Transform your library into a "think tank" by helping teachers create an active learning environment in which students question, investigate, synthesize, conclude, and present information based on Common Core standards. The rigors of today's mandated academic standards can repurpose your library's role as a steward of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) at your school. This guide will help you help teachers present exciting, field-tested lessons for elementary grades K through 5, addressing developmental steps and individual differences in key competencies in the CCSS. Authors and educators Mary Ratzer and Paige Jaeger illustrate how brain-based learning helps students become deep, critical thinkers and provide the lesson plans to coax the best thinking out of each child. This tool book presents strategies to help learners progress from novice to expert thinker; challenge younger students with questions that lead to inquiry; incorporate "rigor" into lessons; and use model lesson plans to change instruction. Beginning chapters introduce the basics of instruction and provide ideas for expert cognitive growth of the brain. Sample lessons are aligned with key curriculum areas, including science, social studies, music, art, and physical education. Includes relevant, rigorous, fun, and field-tested lesson plans for multiple disciplines Provides reproducible pages to allow librarians and teachers to easily use a lesson Offers a K-5 scaffolding approach to teaching information literacy skills Features graphical illustrations and practical schemas that explain, illustrate, and model how brain-based learning works

Transform your library into a "think tank" by helping teachers create an active learning environment in which students question, investigate, synthesize, conclude, and present information based on Common Core standards. The rigors of today's mandated academic standards can repurpose your library's role as a steward of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) at your school. Created for teachers of grades 6 through 12, this guide will help you help present exciting, field-tested lessons that address developmental steps and individual differences in key competencies in the CCSS. Authors and educators Mary Ratzer and Paige Jaeger illustrate how brain-based learning helps students become deep, critical thinkers, and provide the lesson plans to coax the best thinking out of each child. This tool book presents strategies to help learners progress from novice to expert thinker; challenge students with questions that lead to inquiry; incorporate "rigor" into lessons; and use model lesson plans to change instruction. Beginning chapters introduce the basics of instruction and provide ideas for expert cognitive growth of the brain. Sample lessons are aligned with key curriculum areas, including science, social studies, music, art, and physical education. Provides diverse, brain-friendly, and field-tested lesson plans that feature thinking targets, texts, and standards and enhance students' deep thinking skills Presents a school-library focus driven by inquiry process and information literacy skills Features graphical illustrations and practical schemas that explain, illustrate, and model how brain-based learning works Includes an extensive, research-based bibliography

Providing clear explanations of inquiry-based learning in the light of the Common Core, this book is a practical and graphical guide that will serve as a much-needed primer for librarians and educators. Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are putting educators under pressure to examine what works and what doesn't. Even with the best efforts, integrating new strategies into daily practice in the classroom or library can be frustrating. This book will help. Providing a professional development toolkit that trains school librarians and teachers and enables them to train others, it presents a sequence of scaffolded essential questions that results in a customized blueprint for effective teaching. The book assembles background building blocks for inquiry and the Common Core, illustrates and connects key concepts on how to introduce inquiry-based learning, and provides effective tools for igniting the Common Core through inquiry-based learning methods. Developed from the crucible of six years of professional development to real-world audiences with deep experience in teaching and school librarianship, this book makes implementing inquiry learning and embracing the Common Core easier for classroom teachers and school librarians who understand the value of these teaching methods but are unsure of the best way to implement them. Presents essential questions and key concepts as the framework for efficient, effective change Provides readers with an understanding of the basics of inquiry learning and preparation to use methods and tools to implement inquiry learning Explains the rationale for the need to redesign instruction in the context of 21st century education Examines the Common Core and its relationship to inquiry learning Prepares readers to use a toolkit for implementation of the skills called for in the CCSS, such as synthesis and evaluation, and in order to train others in the implementation of inquiry-based learning and the CCSS

This collection of ideas for lessons provides school librarians with inspiration for meeting the tsunami of new standards dictating change for today's next generation learners. Today's school librarian has less and less time to prepare for instruction. This book delivers lesson plans for the librarian to implement immediately, as is or with a little adaptation. Using the new AASL standards and an Information Literacy scope and sequence carefully crafted for K-6 students, the authors package lessons that are both engaging and challenging. This book inspires librarians to go beyond their usual role in literacy promotion and instruction only and moves to preparing students to be inquiry learners by embracing inquiry-based learning. Lessons include the Essential Question (begin with the end in mind); pre- and post-assessment ideas; technology integration ideas, where applicable; reading and research ideas; and collaboration ideas when applicable. AASL Standards and others are noted via an "integrated standards checklist," while new educational research demonstrates that standards can be met via engaging, collaborative, and interesting lessons, modeled throughout the text. Saves librarians planning time Furnishes ideas for collaboration Teaches research skills for librarians who collaborate with a classroom teacher as well as those who do not Prepares students who are curious and want to learn Incubates inquiry