Most Popular Books by Douglas Fisher

A teacher presents a lesson, and at the end asks students if they understand the material. The students nod and say they get it. Later, the teacher is dismayed when many of the students fail a test on the material. Why aren’t students getting it? And, just as important, why didn’t the teacher recognize the problem? In Checking for Understanding, Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey show how to increase students’ understanding with the help of creative formative assessments. When used regularly, formative assessments enable every teacher to determine what students know and what they still need to learn. Fisher and Frey explore a variety of engaging activities that check for and increase understanding, including interactive writing, portfolios, multimedia presentations, audience response systems, and much more. This new 2nd edition of Checking for Understanding has been updated to reflect the latest thinking in formative assessment and to show how the concepts apply in the context of Fisher and Frey’s work on gradual release of responsibility, guided instruction, formative assessment systems, data analysis, and quality instruction. Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey are the creators of the Framework for Intentional and Targeted (FIT) Teaching™. They are also the authors of numerous ASCD books, including The Formative Assessment Action Plan: Practical Steps to More Successful Teaching and Learning and the best-selling Enhancing RTI: How to Ensure Success with Effective Classroom Instruction and Intervention.

Recharge Adolescent Literacy: Strategies to Foster Joyful and Proficient Readers There are many adolescent readers who, for a variety of reasons, find it difficult to connect with written words and have fallen behind on their foundational reading skills. Thankfully, it’s never too late to give these necessary skills a boost and help students find joy in reading and learning. Armed with equity, empathy, evidence-based research, and practical application, Teaching Foundational Skills to Adolescent Readers provides classroom practices teachers can use with the whole class or with small groups to integrate reading support seamlessly with grade-level content learning. Bestselling authors Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey, along with Sarah Ortega, Kierstan Barbee, and Aida Allen-Rotell, creatively organize the book around a metaphor: adolescent literacy is a battery—when all the parts are connected, working together, and fully charged—literacy can thrive. Throughout the book, the following features will guide your learning: Plug Into the Research – an overview of the evidence-based research supporting each section of the literacy model Power Up Classroom Practice – connecting the dots on the research, classroom practice and human aspects of learning Voices from the Field – classroom examples of application and strategies from other secondary educators Take Charge – key takeaways and reflection questions Tips on building and organizing your classroom library to incorporate tools, technology, and media available to maximize lesson effectiveness Dozens of videos to model time-efficient strategies and key concepts By focusing on research, classroom practices, and the human aspects of learning, this book is an essential tool to recharge reading practices for adolescent readers and help educators increase foundational reading skills in the classroom.

Engage, Empower, Educate: Unleash the Potential of Multilingual Learners What′s your "why" for being a teacher? Unlike other professionals, teachers often have strong reasons for why they teach and a clear sense of purpose. Acknowledging and understanding this purpose helps educators to not just do what they do but do it well. This illustrated guide was designed for all classroom teachers to emphasize the unique challenges and opportunities that arise in multilingual learner education. Using Simon Sinek′s Golden Circle theory to understand and elevate that sense of purpose, the book is organized into three parts: the why, the how, and the what of teaching multilingual learners. You will learn The benefits and goals of a multilingual education How to design learning experiences for multilingual learners and how to respond when students are not learning Culturally inclusive pedagogy and how it positively supports the identities of your students How to foster oral language skills, build vocabulary, and increase students’ word knowledge How to engage families and caregivers and create a sense of belonging in your classroom And so much more! With a clear understanding of the research-based tools, techniques, and instructional strategies described and illustrated in the book, a solid sense of purpose, and a dash of grace for you and your multilingual learners, you will be well on your way to creating productive and positive learning opportunities that meet the best interests of all students, families, educators, and the community.

