Best Selling Books by Nancy Frey

Elevate your coaching practice and make a meaningful impact Instructional coaching holds immense potential to support teachers, elevate practice, and improve student outcomes. However, coaches are often left to figure things out on their own, and the impact of coaching can be limited without a clear, research-based approach. The Art and Science of Teacher Coaching is a practical and reflective guide that centers on collaboration, trust, and student-focused growth. Blending research-based insights with vivid illustrations and adaptable strategies, this book empowers coaches and leaders to foster meaningful dialogue, deepen professional learning, and elevate teaching practice. This accessible primer is an entryway to high-impact coaching practices. It provides a comprehensive look at the history and goals of coaching, how to build credibility, and the core skills that matter most. You will learn to: Build rapport and trust, ground conversations in evidence, guide reflective dialogue, and provide actionable next steps Integrate various coaching structures, including micro-coaching, short-cycle, and full-cycle coaching, to meet diverse needs Expand your practice from individual support to effective team coaching, fostering collective efficacy and aligning growth with school-wide goals With strategies, self-assessments, sample prompts, and other practical resources, this illustrated guide will help you strengthen your impact and unlock the full potential of coaching as a force for authentic growth.

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.

Explore strategies for integrating the Common Core State Standards for English language arts for grades 6–8 in this resource, which focuses on areas of instruction, curriculum, assessment, and intervention. You’ll also learn how to implement the CCSS within the powerful PLC at WorkTM process. Critical chapter-opening questions guide discussion and help you leverage the CCSS to optimize student learning.

Radically change the way students learn from texts, extending beyond comprehension to critical reasoning and problem solving. Is your reading comprehension instruction just a pile of strategies? There is no evidence that teaching one strategy at a time, especially with pieces of text that require that readers use a variety of strategies to successfully negotiate meaning, is effective. And how can we extend comprehension beyond simple meaning? Bestselling authors Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, and Nicole Law propose a new, comprehensive model of reading instruction that goes beyond teaching skills to fostering engagement and motivation. Using a structured, three-pronged approach—skill, will, and thrill—students learn to experience reading as a purposeful act and embrace struggle as a natural part of the reading process. Instruction occurs in three phases: Skill. Holistically developing skills and strategies necessary for students to comprehend text, such as monitoring, predicting, summarizing, questioning, and inferring. Will. Creating the mindsets, motivations, and habits, including goal setting and choice, necessary for students to engage fully with texts. Thrill. Fostering the thrill of comprehension, so that students share their thinking with others or use their knowledge for something else. Comprehension is the structured framework you need to empower students to comprehend text and take action in the world.

Transform your PLC collaboration to strengthen student learning across classrooms Professional Learning Communities hold tremendous potential, but without clear structure and shared purpose, that potential often goes untapped. PLC+ The Texas Way offers Texas educators an evidence-based framework for moving beyond isolated classroom practice toward collaborative inquiry and evidence-based teaching that accelerates learning for every student. Written specifically for Texas schools, this guide shifts PLC work from prep and planning to creating shared understanding of TEKS and HQIM, making intentional instructional decisions that support learners and responding to student needs. Anchored in the five essential questions—Where are we now? Where are we going? How do we move learning forward? What did we learn today? Who benefited and who did not?—PLC+ provides the clarity and direction teacher teams need to translate state standards and quality materials into meaningful student growth. Inside, you′ll find: Direct connections to Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) and English Language Proficiency Standards (ELPS) Spotlight cases featuring small and rural schools that demonstrate how PLC+ works in diverse Texas contexts Ready-to-use tools and protocols that support teams in making sense of the five essential questions and taking immediate action PLC+ The Texas Way helps educators build cultures of collective responsibility, shared efficacy, and trust-based teamwork. When teachers collaborate with purpose, students thrive—and that′s what matters most.

"This book puts into practice what we′ve long known but often ignored: one picture is indeed worth a thousand words! The chapters offer a practical look at how images in all their many forms can be used to motivate reluctant readers."--Donna E. Alvermann, Distinguished Research ProfessorUniversity of Georgia "Just as vision entails more than seeing, being visually literate means that students can interpret and reflect upon images as well as words. These strategies will help your students develop the literacy they need for this brave new century."--Carol Jago, Director, California Reading and Literature ProjectUniversity of California, Los Angeles Spark students′ interest in reading and help them become critical consumers of visual information!Today′s students live in an increasingly visual world where they are engaged not only by words, but also by images. This collection of innovative articles shows classroom teachers and literacy specialists how to use students′ interest in picture books, comics, graphic novels, film, anime, and other visual media to motivate and engage readers in Grades K-12.Teaching Visual Literacy offers background information, research, practical ideas, and sample lessons to help educators: Capture the attention of learners and boost their critical thinking skills Support and strengthen multiple competencies in literacy Help students comprehend and assess visual information Reach students with disabilities and extend their understanding Visual literacy is an integral part of literacy development, and this much-needed classroom companion helps teachers engage students as critical readers and prepare them for living in the twenty-first century.

