Foreword by R. Thomas Dewing

As educators, we all wish for our students to become more self-motivated and to show a greater passion for learning. But how can we turn this universal wish into classroom reality? How can we help our students develop that “yearning for learning” that spurs discovery and promotes deep understanding? By tapping into the most basic and powerful learning drive of all—curiosity.

Combining the research-based insights of curiosity expert Bryan Goodwin with ready-to-use instructional tools developed by Harvey Silver and the Thoughtful Classroom team, this book will help you unleash the power of curiosity in your classroom. Designed for teachers of all grade levels and content areas, Tools for Igniting Curiosity provides everything you’ll need to get your students fired up about learning.

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When it comes to student behavior and achievement, the classroom environment you establish makes all the difference. But what makes successful classrooms truly successful? What do highly effective teachers do to establish a learning environment that promotes positive behavior and supports high levels of learning all year long? All successful classrooms, regardless of content area or grade level, share four common elements:

1. Organization, rules, and procedures
2. Positive relationships
3. Engagement and enjoyment
4. A culture of thinking and learning

Tools for a Successful School Year shows you how to make these “Four Cornerstones” the guiding principles of your classroom. With more than 20 classroom-ready tools to develop these cornerstones, this book gives you the practical techniques you need to make this year your most successful yet—starting on day one.

Foreword by Bryan Goodwin

When Robert Marzano and his team published Classroom Instruction That Works in 2001, they gave educators a powerful framework for understanding education research—a framework that answered the question: Which strategies work in the classroom? More recently, a team of researchers at McREL International updated Classroom Instruction That Works, using new research to ensure that the framework and its strategies are truly our “best bets” for raising achievement.

But what many educators are looking for is the how. How do we put the power of the research to work in our classrooms? How do we adapt the generalizations in the research to meet the needs of our students? The answer: “With the right tools.” 

Tools for Classroom Instruction That Works gives educators over 50 classroom-ready tools that make it easy to put the research-based recommendations from Classroom Instruction That Works into practice tomorrow. Organized according to the renowned Classroom Instruction That Works framework, this addition to the award-winning Tools for Today’s Educators series is the simplest and most practical way to ensure higher levels of student achievement in every classroom.

Includes classroom-ready tools for

• Setting objectives and providing feedback
• Reinforcing effort and providing recognition
• Cooperative learning
• Cues, questions, and advance organizers
• Nonlinguistic representations
• Summarizing and note taking
• Assigning homework and providing practice
• Identifying similarities and differences
• Generating and testing hypotheses