In There with the Kids : Crafting Lessons That Connect with Students

The best teachers, says David Kobrin, think about who their students are and how they learn. In this age of standardized tests and "teacher-proof" lesson plans, they recognize that teaching is a rich and complex activity that demands professional skill, sound judgment, and quick thinking.

This second edition of In There with the Kids presents the parallel working lives of two teachers, elementary teacher Mel Stainko and high school teacher Hilary Coles. We see these teachers (composites drawn from the author's experience and observations in schools) as they plan lessons, interact with students, reflect on what happens in the classroom, and try always to do better. Through them we are prompted to think carefully about why some lessons work and others don't.

Kobrin brings us into the classroom, where we hear the voices of individual students and see how their concerns influence what happens each day. He provides detailed reconstructions of student debates and includes the handouts, exams, and assessment instructions used for selected lessons. At the close of each chapter, he analyzes the characters' actions, the motives behind them, and their effects on events in the classroom.

Both practical and inspiring, In There with the Kids demonstrates that by tailoring lessons to students' life experiences, teachers can help students reach new levels of achievement.

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David Kobrin has been a clinical professor of education at Brown University since 1986. He has also taught history and social studies to secondary students for eight years and to undergraduate and graduate students for six years while on the faculty at SUNY-Albany. He is the author of In There with the Kids: Teaching in Today's Classrooms, as well as several articles that describe classroom teaching using documents and primary sources.