Learn how to increase students'' understanding with creative formative assessments that help identify what students know and don''t know, and what types of instructional interventions will be most effective.

For every teacher it''s different, but you know who they are for you—the students who are "hard to teach." Maybe they''re reading far below grade level. Maybe they''re English learners. Maybe they have diagnosed learning disabilities or behavioral issues. Maybe they''re underachieving for reasons that are unknown. They have been overlooked or underserved or frustrated, and they''re not learning as they should. Until now. Until you. How to Reach the Hard to Teach presents a thoughtful and practical approach to achieving breakthrough success with linguistically and culturally diverse students who struggle in school. Combining elements of the SIOP® Model and the FIT Teaching® approach, authors Jana Echevarría, Nancy Frey, and Douglas Fisher take stock of what we know about excellent instruction and distill it into five guiding principles: Set high expectations. Provide access to the core curriculum. Use assessment to inform instruction. Attend to language development—both English and academic. Create a supportive classroom climate. You''ll learn specific practices associated with each principle and see how real-life teachers are employing these practices in their classrooms so that all students have the opportunity to learn and receive optimal support for that learning. Every teacher has had the experience of seeing a "hard to teach" student in a new light and realizing all he or she might achieve. This book is about shining that light of possibility on the students who challenge us most, interrogating our beliefs, and taking action to ensure they receive the best instruction we have to offer.

ASCD Bestseller! Classroom management is traditionally a matter of encouraging good behavior and discouraging bad by doling out rewards and punishments. But studies show that when educators empower students to address and correct misbehavior among themselves, positive results are longer lasting and more wide reaching. In Better Than Carrots or Sticks, longtime educators and best-selling authors Dominique Smith, Douglas Fisher, and Nancy Frey provide a practical blueprint for creating a cooperative and respectful classroom climate in which students and teachers work through behavioral issues together. After a comprehensive overview of the roots of the restorative practices movement in schools, the authors explain how to Establish procedures and expectations for student behavior that encourage the development of positive interpersonal skills; Develop a nonconfrontational rapport with even the most challenging students; and Implement conflict resolution strategies that prioritize relationship building and mutual understanding over finger-pointing and retribution. Rewards and punishments may help to maintain order in the short term, but they''re at best superficially effective and at worst counterproductive. This book will prepare teachers at all levels to ensure that their classrooms are welcoming, enriching, and constructive environments built on collective respect and focused on student achievement.

Ensure students demonstrate more than a year’s worth of learning during a school year Renowned literacy experts Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey work with John Hattie to apply his 15 years of research, identifying instructional routines that have the biggest impact on student learning, to literacy practices. These practices are “visible” because their purpose is clear, they are implemented at the right moment in a student’s learning, and their effect is tangible. Through dozens of classroom scenarios, learn how to use the right approach at the right time for surface, deep, and transfer learning and which routines are most effective at each phase of learning.

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.

Learning inherently involves risk—but not the reckless kind. Every successful student understands that taking academic risks is key to mastering new ideas, asking bold questions, and exploring unfamiliar concepts. Without risk-taking, opportunities for growth, creativity, and achievement shrink. But how can educators inspire students to take these crucial risks when fear of failure often stands in the way? That′s where The Courage to Learn comes in. This transformative book redefines academic risk-taking—not as blind leaps or recklessness, but as a process grounded in psychological safety. Rooted in educational research and enriched with actionable strategies, it′s an essential guide for teachers aiming to normalize academic risk-taking. With a clear, practical framework for fostering student growth through supportive, challenge-oriented learning environments, the book features: Academic Risk-Taking Profiles: Identify and engage students across the risk spectrum, from cautious learners to bold adventurers. The Remembered Success Effect: Learn how to shift success-to-failure ratios to promote future growth and confidence. Chunked Learning Strategies: Build student confidence step by step with incremental, achievable milestones. Practical Solutions: Tackle resistance to learning with strategies for addressing obstacles, whether it′s "I don′t get it or I don′t like it. The Courage to Learn equips educators with the tools to cultivate academic courage in their classrooms. By reframing challenges, normalizing failure, and fostering resilience, teachers can encourage students to embrace growth and aim for new heights. When students feel safe to take risks, they don′t just learn-they flourish.

