"This book is for teachers who want to honor their students' experiences as writers and readers-and their own." -Maja Wilson In Reimagining Writing Assessment,Maja Wilson shows us that by replacing the scales embedded in rubrics with new tools--an array of interpretive lenses designed to observe and describe growth-we can create healthier readers and writers who are more proficient in the long run and more motivated to read and write. She reminds us that "assess" in its Latin derivation means "sit beside." In this book she models new ways of "sitting beside," listening to student stories of the writing, respecting the writer's intentions, and telling stories of our reading. Taking the form of conversations, Maja's new definition of writing assessment is not an outcome or final evaluation: it is an ongoing process in which writers and readers make meaning from texts and attempts, from intentions and effects. In this process, teachers come to understand how to teach and talk with each student about writing differently. And students learn to understand and take control of their own development as decision-makers.

The conventional wisdom in English education is that rubrics are the best and easiest tools for assessment. But sometimes it's better to be unconventional. In Rethinking Rubrics in Writing Assessment, Maja Wilson offers a new perspective on rubrics and argues for a better, more responsive way to think about assessing writers' progress. Though you may sense a disconnect between student-centered teaching and rubric-based assessment, you may still use rubrics for convenience or for want of better alternatives. Rethinking Rubrics in Writing Assessment gives you the impetus to make a change, demonstrating how rubrics can hurt kids and replace professional decision making with an inauthentic pigeonholing that stamps standardization onto a notably nonstandard process. With an emphasis on thoughtful planning and teaching, Wilson shows you how to reconsider writing assessment so that it aligns more closely with high-quality instruction and avoids the potentially damaging effects of rubrics. Stop listening to the conventional wisdom, and turn instead to a compelling new voice to find out why rubrics are often replaceable. Open Rethinking Rubrics in Writing Assessment and let Maja Wilson start you down the path to more sensitive, authentic style of writing assessment.

A real-world action plan for educators to create personalizedlearning experiences Learning Personalized: The Evolution of the ContemporaryClassroom provides teachers, administrators, and educationalleaders with a clear and practical guide to personalized learning.Written by respected teachers and leading educational consultantsAllison Zmuda, Greg Curtis, and Diane Ullman, this comprehensiveresource explores what personalized learning looks like, how itchanges the roles and responsibilities of every stakeholder, andwhy it inspires innovation. The authors explain that, in order tocreate highly effective personalized learning experiences, a newinstructional design is required that is based loosely on thetraditional model of apprenticeship: learning by doing. Learning Personalized challenges educators to rethink thefundamental principles of schooling that honors students' naturalwillingness to play, problem solve, fail, re-imagine, and share.This groundbreaking resource: Explores the elements of personalized learning and offers aframework to achieve it Provides a roadmap for enrolling relevant stakeholders tocreate a personalized learning vision and reimagine new roles andresponsibilities Addresses needs and provides guidance specific to the jobdescriptions of various types of educators, administrators, andother staff This invaluable educational resource explores a simple frameworkfor personalized learning: co-creation, feedback, sharing, andlearning that is as powerful for a teacher to re-examine classroompractice as it is for a curriculum director to reexamine thestructure of courses.

Do you think education works? Does it meet the needs of future society, business and most importantly, the average school leaver? In this book, Richard Wells explains his amazement at how all the components of New Zealand education collaborate in creating an ever forward-moving system better prepared for the 21st century than any other. After teaching in the UK, Wells moved to New Zealand in 2006 to find there was no prescribed curriculum and teachers were trusted to run the whole system, including writing high school graduation assessments themselves. The Government is appreciated by teachers as a supportive aide to them as they hold each other to account in a positive and collaborative nationally networked system. In New Zealand, teachers are proud of the education system they operate and develop with their students, some being unaware of how lucky they are. Wells explains each of the elements and organisations that jointly form the world's leading 21st Century education system. He describes the developments and decisions that were made in achieving this and how it is moving into a phase of using student-negotiated national assessments that few other countries' educators could even contemplate. The book is filled with useful diagrams and posters to illustrate key themes and pedagogies. Wells paints a picture of what happens when young people are measured by their depth of thinking and understanding and can personalise their approach to doing so. The book introduces you to a country where the leading people and schools shape the future of world public education.

Bringing together the experience, perspective and expertise of Paul Farmer, Jim Yong Kim, and Arthur Kleinman, Reimagining Global Health provides an original, compelling introduction to the field of global health. Drawn from a Harvard course developed by their student Matthew Basilico, this work provides an accessible and engaging framework for the study of global health. Insisting on an approach that is historically deep and geographically broad, the authors underline the importance of a transdisciplinary approach, and offer a highly readable distillation of several historical and ethnographic perspectives of contemporary global health problems. The case studies presented throughout Reimagining Global Health bring together ethnographic, theoretical, and historical perspectives into a wholly new and exciting investigation of global health. The interdisciplinary approach outlined in this text should prove useful not only in schools of public health, nursing, and medicine, but also in undergraduate and graduate classes in anthropology, sociology, political economy, and history, among others.

Adler-Kassner and O'Neill show writing faculty and administrators how to frame discussions of writing assessment so that they accurately represent research-based practices, and promote assessments that are valid, reliable, and discipline-appropriate. Public discourse about writing instruction is currently driven by ideas of what instructors and programs “need to do,” “should do,” or “are not doing,” and is based on poorly informed concepts of correctness and unfounded claims about a broad decline in educational quality. This discussion needs to be reframed, say Adler-Kassner and O'Neill, to help policymakers understand that the purpose of writing instruction is to help students develop critical thinking, reading, and writing strategies that will form the foundation for their future educations, professional careers, and civic engagement. Reframing Writing Assessment to Improve Teaching and Learning is grounded in the best of writing assessment research, and focuses on how to communicate it effectively to publics beyond academe.

A practical guide to successfully navigating big life changes faced during middle age and later. Are you at a point in your life where you're asking, “What’s next?” You’ve finished one chapter and you have yet to write the next one. Many of us face these transitions at midlife, but they can happen at any point. It’s a time full of enormous potential, and it defines a whole new phase of life. It’s called Life Reimagined. Here is your map to guide you in this new life phase. You can use the powerful practices and insights to help you uncover your own special gifts, connect with people who can support you, and explore new directions. You’ll be inspired by meeting ordinary people who have reimagined their lives in extraordinary ways. You’ll also read the stories of pioneers of the Life Reimagined movement such as Jane Pauley, James Brown, and Emilio Estefan. They show us that this journey of discovery can help us find fulfillment in surprising new places. One of the profound truths that underlies this book is the liberating notion that each of us is “an experiment of one,” free to find our own path in this new phase of our lives. No old rules, no outdated societal norms, no boundaries of convention or expectation. Let Life Reimagined help you discover your new life possibilities! Winner of the 2014 Silver Nautilus Award