Matthew J. Perini

Odds are, your state has adopted the Common Core State Standards. You know how the standards emerged, what they cover, and how they are organized. But how do you translate the new standards into practice? Enter the Core Six: six research-based, classroom-proven strategies that will help you and your students respond to the demands of the Common Core. Thanks to more than 40 years of research and hands-on classroom testing, the authors know the best strategies to increase student engagement and achievement and prepare students for college and career. Best of all, these strategies can be used across all grade levels and subject areas. The Core Six include:1. Reading for Meaning.2. Compare & Contrast.3. Inductive Learning.4. Circle of Knowledge.5. Write to Learn.6. Vocabulary's CODE. For each strategy, this practical book provides:Reasons for using the strategy to address the goals of the Common Core. The research behind the strategy. A checklist for implementing the strategy in the classroom. Multiple sample lessons that illustrate the strategy in action. Planning considerations to ensure your effective use of the strategy. Any strategy can fall flat in the classroom. By offering tips on how to capture students' interest, deepen students' understanding of each strategy, use discussion and questioning techniques to extend student thinking, and ask students to synthesize and transfer their learning, The Core Six will ensure that your instruction is inspired rather than tired.

Strong reading skills are the foundation for school and life. Using the techniques of differentiation, the authors explain in clear and accessible language how to turn average or struggling readers into thoughtful, high-achieving readers. These "A+ readers" have the skills and knowledge to comprehend, analyze, and form a synthesis from any type of written text. Starting with a concise overview of the most current research on literacy, the authors cover seven techniques that can help all readers achieve at high levels: identifying main idea, reading fluency, vocabulary, inferential reading, questioning techniques, informal writing, and reading styles. This hands-on resource also includes: -special tips and tools for helping struggling readers and ELLs -reproducible graphic organizers -examples of student work -classroom activities

`Not just for reading teachers, this book is ideal for all secondary content areas. Each chapter includes a wealth of resources including powerful reading strategies, vivid classroom examples, and 'Strategies for Struggling Readers' sections to help close the achievement gap between proficient and at-risk students' - Rachel Billmeyer, Educational Consultant Secondary teachers will have a valuable resource in their classroom with this book. The authors show how students can become high achievers and more thoughtful readers with the strategies and skills offered in this book. Reading is an essential skill in our culture, and these skills can be improved upon using the specific examples of application and organization that are laid out in easy-to-understand language in this book. Using lots of examples, stories, and diagrams, each chapter guides the reader through the process of improving their reading skills.

Crafting a set of standards that are at once manageable, attainable, and good for all students has been elusive. With 10 years of research and work in more than 300 schools to guide them, Strong, Silver, and Perini offer four standards that will help all students meet the various standards dictated by states, regions, and districts. Rigor: helping students make sense of challenging texts and ideas. Thought: helping students become adept users of powerful learning disciplines. Diversity: helping students understand themselves and others. Authenticity: helping students apply what they learn to the real world. In this book, the authors go beyond simply showing what each standard looks like in various school settings. They provide research-based teaching strategies that can help all students meet each standard along with assessment practices that allow schools and teachers to respond thoughtfully to the diversity of students' needs. Drawing from the work of educators across the country, the book demonstrates that manageable standards-when married to practical approaches to instruction and assessment-can prepare students to perform well on state tests while preserving the democratic traditions of U. S. education.

This practical guide helps explain a simple five-step process that helps educators integrate the two approaches into current lessons, or combine them into new and powerful lessons and units.