From acclaimed educators and best-selling authors Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey comes Teaching Reading: Mastering the Fundamentals, a series of four laminated guides that provide teachers with essential information and strategies for teaching students in grades K-6 how to read. The guides, which are designed to be used sequentially as a set but can also be stand-alone resources for targeting certain components of teaching reading, draw from the latest research and present practical, powerful strategies that teachers can utilize right away in their classrooms. This guide, #2 in the series, focuses on methods for building the reading fluency of elementary students to foster comprehension. Readers will learn about: reading fluency terms measures of oral reading fluency using oral fluency norms to guide instruction and intervention measures of prosody six techniques for teaching fluency profiles of disfluent readers fluency interventions for disfluent readers sight word recognition high-frequency words sight word techniques using flashcards effectively heart words common mistakes to avoid

Build and sustain the mindsets and systems that make teacher clarity work. Learning depends on clarity—a shared understanding among teachers, leaders, and students of what is being learned, why it matters, and how success will be recognized, all aligned with the learning experiences and assessment tasks. While many schools want to embrace teacher clarity, progress often stalls without clear guidance for school and district leaders. This book provides the essential framework for leaders to build, sustain, and embed a culture of clarity that transforms teaching and learning across the entire system. Developed for principals, instructional coaches, and district leaders, this practical guide will help you lead and implement teacher clarity, ensuring it is a foundational element of your school′s or district’s culture and not just a temporary initiative. Designed for reading alongside teachers’ use of the bestselling The Teacher Clarity Playbook, this book provides leaders with the tools to support teachers on their journey and ensure the work succeeds and endures. Features include: Planning Your Pitch: Ready-to-use talking points to help leaders communicate key ideas clearly and persuasively The Thinking Leader: Reflective questions to deepen self-awareness and provoke thoughtful leadership discussions A Leader′s Perspective: Real-life stories and insights from experienced educational leaders Leadership Checklist: Actionable steps to guide leaders in implementing new ideas effectively within their own contexts By modeling, protecting, and sustaining clarity, leaders can create the conditions for teachers to collaborate, reflect, and grow together, ensuring every student has a clear vision of success.

Fisher & Frey’s answer to close and critical reading No doubt since the cave paintings of prehistoric times, humans have asked questions to make sense of the message. So what could possibly be new about posing questions about text? Plenty . . . and with TDQ, Doug Fisher and Nancy Frey reveal it all. After one quick read, you will have learned all the very best ways to use text-dependent questions as scaffolds during close reading . . . and the big understandings they can yield, especially when executed the Fisher and Frey way. But that’s just for starters. Fisher and Frey also include illustrative video, recommended texts and questions, examples from across content areas, and an online professional learning guide, making the two volumes of TDQ a potent professional development tool across all of K-12. The genius of TDQ is the way Fisher and Frey break down the process into four cognitive pathways that help teachers "organize the journey through a text" and frame an extended discussion around it. Step by step, this approach ensures that in every close reading lesson, students are guided to consider explicit and implied meanings, and deeply analyze and appreciate various aspects of a text, especially those that may be challenging or confusing. Here’s how the four inter-related processes play out, with every why and every how answered: What does the text say? (general understandings and key details) How does the text work? (vocabulary, structure, and author’s craft) What does the text mean? (logical inferences and intertextual connections) What does the text inspire you to do? (write, investigate, present, debate) The cool thing? These questions ignite students’ engagement and discussion because they strategically lead students to a place of understanding where explicit and implied meanings and interpretations can be debated. Far from being overly literal or teacher-led, the questioning framework Fisher and Frey advance enhances the quality of student talk and idea-generation. All in all, there’s no better resource to cultivate students’ capacity for independent reading and incisive thinking. Longtime collaborators and recipients of numerous teaching and leadership awards, DOUGLAS FISHER and NANCY FREY are Professors of Educational Leadership at San Diego State University as well as teacher leaders at Health Sciences High & Middle College.

