AZCEC Spring 2024 Book Study

Start off the NEW YEAR with a Great Read!

AZCEC 2024 Spring Book Study

PLEASE ADD info@Humanitix.com TO YOUR SPAM FILTER OR SCHOOL WHITE LIST TO RECEIVE EVENT CONFIRMATION AND EMAILS.

Registration Information

You can register for any or all of these book studies! For each book completed, you will earn 20 hours of professional development credit that can be used for professional development hours (CEUs), ADE recertification credit or for DHS licensure credit for speech/language professionals.

Cost: $45 for each online book study. You are responsible for acquiring the book from any vendor. You must register and pay and then information on getting started will be sent to you. Registration ends January 26 and the book study begins on January 29.  The book study must be completed by May 31, 2024.  Professional development credit is issued after the book study is complete.

Watch for an email on January 29 with all of the information you need to get started with the book studies. You are responsible for purchasing or borrowing the book.

Book 1:

Boosting Executive Skills in the Classroom: A Practical Guide for Educators

by Joyce Cooper-Kahn and  Margaret Foster

A guide for helping students with weak Executive Function skills to learn efficiently and effectively

Students with weak Executive Function skills need strong support and specific strategies to help them learn in an efficient manner, demonstrate what they know, and manage the daily demands of school. This book shows teachers how to do exactly that, while also managing the ebb and flow of their broader classroom needs. From the author of the bestselling parenting book Late, Lost, and Unprepared, comes a compilation of the most practical tools and strategies, designed to be equally useful for children with EF problems as well as all other students in the general education classroom.

Rooted in solid research and classroom-tested experience, the book is organized to help teachers negotiate the very fluid challenges they face every day; educators will find strategies that improve their classroom "flow" and reduce the stress of struggling to teach students with EF weaknesses.

• Includes proven strategies for teachers who must address the needs of students with Executive Function deficits
• Contains information from noted experts Joyce Cooper-Kahn, a child psychologist and Margaret Foster, an educator and learning specialist
• Offers ways to extend learning and support strategies beyond the classroom
• The book's reproducible forms and handouts are available for free download

This important book offers teachers specific strategies to help students with EF deficits learn in an efficient manner, demonstrate what they know, and manage the daily demands of school.

Book 2:

Streamlining the Curriculum: Using the Storyboard Approach to Frame Compelling Learning Journeys

by Heidi Hayes Jacobs and Allison Zmuda

A game-changing resource for educators looking to elevate their unit and lesson plans, increase student engagement, and improve home-school communication.

With so many standards to address and templates to fill out, curriculum design and lesson planning can be cumbersome and overwhelming. And every teacher knows the struggle of trying to cover all the required content, which may or may not resonate with their students.

In Streamlining the Curriculum, experts Heidi Hayes Jacobs and Allison Zmuda take a hard look at our overburdened, dated curricular practices and offer a better way—one built on the power of narrative. Their storyboard approach casts students as the heroes of the learning journey. Instead of passive recipients, they become protagonists, activity engaged in exploring new ideas, solving problems, finding connections, enlisting allies, and acquiring new skills and understandings to apply to both present and future challenges.

Book 3:

Everybody's Classroom: Differentiating for the Shared and Unique Needs of Diverse Students

by Carol Ann Tomlinson

Most people are keenly aware that every student is different and that today’s classrooms challenge educators to build safe and successful learning communities comprising students whose races, languages, cultures, experiences, assets, and dreams vary greatly. This book offers K–12 teachers both the foundations for differentiating their instruction and the means to maximize learning opportunities by getting to know students beyond the labels and stereotypes that often accompany them into the classroom. Tomlinson shows how to use “highways and exit ramps” to reach the whole class, with “highway” content and “exit ramps” to specialize needs. Chapters offer numerous recommendations for modifying environments, activities, and assessments; for helping teachers move forward in their instructional planning; and for helping each learner grow academically. Everybody's Classroom extends Tomlinson’s previous work by looking more deeply at specific student populations to help educators create classrooms that are more inclusive than ever before.

Chapters cover successful differentiation for English learners; students experiencing poverty; students with different ethnic, cultural, religious, and gender orientations; and students with diverse identified special needs. This book provides a framework for understanding the scope of differentiation, as opposed to seeing it as a prescribed set of instructional strategies. Shows how to recognize common student needs that cut across student labels, from gifted to traumatized. Offers suggestions for teacher actions based on observation of students and student work. Includes classroom examples and helpful tables, charts, and graphics.

Book 4:

Teach for Authentic Engagement

by Lauren Porosoff

Finding meaning, vitality, and community is the purpose of engagement—and school itself.

Authentic engagement is a choice students make every day to bring themselves to their learning, work, and relationships—rather than simply go through the motions of school. It means sharing experiences; asking questions; trying new things; making mistakes; and allowing themselves to be seen, heard, and cared for. It's an active choice that can lead to tremendous growth and satisfaction. In Teach for Authentic Engagement, Lauren Porosoff shows how to design instruction that lets students with diverse interests, strengths, needs, identities, and values connect to their learning. Included are strategies, tools, and classroom anecdotes that help students * Engage with the content so it becomes a source of meaning in their lives. * Engage with their work so it becomes a source of vitality. * Engage with each other so the class becomes a source of community. It takes intellectual and emotional effort to teach in a way that fosters authentic engagement. But when students feel connected to the content, they engage with their work. And when they feel like their learning matters, they use that learning to understand and respect each other.