Understanding and Engaging Adolescents
"This book should be on every middle and high school educator's desk and be required reading each summer. The authors discuss challenges that face our students and give teachers, counselors, administrators, and parents real tools and knowledge that should be implemented in every classroom."
—Reginald Sirls, Director of Secondary Education
Inglewood Unified School District, CA
"This book is funny, entertaining, well written and well documented, and informative."
—Jolene Dockstader, Seventh-Grade Language Arts Teacher
Jerome Middle School, ID
A proven-to-work tool kit for motivating adolescent learners!
Motivating adolescents can be challenging task for any middle and high school teacher. With artful humor, this engaging and reader-friendly guidebook provides educators with an in-depth look at the ways that adolescents learn and offers activities that educators can use to inspire greater student interest and participation.
Drawing on their backgrounds in social and behavioral psychology, the authors encourage you to create a vision statement for what you want to accomplish and provide the right tools to help you succeed. The book shows how to modify your instructional program by using:
- Three components of motivation
- Specific classroom management strategies
- Proven, brain-compatible activities for individuals and groups that boost students' academic, research, metacognitive, and social skills
- Steps to bolster learners' study skills
- Technology to effectively bridge the gap between how students learn and how instructors present information
Insightful and appealing, this practical resource is the key to effectively meeting the learning needs of your students and helping ensure that every learner experiences success.
“The book is engaging, appealing, humorous, and relevant to my situation. Nice job!”
“This book addresses key issues and presents ideas on how to solve those issues.”
“This book is funny, entertaining, well written and well documented, and informative.”
“This book should be on every middle and high school educators desk and be required reading each summer. Miller and Desberg clearly discuss many of the challenges that face our students and give teachers, counselors, administrators, and parents real tools and knowledge that should be implemented in every classroom.”
“As a president of a nonprofit organization that stresses financial literacy, I was impressed with the information in this book. I read it as a service and knowledge provider to secondary students, but found multiple applications to motivating and understanding my own employees.”
“As a principal, I am always concerned that my teachers are looking at and discussing the central issues of learning and motivation. Not only does this book give them what they need, it gives them several practical exercises to engage our learners. Good work.”
"Miller and Desberg have produced a resource that educators will turn to again and again as they encounter the day-to-day challenges of motivating and teaching adolescent learners. It is one of those rare books that effectively integrates theory, research, and practice. Utilizing these methods will go a long way in helping educators gain or regain the skills they need to make teaching the gratifying experience it should be.”