This book unpacks the science of how students learn and translates that knowledge into promising principles or practices that can be implemented in the classroom or utilized by students on their own learning journey.

Stop apathy in its tracks with the 5 C’s of engagement Disengagement, disenchantment, distress—the three "D’s" of many post-pandemic schools. If we are to find our way back from this brink, every student, teacher, and leader must relearn how to lean in. It’s time to focus, know one another, and stop chasing so many initiatives. It’s time to shake things up so learners want to participate. From faculty meetings to student conferences, casual greetings to grading, you can learn to use practices that most powerfully reflect the Five C’s of Engagement: Connections — feeling known, valued, and tethered to others Conditions — being able to learn in a stable environment in which expectations are high Challenge — engaging in an endeavor knowing your "high jumps" in terms of intellectual and creative risks will be supported Control — the privilege of learning with a balance between ownership and support Collaboration — deepening one’s knowledge and identity as a learner by being skillful at relationship-building Our students are looking to us as the grownups in the room to model what it looks like to belong, believe, and balance high expectations with compassionate support. With Confronting the Crisis of Engagement in hand, you have the guide to make that happen.

Meet microlearning, a powerful instructional approach with roots in online learning that''s making the jump to K–12 classrooms. Think of microlearning as modernized direct instruction—a systematic yet flexible way to present content via connected small bursts that build to complex understandings. Less about "shorter teaching sessions" than about smarter teaching, microlearning aligns with how the brain makes meaning and resonates with today''s digital-native learners. It''s a new tool for structured teaching that will help them stay focused, support long-term retention, and guide them "micro" step by step toward mastery of essential standards. In this book for practitioners, instructional coach Tyler Gilbert and bestselling authors and educators Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey introduce microlearning''s "brief yet deep" approach and explain why it is so effective. The short, focused chapters mimic the microlearning experience; each features real-world examples, guided reflection, and a self-assessment. You''ll learn how to • Identify focused goals for microlearning sessions and divide complex content into the smaller servings that students can more easily process and teachers can more easily manage. • Design and implement various kinds of microlearning sessions—from teacher-driven and text-based options to technology-enhanced ones that incorporate scenarios, gamification, and simulations. • Gather and use feedback from microlearning sessions to improve student performance and refine your instructional design. At a time when teachers and students are feeling overloaded and disengaged, Microlearning in the K–12 Classroom''s practical guidance can support breakthrough understanding for both you and them.

Your Hands-On Guide to Thriving Your First Years of Teaching You’ve made the incredible decision to become an educator because you want to impact the learning lives of young people. Thank you, and welcome. We welcome you to this amazing profession with open arms, and with an arsenal of experience and essential tools, strategies, and lessons to help you establish a successful and satisfying teaching career. We wanted to make it easier for you to learn and practice these techniques that research shows increase student learning. To do so, we also considered cognitive psychology research that tells us that images and illustrations can help strengthen communication and our own understanding. This helped us develop the unique format for this book: part hands-on playbook, part professional book, and all highly illustrated, it is designed to make complicated concepts more digestible and memorable. This extensive guide for new teachers provides everything you need to impact learning from your first day on, including: How to plan powerful learning experiences that ensure student engagement 22 step-by-step learning strategies for any grade and any subject Detailed guidance for developing formative and summative assessments 30+ classroom videos demonstrating the techniques and strategies in action Teaching is without a doubt one of the most challenging professions there is. But those who chose to accept that challenge are what make teaching the best profession in the world!

Your playbook for truly impactful early childhood education Early childhood is a uniquely sensitive time when young learners are rapidly developing across multiple domains. Knowing which teaching strategies work best and when can have a significant impact on a child’s development and future success, both in school and beyond. The Early Childhood Education Playbook examines how the Visible Learning® research can guide our decisions as we plan, teach, document, and partner with families and colleagues so that we can have the greatest possible impact on learning and development of children from birth to age 8. Each of the modules unpacks unique characteristics of early childhood environments as well as coherent practices that form a strong foundation for learning over time. Filled with tools and methods to support a team as they work toward a common goal, this playbook covers: Teacher efficacy, credibility, and clarity Partnerships with families The importance of language Formative assessment and feedback How to ensure equity and inclusion Using these strategies, teachers will discover how they can collaborate with young learners to encourage high expectations, implement developmentally appropriate practices at the right level of challenge, and focus on explicit success criteria. Get started with this playbook and watch your young learners thrive!

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

Newly revised and updated throughout, this new Texas Edition has been specially developed to align with the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills standards. 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.