The Principal?s Guide to Raising Math Achievement is a practical, quick-read resource to help K-12 principals gain the tools they need to lead their schools to mathematics excellence. Readers will learn how students in the United States compare with their international counterparts in math achievement, read about what the experts recommend be done to increase our lagging achievement, gain an understanding of the current debate regarding how mathematics should be taught, discover what important components need to be in place in their schools, and find out what current research is telling us about the best ways to teach mathematics. McEwan presents eight key components of a successful mathematics program, and convinces principals of the power that rests within them and their teachers to eliminate innumeracy among their students.

Master the 3 + 3 = 33 equation for successful opening days at school-at any grade level! Research shows that time invested during the first three weeks of school to teach Routines, Rubrics, and Rules-the three R's-leads to higher student achievement throughout the remaining 33 weeks of school, or 3 + 3 = 33. This wonderfully practical and effective new book from bestselling author Elaine McEwan will help any teacher through those critical weeks and show how truly "with-it" teachers (WITs) can manage more easily the three critical facets of every teacher's day: classroom management and organization, student engagement, and time management. Loaded with specifics, WITs from K-12 classrooms share their personal routines, rubrics and rules to help you survive and thrive in those first three weeks of school, including Designing and organizing your classroom to support learning Teaching routines, rubrics, and rules to maximize learning time Creating organizational, academic, and social routines Choosing rules and rewards to build character and motivation Using the "With-It" teacher list, including attention-getters, noise-breakers, timesavers, routines, and homework helpers With the power of 3 + 3 = 33-and the secrets of WITs-you can chart a sure-footed course for those all-important first weeks of school, and help guide your students successfully through the school year!

How do you deal with high-maintenance parents who never seem happy with the job you are doing? Emotionally charged, often disgruntled, and occasionally abusive parents-sound familiar? The newly revised, Second Edition of Elaine McEwan's bestselling classic will help you manage your most difficult audience. It adds several new features and examples that will give you the confidence and skills you need to handle such situations, including: - over two dozen strategies-enhanced and updated-to defuse emotionally charged parents - an updated, easy-to-administer Healthy School Checklist-determine if your school's culture encourages parents or pushes them over the edge - 50 ways to build parental support for your school - 10 Goals-at-a-Glance to help keep your school-community relations on target - a built-in facilitator's guide-ideal for book groups and staff development, including energizers, suggestions for role-playing, think-alouds, and questions for reflection and discussion. Every educator will find invaluable strategies for handling angry and unresponsive parents and the critical issues that cause misunderstandings. Following McEwan's seven steps of effective problem-solving will help with quick solutions while creating a nurturing, healthy school environment. And, in today's schools, developing a supportive parent-community relationship is essential to everyone's success.

Raising literacy levels in secondary schools has taken on a new urgency. Recognized author, Elaine K. McEwan, focuses her revised second edition on broadening and enhancing the "five big ideas" for winning the battle against illiteracy, with reflection and discussion questions for reinforcement. With new research and programmes designed for adolescent learners, this update provides suggestions and developmental tools for administrators to effectively strengthen reading curriculum and teaching. Reading specialists, special education teachers, literacy coaches, intervention specialists, and central office administrators can also use this essential tool for evaluating middle and high school reading programs and formulating school and district improvement goals. McEwan has enhanced the five strategies of the first edition with seven cognitive strategies of highly effective readers and more than 20 "teaching for learning" tips to infuse into daily content instruction. This indispensable guide helps educators: * Understand the current state of reading achievement * Alter the instructional planning and delivery system * Motivate all students to read, and teach them how to read to learn * Create reading cultures in schools An invaluable resource for site-based literacy and improvement teams, and for educators without a reading curriculum background, this comprehensive book encourages leadership and creativity to achieve high levels of literacy in today's classroom.

New Edition of Best Seller!

