Collaborate, Communicate, & Differentiate! : How to Increase Student Learning in Today's Diverse Schools

"An all-in-one book—a lighthearted and well grounded introduction to collaboration, how it can improve education for all children, and its role in effectively educating students with special needs. Murawski and Spencer tell it like it is, and they do so with humor and straight talk." —Lynne Cook, Professor, School of Education California State University, Dominguez Hills "As a kid who struggled in school, this is the book that I wish every one of my teachers had read. It is a stunning achievement and huge step forward to making all schools inclusive of all learners!" —Johnathan Mooney, Author, The Short Bus: A Journey Beyond Normal Collaboration 101 for teachers, parents, and school communities Teachers in both general and special education classrooms are being asked to collaborate to give all students access to the general education curriculum. The challenge is that teachers receive very little training in how to work together to educate students successfully. Do you wonder how to get started, how much time it will take, and what the results will be? Collaborate, Communicate, and Differentiate! addresses those issues and more, taking collaboration out of the abstract and supplying easy-to-use strategies that apply to daily tasks such as Planning and differentiating instruction Communicating with families Using Universal Design for Learning to form instruction Assessing students with diverse backgrounds and abilities Co-teaching Coordinating with all staff members This reader-friendly text ties each strategy to the goal of improving student outcomes. Included are vignettes, In a Nutshell and Eye on the Research quick-reference guides, reproducible forms, Principal Points to share with administrators, and a companion website. Educators who have wondered how to make collaboration reasonable, feasible, and time-efficient will find the answers in this book!