Feedback keeps learning moving forward. Picture water pouring into a crystal goblet. That’s how clear and dynamic feedback must be. You can achieve that "perfect swirl" of giving, receiving, and integrating feedback with this remarkable book, which is organized into 16 modules for self-study or PLCs. Major concepts include: Defining Feedback: learn the most useful types of feedback, why to align them with transparent criteria, how to gather evidence. 4 C’s of Feedback: offer it with care, credibility, clarity, and clear communication Gathering Evidence for Feedback: use a balance of verbal, written, and kinesthetic responses; peer collaboration, checks-for-understanding, technology, and more.

While social and emotional learning (SEL) is most familiar as compartmentalized programs separate from academics, the truth is, all learning is social and emotional. What teachers say, the values we express, the materials and activities we choose, and the skills we prioritize all influence how students think, see themselves, and interact with content and with others. If you teach kids rather than standards, and if you want all kids to get what they need to thrive, Nancy Frey, Douglas Fisher, and Dominique Smith offer a solution: a comprehensive, five-part model of SEL that''s easy to integrate into everyday content instruction, no matter what subject or grade level you teach. You''ll learn the hows and whys of Building students'' sense of identity and confidence in their ability to learn, overcome challenge, and influence the world around them. Helping students identify, describe, and regulate their emotional responses. Promoting the cognitive regulation skills critical to decision making and problem solving. Fostering students'' social skills, including teamwork and sharing, and their ability to establish and repair relationships. Equipping students to becoming informed and involved citizens. Along with a toolbox of strategies for addressing 33 essential competencies, you''ll find real-life examples highlighting the many opportunities for social and emotional learning within the K–12 academic curriculum. Children’s social and emotional development is too important to be an add-on or an afterthought, too important to be left to chance. Use this books integrated SEL approach to help your students build essential skills that will serve them in the classroom and throughout their lives.

There is a big difference between assigning complex texts and teaching complex texts No matter what discipline you teach, learn how to use complexity as a dynamic, powerful tool for sliding the right text in front of your students’ at just the right time. Updates to this new edition include How-to’s for measuring countable features of any written work A rubric for analyzing the complexity of both literary and informational texts Classroom scenarios that show the difference between a healthy struggle and frustration The authors’ latest thinking on teacher modeling, close reading, scaffolded small group reading, and independent reading

Winner of AM&P EXCEL Bronze Award Your Students, My Students, Our Students explores the hard truths of current special education practice and outlines five essential disruptions to the status quo. Authors Lee Ann Jung, Nancy Frey, Douglas Fisher, and Julie Kroener show you how to - Establish a school culture that champions equity and inclusion. - Rethink the long-standing structure of least restrictive environment and the resulting service delivery. - Leverage the strengths of all educators to provide appropriate support and challenge. - Collaborate on the delivery of instruction and intervention. - Honor the aspirations of each student and plan accordingly. To realize authentic and equitable inclusion, we must relentlessly and collectively pursue change. This book—written not for "special educators" or "general educators" but for all educators—addresses the challenges, maps out the solutions, and provides tools and inspiration for the work ahead. Real-life examples of empowerment and success illustrate just what''s possible when educators commit to the belief that every student belongs to all of us and all students deserve learning experiences that will equip them to live full and rewarding lives.

A professional development assessment tool to elevate learning and instruction in every classroom This unique, hands-on flipbook is designed as a classroom observation tool that redefines RIGOR, with a focus on five key elements, or indicators, that form a framework to promote a rigorous, scaffolded learning environment. Explore the five indicators on a RIGOR Walk to identify teacher strengths and areas for growth, and to set goals: Relationships Instruction Goals Organization Relevance Developed for teachers, teams, instructional coaches, and school leaders, RIGOR Unveiled provides a wealth of support and knowledge for classroom observation and reflection, including: Tabbed sections that describe each of the five indicators to help focus discussion and evaluations Rubrics for evaluation including ratings, evidence, and "My Next Steps" 100+ video spotlights defining key concepts 25 classroom videos showing each of the indicators in action 25 videos of coaches discussing what they observed in each of the classroom videos Sturdy flipbook format for individual and team use and easy writing on the go Spot It Happening feature to calibrate observations as they happen Together your teaching teams can improve the learning outcomes for students by committing to continuous improvement in their teaching practice. With this book in hand, you’ll have everything you need to make it happen.

