Teaching Practices from America's Best Urban Schools: A Guide for School and Classroom Leaders

Discover the teaching practices that make the biggest difference in student performance! The new edition of this practical, research-based book gives leaders and teachers an even closer look at instructional practices from top award-winning urban schools. With refreshed examples from high-performing teachers and detailed analyses of these practices, the authors demystify the achievement of these schools while offering a practical guide to help educators apply these practices in their contexts. Teaching Practices from America's Best Urban Schools is a valuable tool for any educator in both urban and non urban schools that serve diverse student populations, including English language learners and children from low-income families. What’s New: Additional "What It Is/What It Isn’t" boxes help educators distinguish the subtle differences in the implementation of practices that lead to impressive learning results "Practice Guides" and "Practical Next Steps" for each of the 8 Success Factors encourage self-assessment and collaboration Expansion of topics address current developments in education and additional examples from award-winning elementary, middle, and high schools provide new insights.

Table of Contents:
About the Authors Acknowledgments Preface Intended Audience About the Schools Studied, Awarded, and Featured in This Book Contents of the Book How to Use This Book 1 Making Students Feel Valued and Capable Caring Enough to Know and Value Individual Students Caring Enough to Model Courtesy and Respect Caring Enough to Praise and Acknowledge Caring Enough to Demand the Best Caring Enough to Transform Classroom Practices Caring Enough to Create Attractive and Educationally Rich Physical Environments Summary What It Is & What It Isn’t Practice Guide Practical Next Steps References 2 Focusing on Understanding and Mastery Planning for Understanding and Mastery Designing Objective-Driven Lessons Generating Depth of Understanding Maximizing Time on Objective Focusing on All Students Summary What It Is & What It Isn’t Practice Guide Practical Next Steps References 3 Promoting Clarity Promoting Clarity in Learning Outcomes Promoting Clarity in Lesson Organization Promoting Clarity in the Representation of Ideas Summary What It Is & What It Isn’t Practice Guide Practical Next Steps References 4 Ensuring Culturally, Socially, and Personally Responsive Teaching Assuming Student Ability Building Connections Ensuring Culturally Responsive Teaching Ensuring Socially and Personally Responsive Teaching Summary What It Is & What It Isn’t Practice Guide Practical Next Steps References 5 Checking Understanding, Providing Feedback, and Adapting Frequency of Checking for Understanding Well-Distributed Checking for Understanding Checking for Higher Levels of Understanding Providing Feedback Adapting Instruction Summary What It Is & What It Isn’t Practice Guide Practical Next Steps References 6 Building Fluency with Gatekeeper Vocabulary Pre-Identifying Gatekeeper Vocabulary Making New Vocabulary Seem Familiar Building Fluency with and "Ownership" of Critical Vocabulary Sustaining Fluency Summary What It Is & What It Isn’t Practice Guide Practical Next Steps References 7 Promoting Successful Practice Guiding Students toward Independent Learning Guided Students to Learn Difficult Concepts Monitoring Independent Work Building Student Capacity to Self-Monitor Providing Independent Work (Including Homework) Worth Completing Summary What It Is & What It Isn’t Practice Guide Practical Next Steps References 8 Leading Students to Love Learning Teaching Enthusiastically Highlighting Relevance Utilizing Project-Based, Problem-Based, Experiential Learning Integrating the Arts, Technology, and Physical Education throughout Curricula Maximizing Student-to-Student Engagement Providing Students Opportunities to Excel with Challenging Content Summary What It Is & What It Isn’t Practice Guide Practical Next Steps References 9 Developing Best Teaching Practices Throughout a School Pursuing the Right Goal Building a Coherent Educational Improvement System Summary References Conclusion Appendix A: America’s Best Urban Schools Award 2019 Eligibility Criteria Appendix B: About the Schools Awarded and Studied Appendix C: America’s Best Urban Schools Award Winners References