Teaching Practices from America's Best Urban Schools

Joseph F. Johnson, Jr., Ph.D., is the Executive Director of the National Center for Urban School Transformation and Provost and Senior Vice President Emeritus, Dean Emeritus of the College of Education, and Professor Emeritus of Educational Leadership at San Diego State University, USA. Cynthia L. Uline, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus of Educational Leadership at San Diego State University, USA.Lynne G. Perez, Ph.D., served as the Deputy Director of the National Center for Urban School Transformation at San Diego State University, USA.

• About the AuthorsAcknowledgments Preface Intended Audience About the Schools Studied, Awarded, and Featured in This Book Contents of the Book How to Use This Book 1 Making Students Feel Valued and Capable Caring Enough to Know and Value Individual Students Caring Enough to Model Courtesy and Respect Caring Enough to Praise and Acknowledge Caring Enough to Demand the Best Caring Enough to Transform Classroom Practices Caring Enough to Create Attractive and Educationally Rich Physical Environments Summary What It Is & What It Isn’t Practice Guide Practical Next Steps References2 Focusing on Understanding and Mastery Planning for Understanding and Mastery Designing Objective-Driven Lessons Generating Depth of Understanding Maximizing Time on Objective Focusing on All Students Summary What It Is & What It Isn’t Practice Guide Practical Next Steps References 3 Promoting Clarity Promoting Clarity in Learning Outcomes Promoting Clarity in Lesson Organization Promoting Clarity in the Representation of Ideas Summary What It Is & What It Isn’t Practice Guide Practical Next Steps References 4 Ensuring Culturally, Socially, and Personally Responsive Teaching Assuming Student Ability Building Connections Ensuring Culturally Responsive Teaching Ensuring Socially and Personally Responsive Teaching Summary What It Is & What It Isn’t Practice Guide Practical Next Steps References 5 Checking Understanding, Providing Feedback, and Adapting Frequency of Checking for Understanding Well-Distributed Checking for Understanding Checking for Higher Levels of Understanding Providing Feedback Adapting Instruction Summary What It Is & What It Isn’t Practice Guide Practical Next Steps References 6 Building Fluency with Gatekeeper Vocabulary Pre-Identifying Gatekeeper Vocabulary Making New Vocabulary Seem Familiar Building Fluency with and "Ownership" of Critical Vocabulary Sustaining Fluency Summary What It Is & What It Isn’t Practice Guide Practical Next Steps References 7 Promoting Successful Practice Guiding Students toward Independent Learning Guided Students to Learn Difficult Concepts Monitoring Independent Work Building Student Capacity to Self-Monitor Providing Independent Work (Including Homework) Worth Completing Summary What It Is & What It Isn’t Practice Guide Practical Next Steps References 8 Leading Students to Love Learning Teaching Enthusiastically Highlighting Relevance Utilizing Project-Based, Problem-Based, Experiential Learning Integrating the Arts, Technology, and Physical Education throughout Curricula Maximizing Student-to-Student Engagement Providing Students Opportunities to Excel with Challenging Content Summary What It Is & What It Isn’t Practice Guide Practical Next Steps References 9 Developing Best Teaching Practices Throughout a School Pursuing the Right GoalBuilding a Coherent Educational Improvement SystemSummaryReferencesConclusion Appendix A: America’s Best Urban Schools Award 2019 Eligibility Criteria Appendix B: About the Schools Awarded and Studied Appendix C: America’s Best Urban Schools Award WinnersReferences