Teaching Smarter: An Unconventional Guide to Boosting Student Success

by Patrick Kelley M.A

This refreshingly frank handbook shows teachers how to close the achievement gap in their classrooms by teaching students innovative paths to academic success. Drawing on over 20 years’ experience, Kelley presents straightforward strategies for helping learners improve their grades and test scores and experience greater school engagement—all while streamlining the teacher’s work to yield maximum efficiency. Strategies include team-grading essays, using Socratic seminars and sworn statements, allowing for re-dos, and ruthlessly pruning assignments, among others. Often humorous and irreverent in tone, this guide will be the talk of the break room. Includes online digital content.

Genres: Education

224 pages, Paperback

First published March 15, 2015

Reviews

[James (JD) Dittes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kelly has a well-organized, readable book, with good ideas in every chapter.

He doesn't go into depth in this book, but I don't think that's the purpose. I especially liked his ideas about making time-consuming tasks (like grading essays) easier and more manageable. I'm an experienced teacher (20 years), and I still picked up enough new ideas to make the reading worthwhile.

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good ideas here for middle and high school teachers, though there isn't much in the way of alternatives if these techniques don't work for your class. Chapter on classroom management was particularly weak.