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Reaching and Teaching Middle School Learners

Asking Students to Show Us What Works

By: Penny A. Bishop, Susanna W. Pflaum

Enhance classroom practice by promoting an open and shared process with your students!

Middle school students have much to say about the quality of their schooling experiences and can provide rich insight into what works for them and what doesn't. Written for new and veteran teachers of grades 4-8, the unique framework of this book takes its cue from the students themselves by using their own words and drawings, combined with the authors' action research, insightful analysis, and shared experiences. Highlights of this powerful resource include:

Content area strategies
Classroom factors that promote or inhibit learning
Learner insights
Student drawings, conversations, and reflective questions for teachers

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Product Details

Grade Level: 5-8
ISBN: 9781412914796
Published By: Corwin
Year: 2005
Page Count: 168
Publication date: April 20, 2005

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Description

Enhance classroom practice by promoting an open and shared process with your students!

Middle school students have much to say about the quality of their schooling experiences and can provide rich insight into what works for them and what doesn't. Educators Penny A. Bishop and Susanna W. Pflaum demonstrate how to enhance classroom practice by inviting students to offer feedback on pedagogy, learning styles, and their individual preferences and needs. Written for new and veteran teachers of grades 4-8, the unique framework of this book takes its cue from the students themselves by using their own words and drawings, combined with the authors' action research, insightful analysis, and shared experiences.

Highlights of this powerful resource include:

Instructional strategies and content-area learning
Social interactions within the classroom that promote or inhibit learning
Learner insights into their own engagement and disengagement in the classroom
Student drawings, reflective questions for teachers, mini-lessons, and frequently asked questions about consulting students and honoring their insights

Reaching and Teaching Middle School Learners focuses on the learning needs of adolescents as identified by the students themselves. By promoting an open and shared process with your students, you can meet the unique challenges of working with middle school learners and create a positive schooling experience for all.

Key features

A unique focus on the learning needs of middle school students
Covers instructional strategies, content area teaching, authentic assessment, and classroom factors that promote or inhibit learning
Features student voices, student drawings, and student insights into what works best for classroom instruction
Offers reflective questions for teachers and frequently asked questions about consulting and honoring students for their knowledge about effective classroom teaching
Demonstrates action research at its best, using qualitative data to inform classroom practice

Author(s)

Penny A. Bishop

Penny A. Bishop is Assistant Professor and Director of Middle Level Teacher Education at the University of Vermont, Burlington. She earned a doctorate in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies from the University of Vermont, and her dissertation on middle grades partner teams received the 1998 Distinguished Dissertation Award from the National Association of Secondary School Principals. Before joining the field of teacher education, Penny was a middle school teacher and an assessment consultant for the Vermont Department of Education. She currently consults with teachers and administrators in the areas of school organization, interdisciplinary and partner teaming, and school change. She is the coauthor of The Power of Two: Partner Teams in Action and coeditor of Living and Learning in the Middle Grades: The Dance Continues. Her articles have appeared in Middle School Journal, Research in Middle Level Education Online, Current Issues in Middle Level Education, and Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy.

Susanna W. Pflaum

Susanna W. Pflaum began teaching in Newton, Massachusetts, in 1959 and has taught Grades 3, 4, and 6 as well as undergraduate- and graduate-level teacher education in various locations. She earned degrees at Radcliffe College (AB), the Harvard Graduate School of Education (MEd), and Florida State University (PhD). She was a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago; Professor and Dean of the School of Education at Queens College CUNY; Dean of the Graduate School, Bank Street School of Education; Fulbright Professor in Namibia, Africa; and full- and part-time faculty at Vermont College. She authored The Development of Language and Literacy in Young Children, edited Aspects of Reading Education, and coedited two Corwin books, Experiencing Diversity: Toward Educational Equity and Celebrating Diverse Voices: Progressive Education and Equity. She is the author and coauthor of thirty-five articles and chapters. She has led workshops and given many presentations over the past forty-five years. Recently, she cofounded a nonprofit organization that works to support African projects for vulnerable and AIDS-orphaned children, CHABHA: Children Affected by HIV/AIDS.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Chris Stevenson

Preface

Acknowledgments

About the Authors

1. The Case for Consulting Students

2. The Social Lives of Schools and Classrooms

3. Choice, Action, and Relevance in Curriculum

4. Math Is the Measure

5. Reading in School

6. Inquiring and Communicating in Science and Social Studies

7. Consulting Your Students

References

Index

Other Titles in: Student Engagement & Motivation | Administration & Leadership | Middle School Teaching Methods

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