Collaborate, Communicate, and Differentiate!

Wendy W. Murawski, Ph.D., MBA, MEd, EdS, is the Executive Director and Eisner Endowed Chair for the Center for Teaching and Learning at California State University, Northridge (CSUN), where she is also a Full Professor in the Department of Special Education and the Director of SIMPACT Immersive Learning. Dr. Murawski is the national Past President of the Teacher Education Division (TED) of CEC and an internationally known speaker and author, presenting in Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America. Her research focuses on co-teaching and inclusive practices nationally and internationally. She has published extensively around inclusive education, co-teaching, collaboration, and Universal Design for Learning, to include 18 books and numerous chapters, blogs, and peer-reviewed articles. She is the CEO of 2TeachÒ Global (www.2TeachLLC.com), an educational consulting company dedicated to promoting inclusive education around the world. In her personal life, Wendy enjoys traveling with her husband, learning languages, reading, drinking merlot, seeing movies, going to Book Club, visiting her college-bound son Kiernan, and pretending she is going to work out. Sally Spencer, Ed.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Special Education at California State University, Northridge, where she teaches courses in assessment, special education teaching methods, reading instruction, and collaborative processes. Prior to that, she was a special education teacher for the Los Angeles Unified School District, where she experienced the joys and challenges of collaboration as a teacher of self-contained special education classes, as a resource specialist, and as a co-teacher in a fully-inclusive elementary school. In 2001 she was awarded Outstanding Special Educator of the year by the Southern California branch of the Council for Exceptional Children, and her heart is still in the classroom with the hundreds of students who touched her life and taught her everything she knows about special education. Sally is a presenter nationally on the subject of teaching reading to students with mild to moderate disabilities, and is published in the areas of reading instruction, collaboration and inclusion. She lives in Northridge, CA, with her husband, three dogs and six birds.

“Collaborate, Communicate, and Differentiate is an accessible and engaging resource that could serve equally well for teacher training programs as well as for use in professional learning communities. The authors conversationally address the most important skill sets required of educators in 21st century schools, providing compelling rationales and numerous examples from the field. Other beneficial features include essential questions and the In a Nutshell, In Practice, and Eye on the Research sections. The appendices are extensive and highly useful for practitioners. I predict the book will be dog-eared, flagged, highlighted, and often loaned.”

• AcknowledgmentsAbout the AuthorsIntroduction1. Understanding the Historical Context2. Unscrambling the Range of Settings and Services3. Improving Student Outcomes by Working in Teams4. Improving Collaboration Through Powerful Communication5. Proactively Planning and Differentiating Instruction6. Modifying and Accommodating to Reactively Address Student Needs7. Improving Student Learning Through Co-Teaching8. Collaboratively Planning and Assessing9. Addressing Conflict and Engaging in Problem Solving10. Creating a Collaborative School CultureReferencesIndexAppendices on the Internet (http://www.corwin.com/diverseschools)Appendix I. UDL Lesson PlansAppendix II. Instructional StrategiesAppendix III. Examples of Adapted WorkAppendix IV. Adaptive Products and ServicesAppendix V. Student Profile SheetAppendix VI. Co-Teaching Lesson PlansAppendix VII. What/How/Who Co-Planning Format