Casas - Enhancing Student Learning in Middle School

Enhancing Student Learning in Middle School

A comprehensive introduction to middle school teaching, this textbook focuses explicitly on instructional strategies that encourage adolescents to become active participants in their own learning within a world of accountability and standardized testing. The author, an experienced middle school teacher and teacher educator, takes a constructivist approach to teaching that considers the whole child, including the emotional, psychological, social, and cultural variables uniquely associated with adolescence. The text examines the full range of middle school topics, from the development and diversity of middle school learners, to the structures, curriculum, and management of the classroom itself.

Special features include:

Empowering Middle School Students to Take Ownership of their Learning, Teaching Scenario, Key Points, and Creating an Anti-Oppressive Atmosphere in Your Classroom, textboxes help teachers gain a clearer understanding of content presented and encourage them to become reflective practitioners.

Callouts throughout explicitly link chapter content to NMSA standards.

Discussion of the unique challenges of actively engaging bilingual students, special needs students, and students exhibiting antisocial behavior.

Accounts about middle school students illustrate the ways that adolescents think about school and learning.

A chapter that focuses on ways that teachers can apply the general teaching strategies to specific subject areas.

Sample Lesson Plans, Focus Questions, Chapter Summaries, Journal Entries, and Student Activities/Assignments are included throughout to encourage readers to actively participate with the text.

Martha Casas is an Associate Professor of Teacher Education at the University of Texas at El Paso.

Enhancing Student Learning in Middle School

Martha Casas

NEW YORK AND LONDON

First published 2011
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016

Simultaneously published in the UK
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2010.

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2011 Taylor & Francis

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Casas, Martha.
Enhancing student learning in middle school / by Martha Casas.
p. cm.
1. Middle school teaching. 2. Middle school education. I. Title.
LB1623.C37 2010
373.1102dc22
2010013879

ISBN 0-203-84710-5 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 13: (hbk) 978-0-415-80176-8

ISBN 13: (pbk) 978-0-415-80177-5

ISBN 13: (ebk) 978-0-203-84710-7

I dedicate this textbook to my parents Roberto and Enriqueta Casas whose love and support gave me the strength to be the person that I am.