Books

This collection of books captures a range of best practices and processes that support teaching and learning and the development of professional learning communities. from content-specific to curriculum design to the structure and work of professional learning communities. Written on a variety of topics, each book is grounded in both current educational research and the realities of the daily lives of educators.

Communities that Learn, Lead, and Last: Building and Sustaining Educational Expertise
by Giselle O. Martin-Kniep

Hardcover: 240 pages
Publisher: Jossey-Bass (December 4, 2007)
ISBN-10: 0787985139
ISBN-13: 978-0787985134

“Frost tells us 'The fact is the sweetest dream that labor knows."  Professional Learning Communities laboring to actualize educational reform are brought significantly closer to their goals with this book.  We are reading the words of a seasoned veteran,  but we are not getting war stories. Nor are we seduced into cynicism.  Rather we are given an articulation of values, a range of strategies and a set of assessment tools that can make a real difference in transforming our educational institutions into communities that learn. Communities that Learn, Lead and Last is an exquisite combination of ethical and operational intelligence.”

Paul Ryan
Associate Professor
Media Studies
New School 

Communities that Learn, Lead, and Last offers practical guidance for schools and districts on how to develop ‘professional learning communities’ that instill educational ideals, share wisdom, improve practice, and enhance capacity across the system. Comprised of any combination of teachers, school leaders, staff developers, district personnel, parents, and students, professional learning communities offer a forum to help educators learn from each other and collaborate on common projects—ranging from classroom-oriented lesson planning and assessment tasks to broader issues of policy, leadership, and organizational improvement.

Showing how such communities can improve teaching and learning while promoting and sustaining educational innovations, the book maps out the community-building essentials, providing guidance, tools, and carefully crafted rubrics in the following areas: developing individual and organizational capacity and dispositions for learning, facilitating, assessing and managing learning communities, enhancing the outcomes of professional learning communities, and evaluating the work of community participants.

Order


Supporting Mathematical Learning

Supporting Mathematical Learning: Effective Instruction, Assessment and Student Activities, K-5
by Joanne Picone-Zocchia and Giselle O. Martin-Kniep

Blending theory of “best practice” with classroom reality, this handbook focuses on the development and use of effective instructional techniques and practices in K-5 mathematics. Including concrete problems, lessons and activities that are rigorous and engaging, it explores the topics of diversified assessment, establishing and communicating explicit criteria, using various questioning strategies to support and extend math learning, and the role of problems in providing context for teaching and learning math skills. One chapter, comprised entirely of lessons, provides examples of teacher and student centered learning experiences, as well as suggestions for differentiating lessons to meet students’ diverse needs. Each section concludes with a series of processing and design options to help teachers apply the material to their own context.

Order


Developing Learning Communities Through Teacher Expertise
by Giselle O. Martin-Kniep

Hardcover: 128 pages
Publisher: Corwin Press (October 21, 2003)
ISBN-10: 0761946160
ISBN-13: 978-0761946168

Book review published by NSTA
Science Scope, November/December 2004 

Developing Learning Communities Through Teacher Expertise, published in November 2003 by Corwin Press, is available to the public. The book explores the importance of professional learning communities and the varied vehicles for creating such dynamic, compelling communities. Included in the text are multiple samples of practitioners' work that model each of the vehicles for capturing teacher expertise: Curriculum and Assessment Design, Data-Driven Inquiry and Action Research and Professional Portfolios. The book's five chapters are:
1. Developing Learning Communities
2. Standards-based Curriculum and Assessment Design
3. Data-driven Inquiry and Action Research
4. Using Professional Portfolios to Document Expertise
5. Developing an Action Plan

Order

To view more books by Communities for Learning staff, visit Learner-Centered Initiatives, Ltd.