Planning Powerful Instruction, Grades 2-5 : 7 Must-Make Moves to Transform How We Teach--and How Students Learn

"The authors cite a growing need for cognitive apprenticeship (in which learning is visible in real-life tasks) and inquiry to meet the challenges of Next Generation standards - and to truly prepare students for the type of work and citizenship of their future. Many teachers, however, have trouble designing lessons and units that meet these goals because they have been trained in more traditional direct instruction/knowledge-imparting methods. ?EMPOWER Your Teaching provides teachers with a solution: a model for backwards-planning and implementing inquiry as cognitive apprenticeship that leads to deeply engaging and joyful instruction. The EMPOWER heuristic Jeff and his coauthors have developed walks teachers through the planning process, providing a model for long- and short-term planning as well as a cache of inquiry-oriented strategies to meet specific needs immediately"--