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High-Impact Instruction
- Grade Level: PreK-12
- ISBN: 9781412981774
- Published By: Corwin
- Year: 2012
- Page Count: 392
- Publication date: December 04, 2012
Price: $43.95
Description
Small changes can lead to big results!
The key to improving student achievement isn't more teacher time—it's more teacher impact. But how do you decide which instructional practices will deliver the most bang for your buck? In this handbook, written for teachers but suitable for use by principals and instructional coaches, best-selling author Jim Knight presents the high-leverage strategies that make the biggest difference in student learning.
This is no one-size-fits-all to-do list for the classroom—it's a simple and flexible framework you can customize to fit your working style and students' needs. Grounded in more than a decade of work with instructional coaches, this revolutionary book focuses on the three areas of high-impact instruction:
- Content planning, including using guiding questions, learning maps, and formative assessment
- Instructional practices such as the use of thinking prompts, effective questions, challenging assignments, and experiential learning
- Community building, in which you shape a classroom culture that promotes well-being, creativity, learning, and high expectations
This accessible road map for professional learning empowers and supports you in making changes to your practice with practical tools, including:
- Checklists, numerous observation tools, and recommended resources for further reading
- Online videos that focus on implementation of high-leverage instructional practices
- Ways that students, teachers, instructional coaches, and principals can support implementation of the practices
- Suggestions for using the book and videos in coaching and school improvement efforts
When it comes to teaching, little changes can make a big difference. With High-Impact Instruction, you have a rich toolkit for improving your own practice and promoting great teaching every day in every class.
"This book absolutely delivers on the promise of its subtitle, 'A Framework for Great Teaching.' It is breathtaking in its comprehensiveness and heartening in its practicality and detail."
—Robert J. Marzano, CEO
Marzano Research Laboratory
"Jim Knight has the capacity to be crystal clear at both the micro and the macro levels—a rare talent. High-Impact Instruction goes deep and it goes comprehensive. Planning, instruction, and community building become interwoven in a powerful manifesto for fundamental instructional and system change."
—Michael Fullan, Professor Emeritus
OISE/University of Toronto
"Jim Knight's High-Impact Instruction honors teachers as intelligent, complex, and dedicated people. While many have attempted to identify the attributes of effective instruction, Knight's work singularly acknowledges the basic human need to be our best selves."
—Stephanie Hirsh, Executive Director
Learning Forward
Join Jim Knight and other experts at the 2014 Instructional Coaching Conference to explore how whole school reform is enhanced when principals, teachers, and coaches use collaborative planning and effective Instructional Coaching techniques to improve student learning: www.corwin.com/tlc
Key features
(1) Provides a comprehensive, powerful, easy to understand framework for leading school improvement efforts.
(2) Provides a clear, easy-to-follow roadmap for professional learning to ensure that high leverage teaching practices are implemented in schools.
(3) Informed by a substantial research base
Author(s)

Jim Knight
Jim Knight has spent more than two decades studying professional learning, effective teaching, and instructional coaching. He is a Research Associate at the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning and the President of the Instructional Coaching Group.
Jim wrote the first article on the topic of instructional coaching for The Journal of Staff Development, and his book Instructional Coaching: A Partnership Approach to Improving Instruction (Corwin, 2007) popularized the idea. Jim edited Coaching: Approaches and Perspectives (Corwin, 2009) and co-authored Coaching Classroom Management (Pacific Northwest Publishing, 2010). Jim’s other books include Unmistakable Impact: A Partnership Approach to Dramatically Improving Instruction (Corwin, 2011), High-Impact Instruction: A Framework or Great Teaching (Corwin, 2013), and Focus on Teaching: Using Video for High-Impact Instruction (Corwin, 2014).
Jim’s articles on professional learning, teaching, and instructional coaching have appeared in journals such as The Journal of Staff Development, Principal Leadership, The School Administrator, Kappan, and Educational Leadership.
Frequently asked to lead professional learning, Jim has presented to more than 30,000 educators from six continents. He has a Ph.D. in Education from the University of Kansas and has won several university teaching, innovation, and service awards. Jim also writes the Radical Learners blog.
Table of Contents
List of Companion Website Resources
Preface
Acknowledgments
About the Author
1. Personal Bests
Part I. Planning
2. Guiding Questions
3. Formative Assessment
4. Learning Maps
Part II. Instruction
5. Thinking Prompts
6. Effective Questions
7. Stories
8. Cooperative Learning
9. Authentic Learning
Part III. Community Building
10. Learner-Friendly Culture
11. Power With, Not Power Over
12. Freedom Within Form
13. Expectations
14. Witness to the Good
15. Fluent Corrections
Conclusion
References and Further Readings
Index
Reviews
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"Jim Knight's High Impact Instruction honors teachers as intelligent, complex, and dedicated people. While many have attempted to identify the attributes of effective instruction, Knight's work singularly acknowledges the basic human need to be our best selves. A wonderful addition to the literature!"Stephanie Hirsh, Executive Director
Learning Forward
"Jim Knight's book, High-Impact Instruction, absolutely delivers on the promise of its subtitle 'A Framework for Great Teaching.' It is breathtaking in its comprehensiveness and heartening in its practicality and detail. This is a must-read for teachers, coaches, administrators, and anyone interested in furthering what is known about effective teaching."Robert J. Marzano, CEO
Marzano Research Laboratory
"Jim Knight has the capacity to be crystal clear at both the micro and the macro levels—a rare talent. High-Impact Instruction goes deep and it goes comprehensive. Planning, instruction, and community building become interwoven in a powerful manifesto for fundamental instructional and system change—a treasure trove of clear concepts, great ideas for action, and the tools to implement them."Michael Fullan, Professor Emeritus
OISE/University of Toronto
"Seasoned author Jim Knight provides a masterful resource for teachers and other stakeholders to improve student achievement through a host of clearly defined instructional practices. The tools, resources, and examples he provides enable educators to easily implement his framework which comprise the key ingredients for effective instruction. Furthermore, his writing style makes it an engaging read."Kathy Glass, consultant and author of Curriculum Mapping: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Curriculum Year Overviews
and Mapping Comprehensive Units to the ELA Common Core
“It is really important to me that I am kind of getting the full circle view of my classroom and seeing these are things that matter and these are things that could be better, and things that I can do to hopefully make things better by watching my class.“Beth Sanders, Teacher
Birmingham, AL
For Instructors
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Related Resources
- Companion Website [Site]