Removing Labels, Grades K-12
40 Techniques to Disrupt Negative Expectations About Students and Schools
- Dominique Smith - Health Sciences High & Middle College (HSHMC)
- Douglas Fisher - San Diego State University, USA
- Nancy Frey - San Diego State University, USA
Foreword by Marcia Tate
Corwin Literacy
Disrupting the cycle starts with you.
No matter how conscientious we are, we carry implicit bias… which quickly turns into assumptions and then labels. Labels define our interactions with and expectations of students. Labels contribute to student identity and agency. And labels can have a negative effect beyond the classroom.
It’s crucial, then, that teachers remove labels and focus on students’ strengths—but this takes real work at an individual, classroom, and schoolwide scale.
Removing Labels urges you to take an active approach toward disrupting the negative effects of labels and assumptions that interfere with student learning. This book offers:
- 40 practical, replicable teaching techniques—all based in research and best practice—that focus on building relationships, restructuring classroom engagement and management, and understanding the power of social and emotional learning
- Suggestions for actions on an individual, classroom, and schoolwide level
- Ready-to-go tools and student-facing printables to use in planning and instruction
Removing Labels is more than a collection of teaching strategies—it’s a commitment to providing truly responsive education that serves all children. When you and your colleagues take action to prevent negative labels from taking hold, the whole community benefits.
Free resources
Technique 32: Student Empowerment
Technique 32 from Removing Labels lays out the what, why, and how of student empowerment--giving students the opportunities to influence decisions that will shape their academic lives at school and in the community.
3 Proven Strategies for Removing Labels From Students
Co-authors of Removing Labels Dominique Smith, Douglas Fisher, and Nancy Frey share three strategies educators can take to reduce negative labeling of students.
Removing Labels: Disrupting the Negative Effects of Labels and Assumptions
Authors of Removing Labels Dominique Smith, Douglas Fisher, and Nancy Frey explore the ways that labels can be removed so that expectations for success become reality.
'Labels' Poem
This poem, titled 'Labels', was written by Jiovanni Gutierrez Montano, a student at Health Sciences High & Middle College. It is found in the introduction of Removing Labels.
Introduction: Removing Labels
This introduction of Removing Labels explains that interrupting the cycle of labeling starts with you.
Technique 5: Affective Statements
This excerpt explains the what, why, and how of using affective statements.
Technique 6: Impromptu Conferences
This excerpt explains the what, why, and how of using impromptu conferences to address conflicts.
Technique 13: Classroom Sociograms
This excerpt explains the what, why, and how of using sociograms in the classroom.
Technique 15: Asset Mapping
This excerpt explains the what, why, and how of using asset mapping.
Techniques 26 & 27
These techniques cover how to address when younger and older students start using labels.