"You won't find a more practical, detailed guide to improving school effectiveness than is contained between the covers of this book!"
Leonard O. Pellicer, Dean School of Education
University of La Verne
La Verne, CA

"Few books on school leadership have effectively brought together the best of educational theory and practice for school administrators as Elaine McEwan's Seven Steps to Instructional Leadership."
Michael Pladus
1999 MetLife/NASSP National Principal of the Year

Make a substantive impact on the lives of your students and your staff. This practical, hands-on guide can help you become a more effective instructional leader. Here are research-based activities to help you lead your staff though McEwans?s seven steps:

1. Establish, implement, and achieve academic standards
2. Be an instructional resource for your staff
3. Create a learning-oriented school culture and climate
4. Communicate your school?s vision and mission to staff and students
5. Set high expectations for your staff and yourself
6. Develop teacher leaders
7. Develop and maintain positive relationships with students, staff, and parents

Integrate these seven steps into your daily behavior. Chapters on each step include research data, discussion and advice from instructional leaders, and practical suggestions from dozens of leading principals that you can use right now in your own school.

Use the Instructional Leadership Checklist to:

• Assess your current level of instructional leadership
• Find out how your staff thinks you?re doing
• Set goals for improving your instructional leadership practice
• Evaluate your progress toward your goals

Attaining a new and higher level of instructional leadership will make a difference for each person in your school. Staff, students, and parents will get the message that all students matter. Everyone will start expecting that all students can learn, and your school will achieve its mission?improving education.

"The book's major strengths are its ease of use and the range of approaches to address many different reading issues. You can read straight through for a host of ideas, or you can pinpoint exactly which kind of strategy to explore." -Kristie Mary Betts, English Teacher Peak to Peak High School, Lafayette, CO "Bottom line: This book is reader friendly! Teachers in the content areas can quickly and easily find specific ideas to help students." -Barbara L. Townsend, Reading Specialist Elkhorn Area School District, WI Help for students who are overwhelmed, feel confused, can't remember, lack language skills, or just don't get it. In today's era of accountability, teachers are expected to help all secondary students understand complex concepts and ideas and demonstrate proficiency on high-stakes tests. To promote success for struggling readers in all content areas, expert educator Elaine K. McEwan offers 40 user-friendly and easy-to-implement strategies in an invaluable text that includes three tables of contents (traditional, topical, and problem-solving) formatted for quick and easy reference. Each of the 40 research-based and classroom-tested techniques features: An intriguing quotation or definition to grab your attention A brief description of the method and suggestions for implementation Recommended resources to gain a more in-depth understanding of the method Research citations to demonstrate the power of the method to get results Offering cross-references and advance organizers throughout, this book provides the specific yet comprehensive information you need to support all students with reading difficulties.

`Any practising or former headteacher will warm to the central contention made by Kottler and McEwan that, although counselling does not form part of the formal job-description of any principal or headteacher, the realities of such a post are that such skills are required in abundance' - School Leadership and Management This book introduces the basic methodology of counselling, consulting and communication skills, and the multiple roles principals must play in today's schools. It describes how to assess systematically the concerns and problems principals encounter with students, staff and parents.

Strategies for working with parents of all kinds Parents can be a teacher's greatest advocate-and that's why it's important to know how to handle even the hardest parent situations. In fact, new teachers reported that parent communication is one of their biggest challenges. This teachers' edition of the all-time best-selling How to Deal With Parents Who Are Angry, Troubled, Afraid, or Just Seem Crazy provides invaluable strategies that teachers can use to defuse angry parents and to work with all parents to advance the success of their children. Addressing a variety of educator needs and concerns, this resource * Helps teachers get parents on their side with a set of proactive practices and policies * Provides guidelines for teachers to follow when meeting with parents during annual reviews and IEP meetings * Includes advice and vignettes that reflect challenges and concerns of today's teachers With resources that will remain relevant to teachers throughout their careers, this book provides a clear explanation of the complexities that interact to create dysfunctional parents and how teachers can most effectively problem solve, communicate, and learn from their relationships with parents.

New Edition of Best Seller!