In World War I, 104 African American doctors joined the United States Army to care for the 40,000 men of the 92nd and 93rd Divisions, the Army''s only black combat units. The infantry regiments of the 93rd arrived first and were turned over to the French to fill gaps in their decimated lines. The 92nd Division came later and fought alongside other American units. Some of those doctors rose to prominence; others died young or later succumbed to the economic and social challenges of the times. Beginning with their assignment to the Medical Officers Training Camp (Colored)--the only one in U.S. history--this book covers the early years, education and war experiences of these physicians, as well as their careers in the black communities of early 20th century America.

The Path to Truly Impactful Practice in Education Starts with Visible Learning It may seem obvious, but learning should never be implied or assumed. Learning must be explicit, evaluated and monitored; the impact of teaching on student learning should be visible. But how can we be sure? Armed with years of research that includes more than 2,100 meta-analyses, and 130,000 studies that include more than 300 million students—plus decades of experience as educators —bestselling authors John Hattie, Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, and John Almarode have collaborated to create this accessible guide to what works best to accelerate students′ learning. Packed with everything you need to evaluate your impact, the Illustrated Guide to Visible Learning includes: Clear instructions for collecting, interpreting, and using evidence to make decisions with and for your students A primer on the 11 signature practices of Visible Learning Research-backed mindframes that have the potential to significantly influence the quality of education. To have the greatest impact on student learning, we must know what practices work best. With this illustrated go-to guide to Visible Learning in hand, your path is set for truly impactful practice in education.

Imagine a school with a diverse student body where everyone feels safe and valued, and all—regardless of race, culture, home language, sexual orientation, gender identity, academic history, and individual challenges—have the opportunity to succeed with interesting classes, projects, and activities. In this school, teachers notice and meet individual instructional needs and foster a harmonious and supportive environment. All students feel empowered to learn, to grow, and to pursue their dreams. This is the school every student needs and deserves. In Building Equity, Dominique Smith, Nancy Frey, Ian Pumpian, and Douglas Fisher, colleagues at San Diego’s innovative Health Sciences High & Middle College, introduce the Building Equity Taxonomy, a new model to clarify the structural and interpersonal components of an equitable and excellent schooling experience, and the Building Equity Review and Audit, survey-based tools to help school and teacher leaders uncover equity-related issues and organize their efforts to achieve Physical integration Social-emotional engagement Opportunity to learn Instructional excellence Engaged and inspired learners Built on the authors’ own experiences and those of hundreds of educators throughout the United States, this book is filled with examples of policy initiatives and practices that support high-quality, inclusive learning experiences and deliver education that meets critical standards of equality and equity.

Artificial intelligence is no longer a distant concept in education. It′s a present-day force reshaping how students learn, and teachers teach. But in the rapidly evolving world of AI, educators need more than just quick fixes or flashy tools. With the guidance of expert educators Salman Khan, Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, James Marshall, and Meghan Hargrave, Teaching Students to Use AI Ethically & Responsibly will prepare you not only how to teach with AI-but how to teach for a world transformed by it. Grounded in the latest research and enriched by years of classroom experience, this book takes you from understanding what AI is and how it operates, to helping students become confident, ethical thinkers in an AI-powered world. Organized into three sections, it covers how to teach AI′s foundational concepts, how to develop student inquiry and critical thinking, and how to teach student AI usage through authentic, curiosity-driven learning quests. It includes: Clear definitions, classroom examples, and teacher/student practices for each of the 30 core topics across AI theory, skills, and application Step-by-step guides for nine unique AI-powered learning quests, each designed to drive curiosity, collaboration, and deep understanding Practical strategies for addressing ethical considerations, bias, privacy, and responsible use of AI in learning environments Skill progressions for different grade bands, including skills to master, prompt-crafting tips, and online examples to help both educators and students integrate and evaluate AI tools with confidence Whether you′re new to AI or already exploring its integration, this comprehensive resource sheds light on hidden aspects of AI, equips you to foster essential student skills, and provides actionable strategies for hands-on collaboration with AI in your daily teaching practice.

