Visible Learning for Literacy, Grades K-12: Implementing the Practices That Work Best to Accelerate Student Learning

"Every student deserves a great teacher, not by chance, but by design" - Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, & John Hattie

What if someone slipped you a piece of paper listing the literacy practices that ensure students demonstrate more than a year's worth of learning for a year spent in school? Would you keep the paper or throw it away?

We think you'd keep it. And that's precisely why acclaimed educators Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, and John Hattie wrote Visible Learning for Literacy. They know teachers will want to apply Hattie's head-turning synthesis of more than 15 years of research involving millions of students, which he used to identify the instructional routines that have the biggest impact on student learning.

These practices are "visible" for teachers and students to see, because their purpose has been made clear, they are implemented at the right moment in a student's learning, and their effect is tangible. Yes, the "aha" moments made visible by design.

With their trademark clarity and command of the research, and dozens of classroom scenarios to make it all replicable, these authors apply Hattie's research, and show you:

How to use the right approach at the right time, so that you can more intentionally design classroom experiences that hit the surface, deep, and transfer phases of learning, and more expertly see when a student is ready to dive from surface to deep. Which routines are most effective at specific phases of learning, including word sorts, concept mapping, close reading, annotating, discussion, formative assessment, feedback, collaborative learning, reciprocal teaching, and many more. Why the 8 mind frames for teachers apply so well to curriculum planning and can inspire you to be a change agent in students' lives-and part of a faculty that embraces the idea that visible teaching is a continual evaluation of one's impact on student's learning.

Douglas Fisher, Ph.D., is Professor of Educational Leadership at San Diego State University and a leader at Health Sciences High & Middle College. He has served as a teacher, language development specialist, and administrator in public schools and non-profit organizations, including 8 years as the Director of Professional Development for the City Heights Collaborative, a time of increased student achievement in some of San Diego's urban schools. Doug has engaged in Professional Learning Communities for several decades, building teams that design and implement systems to impact teaching and learning. He has published numerous books on teaching and learning, such as Assessment-capable Visible Learners and Engagement by Design.

Nancy Frey, Ph.D., is a Professor in Educational Leadership at San Diego State University and a leader at Health Sciences High and Middle College. She has been a special education teacher, reading specialist, and administrator in public schools. Nancy has engaged in Professional Learning Communities as a member and in designing schoolwide systems to improve teaching and learning for all students. She has published numerous books, including The Teacher Clarity Playbook and Rigorous Reading. Professor John Hattie is an award-winning education researcher and best-selling author with nearly 30 years of experience examining what works best in student learning and achievement. His research, better known as Visible Learning, is a culmination of nearly 30 years synthesizing more than 1,500 meta-analyses comprising more than 90,000 studies involving over 300 million students around the world. He has presented and keynoted in over 350 international conferences and has received numerous recognitions for his contributions to education. His notable publications include Visible Learning, Visible Learning for Teachers, Visible Learning and the Science of How We Learn, Visible Learning for Mathematics, Grades K-12, and, most recently, 10 Mindframes for Visible Learning. Learn more about his research at

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