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InspireActiveLearn Cvr 6/30/06 9:32 AM Page 1

Education

INSPIRING ACTIVE LEARNING

How can we structure class time efficiently? How can we explain
and lecture effectively? How can we help students master content?
How can we make learning more real and lasting?

In this revised and greatly expanded 2nd edition of Inspiring

•
Active Learning, educators Merrill Harmin and Melanie Toth
provide answers to our fundamental teaching questions and show

EXPANDED 2ND EDITION

us how to transform our classrooms into communities of active,
responsible learners. The authors present an array of research-
based, teacher-tested strategies for managing our everyday
responsibilities—from beginning a class to grading homework,
from instructing large groups to promoting diligent seatwork,
from motivating slackers to handling disrupters. These strategies
focus on mutual respect, not bossiness; collaboration, not
isolation; commitment to learning, not fear of failure; and the
dignity of all, not praise or rewards for a few.

Regardless of our level of experience or the grade or subject BROWSE EXCERPTS

we teach, the active-learning approach helps us
FROM ASCD BOOKS:
• Perform routine teaching tasks more easily. http://www.ascd.org/books
• Discover a higher level of teaching success and personal

•
satisfaction.
• Establish a class climate of full participation and Association for Supervision

HARMIN
cooperation. and Curriculum Development
• Prepare engaging lessons that keep students productively Alexandria, Virginia USA
involved.
• Encourage students to work energetically, willingly, $34.95 U.S.
and intelligently each day.
• Inspire all students, even the most challenging, to strive
for excellence.

With its detailed classroom examples and more than 250 practical
strategies, Inspiring Active Learning is a comprehensive reference
for solving almost any teaching problem.
InspireActiveLearn TP 6/30/06 9:34 AM Page i

Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development

Alexandria, Virginia USA
frontmatter 7/1/06 9:41 PM Page ii

Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development

1703 N. Beauregard St. • Alexandria, VA 22311-1714 USA
Phone: 800-933-2723 or 703-578-9600 • Fax: 703-575-5400
Web site: www.ascd.org • E-mail: [email protected]
Author guidelines: www.ascd.org/write

Gene R. Carter, Executive Director; Nancy Modrak, Director of Publishing; Julie Houtz, Director of Book Editing & Production;
Genny Ostertag, Project Manager; Georgia Park, Senior Graphic Designer; Cynthia Stock, Typesetter; Dina Murray Seamon,
Production Specialist/Team Lead

Copyright © 2006 by Merrill Harmin. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and
retrieval system, without permission from ASCD. Readers who wish to duplicate material copyrighted by ASCD may do so
for a small fee by contacting the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC), 222 Rosewood Dr., Danvers, MA 01923, USA (phone:
978-750-8400; fax: 978-646-8600; Web: www.copyright.com). For requests to reprint rather than photocopy, contact ASCD’s
permissions office: 703-578-9600 or [email protected].

Printed in the United States of America. Cover art copyright © 2006 by ASCD.

ASCD publications present a variety of viewpoints. The views expressed or implied in this book should not be interpreted
as official positions of the Association.

PAPERBACK ISBN-13: 978-1-4166-0155-5 ASCD product #103113 s7/06

PAPERBACK ISBN-10: 1-4166-0155-4
Also available as an e-book through ebrary, netLibrary, and many online booksellers (see Books in Print for the ISBNs).

Quantity discounts for the paperback edition only: 10–49 copies, 10%; 50+ copies, 15%; for 1,000 or more copies, call 800-
933-2723, ext. 5634, or 703-575-5634. For desk copies, e-mail [email protected].

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Harmin, Merrill.
Inspiring active learning : a complete handbook for today’s teachers /
Merrill Harmin with Melanie Toth. — Expanded 2nd ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-4166-0155-5 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 1-4166-0155-4 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Teaching—Handbooks,
manuals, etc. 2. Motivation in education—Handbooks, manuals, etc. 3.
Active learning—Handbooks, manuals, etc. I. Toth, Melanie. II. Title.

