Fisher, Douglas

Presents effective strategies and activities designed to help elementary and middle school students improve their literacy skills.

Drawing on their years of experience in the classroom, the authors explain why culture makes the difference between a school that enables success for all students and a school that merely houses those students during the school day; and also provide nineteen action research tools that will help create a culture of achievement, so that a school or classroom is the best it can be.

Describes the benefits of both high-quality instruction and supplemental intervention for student success within intervention programs, detailing how to assess classroom instruction, improve upon existing school improvement efforts, and use systematic feedback to raise student achievement.

Offers advice to teachers on how to use creative formative assessments to determine whether students are understanding lessons they receive in the classroom.

Explains the importance of vocabulary for student success, focusing on middle- and high school, describes strategies for developing vocabulary in content areas through teacher modeling, peer talk, individual activities, and collaboration, and includes examples.

Explains how teachers can use modeling, guided practice, collaborative learning, and independent tasks to effectively use classroom time and reach all learners.