Practicing Skills, Strategies & Processes: Classroom Techniques to Help Students Develop Proficiency

Publisher Marketing: Can your students process and respond to information quickly? Academic standards call for increased rigor, but simply raising complexity is not enough. Students need to be able to process information quickly and respond to situations with fluency and accuracy. As teachers become better at planning and providing practice sessions that build these skills, students become more adept at using new knowledge and processes swiftly and accurately. Fluent thinking is crucial for success on the SAT, ACT, and other timed testing situations. Practicing Skills, Strategies, & Processes: Classroom Techniques to Help Students Develop Proficiency explores explicit techniques for mastering this crucial strategy of instructional practice. It includes: Explicit steps for implementation Recommendations for monitoring students' ability to develop fluent thinking Adaptations for students who struggle, have special needs, or excel in learning Examples and nonexamples from classroom practice Common mistakes Contributor Bio:  Harmon, Kelly Reaching learners with diverse needs is a passion for Kelly Harmon. For the past 20+ years, Kelly has worked with at-risk learners and their teachers as a classroom teacher, instructional coach, and staff developer. She has presented seminars, institutes, and conferences to more than 10,000 educators during the last 14 years. Kelly helps educators connect with their learners' natural learning modalities, curiosities, and strengths. She assists schools in designing effective curriculum and instruction that matches the standards to best practices. She is married and has six children (three by birth and three by marriage), two grandsons, and three poodles. She loves traveling and learning about interesting places and people. Contributor Bio:  Marzano, Robert J Robert J. Marzano is senior scholar at Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL) in Aurora, Colorado, associate professor at Cardinal Stritch University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and president of Marzano & Associates in Centennial, Colorado. He is the author of 25 books, 150 articles and chapters in books, and 100 sets of curriculum materials for teachers and students in Grades K 12. His works include What Works in Schools: Translating Research Into Action, School Leadership That Works, Building Background Knowledge for Academic Achievement, Classroom Management That Works, Classroom Instruction That Works, Classroom Assessment and Grading That Work, and A Different Kind of Classroom: Teaching With Dimensions of Learning. During his 35 years in public education, Marzano has worked in every state multiple times as well as in a host of countries in Europe and Asia. The central theme in his work has been translating research and theory into practical programs and tools for K 12 teachers and administrators.