Book Reviews / Social & Emotional Learning
by MiddleWeb · Published 08/17/2017 · Last modified 11/19/2019
In Teaching Kids to Thrive, says special education teacher-coach Laura Von Staden, Debbie Silver and Dedra Stafford provide a great book, full of research and resources, that craftily ties together the theories and research on vital, overlapping SEL skills.
Winston Churchill once said, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.” Education author and consultant Barbara Blackburn looks at ways teachers can help young adolescents follow Churchill’s advice and become resilient.
Barbara Blackburn provides easily executable concrete examples, stories and strategies for teachers to help students become more motivated, connected and successful in school. Special education teacher Laura Von Staden’s favorite story: the Blue Ribbon Ceremony.
New school leaders will find 15 keys to growing into their positions in Brad Johnson and Julie Sessions’ new book from Routledge/Eye on Education. With tips from current leaders, the book covers leadership style, strengths, wisdom, communication, resilience, responses in crisis, and more.
Call it grit or resilience, it’s a behavior that can serve students well. We’ve gathered advocates’ views, pushback from critics and ideas to build it.
Students with learning disabilities can meet high expectations and thrive in Common Core classrooms with the right teacher supports, say “rigor” experts Barbara Blackburn and Bradley Witzel. They recommend several proven scaffolding strategies.
Moving beyond the five myths of rigor to incorporate true instructional rigor in the classroom is critical in light of the Common Core, says expert Barbara Blackburn, who advocates scaffolding and differentiation to help all students achieve more.
Thomas Hoerr’s brief book offers enough resources to start a conversation about student “grit” but not to add a focus on resilience into daily teaching, says reviewer Katie Gordon.
Middle school is full of real-life challenges. Fortunately,, says school leader Charlie Gramatges, young adolescents “have resilience built into their programming.”
