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Academic Moves for College and Career Readiness, Grades 6-12
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Academic Moves for College and Career Readiness, Grades 6-12
15 Must-Have Skills Every Student Needs to Achieve

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May 2015 | 256 pages | Corwin

Analyze, argue, compare/contrast, describe, determine, develop, evaluate, explain, imagine, integrate, interpret, organize, summarize, support, and transform . . .

Can a mere fifteen words turn today’s youth into the innovative, ambitious thinkers we need? Yes, contend Jim Burke and Barry Gilmore, coauthors of Academic Moves for College and Career Readiness, because these are the moves that make the mind work and students must learn if they’re to achieve academically. It’s that simple.

Or is it? To arrive at these fifteen critical reading, writing, and thinking processes, Jim and Barry combed through the standards, research, and secondary curriculum—and that’s for starters. Then, for each of these powerhouse processes, they developed a lesson structure, assignments, and activities so you can teach with potency, right away, and immediately cultivate in students discipline-specific habits of mind.

Here’s the best part yet: Jim and Barry distill each intellectual process into a potent concision that nevertheless spans subject areas:

  • Before, during, and after sections offer essential questions, lesson ideas, and activities to assist you in instruction.
  • Two sample student pieces illustrate not only what to look for but the process for getting there.
  • Culminating tasks include producing an analytic essay, visual text, argument, narrative and informational writing, poetry, descriptive science writing, and explanatory writing in math.
  • Every chapter has a correlation chart to Webb’s Depth of Knowledge to deepen understanding and a reproducible rubric to aid in assessment.

At the end of the day, what we want is for our students to know how to think at high levels in any discipline in school or any arena in life. In Academic Moves for College and Career Readiness, Jim and Barry translate these processes into remarkable instructional protocols. Use the book and you’ll know for yourself what a revolution they’ve created. 

 
Introduction: The Language of Learning
 
Acknowledgments
 
1. Analyze
 
2. Argue
 
3. Compare/Contrast
 
4. Describe
 
5. Determine
 
6. Develop
 
7. Evaluate
 
8. Explain
 
9. Imagine
 
10. Integrate
 
11. Interpret
 
12. Organize
 
13. Summarize
 
14. Support
 
15. Transform
 
Appendices
I. The Other Words

 
II. Academic Writing Moves

 
III. Working With the Words Across Disciplines

 
IV. Academic Moves: Etymology

 
V. Teaching by Design Using Webb’s Depth of Knowledge Model

 
VI. Standards Correlation Chart (Texas, Florida, Indiana, and Virginia)

 
VII. Anchor Charts

 
VIII. Graphic Organizers

 
 
Glossary
 
Index

Supplements

Academic Moves for College and Career Readiness provides clarity and structure for teachers who seek to help their students become more competent and confident thinkers, and does so without compromising the critical role of a teacher's content knowledge and creativity in a dynamic classroom. Its economy of expression makes complex ideas accessible, while annotated student work provides a window into learner application. Most significantly, the book is written in the voice of teachers, who live what they recommend.”

CAROL ANN TOMLINSON, Jr. Professor and Author of The Differentiated Classroom, Second Edition
William Clay Parrish, University of Virginia

“Burke and Gilmore present a powerful and practical synthesis of the highest-leverage thinking moves that students—especially linguistically diverse students—need to develop for school, work, and life. They provide what teachers want: clear and concise descriptions of each thinking move, analyses of student work samples, and innovative classroom practices and scaffolds that can be used to develop the moves in a variety of contexts. Fifteen stars!”

JEFF ZWIERS, Senior Researcher at Stanford University

“Jim Burke’s books need to be on the ‘must-read’ list of—at the very least—all English teachers! Academic Moves for College and Career Readiness is a worthy addition to that list with the ‘academic and thinking’ moves he and his coauthor, Barry Gilmore, describe critical for any of us who want to ‘up our game’ in the classroom.”

LARRY FERLAZZO, Teacher, Education Week advice columnist, and author of Helping Students Motivate Themselves

 “What sets Academic Moves for College and Career Readiness apart are its emphasis on student practice and practical application of exemplary instruction. This book speaks to teachers in their language across curriculum areas. Burke and Gilmore have hit the mark on what our students need for college and career readiness.”

JAYNE ELLSPERMANN, National Principal of the Year (2014)

This book has been adopted to be in our methods course library for English education majors, and was purchased and paid for by our Race to the Top Grant (RTTT3) in January 2016 (one copy).

Dr Christina L Lyons
English Dept, Southern Illinois University
January 15, 2016

For instructors

Please contact your Academic Consultant to check inspection copy availability for your course.

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ISBN: 9781483379807
£30.99