DALLAS—October, 2009—How do teachers and coaches start a conversation that will lead to improved student learning? NSDC’s latest book, Tools & Talk: Data, Conversation, and Action for Classroom and School Improvement, provides structures and suggestions to answer that question for anyone who works with classroom teachers to raise student achievement.
Five ready-to-use tools included in the book can kick start discussions about how to build responsive, brain-based classrooms, create engaging student tasks, and form a classroom community of respect and learning. Data-gathering tools help teachers and coaches examine student engagement, how lesson and classroom design work together to support optimal learning, whether the school and classroom environment welcomes all students, and how well teachers are managing instructional processes.
Author Michael Murphy provides a framework for conversations around student-learning data and prompts for discussing data in a collegial, collaborative way that encourages teachers to think critically about their own practices.
With an emphasis on strengthening supportive relationships in a safe and risk-free context, Murphy shows principals, assistant principals, instructional specialists, and others in similar positions how to gather and use data to improve teaching and student learning through classroom and schoolwide change.
The book is available for purchase from the NSDC online bookstore or by calling 800-727-7288. The cost is $33.60 for members of NSDC, $42.00 for nonmembers, item # B425.
