Teacher Clarity Playbook, Grades K-12

Unlock the secrets to student achievement with purposeful learning and clear expectations

On a clear day, you can learn forever— that’s the adapted lyric you’ll be happily humming once you’ve covered this playbook, because you will have mastered using learning intentions and success criteria, the twin engines of Teacher Clarity. This template-filled guide shows you how to own it, do it, and live it—and your students will be more successful as a result.

In this fully revised edition, this succinct, smart, and swift book’s nine learning modules take you systematically through a process that begins and ends with standards. With abundant and all new examples that span grade levels, planning templates for every step, key professional learning questions, new videos, revised success criteria and relevance sections, and the latest research, you have the most practical and up-to-date planner for designing and delivering highly effective instruction:

• Identifying Concepts and Skills
• Sequencing Learning Progressions
• Elaborating Learning Intentions
• Crafting Success Criteria
• Modifying Learning Intentions to Include Language Expectations
• Determining the Relevance of the Learning
• Designing Assessment Opportunities
• Creating Meaningful Learning Experiences
• Establishing Mastery of Standards

Designed for PLCs or independent teacher use, The Teacher Clarity Playbook helps practitioners align lessons, objectives, and outcomes of learning seamlessly, so that the classroom hours flow productively for everyone. For any teacher striving to be more organized and have stronger relationships with students, this is the book that shows you how.

Douglas Fisher is professor and chair of educational leadership at San Diego State University and a teacher leader at Health Sciences High and Middle College. Previously, Doug was an early intervention teacher and elementary school educator. He is a credentialed English teacher and administrator in California.  In 2022, he was inducted into the Reading Hall of Fame by the Literacy Research Association. He has published numerous articles on reading and literacy, differentiated instruction, and curriculum design, as well as books such as The Teacher Clarity Playbook 2/e, Your Introduction to PLC+, The Illustrated Guide to Teacher Credibility, The Teaching Reading Playbook, and Welcome to Teaching!. Nancy Frey is a Professor in Educational Leadership at San Diego State and a teacher leader at Health Sciences High and Middle College.  She is a credentialed special educator, reading specialist, and administrator in California.  She is a member of the International Literacy Association’s Literacy Research Panel. Her published titles include The Illustrated Guide to Visible Learning, Welcome to Teaching Multilingual Learners, Teaching Foundational Skills to Adolescent Readers, and RIGOR Unveiled: A Video-Enhanced Flipbook to Promote Teacher Expertise in Relationship Building, Instruction, Goals, Organization, and Relevance. Dr. John Almarode is a bestselling author and an Associate Professor of Education at James Madison University. He was awarded the inaugural Sarah Miller Luck Endowed Professorship in 2015 and received an Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council for Higher Education in Virginia in 2021. Before his academic career, John started as a mathematics and science teacher in Augusta County, Virginia. As an author, John has written multiple educational books focusing on science and mathematics, and he has co-created a new framework for developing, implementing, and sustaining professional learning communities called PLC+. Dr. Almarode′s work has been presented to the US Congress, the Virginia Senate, and the US Department of Education. John and his colleagues have also focused a lot of attention on the process of implementation – taking evidence-based practices and moving them from intention to implementation, potential to impact through a series of on-your-feet-guides around PLCs, Visible Learning, Visible Teaching, and the SOLO Taxonomy. Kierstan Barbee, EdD, is a full-time consultant with Corwin. She most recently served as a project manager of assessment for learning in Dallas Independent School District, which involved creating system-wide professional learning programming for central staff and campuses that promoted the spread of research-based practices. Through an emphasis on relationship-building and human-centered design principles, Kierstan has coached PreK-12 principals, teachers, and district leaders on pedagogical practices that promote equity and student agency. She also previously served as a secondary English Language Arts teacher, academic coach, and professional development supervisor. She holds teaching credentials in Texas and earned her master’s degree from Harvard University and her doctoral degree in educational leadership and literacy from University of Houston. Olivia Amador Valerio, EdD, was a bilingual teacher in an elementary school, as well as a principal, in San Diego. She holds teaching and administrative services credentials in California and earned her doctoral degree in educational leadership from San Diego State University. One of her most notable accomplishments while she served as a principal with the Chula Vista Elementary School District was receiving the National Center for Urban School Transformation (NCUST) Gold award for impact on student learning. Olivia focuses her efforts on improving teacher clarity and ensuring that all students have access to high-quality instructional experiences. Olivia is a co-author of The Teacher Clarity Playbook. She is currently a full-time professional learning consultant for Corwin. Joseph Michael Assof is a high school and community college mathematics teacher and the math department chair at Health Sciences High and Middle College in San Diego, CA. He is also an educational consultant and presents internationally on a wide array of topics including teacher clarity, mathematics teaching and learning, visible learning, and more. Joseph coauthored Teaching Mathematics in the Visible Learning Classroom, High School, Teaching Mathematics in the Visible Learning Classroom, Grades 6–8, and The Teacher Clarity Playbook, and his classroom is featured in a number of Visible Learning for Mathematics, Grades K–12 videos. Joseph holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mathematics and a doctorate in Educational Leadership with an emphasis in Mathematics Teacher Leadership. Mathematics and mathematics education are Joseph’s second passion—his first being his two beautiful boys, Joseph Fred and Jamie Beau.