Improving Student Learning One Teacher at a Time

In this second edition of Improving Student Learning One Teacher at a Time, Jane E. Pollock and Laura J. Tolone combine updated research and real-world stories to demonstrate how it takes only one teacher to make a difference in student performance. Their approach expands the classic three-part curriculum-instruction-assessment framework by adding one key ingredient: feedback.

This "Big Four" approach offers an easy-to-follow process that helps teachers build better curriculum documents with

* Curriculum standards that are clear and well-paced, and describe what students will learn.
* Instruction based in research, from daily lessons to whole units of study.
* Assessment that maximizes feedback and requires critical and creative thinking.
* Feedback that tracks and reports individual student progress by standards.

Pollock and Tolone demonstrate how consistent, timely feedback from multiple sources can help students monitor their own understanding and help teachers align assignments, quizzes, and tests more explicitly to the standards. The Big Four shifts the focus away from the basics of what makes a good teacher toward what makes good learning happen for every student every day.

Jane E. Pollock, PhD, coauthor of the ASCD bestseller Classroom Instruction That Works (2001), works worldwide with teachers, coaches, and principals on instruction and supervision. Her work results in improved student achievement at the classroom and school levels.

Laura J. Tolone has served students for the past 25 years in U.S. and worldwide school communities as a teacher, an athletic coach, a librarian, an administrative leader, and a consultant. She specializes in building student-centered cultures that improve learning. Laura spent the past 15 years in the Dominican Republic working with teachers to incorporate standards-based strategies into daily practices of teaching and learning.