This book focuses on a four-step approach to formative assessment, explaining how the system of give-and-take between student and teacher promotes learning in the classroom. Uses real-life scenarios to demonstrate application of the steps and provide adjustable instruction techniques for any grade level.

How do you generate that lightbulb “aha” moment of understanding for your students? This book helps to answer that question by showing Visible Learning strategies in action in high-impact mathematics classrooms. Walk in the shoes of teachers as they engage in the countless micro-decisions required to balance strategies, tasks, and assessments, demonstrating that it’s not only what works, but when. A decision-making matrix and grade-leveled examples help you leverage the most effective teaching practices at the most effective time to meet the surface, deep, and transfer learning needs of every student.

An analysis of the literature dealing with the demand for money

Data. Does the word make you cringe? Does it evoke feelings of guilt? Are you unsure how to distill it and use it effectively? Grab this book and learn how to empower yourself and your school community with information gleaned from your school''s data. Experienced educators and authors offer simple instructions that can help focus school improvement efforts and result in increasing teacher expertise--a factor that positively affects the quality of life for students long after they have left the classroom. Accepting responsibility for such far-reaching influence requires educators to adopt instructional improvement as a standard by which a school needs to operate and as a means to collaborate and interact with one another. More than that, though, instructional improvement is an important component of successful schools. Learn how to improve instruction by * Collecting the right data--the right way. * Incorporating relevant data into everyone''s daily life. * Resisting the impulse to set brand-new goals every year. * Never settling for "good enough." * Anticipating changes--big and small, local and federal. * Collaborating and avoiding privatized practice. * Involving all stakeholders in identifying problems, setting goals, and analyzing data. * Agreeing on what constitutes high-quality instruction and feedback. The challenge is to understand that data--not intuition or anecdotal reports--are tools to be used in getting better at teaching students. And teaching students effectively is what schools are all about. Following the guidance in this book, overcome uncertainty and concerns about data as you learn to collect and analyze both soft and hard data and use their secrets for instructional improvement in your school.

What it really means to "read closely." What could Fern Arable, Jay Gatsby, and Winston Churchill possibly have in common? They all need masterful teachers to help students revel in their complexity. And Nancy Frey and Doug Fisher are just the two mentors to help you make that happen. Call it close reading, call it deep reading, call it analytic reading--call it what you like. The point is, it''s a level of understanding that students of any age can achieve with the right kind of instruction. In Rigorous Reading, Nancy and Doug articulate an instructional plan so clearly, and so squarely built on research, that teachers, schools, and districts need look no further. The 5 Access Points Toward Proficiency Purpose & Modeling: Teachers think aloud to demonstrate critical thinking and how good readers always know why they are reading. Close & Scaffolded Reading Instruction: Teachers engage students in repeated readings and discussions, with text-dependent questions, prompts, and cues to help students delve into an author''s ideas. Collaborative Conversations: Teachers orchestrate collaborative learning to get students in the habit of exercising their analytical thinking in the presence of their peers. An Independent Reading Staircase: Teachers artfully steer students to more challenging books, with strategic bursts of instruction and peer conferences to foster metacognitive awareness. Performance: Teachers offer feedback and assessments that help students demonstrate understanding of text in authentic ways and plan instruction based on student understanding. There''s more . . . Also included are illustrative classroom video clips available via QR codes along with an online Facilitator''s Guide with PowerPoints--making Rigorous Reading the only resource a teacher, school, or district needs to seriously stretch students'' capacity to read and comprehend text.