Methods that Matter

by Harvey Daniels, Marilyn Bizar

Today's teachers are inundated with advice. Caught between the congenial but abstract ideals of progressive education and the thousands of micro-recommendations pouring out of school reform groups, how are we to teach our classes tomorrow? Cutting through this overload, Harvey Daniels and Marilyn Bizar identify six basic teaching structures that make classrooms more active, experiential, collaborative, democratic, and cognitive, while simultaneously meeting the emerging standards of "Best Practice" across subject areas and through the grades.Methods that Matter offers concrete descriptions of practical and proven ways of organizing time, space, materials, students, and activities that embody new standards while creating genuinely student-centered classrooms. Illustrated by stories from two dozen teachers at a wide variety of grade levels, the book clearly describes six fundamental, recurrentIntegrative units - extending thematic, interdisciplinary inquiries co-planned with students, drawing on knowledge and skills from across the curriculum.Small group activities - structuring collaborative pairs, groups, and teams that decentralize the classroom and individualize the curriculum.Representing-to-learn - engaging ideas through writing and art; exploring genres and media of expression as ways of investigating, remembering, and applying information.Classroom workshop - applying the studio-apprenticeship method with teacher modeling and coaching, student choice, responsibility, and exhibition.Authentic experiences - curriculum-centered ways of bringing life into school and students into the community for research and service.Reflective assessment - nurturing student reflection, goal-setting, and self-assessment; widening the evaluative roles and repertoires of teachers and parents.Methods that Matter will help you organize and manage your classroom so learning and teaching can truly achieve Best Practice levels.

Genres: Teaching

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[jacky]

Harvey Daniels is a name I know and I read his book Subjects Matter and liked it. Behavior management is a weakness for me as well as having repeated activities that become boring. I hope that this book will give some insight which will then target those areas.