"You won't find a more practical, detailed guide to improving school effectiveness than is contained between the covers of this book!"
Leonard O. Pellicer, Dean School of Education
University of La Verne
La Verne, CA

"Few books on school leadership have effectively brought together the best of educational theory and practice for school administrators as Elaine McEwan's Seven Steps to Instructional Leadership."
Michael Pladus
1999 MetLife/NASSP National Principal of the Year

Make a substantive impact on the lives of your students and your staff. This practical, hands-on guide can help you become a more effective instructional leader. Here are research-based activities to help you lead your staff though McEwans?s seven steps:

1. Establish, implement, and achieve academic standards
2. Be an instructional resource for your staff
3. Create a learning-oriented school culture and climate
4. Communicate your school?s vision and mission to staff and students
5. Set high expectations for your staff and yourself
6. Develop teacher leaders
7. Develop and maintain positive relationships with students, staff, and parents

Integrate these seven steps into your daily behavior. Chapters on each step include research data, discussion and advice from instructional leaders, and practical suggestions from dozens of leading principals that you can use right now in your own school.

Use the Instructional Leadership Checklist to:

• Assess your current level of instructional leadership
• Find out how your staff thinks you?re doing
• Set goals for improving your instructional leadership practice
• Evaluate your progress toward your goals

Attaining a new and higher level of instructional leadership will make a difference for each person in your school. Staff, students, and parents will get the message that all students matter. Everyone will start expecting that all students can learn, and your school will achieve its mission?improving education.

"I feel that this is a book that principals will be interested in purchasing and reading. It has practical advice and relevant examples of how the advice can and has been implemented."
Phillip Silsby, Principal
Belleville West High School, Belleville, IL

"I could hear the voices of some of the principals who were interviewed speaking to me. The author clearly knows how to gather information and present it in a meaningful way."
Bonnie Tryon, Zone 2 Director
National Association of Elementary School Principals

"This is a powerful guidebook for new principals. More than that, it also contains valuable insight and examples to assist veteran principals in growing and improving professionally."
Kimberly Kay Janisch, Principal
Watertown High School, Watertown, SD

Highly effective principals have strong communication skills, high levels of knowledge about teaching and learning, and the ability to provide instructional leadership. This excellent, new resource provides principals, administrative teams, and educators with tremendous resources to hone these skills and traits.

Ten Traits of Highly Effective Principals contains ideas, reflections, behaviors, habits, and stories from the trenches to guide and inspire as you seek to increase your own effectiveness. Each chapter in this resource describes an essential component of personal effectiveness. A highly effective principal is

1. A communicator?listen, empathize, and connect
2. An educator?with a depth of knowledge; motivates intellectual growth
3. An envisioner?focused on the vision of what schools can be
4. A Facilitator?building strong relationships
5. A change master?flexible, futuristic, and realistic, and can motivate change
6. A culture builder?communicating and modeling a strong, viable vision
7. An activator?with motivation, energy, and enthusiasm to spare
8. A producer? building intellectual development and academic achievement
9. A character builder?whose values are trustworthiness, respect, and integrity
10. A contributor?whose priority is making contributions to the success of others

Transform your school into a community of learners, set high academic and behavioral expectations, and create a culture where children feel special and safe.

'The second edition of Elaine McEwan's book is a user-friendly guide that integrates research into practice. It carefully explains the research behind reading development and provides truly clear, no-nonsense steps to implement the best practices of instruction. McEwan does not sugar-coat how difficult teaching reading can be, but she provides powerful methods for achieving it' - Jennifer Sandberg, Curriculum/Reading Coordinator, Sutherland Public School, NE To successfully teach reading, teachers have to first believe that all children can learn to read-and then they have to turn that belief into a reality. In this thoroughly updated and revised version of her best-selling book, Elaine K. McEwan guides educators through the challenging but crucial work of teaching every child how to read. Written for all teachers as well as administrators, this resource covers strategies for nine essential components of effective reading instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, spelling, fluency, developing a reading culture, providing opportunities to read, writing, word knowledge, and comprehension. This second edition features: - The most up-to-date research in reading instruction - Effective instructional practices and strategies - Brief vignettes and graphic organizers that illustrate and summarize key concepts - A comprehensive case study of one district's remarkable success This resource reveals precisely how educators in successful schools are teaching students to read-and how all educators can achieve the same results in their schools!

