Educators are faced with many decisions regarding supporting students' writing. While writing achievement and curriculum-based measure scores provide numbers that are important for high-stakes decisions like determining special education eligibility, they do not provide educators with information on a student's explicit instruction needs. Written…

Discover how Lesson Study benefits both students and teachers. Unlike scripted curricula that strip teachers of professional decisionmaking, Lesson Study values teachers by expecting them to be agents of improvement in their own classrooms. This resource empowers readers to oppose reform efforts that minimize teacher agency by offering an…

Using Tomlinson's (2004) framework, the post-secondary classroom can be transformed into a community of learners where different avenues are provided for effectively acquiring content, processing ideas, and developing products. This article explores how instructors can differentiate instruction in teacher-education methods courses by…

Perhaps more than any other single initiative, response to intervention is likely to restructure how middle and high school teachers teach in a very profound way. While the impact of RTI alone will be significant, when coupled with differentiated lesson activities for all Tier 1 instruction, and supported by up-to-date instruction technologies,…

By integrating the best of current research and practice in curriculum planning this book presents that comprehensive topic in a manageable form. Examples throughout are representative of different grade levels and subjects areas. It should be understood at the outset that the content offered for curriculum planning is not a rigid prescriptive…

A rural middle level school had stalled in its third year of a district-wide differentiation initiative. This article describes the way teachers and the leadership team engaged in collaborative practices to put a spotlight on formative assessment. Teachers learned to systematically gather formative assessment data from their students and to use…

In the age of standardized testing, science and social studies are not given the same priority as mathematics and reading in the curriculum of United States schools. High stakes testing is viewed as having heavily biased schools toward teaching tested subjects and away from less frequently tested subjects. This paper is premised on the notion that…

This paper describes the development of resources for a unit of work for the English National Diploma in Information Technology. These on-line resources are designed to support a personalised learning environment that maximises opportunities for students to achieve greater control of their own learning and progression. The resources are designed…

Regardless of your stage at implementing the design tools and using the improved template for Understanding by Design[R] (UbD), this companion to "The UbD Guide to Creating High-Quality Units" is essential for taking your work to a higher plane. This volume features a set of hands-on modules containing worksheets, models, and self-assessments that…

Describes a method for teaching drafting which emphasizes the individual. Discusses student evaluation, materials selection, course management, evaluation and scheduling. The system encourages students to meet their needs and to become actively involved in their own education. (JOW)

This paper details a computer managed program of instruction called Teaching Information Processing System (TIPS) as adapted to an introductory psychology course. TIPS encourages the instructor to formulate objectives for meaningful units of a course--objectives which should imply what changes in student behavior indicate mastery. Then multiple…

Compares the knowledge content of GTE (Generic Tutoring Environment), a generic instructional knowledge base that facilitates dynamic pedagogical decision making, and PEPE, a computational framework for representing pedagogical knowledge to tailor instruction to an individual student. The courseware's interaction with the student and instructional…

This paper focuses on the development of the Learning Activity Package (LAP). The first part of the paper discusses the structure of the LAP, including its components (i.e., title, rationale, objectives, content, learning activities, student review, post-evaluation, pretest, alternate activities, management directions, and teacher supplement) and…

This examination of programed instruction both as a product and a process lists Bullock's Thirteen Questions to check the extent to which an instructional program can be viewed as programed instruction and explains the rationale behind them. It also clarifies some common misconceptions about programed instruction. (EAO)

Beliefs, mandates, standards, understandings, essential questions, skills, knowledge, varied assessments, constructivist instructional methods and interactive strategies, time lines, resources: These are some of the basic elements of personalized teaching. Each is critical. All are intertwined. Personalized teaching takes students' individual…