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Improving Instruction

FEATURE

Extending Learning: Voices in Urban Education 16: > Order Print Copy [56 pages, $10]
> VUE 16 web archive
[Includes articles, excerpts, resources, author bios]

There is a growing realization that reaching our goal of ensuring that all young people can graduate from public high school with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed as adults will require high-quality educational opportunities both during and beyond the school day. Articles by Heidi Harris Lemmel and Robert Rothman, Shirley Brice Heath, Eileen Landay, Sophia Cohen and Dennie Palmer Wolf, David Lemmel and Samuel Steinberg Seidel, Heather Harding, Ned Rimer, and Camrin Fredrick and Providence Maryor David N. Cicilline. (Summer 2007)

COMPLETE LIST

Adolescent Literacy: Voices in Urban Education 3

Assessment In Math And Science: What's the Point?: > Series Web site
[Workshop descriptions, schedules, how to register, support materials.]

Television series made in collaboration with the Annenberg/CPB Channel. Join K-12 teachers from across the country in this eight-part series of live, interactive workshops on math and science assessment, broadcast free of charge on the Annenberg Channel. Using video clips from Annenberg Media, participants examine current assessment issues and explore strategies for assessment reform in their classrooms. (2001)

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Balancing Caring and Expectations in the Science Classroom: > Order Video Package
[28-minute videotape, facilitator's guide, viewer's introduction; $50]

This video package documents how Fairdale High School in suburban Louisville is motivating kids to grapple with the issues and skills of science and, at the same time, preparing them for success on Kentucky's state competency tests. (1998)

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Balancing Routines and Repertoire in the Math Classroom: > Order Video Package
[27-minute videotape, facilitator's guide, viewer's introduction; $50]

This video package documents how Whittier High School in Southern Calfornia is getting kids excited about learning and applying academic skills, without compromising rigorous standards. (1998)

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Coaches in the High School Classroom: Studies in Implementing High School Reform: by Molly Schen, Sanjiv Rao, and Ricardo Dobles

> Download Report [PDF: 56 pages, 3 MB]
> Schools for a New Society project information

The Annenberg Institute has produced a set of portraits of high school literacy coaches working in two sites that are part of Carnegie Corporation's Schools for a New Society initiative. The 44-page publication, Coaches in the High School Classroom, features close-ups of six coaches in Boston and Houston. Intended to provide fuel for discussion, the portraits are interspersed with guiding questions and followed by several tools that can be used for further discussion, assessment, and analysis of coaching programs. (2005)

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Coaching: A Strategy for Developing Instructional Capacity: > Order Print Copy [37 pages, $6]
> Download Report [PDF: 46 pages, 692 KB]

Coaching is an increasingly popular strategy for districts seeking large-scale improvement in instruction. To help guide district leaders in the practice, the Annenberg Institute and the Aspen Institute Program on Education copublished this paper by Barbara Neufeld and Dana Roper of Education Matters, Inc. The 48-page paper describes what coaching is, what coaches do, the kinds of supports that coaches need, and the potential benefits to both educators and students. (2003)

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A Culture of Quality: A Reflection on Practice: by Ron Berger

> Order Print Copy [51 pages, $8]

A complex meditation on the features of an educational community that has conscientiously developed a culture of quality in an ordinary but far-from-typical American school. (1996)

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Educating Newcomers: Voices in Urban Education 15: > Order Print Copy [44 pages, $10]
> VUE 15 web archive
[Includes articles, excerpts, resources, author bios]

Over the past two years a national debate on immigration has once again heated up. But for the more than 8 million immigrants and children of immigrants in U.S. schools, and for the educators and community leaders who work with them every day, the issue is not rhetorical — it is very real. What is the best way to educate newcomers? And how can schools employ the assets that newcomers bring to schools? This issue of Voices in Urban Education offers five perspectives on these questions and suggests ways that schools can ensure that immigrant students succeed. Articles by Eugene E. García, William Celis III, Alina Newman, Margarita Calderón, and Lorna Fast Buffalo Horse (Spring 2007)

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Educating Vulnerable Pupils: Voices in Urban Education 12: > Order print copy
[44 pages, $10]
> VUE 12 online
[Includes articles, excerpts, resources, author bios]

This issue of Voices in Urban Education shares five ways to address the needs of the most vulnerable pupils. Many schools and communities have raised student performance overall in response to the imperative to educate all students to high standards. But large numbers of students continue to lag behind, especially those that the education system has, historically, served poorly — low-income students, students of color, and students with learning needs. What will it take to fulfill the promise of education reform and educate all students to high levels? Articles by Pia Durkin, Beatrice Bridglall, Gwendolyn Webb-Johnson, Dwight Watson and the Lucretia Murphy. (Summer 2006)

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Extending Learning: Voices in Urban Education 16: > Order Print Copy [56 pages, $10]
> VUE 16 web archive
[Includes articles, excerpts, resources, author bios]