About the Reading Puzzle SeriesIn her best-selling book Teach Them All To Read, Elaine McEwan provides a great discussion of the most current reading research regarding how students learn to read so educators can make informed decisions about instruction. Research about reading has given us insight into the skills on which we need to focus our efforts to improve reading and comprehension. Now we can identify the skills that require reinforcement and intervene with explicit, thoughtful instruction. The activities in The Reading Puzzle series will help the teacher accomplish this goal.The Reading Puzzle series provides instructional tools teachers can use immediately as part of the reading curriculum. The Reading Puzzle series contains 10 books for Kindergarten through Grade 8 centered on the skills identified by the National Reading Panel as critical to reading success. Each of these books in the series helps unlock one piece of the reading puzzle and contains standards-based, ready-to-use activities that can be used to supplement any reading program.Phonemic Awareness, Grades K-3 Phonics, Grades K-3Vocabulary, Grades K-3Fluency, Grades K-3Comprehension, Grades K-3Word Analysis, Grades 4-8Spelling, Grades 4-8Vocabulary, Grades 4-8Fluency, Grades 4-8Comprehension, Grades 4-8These activity books contain ready-to-use activities that make it easy to put McEwan's highly-successful strategies into practice. The strategies and activities will support struggling readers and enhance existing skill to encourage improvement in all students' reading skills.Phonemic Awareness, Grades K-3 Phonemic awareness is one of the best indicators that students will successfully develop the necessary reading skills over time. And, it is an essential prerequisite to mastering the sound-spelling correspondences in phonics. The primary objective of this resource is to provide support in the development of phonemic awareness through oral language activities. Students will be invited to chant, play games, sort pictures, and sing. Through these engaging activities, students will learn to hear the sounds that make up words and then begin to play with those sounds by blending, segmenting, and manipulating them. The phonemic awareness skills in this resource are presented in a logical and systematic way. They are divided into five categories. Recognizing RhymesIdentifying SoundsBlending SoundsSegmenting SoundsManipulating SoundsThe activities address a variety of learning styles. Kinesthetic learners will be able to jump and move. Auditory learners will enjoy listening to the sounds of language. Visual learners will use picture clues to stimulate their minds and memories. Each student will have the opportunity to be successful in the journey toward phonemic awareness.

About the Reading Puzzle SeriesIn her best-selling book Teach Them All To Read, Elaine McEwan provides a great discussion of the most current reading research regarding how students learn to read so educators can make informed decisions about instruction. Research about reading has given us insight into the skills on which we need to focus our efforts to improve reading and comprehension. Now we can identify the skills that require reinforcement and intervene with explicit, thoughtful instruction. The activities in The Reading Puzzle series will help the teacher accomplish this goal.The Reading Puzzle series provides instructional tools teachers can use immediately as part of the reading curriculum. The Reading Puzzle series contains 10 books for Kindergarten through Grade 8 centered on the skills identified by the National Reading Panel as critical to reading success. Each of these books in the series helps unlock one piece of the reading puzzle and contains standards-based, ready-to-use activities that can be used to supplement any reading program.Phonemic Awareness, Grades K-3 Phonics, Grades K-3Vocabulary, Grades K-3Fluency, Grades K-3Comprehension, Grades K-3Word Analysis, Grades 4-8Spelling, Grades 4-8Vocabulary, Grades 4-8Fluency, Grades 4-8Comprehension, Grades 4-8These activity books contain ready-to-use activities that make it easy to put McEwan's highly-successful strategies into practice. The strategies and activities will support struggling readers and enhance existing skill to encourage improvement in all students' reading skills.Fluency, Grades K-3 This activity book, derived from Teach Them All to Read, is designed to give you the strategies and activities that will help you develop your students' reading fluency. Fluency lessons do not take much time and are easy to prepare and teach. Fluency is simple to measure and progress is readily apparent. Fluency is a frequently neglected piece of the reading puzzle. Students should learn many sight words well and they need to read many different kinds of text in lots of different ways at both home and school. A number of strategies can improve fluency including: modeling good oral reading, providing oral support for readers, offering plenty of practice opportunities, and encouraging fluency through phrasing. Fluency, Grades K-3, contains research-based activities to support students' fluency development. Original, engaging, leveled reading passages, authored by Q. L. Pearce, accompany most lessons. Many passages can be applied with several strategies and utilized across grade levels. A quick reference coding system makes it easy for you to identify the reading level and assign appropriate passages to your students.

