Product Review

If students are not engaged, there is little, if any, chance that they will learn what is being addressed in class. A basic premise of The Highly Engaged Classroom is that student engagement happens as a result of a teacher s careful planning and execution of specific strategies. In other words, student engagement is not serendipitous.

This book was designed as a self-study text that provides an in-depth understanding of how to generate high levels of attention and engagement. Engagement is obviously a central aspect of effective teaching. Using the suggestions presented in this book, every teacher can create a classroom environment in which engagement is the norm instead of the exception.

Part of the Classroom Strategies That Work library, this clear, highly practical guide follows the series format, first summarizing key research and then translating it into recommendations for classroom practice. In addition to the explanations and examples of engagement strategies, each chapter includes helpful exercises to reinforce the reader's understanding of the content.

Because research and theory can provide only a general direction for classroom practice, The Highly Engaged Classroom (and each book in the series) goes one step further to translate that research into applications for the classroom. Specifically, it addresses four emblematic questions students ask themselves, the answers to which determine how involved students are in classroom activities: How do I feel?, Am I interested?, Is this important?, and Can I do this? For each of these four emblematic questions, specific classroom strategies are provided in chapters 2 through 5.