Kelsey Muellner’s Books
The Instructional Compass
Finally — a way to make the standards actually work in your classroom!
Written by a teacher, for teachers, The Instructional Compass: Progressions for Differentiating the Writing, Language, and Speaking & Listening Standards K–12 is a reference tool that breaks down the Writing, Language, and Speaking & Listening standards into clear, easy-to-follow progressions organized by standard and grade-level band. Kelsey Muellner designed this book to help you differentiate instruction for the full range of learners in your classroom — whether you’re scaffolding for developing learners or stretching your most advanced thinkers.
Use it to design scaffolds, build rubrics, or plan your next unit. Whether you're meeting in a PLC, preparing lessons, or conferring with students, this resource will quickly become your go-to guide for teaching the standards with clarity, flexibility, and precision.
This isn’t just about meeting benchmarks. It’s about seeing your students more clearly, teaching with greater intentionality, and making learning more meaningful for everyone in the room.
Shift your words. Change their world.
Every classroom runs on language—and for gifted and highly sensitive learners, the words we choose shape how they see themselves, their abilities, and their place in the world. The Reframing Teacher Language series helps educators turn everyday talk into a powerful tool for connection, confidence, and calm.
Grounded in research and rich with practical examples, each book in the series explores a key area of classroom communication—praise, mistakes, motivation, help-seeking, feedback, and rigor—through the lens of social-emotional development and gifted education. You’ll find real teacher phrases, trust-building alternatives, and simple micro-practices you can try tomorrow.
Whether you’re a classroom teacher, gifted specialist, or instructional coach, these short, compassionate guides will help you:
Use language that builds resilience, not perfectionism
Reframe mistakes as growth moments
Encourage authentic motivation and safe risk-taking
Offer feedback that empowers, not pressures
Create an emotionally safe space where gifted learners thrive
Each book is practical, heart-forward, and written with the realities of teaching in mind. You don’t need more on your plate—just new words in your toolkit.