About the Reading Puzzle SeriesIn her best-selling book Teach Them All To Read, Elaine McEwan provides a great discussion of the most current reading research regarding how students learn to read so educators can make informed decisions about instruction. Research about reading has given us insight into the skills on which we need to focus our efforts to improve reading and comprehension. Now we can identify the skills that require reinforcement and intervene with explicit, thoughtful instruction. The activities in The Reading Puzzle series will help the teacher accomplish this goal.The Reading Puzzle series provides instructional tools teachers can use immediately as part of the reading curriculum. The Reading Puzzle series contains 10 books for Kindergarten through Grade 8 centered on the skills identified by the National Reading Panel as critical to reading success. Each of these books in the series helps unlock one piece of the reading puzzle and contains standards-based, ready-to-use activities that can be used to supplement any reading program.Phonemic Awareness, Grades K-3 Phonics, Grades K-3Vocabulary, Grades K-3Fluency, Grades K-3Comprehension, Grades K-3Word Analysis, Grades 4-8Spelling, Grades 4-8Vocabulary, Grades 4-8Fluency, Grades 4-8Comprehension, Grades 4-8These activity books contain ready-to-use activities that make it easy to put McEwan's highly-successful strategies into practice. The strategies and activities will support struggling readers and enhance existing skill to encourage improvement in all students' reading skills.Word Analysis, Grades 4-8 Welcome to the world of word analysis! This resource focuses on two areas of learning: essential linguistic patterns (the variations in how letters are pronounced), and essential morphographs (variations of what letters or groups of letters mean, such as prefixes, roots, and suffixes).The goal of the 'Linguistics' section of this book is to assist students in becoming fluent decoders. It will make them aware of patterns they can rely on to aid their decoding speed. You, the teacher, are a critical and vital part of the Linguistics section of this activity book. All of the activities in this section have an oral component. Many activities are geared for whole-class participation and are designed to help students internalize spelling patterns and decode words automatically. The goal of the 'Morphology' section of this book is to hone students' word-analysis skills. Morphology is the branch of linguistics that focuses on word structure and the changes in forms of words. This resource includes practice with root words, prefixes, and suffixes. Students will participate in both written and interactive activities to help them decipher unfamiliar words once they have memorized the meanings of roots, prefixes, and suffixes. Students will discover what a powerful tool word analysis can be!

A Corwin Press Classroom Activity BookGive students the reading skills they need to succeed! Can all your students read fluently, independently, and with understanding? As puzzle pieces fit together to complete a picture, reading skills are dependent upon one another to make reading meaningful for students. The Reading Puzzle series helps you organize instruction to better develop students' core reading skills-including phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension-to make them successful readers. Derived from the research-based strategies in Elaine K. McEwan's bestseller Teach Them ALL to Read: Catching the Kids Who Fall Through the Cracks, these standards-based, easy-to-use activities will set students on the course to reading success. This book offers practical techniques that include teacher modeling, guided practice, and independent application, and provides creative reproducibles and ready-to-use tools such as graphic organizers and visual prompts. This resource promotes fluency with specific techniques to help all learners read smoothly and quickly. Original and engaging reading passages include a quick-reference guide for assigning passages appropriate for individual reading levels. Use the reading passages with standards-based strategies that include: Modeling good oral reading Providing support for readers Offering ample practice opportunities Encouraging fluency through phrased reading Empower students with confidence to explore virtually any topic and enjoy the lifetime benefits of reading!

