Planning Powerful Instruction, Grades 2-5

A classroom teacher for fifteen years, Jeffrey D. Wilhelm is currently Professor of English Education at Boise State University. He works in local schools as part of a Virtual Professional Development Site Network sponsored by the Boise State Writing Project, and regularly teaches middle and high school students. Jeff is the founding director of the Maine Writing Project and the Boise State Writing Project.  Christopher Butts has worked in education since 2003. He spent the first ten years at the elementary level as a paraprofessional with English Learners and a classroom teacher for third and fourth graders. During that his grade level team created a community garden. He also taught at a migrant summer school and English classes for parents in the evenings. As a Teacher Consultant with the Boise State Writing Project Chris co-designed and co-facilitated online courses about informational and argument texts. He also provided local Idaho districts training around the Common Core Standards. Starting in 2013, Chris worked with Teacher Consultants from the National Writing Project and the Idaho State Department of Education to establish the Idaho Coaching Network, an organization that provides training in literacy instruction and teacher leadership. Since 2016-17, he has been a Title I Coach at the alternative school for the Boise School District, Frank Church High School, where he enjoys co-teaching various levels of math and English  Adam Fachler is a strategist, coach, and consultant for Pre-K-12 teachers and educational leaders throughout New York. Formerly a middle school teacher, staff developer, and intern principal, he left the classroom in 2014 to co-found the School in the Square, a public charter school in Washington Heights. In addition to creating the EMPOWER framework, Adam is also a leading expert in Thinking Maps®—a visual language for learning—and leads acclaimed regional certification workshops in the methodology. In all his work, Adam strives to provide educators with the engaging professional development that they deserve. Adam lives with his wife Liz in Brooklyn, NY.

• AcknowledgmentsAbout the AuthorsIntroductionPART 1: TRANSFORMATIVE PLANNING AND INSTRUCTIONChapter 1. What’s at Stake? Teaching Toward Expertise With a Sense of UrgencyChapter 2. Making the Shift From Informational to Transformational TeachingChapter 3. Introducing the EMPOWER CanvasPART 2: ENVISIONING AND MAPPINGChapter 4. Envisioning the Destination Through Principled Planning ProtocolsChapter 5. Mapping the Path to Mastery Through Task DeconstructionPART 3: PRIMING AND ORIENTINGChapter 6. Priming Learners Through a Caring Community and Collaborative Classroom Culture: A Prerequisite for Inquiry as Cognitive Apprenticeship (ICA)Chapter 7. Priming and Orienting Learners Through Essential QuestionsChapter 8. Priming and Orienting Learners Through FrontloadingPART 4: WALKING THROUGH, EXTENDING, AND EXPLORINGChapter 9. Walking Learners Through With Visualization StrategiesChapter 10. Walking Learners Through With Think-Aloud StrategiesChapter 11. Walking Learners Through With QuestioningChapter 12. Extending Expertise With Collaborative Group StructuresChapter 13. Extending Expertise by Promoting Deep DiscussionPART 5: REFLECTINGChapter 14. Reflecting Through Formative Assessments and to Cultivate a Spirit of TransferChapter 15. Putting It All Together: Pursuing Real-World Culminating Projects and Performance-Based Summative AssessmentsConcluding Thoughts: What’s Next? An EMPOWERed Vision of Our Future Teaching and LearningReferencesIndex