Phenomenal Teaching: A Guide for Reflection and Growth

"Teaching for agency and understanding works for everyone. So, start where you are, use what you have, teach whoever comes through your door." - Wendy Ward Hoffer

Phenomenal Teaching is a professional development workshop in a book. The text charts a pathway for teachers to cultivate agency and foster understanding for every learner. It provides research, classroom examples, planning tools, and opportunities to use your background knowledge and talk back to the text. This book is interactive and intentionally designed with lots of open space to be your personal thought playground as you navigate this journey. Graphic organizers invite you to think and plan, and each chapter closes with an invitation for reflection.

Chapter one explores the critical foundation for effective teaching - our purpose and beliefs as teachers. Chapters two through seven offer six instructional approaches that, when used together, can make all the difference for student learning: planning, community, workshop, thinking strategies, discourse, and assessment.

Wendy asks questions and expects a response. "Write in this book." She says, "I truly invite you to write all over it - annotate, underline, ask, respond. You will learn more, have a record of your thinking, and it will be more fun."

Wendy Ward Hoffer is the author of the new Phenomenal Teaching, as well as Cultivating STEM Identities, Minds on Mathematics and Science as Thinking, all published by Heinemann. She is also the author of Developing Literate Mathematicians. Wendy serves as Senior Director of Content Development and Publications for the Denver-based Public Education and Business Coalition (PEBC) and travels nationally to provide professional learning to teachers at all levels. Wendy is passionate about promoting rich thinking in all content areas, especially math and science. Wendy received an MA in Science Education from Stanford University and earned National Board Certification while teaching middle school math and science.