Activators: Classroom Strategies for Engaging Middle and High School Students
This book (Activators) is a keeper because it commends instructional strategies that engage the minds of adolescent learners as it attends to their need for interaction with and appreciation of peers. Further, the book reminds us at every turn that what we re teaching (curriculum) has to be a match for how we teach (instruction). In addition, it reflects an understanding of the persistent classroom reality that there is no strategy that can free teachers from the need to plan thoughtfully for implementation of that strategy. The book reminds us that the classroom is a system with interdependent parts and that we succeed in our mission as teachers only when we take care with each of the parts. It instructs readers with rigorous attention to the interconnectedness of quality curriculum, thoughtful instruction, detailed attention to classroom management, and student success. I would have been a grateful student of the book during the two decades that I taught in middle school and high school. I look forward to introducing it to my university students. --Carol Ann Tomlinson William Clay Parrish, Jr. Professor Curry School of Education, University of Virginia --Foreword in Activators