Video Facilitator's Guides

Balanced Assessment: Improving Student Achievement and Standardized Test Results

Guide your school or district in developing a more balanced approach to assessment that gives you continuous clues about student learning all year long. This facilitator's guide consists of workshop outlines and activities that provide everything you need to

• Explain the needs and benefits of a balanced and
  comprehensive approach to assessing students.
• Help teachers develop and use assessment tasks that
  provide a more complete picture of what students know.
• Show how students can participate in their own assessments.
• Demonstrate to all staff members ways to use student
  achievement data to improve student performance.

Download the Facilitator's Guide (PDF)

Building Academic Background Knowledge

This series introduces your school to research-based strategies for overcoming the deficiencies that hamper the achievement of so many students. Research expert Robert J. Marzano explains the importance of building background knowledge for all learners, especially low-achieving students who tend to not have been exposed to the kinds of experiences necessary for academic success.
It also introduces teacher teams and other school groups to the key principals of research-based practice, such as

• Why direct teaching of certain vocabulary terms leads to higher academic achievement.
• Why sustained silent reading helps improve student understanding of content.
• Why indirect learning experiences—such as field trips and mentoring—give students better contexts for learning new content.

Download the Facilitator's Guide (PDF 5 MB)

Mentoring to Improve Schools

Introduce your school or district to the benefits of effective mentoring programs. Scenes from a variety of schools and districts profile successful mentoring programs and explore their characteristics. Interviews with experts and experienced mentors offer tips on how to be an effective mentor. Plus, workshop outlines and strategies in the facilitator's guide help you create a presentation that focuses audiences on the goals of a mentoring program and how to get one started.

Download the Facilitator's Guide (PDF 3.5 MB)

Moving Forward with Understanding by Design

Now that thousands of educators use ASCD's Understanding by Design (UbD) framework to create results-oriented curricula, here's your opportunity to see examples of best practice in implementing this breakthrough approach. Use the DVD in workshops, team meetings, and professional development events to take audiences to the front lines of schools that are implementing UbD systemwide.

Download the Facilitator's Guide (PDF 2.9 MB)

Reading in the Content Areas

Discover how teachers in the content areas can help students improve subject-area learning and reading comprehension skills simultaneously. See how "reading to learn" strategies engage students' interest in content, maintain their focus, and improve their understanding and application of what they've read. Throughout the video, teachers demonstrate how they foster their student's ability to use reading strategies, and interviews with experienced practitioners and reading experts, such as Donna Ogle, explain how reading strategies can enhance student learning in the content areas.

Download the Facilitator's Guide (PDF)

A Visit to a Differentiated Classroom

Experience significant segments of a day in this teacher's 3rd/4th grade multiage classroom to understand how a differentiated classroom works. See how to

• Use a flexible approach to teaching and learning based
  on students' varied needs.
• Frame a standards-based curriculum around important
  concepts and ideas.
• Foster a strong sense of community with an emphasis
  on every student's value and growth as a learner.
• Work with students who are active, involved learners and
  who make decisions and share responsibility for learning.
• Engage in ongoing assessment of learning and encourage
  students to assess their own work each day.

Download the Facilitator's Guide (PDF)

The Results Series

Take the mystery out of school reform with this powerful DVD based on the ASCD best-selling book Results: The Key to Continuous School Improvement, 2nd Edition. Author and consultant Mike Schmoker takes you on an up close and personal tour of a large high school district where reform efforts have boosted standardized test scores 10 points above state and national averages and improved performance on demanding new state assessments. Video scenes and interviews take you to the planning sessions and training workshops of this school district to learn proven reform strategies.

Download the Facilitator's Guide (1 MB zip file)

Copyright Notice

Materials in the "Handouts and Overheads" and "Resources and Readings" sections of these manuals are intended for use in face-to-face workshops designed as part of these video staff development programs. Materials in these sections of the guides may be reproduced for this purpose only. Any other use of these materials is prohibited, unless written permission is granted by ASCD.