LB1025.3.H37 2006
371.102—dc22
2006009539

________________________________________________________________
15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
frontmatter 7/1/06 9:41 PM Page iii

EXPANDED 2ND EDITION

Inspiring Active Learning

A C O M P L E T E H A N D B O O K F O R T O D AY ’ S T E A C H E R S

List of Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iv 17. Helping Students Master Content in Individual

and Small-Group Formats. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
A Personal Note on Using This Book. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii
18. Using Projects to Help Students Master Content . . . 249
Part I: Two Keys for Running an Inspiring Classroom 19. Stimulating Higher-Level Thinking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
1. Clarity About What Makes a Classroom Inspiring 20. Responding to Student Comments
to Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 and Using Praise Appropriately . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
2. A Four-Step Process to Make a Classroom Part VI: Strategies for Ending Classes Efficiently
More Inspiring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 21. Helping Students Review and Summarize a Class . . 283
Part II: Strategies for Handling Six Fundamental 22. Providing Effective Homework Assignments . . . . . . . 292
Teaching Tasks Part VII: Strategies for Further Advancing
3. Creating Lessons That Inspire Active Learning . . . . . . 29 Teacher Effectiveness
4. Establishing a Climate That Inspires 23. Advancing Students’ Learning Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
Full Participation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 24. Making Learning More Real
5. Establishing a Climate That Inspires and Lasting for Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
High Cooperation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 25. Inspiring Students to Strive for Excellence . . . . . . . . 318
6. Structuring Class Time Efficiently . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 26. Advancing Students’ Self-Responsibility . . . . . . . . . . 332
7. Using Small Groups Efficiently. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 27. Advancing Students’ Self-Confidence . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
8. Preventing Discipline Problems 28. Advancing Students’ Maturity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
from Arising . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 29. Advancing Our Own Personal Balance. . . . . . . . . . . . 359
Part III: Strategies for Starting Classes Efficiently Part VIII: Strategies for Evaluating Student Learning
9. Gathering the Attention of Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 30. Handling Students’ Written Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
10. Handling Completed Homework. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 31. Handling Testing and Grading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374
11. Providing for a Quick Review 32. Reporting Students’ Progress. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389
of Completed Content. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Part IX: Strategies for Maintaining Discipline
Part IV: Strategies for Presenting New Content
33. Handling Routine Misbehavior. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397
12. Motivating Interest in New Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 34. Handling Serious and Chronic Misbehavior. . . . . . . . 418
13. Explaining and Lecturing Effectively. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
14. Providing Discovery-Type Experiences . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
15. Using Written Material to Present Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439
New Content. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450
Part V: Strategies for Helping Students Master Content
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467
16. Helping Students Master Content
in a Whole-Class Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 About the Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475
frontmatter 7/1/06 9:41 PM Page iv

