Best Education Curriculum & Instruction Books of 2025

This second edition of Understanding by Design by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe offers a comprehensive guide for educators on how to create a curriculum that emphasizes understanding and leads to better student performance. The authors delve into the meaning of essential questions, transfer tasks, and the six facets of understanding to show how they can be incorporated into curriculum design. The book also provides practical strategies, tools, and examples from various subjects to apply the principles of Understanding by Design. Overall, this book offers a clear and thought-provoking path for teacher-designers to create curriculum that ensures better learning for students.

The Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs Serving Children from Birth Through Age 8, Fourth Edition is a must-read for early childhood educators. This updated edition provides clear and evidence-based guidance on the importance of social, cultural, and historical contexts of development, as well as effective approaches for teaching children across the early childhood spectrum. The book also includes new resources for higher education faculty, K-3 leaders, and early childhood educators to extend their knowledge and application of developmentally appropriate practice. Overall, this book is a valuable resource for anyone who is committed to ensuring all young children have access to high-quality early learning.

The Translanguaging Classroom: Leveraging Student Bilingualism for Learning is a valuable resource for educators, administrators, and researchers looking to support bilingual students in English-medium and bilingual classrooms. The book presents translanguaging as both a sociolinguistic and pedagogical framework, offering practical strategies for leveraging students' bilingualism to enhance their academic and socioemotional development. The authors provide examples from diverse classroom contexts and offer tools for planning, implementation, and evaluation. Overall, this book is a must-read for anyone seeking to create more equitable and inclusive educational environments for bilingual learners.

Patterns of Power: Inviting Young Writers into the Conventions of Language, Grades 1-5 is a must-have for teachers seeking to improve their students' writing skills. Jeff Anderson and Whitney La Rocca present a creative and interactive approach to teaching grammar, where students learn to recognize the conventions of the English language and build upon them. With over 70 practical lesson plans, teachers can incorporate this resource into their curriculum in just 10 minutes a day. What sets this book apart is its inquiry-based approach, which encourages students to engage in rich conversations and explore the purpose and meaning of what they read.

Writing Rhetorically: Fostering Responsive Thinkers and Communicators by Jennifer Fletcher is a valuable resource for teachers who want to cultivate independent learners through rhetorical thinking. The author provides strategies and frameworks for writing instruction that can be applied across multiple subjects and lesson plans. The book emphasizes the importance of rhetorical decision making and helps students develop the skills, knowledge, and mindsets needed for transfer of learning. Overall, this book is a must-read for writing teachers seeking to support students as they become informed, engaged, and critical thinkers.

Patterns of Power, Grades 6-8: Inviting Adolescent Writers into the Conventions of Language is a must-have for any Language Arts teacher. The authors take a refreshing and engaging approach to teaching grammar. The book's inquiry-based approach encourages young writers to notice the conventions of the English language and build off them. The book is filled with ready-to-use lesson plans, real-life classroom examples, and tips that can be applied to any level of writer. The practice helps students build cognitive recognition and provides a formative assessment for teachers on student progress. This book is a valuable resource for teachers looking to make grammar lessons more interactive, engaging, and effective.

The "Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves, Second Edition" by The National Association for the Education of Young Children is a comprehensive guide for educators to identify, confront, and eliminate prejudice, misinformation, and bias. The book focuses on four core goals, including identity, diversity, justice, and activism, and covers various aspects of personal and social identity. The new edition integrates current research and knowledge, creating a theoretical and practical guide for anyone interested in exploring anti-bias education. The book is an excellent resource that will help the next generation of teachers create enriching learning environments that reflect, support, and respect the diverse backgrounds of young children.

What Great Principals Do Differently: Twenty Things That Matter Most by Todd Whitaker is a renowned bestseller that reveals the 20 key attitudes and actions that make great school principals stand out. The third edition of this book features new strategies for recruiting and retaining talent, along with a section on consistent leadership to shape the culture of your school. This practical book is perfect for new and experienced principals, and it will leave you feeling inspired and ready to make a difference for the students. Overall, this book is an excellent resource for anyone interested in effective school leadership.

Mathematical Mindsets: Unleashing Students' Potential through Creative Mathematics, Inspiring Messages and Innovative Teaching by Jo Boaler is a groundbreaking book that provides a blueprint for anyone who wants to overcome math anxiety and achieve success in mathematics. Based on extensive research, the book offers a mindset framework that helps students turn self-doubt into self-confidence. In addition to the latest research, this new edition includes ideas for equitable grouping in classrooms and initiatives to bring 21st-century mathematics to K-12 classrooms. Highly recommended for K-12 math educators, parents, and school administrators.

Patterns of Power: Teaching Grammar Through Reading and Writing, Grades 9–12 is a game-changer for language arts teachers. Jeff Anderson, Travis Leech, and Holly Durham offer a new perspective on grammar instruction that celebrates author's purpose and craft. The book provides 35 standards-aligned lesson sets that take a deeper dive into grammar and craft than any worksheet, quiz, or editing exercise ever could. The authors use a brain-based Patterns of Power invitational process to create an environment where writers thrive and appreciate the beauty, effects, and meaning of grammar. With hundreds of resources and implementation supports, including templates, printables, visuals, and real-life classroom examples, this book provides everything teachers need to inspire high school writers to reach their full potential.