The Teacher Clarity Playbook, Grades K-12: A Hands-On Guide to Creating Learning Intentions and Success Criteria for Organized, Effective Instruction

by Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, Olivia Amador

When learning progressions and success criteria are clear, students achieve. It’s that simple―because it indicates that teachers are intentional and learners know both the why and the how behind every endeavor. With The Teacher Clarity Playbook , you now have the tools and templates to make it happen. Designed for PLCs or independent teacher use, it guide s practitioners to align lessons, objectives, and outcomes of learning seamlessly, so that the classroom hours flow productively for everyone. Written by Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, Olivia Amador, and Joseph Assof, educators dedicated to making high impact, research based practices a part of every teacher’s repertoire.

Genres: Education, Teaching, Professional Development

168 pages, Spiral-bound

Published October 11, 2018

About the author

Douglas Fisher, Ph.D., is an educator and Professor of Educational Leadership at San Diego State University and a teacher leader at Health Sciences High & Middle College.

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Reviews

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is really a workbook to guide backwards planning. Starting from unpacking the standards into content and skills, then moving through learning progressions to daily objectives and how they will be assessed. Each section contains 2-3 pages of text which explains that step in the process and its importance. Then there are examples and practice standards to work with and finally a graphic organizer to practice with. It is a very tedious process, but super helpful for me given that I tend to get stuck in the big picture.

It adds two important elements not always included in backwards design: scripting out how you will explain the relevance of learning objectives to students and modifying objectives so they explicitly name what the related literacy goals/requirements are.

It would be great to use with a team.

[Madison Kozeny · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am currently reading this for the Model Teacher Program in my district. We are reading this as part of our book club.

This is a workbook that guides teachers through backwards planning. It heavily reinforces why standards, learning intentions and success criteria do matter. This book is best read with peers. It is brief and a quick read- the depth is in the conversations around the work you are doing within the book.

[Nikki Baker · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a quick read, full of helpful tips and reminders. This would be a great tool to support starting PLS (Professional Learning Communities) with teachers who don't have time to read DrFours more in depth texts.

[Lacey Conrad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Parts of this workbook are really useful, mostly the beginning and end. The middle gets a bit tedious and repetitive. However, I did learn a lot of practical techniques. It’s those concepts that you wonder why they don’t teach you in your education classes...

[Tracy Jaconette · Rating 5 out of 5]

A perfect compliment for teachers and instructional coaches to use when planning short cycle goals around student learning.

[Aimee Perry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the interactive learning in this book! So many opportunities to apply as you are learning!

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good little workbook with lots of examples if this is new to you.

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some great ideas for the first plc question here.

[Ryan Darnell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great for PLCs that are just getting started.

[Shanna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Once again Fisher has come up with some great strategies for teachers to improve their practice. The book was short and easy to read, and included practice questions (like a workbook) so you could try out the strategies as you are learning about them. The strategies revolve around breaking down curriculum standards to the daily level, with a mind for the overall goal of the assessment of mastery. Maybe if I had half the students and twice the time, I'd feel more optimistic about this book. Instead, this book made me tired just reading it. It seems like a lot of work, and I'm not convinced it will magically solve the real problems I face trying to teach unmotivated students raised by uncooperative parents.