There is a growing realization that reaching our goal of ensuring that all young people can graduate from any public high school with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed as adults will require high-quality educational opportunities both during and beyond the school day. What would a high-functioning system look like that provided equitable opportunities and that integrated in-school and extended learning? This issue of Voices in Urban Education suggests some possibilities. Articles by Heidi Harris Lemmel and Robert Rothman, Shirley Brice Heath, Eileen Landay, Sophia Cohen and Dennie Palmer Wolf, David Lemmel and Samuel Steinberg Seidel, Heather Harding, Ned Rimer, and Camrin Fredrick and Providence Maryor David N. Cicilline. (Summer 2007)

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Finding the Words: Kids and Teachers Rise to the Challenge of Literacy: > Text file

Article describing how five years of progress across Annenberg Challenge sites resulted in a focused and pragmatic philosophy that sidesteps the “reading wars” and instead concentrates on the students themselves. Annenberg educators have recognized that literacy instruction has come a long way since the days of Dick and Jane. Informed by a solid body of research on how humans learn to make meaning out of the written word, schools are coming to terms with the need for a richer and more coherent approach from kindergarten through high school. Teaching literacy is everyone's responsibility now, Annenberg educators assert — and so they put money and time into support for teachers trying to alter the ways they work with children and each other. Pressing for improvement from both outside and within the system, those who work with the largely poor and minority students the Challenge serves, are hoping to match practical concepts with action and results. (Fall 2000)

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Generally Accepted Principles of Teaching and Learning: > Available in print as part of the
Portfolio for District Redesign [9 pamphlets, $35]
> Download Report [PDF: 8 pages, 79 KB]

This document identifies seven major tenets of effective teaching and learning, culled from extensive research, and describes the implications of such principles for instruction and for redesigned school districts. (2002)

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Investigation: A Water Study: Order Video Package
[25-minute videotape, 22-page student report, 9-page introduction to investigations, facilitator's guide, viewer's introduction; $50]

This print-and-video package is designed to help teachers and administrators recognize the values of inquiry-based learning, understand its pros and cons, and consider how they might prepare themselves to undertake investigations with their students. In addition to the videotape, the package contains the final report prepared by students including an overview and detailed findings on each area of study, a description of what investigations are and how they can be used to integrate disciplines, a facilitator's guide for the teacher and his class, and a viewers' introduction. (1999)

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Looking at Student Work: A Window into the Classroom: Order Video Package
[28-minute videotape, facilitator's guide, 54-page book; $61]
Also available on CD.

This important and practical resource explores a variety of ways in which looking at student work can help improve teaching and learning. The video features students, teachers, and administrators at Norview High School in Norfolk, Virginia — a member of the ATLAS Communities school redesign project — who discuss their experiences in looking at student work. In addition to the videotape, the package contains a facilitator's guide for using the tape with an audience and a companion volume, Looking Together at Student Work, by Tina Blythe, David Allen, and Barbara Schieffelin Powell. (1997)

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Principles For Principals

> Series Web site

[About the series, registration, support materials,
resources, Principal Talk Forum]
> Purchase Video Workshop

[8 one-hour programs on 8 casettes with workshop guide $199]

Television series made in collaboration with the Annenberg/CPB Channel. A free video workshop series by, for, and about principals working to improve student achievement in mathematics and science. Using documentary footage gathered in schools from Maine to California, the workshops will help principals gain the knowledge and skills they need to make their vision of teaching and learning math and science a reality. Provides knowledge and skills to work effectively with parents, teachers, and other administrators to improve student achievement in science and math. (2001)

Workshop 1 — What's This All About?
Workshop 2 — Creating Communities that Learn Together
Workshop 3 — Math/Science Skills What's — Important?
Workshop 4 — Reworking the Curriculum
Workshop 5 — Changing Pedagogy
Workshop 6 — Fostering Effective Professional Development for Teachers
Workshop 7 — Professional Development for Principals
Workshop 8 — Building a Plan for Reform

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Professional Learning Communities/Instructional Coaching: > Order Print Package
   [includes two 13-page articles, $10]
> Download Professional Learning
   Communities
   [PDF: 16 pages, 632 KB]
> Download Instructional Coaching
   [PDF: 16 pages, 607 KB]

Two key strategies are central to the Annenberg Institute's work on professional development systems that support real improvements in teaching and learning: professional learning communities (small groups of teachers, administrators, community members, and other stakeholders who collectively examine and work to improve professional practice); and instructional coaching (school-based, educator-led professional learning for groups of teachers in specific content areas). The Institute has developed a package that includes two new publications describing these strategies and what we have learned about using them effectively. (2004)

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Toward Proficiency: Voices in Urban Education 14: > Order Print Copy [48 pages, $10]
> VUE 14 web archive
[Includes articles, excerpts, resources, author bios]

The No Child Left Behind Act created an audacious goal for American education: by 2014 — just seven years from now — all children must be "proficient" in reading and mathematics. But what, exactly, is proficiency? What would it take to bring all students to that level, and what role would organizations outside of schools play? This issue of Voices in Urban Education offers five perspectives on what "proficiency" looks like and how students can learn in and out of school to reach that goal. Articles by Edmund W. Gordon, Lauren B. Resnick and Lindsay Clare Matsumura, Louis Gomez, Phillip Herman, and Kimberley Gomez, Richard Sohmer and Sarah Michaels, and Rhonda H. Lauer. (Winter 2007)

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