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Hands-on, Practical Guidance for Educators

From math, literacy, equity, multilingual learners, and SEL, to assessment, school counseling, and education leadership, our books are research-based and authored by experts on topics most relevant to what educators are facing today.

 

Bestseller!

Opening Doors to Equity

A Practical Guide to Observation-Based Professional Learning

This compelling book is a call to action, focused on team observation-based professional learning to elevate teaching practice and support student educational attainment.

Full description


Product Details
  • Grade Level: PreK-12
  • ISBN: 9781452292236
  • Published By: Corwin
  • Year: 2014
  • Page Count: 248
  • Publication date: November 20, 2014
Price: $31.95
Volume Discounts applied in Shopping Cart

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This book is not available as a review copy.
Description

Description

The transformative professional learning design that advances equity in your school!

How do we make educational equity a reality, lesson by lesson? This compelling book is a call to action, focused on observation-based professional learning to elevate teaching practice.

Learn how to bring team observation into the classroom to test, refine and transform instruction so that students of all backgrounds achieve. Ideal for classroom teachers, grade-level team facilitators, department chairs, and all education leaders, this guide shows how to:

  • Create a culture of deep collaboration that closes opportunity gaps among students
  • Effectively redesign instruction to reach culturally and linguistically diverse learners, using observation data and shared best practices
  • Center instructional conversations on developing students’ skills for college and career success, including hard-to-assess skills

Including video clips of actual teams, Tonya Ward Singer’s powerful and practical book promises to become a catalyst that will inspire educators as leaders of positive change.

"This exceptionally valuable book provides a clear process I can use to engage with my colleagues around learning. I appreciated the ideas and practical information that will ensure that my professional learning group focuses on student learning as evidenced in real lessons. The tools that Tonya Singer provides are useful and relevant, not to mention tried and true.”
Douglas Fisher, Professor
San Diego State University, CA

“I recommend this book without hesitation. . . Gone are the days for teachers to be working ‘behind closed doors’ . . . Go forth and TEACH like the world works––collaboratively with teams!”
Harriet Gould, Adjunct Professor
Concordia University, Lincoln, NE


Key features

(1) Provides a step-by-step guide to moving collaborative inquiry from the staff room to the classroom by engaging teachers in a peer observation process.

(2) Includes a number of ready-to-use activities to help teachers develop trust, observe and debrief live lessons, transfer their learning to practice, and measure the outcomes of their inquiry work.

(3) Includes tools and handouts for faciliators and teachers including writing a high-leverage challenge area, scheduling time for inquiry, leading the Pre-Lesson meeting, individual goal setting and team agreements.

(4) Includes video clips of actual teams to illustrate and practice essentials of the process.

(5) Emphasizes the use of classroom-based instruction to support language and literacy goals for culturally and linguistically diverse students.

(6) Approach lends itself to Common Core State Standards implementation efforts.

(7) Honors and respects teachers as professionals with a deep motivation for improving their instructional practices.

Author(s)

Author(s)

Tonya Ward Singer photo

Tonya Ward Singer

Tonya Ward Singer is the founder of Courageous Literacy LLC, an organization that helps K-12 educators advance literacy and language learning in culturally and linguistically rich schools. Teachers and administrators describe Tonya’s work as groundbreaking, dynamic, practical, relevant, and impactful.

Tonya is the author of bestsellers EL Excellence Every Day and Opening Doors to Equity. She co-authored Breaking Down the Wall and literacy curricula for international publishers. Tonya has taught across multiple grade levels and excels as an international consultant helping schools build collective efficacy of all teachers through job-embedded, impactful professional learning.

Beyond her work in schools, Tonya co-facilitates dialogues in non-profit organizations committed to truth seeking and transforming legacies of racial oppression.

Contact Tonya at: @TonyaWardSinger

www.tonyasinger.com

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Foreword


Preface


Acknowledgments


About the Author


Chapter 1 A Call to Action

Reaching Every Child in 21st-Century Schools

A Rationale for Observing Together

Professional Learning for Equity

Beyond the Elephant

Chapter 2 Observation Inquiry

Observation Inquiry Overview

Collaborative Inquiry in Classrooms Together

Multiple Cycles to Plan-Teach-Observe-Reflect-Plan

Protocols to Foster Deep Collaboration

Getting Started

Chapter 3 Opening Doors: Building Buy-In and Trust

Inspire Action

Honor Fears

Establish Safety

Foster a Growth Mindset

Address Individual Needs

Chapter 4 Asking Questions That Matter

Identifying a Problem to Solve

Aligning With Local Initiatives

Writing a Problem of Practice

Asking Questions to Drive Inquiry

Facilitation Challenges and Solutions

Chapter 5 Planning for Inquiry

Goals for Student Learning

Assessment and Success Criteria

Planning Instruction

Facilitation Tips for Efficient, Effective Team Planning

Chapter 6 Observing Together

Focusing the Observation: The Prelesson Meeting

Taking Notes in a Lesson

Formative Evidence Examples

Using Video

Chapter 7 Describing and Analyzing What We Observed

Step 1: Describe Without Judgment

Step 2: Organize Data

Step 3: Make Generalizations

Teach and Practice the Protocol

Chapter 8 From Observation to Action

Step 4: Link Cause and Effect

Step 5: Apply Learning to Plan

Step 6: Set Individual and Team Goals

Chapter 9 Deepening Learning Across Multiple Lessons

Building From Lesson to Lesson

Kindergarten: Advancing Collaborative Conversations About Texts

Second Grade: Deepening Insights About Language

Middle School: Elevating Thinking Across the Content Areas

Strategies for Facilitating Deep Learning

Chapter 10 Evaluating and Expanding Our Impact

What Have Students Learned?

What Have Teachers Learned?

How Do We Expand Learning Beyond the Team?

How Do We Sustain Continuous Learning?

Appendices


Appendix A Launching Observation Inquiry

Appendix B Easy Protocol Reference

References


Index


Reviews

Reviews

Price: $31.95
Volume Discounts applied in Shopping Cart

Review Copies

This book is not available as a review copy.

Related Resources

  • Access to companion resources is available with the purchase of this book.