Meeting Students Where They Live: Motivation in Urban Schools

by Richard L. Curwin

Overview

Motivation and hope are two items in short supply in many urban schools. But it doesn't have to be that way, according to Richard L. Curwin. Based on input from teachers across the United States and on his own personal experiences, Curwin offers suggestions that every school can use to keep students in the classroom and looking toward a brighter future.

In Meeting Students Where They Live, Curwin urges teachers and administrators in urban schools to move away from a focus on control, uniformity, lack of tolerance, and ironclad rules toward an approach based on compassion, understanding, tolerance, and safety for all. Each chapter examines problems common to urban schools and offers comprehensive, long-reaching remedies, plus concrete strategies for engaging troubled and hard-to-reach youth.

Meeting Students Where They Live explores ways to

* Welcome all students,

* Build lessons that involve and engage,

* Stay motivated and energized,

* Design assignments that students will actually do, and

* Use evaluation to encourage and build learning rather than defeat it.

Meeting Students Where They Live also includes classroom activity sheets submitted by teachers working in a variety of urban environments—from inner-city schools to a detention center.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781416609568
Publisher:	ASCD
Publication date:	04/19/2010
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	6.80(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

A Teacher's Parable 1

Introduction 3

1 The Difficulty of Motivating Urban Youth 7

2 Ten Quick Strategies to Increase Motivation 21

3 Twelve Killers of Motivation and Their Remedies 29

4 Punishments, Threats, and Rewards 50

5 Creating Hope in Students 61

6 Welcoming All Students to School and Class 70

7 Building Motivating Lessons 81

8 Energizing Ourselves 98

9 Effort-Based Evaluation 107

10 Improving Homework Completion 126

11 The Relationship Between Behavior and Motivation 137

12 For the Administrator 147

Conclusion: A Place Where Dreams Come True 155

Ten Books Worth Reading 158

Appendix A Phonics Challenge Worksheet 160

Appendix B Texture Drawing Worksheet 161

Appendix C Landscape Installation Challenge Worksheet 162

Appendix D Measurement Challenge Worksheet 164

Appendix E Pre-Algebra Equations Challenge Worksheet 166

Appendix F Math Challenge Worksheet 167

Appendix G Social Studies Challenge Worksheet 168

Bibliography 169

Index 175

About the Author 181