Total Participation Techniques: Making Every Student an Active Learner

Note: A newer edition of this title is available.

Here are 51 easy-to-use, classroom-tested alternatives to the “stand and deliver” teaching techniques that cause so many students to tune out or drop out. Teachers report that these techniques motivate students to participate in learning, as they build confidence and are supported by compelling and safe ways to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of lessons.

Refined through years of classroom experiences and supported by updated research, this 2nd edition delivers a dozen new techniques to engage K–12 students in active learning.

The authors provide detailed descriptions of the Total Participation Techniques (TPTs) with step-by-step instructions—plus reproducible blackline masters for student response cards as well as posters to remind you to use the techniques. They also suggest how you can adapt and personalize the techniques to fit your context and content.

Packed with examples from authentic classrooms, Total Participation Techniques is an essential toolkit for teachers who want to present lessons that are relevant, engaging, and cognitively challenging.

Pérsida Himmele and William Himmele are professors who regularly work with preservice teachers and consult with educators in U.S. and international schools. They are also the authors of Total Literacy Techniques.

Dr. Pérsida Himmele has asked me (Bill) to write her “About the Author” section. I’ve got lots to say. Sure, she has a PhD in intercultural education from Biola University, and an EdM in elementary and bilingual education from SUNY Buffalo. And sure, she’s an associate professor of language and literacy at Millersville University, where she shares her passion for growing academic language, literacy, and helping English language learners develop academic language in the classroom. But did you know she is also quite an adventurer? Her greatest adventure was reluctantly agreeing to go on a three-day family camping trip. According to her, “In my old neighborhoods, people slept outside. When people slept outside, it was not a good thing.” In addition to new adventures, Pérsida loves working with teachers and children in real classrooms. She has been an elementary and middle school bilingual and multilingual classroom teacher in New York and California, and a district administrator in Pennsylvania. She has been a consultant to various school districts, the Pennsylvania Department of Education, and educational entities in the United States, China, Nepal, Argentina, Venezuela, and Tonga. She loves gospel music and is a gifted singer, an active advocate for educational equity, and an amazing mother, wife, and friend.Dr. William Himmele has agreed to let me (Pérsida) write his “About the Author” section, which serves as evidence of his very trusting, though somewhat forgetful, nature. Bill has his PhD in intercultural education and an MA in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) from Biola University. He is an associate professor at Millersville University in southeastern Pennsylvania, where the students find him engaging and insightful and never, ever let their minds wander in his classes (he carries a megaphone, just in case). He is a die-hard Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres fan, which means he’s often suffering from acute bouts of weight gain and depression, for which he is highly medicated during the months of February (the Super Bowl) and June (the Stanley Cup). He is a former ESL teacher and speech pathologist in New York and California. He has been a presenter and an educational consultant for various school districts and educational projects in the United States, Puerto Rico, South Africa, The United Arab Emirates, Chile, Nepal, Thailand, Korea, China, Venezuela, Fiji, Trinidad, and Tobago (for these last three, he had to be dragged onto the plane, kicking and screaming “I don’t want to go home!”). Bill is belly-laugh funny. But his greatest accomplishment is being an amazing and attentive dad. His two children adore him, as does his delightfully charming Puerto Rican wife.