Classroom Catalysts ─ 15 Efficient Practices That Accelerate Readers' Learning

"Some learners need to make more than one academic year's worth of growth in an academic year. We need instructional techniques that provide more bang for our buck and accelerate student growth."

-Michael Opitz and Michael Ford

When readers need more from us, we need more juice from our teaching. Classroom Catalysts shares a power pack of 15 instructional accelerators for meeting students' needs and closing grade-level gaps.

Michael Opitz and Michael Ford show how to help jump-start learning so students not only make progress but reach proficiency. They present accelerators for whole-group, small-group, and individual instruction. These simple but surprisingly powerful techniques can actually create additional teaching time by bringing extra instructional energy to existing practices as well as seemingly noninstructional moments.

For each of their 15 accelerators, Opitz and Ford show you how it fuses differentiation and acceleration. They offer getting-started suggestions, share reproducible templates, and provide ways to adapt the idea to your own situation.

Reaching more readers with more of what they need and putting students on a path to make more than a year's progress isn't impossible. Begin by charging up your teaching with Classroom Catalysts.

A former elementary school teacher and reading specialist, Michael Opitz (@MichaelOpitz4) is professor emeritus education of reading at the University of Northern Colorado where he taught undergraduate and graduate courses and supervised doctoral dissertations. He is now a literacy consultant and author well known to individual teachers, instructional leaders, and researchers as the author of numerous professional and curricular resources and through his extensive work in schools nationwide. TEACHER PROFESSIONAL BOOKS Titles with Heinemann - Accessible Assessment: How 9 Sensible Techniques Can Power Data-Driven Reading Instruction (2011) - Classroom Catalysts: 15 Efficient Practices That Accelerate Readers' Learning (2014) - Comprehension and English Language Learners: 25 Oral Reading Strategies That Cross Proficiency Levels (2009) - Do-able Differentiation: Varying Texts, Supports and Groups to Reach Readers (2008) - Good-bye Round Robin (1998/2008) - Books and Beyond: New Ways to Reach Readers (2006) - Listen Hear! 25 Ways to Enhance Listening Comprehension (2005) - Reaching Readers: Flexible and Innovative Strategies for Guided Reading (2001) - Rhymes and Reasons: Literature and Language Play for Phonological Awareness (2000) - Reading Diagnosis and Improvement: Assessment and Instruction, 6th ed. (Allyn & Bacon, 2011) - Literacy Lessons to Help Kids Get Fit and Healthy (Scholastic, 2010) - Don't Speed. Read! 12 Steps for Smart and Sensible Fluency Instruction (Scholastic, 2007) - Flexible Grouping in Reading (Scholastic, 1998) - Literacy Instruction for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students (IRA, 1998) - Getting the Most from Predictable Books (Scholastic, 1995) - Learning Centers: Getting Them Started, Keeping Them Going (Scholastic, 1994) CORE, SUPPLEMENTAL, AND RTI PROGRAMS - Pair-It Extreme (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010), a supplemental reading program aimed at engaging boys with reading - Literacy by Design (Rigby, 2008), a supplemental literacy and RtI program - Intervention by Design (Rigby, 2009), an intervention program tailored to children who need additional help with reading - Summer Success Reading (Great Source, 2007), a reading program designed to help children who need additional help with reading - Afterschool Achiever's Reading Club (Great Source, 2003) - Daybooks, Grades 3 - 5 (Great Source, 2008, contributing author) ARTICLES Mike is the author of more than 20 articles in peer-reviewed journals such as: - The Reading Teacher - Literacy Research and Instruction - Reading Horizons AWARDS AND HONORS Mike has received more than 15 awards for his teaching, scholarship, and service to professional organizations, including the Fannie Stabenow Award from the Colorado Council of the International Reading Association. LEADERSHIP ROLES - Editorial Boards of The Reading Teacher and Reading Horizons - Former Chair of IRA's Teacher Educator Award Committee - Numerous committees in CCIRA PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT Michael Opitz provides on- and off-site professional development through Heinemann Professional Development.Michael Ford is a professor of reading in the College of Education and Human Services at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. He has been involved with literacy education for more than 30 years as a first-grade and Title I teacher as well as a researcher and teacher-educator. His work with the international school associations has taken him to Africa, Europe, Central America, South America, and the Middle East. Teacher Professional Books with Heinemann - Classroom Catalysts: 15 Efficient Practices That Accelerate Readers' Learning (2014) - Do-able Differentiation: Varying Texts, Supports and Groups to Reach Readers (2008) - Books and Beyond: New Ways to Reach Readers (2006) - Where Have All the Bluebirds Gone? How to Soar with Flexible Grouping (2002) - Reaching Readers: Flexible and Innovative Strategies for Guided Reading (2001) Core, Supplemental, and RTI Programs - LEAD 21 (McGraw Hill-Wright Group, 2010, senior author) Articles Mike is the author of more than 40 articles in peer-reviewed journals such as: - The Reading Teacher - Childhood Education - Language Arts - Reading Research and Instruction Leadership Roles - Chair of the International Reading Association's Children's and Young Adult Book Awards Committee - Former President of the Wisconsin State Reading Association (WSRA) - Current WSRA Advocacy Chair - Current President of the Wisconsin Professors of Reading - Host of the series Behind the Lesson - a teacher PD companion to the award-winning Wisconsin Public Television children's series Into the Book Awards and Honors - The McGraw Hill Seeing the Learner in Every Child Award - WSRA's Celebrate Literacy Award - WSRA's Outstanding Service Award Professional Development Michael Ford provides on- and off-site professional development through Heinemann Professional Development Services. Visit Heinemann.com/PD for more information.