Full Description

What exactly does "meeting the challenges" mean in the context of today's classroom? Are the challenges teachers face today significantly different from those when we were in school? Maureen Barbieri and Carol Tateishi think so. The teacher accounts that they have collected here represent the hard, sometimes frustrating, always inspiring work going on across the country, where, for a variety of reasons, students are less than enthusiastic about learning.

Not all of the accounts are success stories, but every one is candid, thought provoking, and moving. These teachers know their students well; they strive to develop classroom cultures that nurture self-worth, engagement, and passionate curiosity. While the contexts vary widely, the teachers have several common values: high expectations, a belief in the necessity of a classroom community, and a willingness to adapt their personal styles to meet the needs of their particular students. These teachers eschew orthodoxies, choosing instead to work from personal philosophies that rely on both traditional and progressive techniques.

Teachers of all ages, from kindergarten through high school, will identify with the authors' frustration, determination, and vision. They will also discover new approaches to enticing resistant learners into literacy and new reasons to continue in the profession. More important than any particular teaching behavior is the sense of collegiality readers will experience here. Truly Meeting the Challenges is reassurance that no one is alone after all.

Additional Resource Information

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Contents

Contents:
1. Can I Speak Gussak: Using Literature with a Special Education Class, M. Ackerman
2. Es mí amiga: Full Inclusion is a Classroom, J. Heyboer
3. Lee's Story: Living with Loss, J. Carr
4. Akinamiotak or What Goes on the Wall, D. Banks
5. Moving Marshall, A. Landis
6. Reciting "Miss Rosie," P. Gulitti
7. Getting My Bearings—Well, Maybe Ball Bearings!, M. Krogness
8. All I Ever Wanted to Be Was a Poet, M. Kupperman-Guiñals
9. Things That Don't Have to Do with English: The Hidden Agenda, N. D'Alessandro
10. The Boy in the Bull's Basketball Shirt, M. McCormick
11. Rocking Their Way to Literacy: ESL Adolescents Strengthen Their Love of Reading, G. Cannon
12. Time to Heal: One Student, One Paper, One Story, J. Kearns
13. Mariano, R. Roth
14. Step by Step: Learning in Many Voices, J. Allen & K. Gonzalez
15. The Voices That Journals Reveal, J. Gosbee
16. Kien: Learning to Write in a Second Language, J. Bebelaar
17. Anonymous Team Journals: New Identity, New Voice, B. Greene
18. Lunchroom Conversation, M. McCormick
19. A Community of Learners, F. Wong