A Corwin Press Classroom Activity BookGive students the reading skills they need to succeed! Can all your students read fluently, independently, and with understanding? As puzzle pieces fit together to complete a picture, reading skills are dependent upon one another to make reading meaningful for students. The Reading Puzzle series helps you organize instruction to better develop students' core reading skills-including phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension-to make them successful readers. Derived from the research-based strategies in Elaine K. McEwan's bestseller Teach Them ALL to Read: Catching the Kids Who Fall Through the Cracks, these standards-based, easy-to-use activities will set students on the course to reading success. This book offers practical techniques that include teacher modeling, guided practice, and independent application, and provides creative reproducibles and ready-to-use tools such as graphic organizers and visual prompts. Strengthen students' comprehension with these essential cognitive strategies: Questioning: encouraging students to ask questions about what they read Summarizing: helping learners understand and restate the main idea Monitoring: teaching students to think about how and what they read while they read Organizing: inviting learners to represent what they've read in a graphic format Empower students with the confidence to explore virtually any topic and enjoy the lifetime benefits of reading!

About the Reading Puzzle SeriesIn her best-selling book Teach Them All To Read, Elaine McEwan provides a great discussion of the most current reading research regarding how students learn to read so educators can make informed decisions about instruction. Research about reading has given us insight into the skills on which we need to focus our efforts to improve reading and comprehension. Now we can identify the skills that require reinforcement and intervene with explicit, thoughtful instruction. The activities in The Reading Puzzle series will help the teacher accomplish this goal.The Reading Puzzle series provides instructional tools teachers can use immediately as part of the reading curriculum. The Reading Puzzle series contains 10 books for Kindergarten through Grade 8 centered on the skills identified by the National Reading Panel as critical to reading success. Each of these books in the series helps unlock one piece of the reading puzzle and contains standards-based, ready-to-use activities that can be used to supplement any reading program.Phonemic Awareness, Grades K-3 Phonics, Grades K-3Vocabulary, Grades K-3Fluency, Grades K-3Comprehension, Grades K-3Word Analysis, Grades 4-8Spelling, Grades 4-8Vocabulary, Grades 4-8Fluency, Grades 4-8Comprehension, Grades 4-8These activity books contain ready-to-use activities that make it easy to put McEwan's highly-successful strategies into practice. The strategies and activities will support struggling readers and enhance existing skill to encourage improvement in all students' reading skills.Vocabulary, Grades 4-8Because vocabulary has been identified by the National Reading Panel (2000) as one of the critical areas of reading instruction, this book focuses on vocabulary instruction for all students, and especially those whose underdeveloped word knowledge negatively impacts their academic performance. This underperformance is characterized by a partial knowledge of word meanings, confusion of words of similar sound, and limited knowledge of how and when words are typically used. To help at-risk students, several essential instructional factors must be consciously addressed. This book has been designed to put theory and research into practice and provide students with the targeted and direct vocabulary instruction that they need. 'Word Selection and Definition' provides you, the teacher, with concrete ways to select vocabulary words and plan lessons. 'Take Five' includes presentation techniques so you can make the most of each lesson and provide an atmosphere in which all students will learn.'Extensive Reading Lessons' focuses on ways for students to improve their vocabulary in a natural way, through reading. 'Vocabulary Instruction Lessons' is dedicated to direct instruction of vocabulary words and contains a multitude of cumulative, sequential activities. These activities should be presented in sequence, as one activity builds on the other. 'Strategy Lessons' provides the 'best kept secrets' of good readers. At-risk learners and struggling readers should be taught these strategies explicitly and in order, with repeated practice. Some of these strategies include using context clues, prefixes, suffixes, and word bases in determining meaning. 'Word Awareness Lessons' focuses on increasing word consciousness. This final chapter provides activities to increase word awareness in all language tasks: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

How can you tell if your school is successful? Does a new school building make a difference? High test scores? What about small class sizes? Does the presence of innovative programs indicate quality? McEwan evaluates the effectiveness of schools through the introduction of ten research-based traits, fitting into three distinct categories. The book includes specific guidelines for determining their presence in your school, or determining how to implement them if they're absent. Included are websites, resource lists, model mission statements, sample reports, and service listings.

