This book shows how you can rediscover the joy of teaching and help children fall in love with learning in the era of standards and accountability. Follow the journey of a teacher as she works through the challenges of formative assessment and responsive instruction to discover the practices that will help her students succeed, including how to: Set clear, attainable learning outcomes; Make teaching responsive to the whole child; Monitor student progress toward essential skills; Build a truly positive classroom and school culture.

Students at risk -- Responsive instruction versus curriculum-driven instruction: why public education's race to cover more material and test more students is failing America's children -- Finding focus -- Essential skills and the whole child -- The challenge of formative assessment and responsive instruction -- The importance of classroom and school culture -- Instructional support: responding to teacher requests for help -- The importance of quality preschool -- The importance of parent engagement -- When good people work within lousy systems -- Pathfinders -- Love of learning -- Critical thinking followed by action -- The lives of children in the balance.