Learning for Keeps

Book excerpt: Learning for Keeps answers the questions teachers frequently ask about how to provide the explicit strategy instruction that supports the higher-level skills students need to meet the rigorous demands of the Common Core Standards. Teachers recognize that students often do not come to our classrooms with the skills necessary for the activities and projects that require solving problems, reading deeply, responding to higher levels of text complexity, communicating well- developed ideas, and performing the many cognitive behaviors necessary for long-term intellectual development. Here's a highly practical book that gives teachers the specific knowledge and larger vision needed to demystify essential strategies with explicit instruction. The reader will come away with a tutorial in breaking down complex strategies into incremental parts; models of scripted explicit strategy lessons; examples of coaching transactions that mediate students' application of strategies; and scaffolded activities that integrate content and process. Learning for Keeps is an indispensable tool for enabling all students to independently select and apply the behaviors needed for becoming highly literate and thoughtful citizens prepared for college and 21st century careers.