About the Reading Puzzle SeriesIn her best-selling book Teach Them All To Read, Elaine McEwan provides a great discussion of the most current reading research regarding how students learn to read so educators can make informed decisions about instruction. Research about reading has given us insight into the skills on which we need to focus our efforts to improve reading and comprehension. Now we can identify the skills that require reinforcement and intervene with explicit, thoughtful instruction. The activities in The Reading Puzzle series will help the teacher accomplish this goal.The Reading Puzzle series provides instructional tools teachers can use immediately as part of the reading curriculum. The Reading Puzzle series contains 10 books for Kindergarten through Grade 8 centered on the skills identified by the National Reading Panel as critical to reading success. Each of these books in the series helps unlock one piece of the reading puzzle and contains standards-based, ready-to-use activities that can be used to supplement any reading program.Phonemic Awareness, Grades K-3 Phonics, Grades K-3Vocabulary, Grades K-3Fluency, Grades K-3Comprehension, Grades K-3Word Analysis, Grades 4-8Spelling, Grades 4-8Vocabulary, Grades 4-8Fluency, Grades 4-8Comprehension, Grades 4-8These activity books contain ready-to-use activities that make it easy to put McEwan's highly-successful strategies into practice. The strategies and activities will support struggling readers and enhance existing skill to encourage improvement in all students' reading skills.Comprehension, Grades K-3 The objective of reading instruction in grades K-3 is not only to enable students to read fluently and independently, but most importantly, to read with comprehension. By understanding what they've read, students are better able to remember, communicate, and apply the information they've gained through reading. This book addresses the strategies that proficient readers need in order to unlock the meaning of written material. These includeActivating prior knowledgeMaking ConnectionsInferringPredictingVisualizingQuestioning Monitoring and ClarifyingSearching and SelectingSummarizing It is also important for the teacher to model the strategies. The scaffold approach of 'I do it, We do it, You do it' enables students to develop into independent readers. Other ideas and tools in this book include graphic organizers, visual prompts, and activities to engage and stimulate young readers. Finally, reading comprehension empowers students, giving them the ability to explore virtually any topic or subject in which they are interested. This book can help the teacher instill the joy of reading, which in turn can lead to a lifetime of fulfillment and success.

About the Reading Puzzle SeriesIn her best-selling book Teach Them All To Read, Elaine McEwan provides a great discussion of the most current reading research regarding how students learn to read so educators can make informed decisions about instruction. Research about reading has given us insight into the skills on which we need to focus our efforts to improve reading and comprehension. Now we can identify the skills that require reinforcement and intervene with explicit, thoughtful instruction. The activities in The Reading Puzzle series will help the teacher accomplish this goal.The Reading Puzzle series provides instructional tools teachers can use immediately as part of the reading curriculum. The Reading Puzzle series contains 10 books for Kindergarten through Grade 8 centered on the skills identified by the National Reading Panel as critical to reading success. Each of these books in the series helps unlock one piece of the reading puzzle and contains standards-based, ready-to-use activities that can be used to supplement any reading program.Phonemic Awareness, Grades K-3 Phonics, Grades K-3Vocabulary, Grades K-3Fluency, Grades K-3Comprehension, Grades K-3Word Analysis, Grades 4-8Spelling, Grades 4-8Vocabulary, Grades 4-8Fluency, Grades 4-8Comprehension, Grades 4-8These activity books contain ready-to-use activities that make it easy to put McEwan's highly-successful strategies into practice. The strategies and activities will support struggling readers and enhance existing skill to encourage improvement in all students' reading skills.Phonics, Grades K-3 Phonics plays a critical role in reading instruction. Without a solid foundation in phonics, students will continually struggle with literacy. Explicit, systematic, supportive phonics instruction, taught as stand-alone instructional component but within the context of a print-rich classroom environment with a significant literature base, is an absolutely essential (although certainly not sufficient) piece of the reading puzzleuparticularly for at-risk students. The activities in this resource are presented in an order that will help you deliver explicit and systematic phonics instruction.ConsonantsShort Vowels and Long VowelsConsonant Blends and DigraphsSight WordsCompound WordsThis resource offers many engaging and stimulating activities to teach students how to discern the similarities and differences between letters and sounds. The activities include chants and games that will motivate students and encourage them to practice and further develop their phonics skills. The ideas also address different learning styles to meet the needs of all students. These activities can be used during whole-group or small-group instruction as well as in independent learning stations. The activities include many ready-to-use reproducibles that require very little preparation. This will help give you more teaching time to spend providing differentiated instruction in workshop. The lesson content in Phonics K-3 not only provides an explicit and systematic course of instruction but also offers high-interest activities to keep students on target. Phonics instruction is a key foundation for learning to read and is necessary to ensure that your students will become lifelong readers.

