Mission Possible -- Contents -- List of Video Clips -- Introduction -- Chapter 1 WHY? What's Wrong with American Schools? -- Throwing Money at the Problem -- Just How Low is the Bar? -- Changing Kids' Lives -- A Healthy Dose of Competition -- Highly Trained, Excellent Teachers Make the Difference -- Chapter 2 HOW? Making School a Magical Place -- Would They Come If They Didn't Have To? -- Going Beyond Z -- Rigor and Preparation -- Anatomy for First Graders -- Letting Children do the Thinking Work -- An English Literature Seminar for Five-Year-Olds -- Discovering Meaning -- Breakthroughs with the Adults -- Partnership with Parents -- Chapter 3 WHO? It's All About the Adults -- A Tale of Two Classrooms -- Scenario One: Fixing Kids -- Scenario Two: Investing in the Adults -- Cycle of Teacher Improvement -- Step One: Speed Observations (Round One) -- Step Two: Study Groups -- Step Three: Teachbacks -- Step Four: Labsites -- Step Five: Speed Observations (Round 2) -- Step Six: Individual Coaching -- Leader Study Groups -- T School -- Reactions to T School -- Getting the Main Idea at T School -- Sample Schedule: A Typical Day at T School for Principals -- Putting the Cycle of Teacher Improvement into Action Goals -- Chapter 4 FAST: Putting Adults and Children on the Fast Track -- How Long Should It Take? -- Exhibit A: Speed Observations -- Hustle in the Classroom -- Moving Teachers and Students Fast -- Shared Text on the Fast Track -- Day One: Understanding the Meaning of the Text -- Day Two: Focusing on How the Author Conveys Meaning -- Day Three: Demonstrating Comprehension ThroughWriting -- Fast Improvement for Humdrum Model Writing -- Thorough and Efficient -- Chapter 5 RIGOR: Raising the Bar for Everybody -- Schooled not to be Rigorous -- Choosing Rigorous Books -- Rigorous Block Play -- Leaders Raising the Bar.

Chapter 6 READING: The Starting Point for All Else -- Guided Reading: Getting First Graders to the Next Level -- Concentrating on Intellectual Spark, Not Strategies -- Posing Thought-Provoking Questions -- Turning Kindergartners into Readers -- Putting Oneself into Ruby Bridges's Shoes -- Stories That Hit Close to home -- Rising to the Reading Challenges -- Getting the Most Out of Magnus Maximus -- What Makes Magnus Maximus Happy? -- The Tiger Rising Engages Fourth Graders' Imagination -- Chapter 7 WRITING: Putting Ideas into the World with Elegance -- Eva and the Writing Center at Penn -- A Writing Lesson from the ICE Rink -- A Lesson on Swimming and on Writing -- Three Key Components of Writing Instruction -- Writing Across the Curriculum -- Jazzing up the Writing -- Practice Makes Perfect -- A Powerful Ending to a Personal Narrative -- Chapter 8 CALL TO ACTION: How to Make Every School a Success Academy -- Notes -- Acknowledgments -- About the Authors -- Index.