Facilitating Authentic Learning, Grades 6-12: A Framework for Student-Driven Instruction - Paperback

by Laura L. R. Thomas (Author)

Your single-best way to nurture higher-order thinking

There′s no doubt about it: the Common Core has us scrambling. With all the pressure to accelerate instruction, how can we possibly find the time to encourage students to do some serious thinking? For Laura Thomas, the answer couldn′t be clearer: through constructivist, experiential teaching methods. In fact, constructivist teaching is the single-best way to nurture the higher-order thinking so central to the Common Core.

Fusing the practical with the theoretical, Thomas offers a clear path for facilitating real understanding and real skill-building within a community of learners. Grade 6-12 teachers will learn how to:

• Plan learning experiences that teach content and process at the same time
• Assess students′ development of 21st-century skills
• Coach students to do the hard work of authentic learning--without leaving them to flounder
• Teach reflection techniques that help students process their experiences and learn from mistakes.

Featuring easy-to-follow graphics, sample lessons, and tools from practicing teachers, Facilitating Authentic Learning is an immediately practical resource that both beginning and veteran teachers can put to work in their classrooms.

"This is a valuable book for educators, especially as we strive to help our students move from being receivers of knowledge to owners of their learning. Teachers need to develop strategies to be effective guides for our students, and to facilitate their progress toward educational goals."
--Norma Barber, Language Arts Teacher
Ukiah School District, OR

"I LOVE this book! It provides step-by-step instructions for making a classroom student-centered and led by a guide on the side, not a sage on the stage. The author′s real-world examples and reader-friendly writing style make this book a winner!"
--Nancy Foote, Teacher/Administrator
Higley Unified School District, AZ

Author Biography

Laura Thomas is the current Director of the Antioch Center for School Renewal (http: //antiochne.edu/acsr), the service division of the Department of Education, Antioch University, New England. Her faculty webpage is: http: //www.antiochne.edu/directory/employee_detail.cfm?ID=7160136429.

She has been working in and with innovative schools since 1993, first as a speech and theatre educator and later as a coach and consultant. Laura′s expertise lies in the support of system-wide change, the building of learning communities for both adults and students, and facilitative instruction. She is affiliated with the Coalition of Essential Schools, the School Reform Initiative (http: //www.essentialschools.org) and is the Co-President of the New Hampshire affiliate of the National Staff Development Council.

The author has also been involved in the design and instruction of several online courses including Data Collection for Equity (a Case Study/ School Profile course for Principal′s Certification students) and Critical Friends Group Coaching (for the same cohort). She is currently designing two separate series of courses on tech integration and problem-based learning. Both series will have 5 3-credit courses leading to a certificate and/ or MEd in Curriculum and Instruction. Launch is anticipated in the spring of 2012.