Raising literacy levels in secondary schools has taken on a new urgency. Recognized author, Elaine K. McEwan, focuses her revised second edition on broadening and enhancing the "five big ideas" for winning the battle against illiteracy, with reflection and discussion questions for reinforcement. With new research and programmes designed for adolescent learners, this update provides suggestions and developmental tools for administrators to effectively strengthen reading curriculum and teaching. Reading specialists, special education teachers, literacy coaches, intervention specialists, and central office administrators can also use this essential tool for evaluating middle and high school reading programs and formulating school and district improvement goals. McEwan has enhanced the five strategies of the first edition with seven cognitive strategies of highly effective readers and more than 20 "teaching for learning" tips to infuse into daily content instruction. This indispensable guide helps educators: * Understand the current state of reading achievement * Alter the instructional planning and delivery system * Motivate all students to read, and teach them how to read to learn * Create reading cultures in schools An invaluable resource for site-based literacy and improvement teams, and for educators without a reading curriculum background, this comprehensive book encourages leadership and creativity to achieve high levels of literacy in today's classroom.

aaaaThe major challenge of teaching secondary content in the current era of accountability lies in helping all students read the massive textbooks, understand the complex concepts and ideas, and demonstrate proficiency on high-stakes tests.aaaaaaaaNo Child Left Behind (2002) has created a growing sense of urgency on the part of every secondary educator to find ways to help struggling readers achieve. The idea is not that you are expected to teach struggling readers how to read. However, you are increasingly being expected to teach the knowledge and skills related to your discipline on which all students will be tested. To reach even a modest level of proficiency, struggling readers need support.aaaa40 Ways to Support Struggling Readers in Content Classrooms Grades 6-12 contains forty research-based and classroom-tested methods that teachers can implement to help struggling readers be more successful.

How do you deal with high-maintenance parents who never seem happy with the job you are doing? Emotionally charged, often disgruntled, and occasionally abusive parents-sound familiar? The newly revised, Second Edition of Elaine McEwan's bestselling classic will help you manage your most difficult audience. It adds several new features and examples that will give you the confidence and skills you need to handle such situations, including: - over two dozen strategies-enhanced and updated-to defuse emotionally charged parents - an updated, easy-to-administer Healthy School Checklist-determine if your school's culture encourages parents or pushes them over the edge - 50 ways to build parental support for your school - 10 Goals-at-a-Glance to help keep your school-community relations on target - a built-in facilitator's guide-ideal for book groups and staff development, including energizers, suggestions for role-playing, think-alouds, and questions for reflection and discussion. Every educator will find invaluable strategies for handling angry and unresponsive parents and the critical issues that cause misunderstandings. Following McEwan's seven steps of effective problem-solving will help with quick solutions while creating a nurturing, healthy school environment. And, in today's schools, developing a supportive parent-community relationship is essential to everyone's success.

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The Principal?s Guide to Raising Math Achievement is a practical, quick-read resource to help K-12 principals gain the tools they need to lead their schools to mathematics excellence. Readers will learn how students in the United States compare with their international counterparts in math achievement, read about what the experts recommend be done to increase our lagging achievement, gain an understanding of the current debate regarding how mathematics should be taught, discover what important components need to be in place in their schools, and find out what current research is telling us about the best ways to teach mathematics. McEwan presents eight key components of a successful mathematics program, and convinces principals of the power that rests within them and their teachers to eliminate innumeracy among their students.