Smith continues to champion the belief that when students feel seen, heard, and valued, they are empowered to thrive both academically and personally. His work challenges schools to move beyond compliance and discipline toward cultures of belonging, accountability, and restorative growth.
John Hattie, PhD, is an award-winning education researcher and best-selling author with nearly thirty years of experience examining what works best in student learning and achievement. His research, better known as Visible Learning, is a culmination of nearly thirty years synthesizing more than 2,100 meta-analyses comprising more than one hundred thousand studies involving over 300 million students around the world. He has presented and keynoted in over three hundred international conferences and has received numerous recognitions for his contributions to education. His notable publications include Visible Learning, Visible Learning for Teachers, Visible Learning and the Science of How We Learn, Visible Learning for Mathematics, Grades K-12, and 10 Mindframes for Visible Learning.
Review :
School leaders and educators have an opportunity to learn from the lessons of COVID-19 and the movement for racial justice and create schools that fundamentally dismantle the inequities that have been laid bare. This book offers educators essential guidance for transforming their schools in ways that intentionally meet the needs of every student.
Rebound is a valuable and timely book. This masterful collection of proven strategies to accelerate learning for all students and staff is essential for all school districts. The information provides immediate opportunities for your team and students to achieve maximum impact in teaching and learning as we move forward from distance learning.
Some books come along at exactly the right moment. Arriving just as we begin to heal from our collective trauma, this book provides a combination of inspiration, advice, and practical tools that teachers, leaders, and educational practitioners need to rethink, reimagine, and reinvent the schools our students, families, and educators need and deserve.
This book is phenomenal! I really haven’t enjoyed reading a practitioner book more in a long time. The way that the authors have structured the book provides a great way for readers to engage and make applications to their own practice. The modules are constructed in an easy-to-use format. There isn’t wasted space in this playbook. It’s holistic and it addresses such a broad range of topics that it will stand the test of time for educators and administrators who are invested in being better for their school communities.
This playbook is for all educators and provides all the elements to ensure we come out of the pandemic on top. From educator self-care to building successful learning systems to meet the needs of each and every student, Rebound provides us a clear path to navigate these uncharted waters.
Rebound is a gift to educators. The book is an amazing resource for all of us to rethink our classrooms and schools as we work to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. We have had many struggles in education during this pandemic; however, we have also learned new strategies that we need to capture and continue to implement as we move out of the pandemic. This book will help you do that!