iv

List of Strategies

Strategies recommended for first attention are indicated by . 6-4 Independent Learning Assignments . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
6-5 Task Workshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
6-6 Background Music. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
3-1 Action Flow Lessons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3-2 Teaching in Layers, Not Lumps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 7-1 Sharing Pairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
3-3 Quick Pace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 7-2 Learning Pairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
3-4 Efficient Classroom Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 7-3 Rotating Pairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
3-5 Personal Inspiring Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 7-4 Practice Pairs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
7-5 Selecting Group Size. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
4-1 Truth Signs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 7-6 Selecting Members for Groups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
4-2 Cushioning Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 7-7 Grouping Students for Instruction . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
4-3 Risk Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 7-8 Support Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
4-4 Intelligence Call-up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 7-9 Group Challenge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
4-5 Check-Yourself Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 7-10 Group Role Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
4-6 Confidence Builders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
4-7 Encouragement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 8-1 Setting Procedures and Expectations. . . . . . . . . . . 107
4-8 Learning Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 8-2 Communicating Confident Authority . . . . . . . . . . . 109
4-9 Let Them Be . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 8-3 Authority Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
4-10 Ability Salute. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 8-4 Procedures That Energize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
8-5 Clock Focus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
5-1 Student Procedure Mastery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 8-6 Special Energizing Activities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
5-2 Class Agreement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 8-7 Think Time Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
5-3 Ask a Friend. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 8-8 Self-Discipline Lesson. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
5-4 Once Principle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 8-9 Whole-Class Problem Solving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
5-5 Class Meeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 8-10 Parent Aides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
5-6 Class Leaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 8-11 Discipline Plan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
5-7 Getting-to-Know-You Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
5-8 Community Living Lessons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 9-1 Hand-Raising Signal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
5-9 Dignifying Acts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 9-2 One-Minute Warning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
5-10 Family Introductory Letter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 9-3 Voting Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
9-4 New or Goods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
6-1 Do Now . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 9-5 Lesson Agreement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
6-2 Learning Centers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 9-6 Relaxation Exercise. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
6-3 Study Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 9-7 Brain Drain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
frontmatter 7/1/06 9:41 PM Page v

L i s t o f S t r a t e g i e s v

10-1 Homework Sharing Pairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 16-1 Clarifying Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

10-2 Homework Self-Correcting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 16-2 Productive Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
10-3 Homework Hearing Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 16-3 Question, All Write . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
10-4 Credit for Completing Homework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 16-4 Whip Around, Pass Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
16-5 Set of Speakers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
11-1 Review Test. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 16-6 Voting Questions to Assess Understanding . . . . . . 211
11-2 Choral Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 16-7 Nod of Recognition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
11-3 I Say Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 16-8 Brainstorm/Sort. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
11-4 One Say, All Say . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 16-9 Mastery Learning Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
11-5 Sketching to Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 16-10 Face-off Game. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
11-6 Pass the Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 16-11 Avoiding Re-explanation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
11-7 Reteach Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 16-12 Think Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
16-13 Models and Manipulatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
12-1 Motivational Question . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 16-14 Parking Lot. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
12-2 Know and Want to Know . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 16-15 Physical Movement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
12-3 Make a Prediction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
12-4 Challenge Opener . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 17-1 Clear-to-Muddy Groups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
12-5 Experience Before Concept. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 17-2 Mini-task . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
12-6 Clear Learning Target . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 17-3 Learning Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
12-7 Specific Levels of Excellence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 17-4 Paper Exchange. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
17-5 Question Exchange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
13-1 Attentive Lecture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166 17-6 Student Question Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
13-2 Presentation for Task . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 17-7 Teacher Role-Play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
13-3 Explanation Back-off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 17-8 Boss/Secretary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
13-4 Visual Aids and Graphic Organizers . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 17-9 Consult Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
13-5 Lingering Board Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 17-10 Plan, Do, Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
13-6 Concept Charts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 17-11 Student Self-Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
13-7 Note-Taking Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 17-12 Class Tutors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
13-8 Signal for the Big Picture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 17-13 Tutor Training. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
13-9 Finger Feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 17-14 Best Choice Debate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
13-10 Partner Restatement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178 17-15 Task Group with Communication Practice . . . . . . . 242
13-11 Checklist for Effective Lectures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178 17-16 Computers and the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
17-17 Task Group, Share Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
14-1 Discovery Lesson. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 17-18 Option Display. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
14-2 Underexplain and Learning Pairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
14-3 Think Aloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184 18-1 Project Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
14-4 Guided Discovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 18-2 Application Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
14-5 VAK Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 18-3 Service Projects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

15-1 Paired Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 19-1 What’s the Difference? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

15-2 Reading for Task . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190 19-2 What’s the Same?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
15-3 Reciprocal Teaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191 19-3 Comparing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
15-4 Cooperative Reading Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 19-4 Sorting the Items. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
15-5 I Start, You Finish . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 19-5 What Might Explain? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
15-6 Directed Reading. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 19-6 Summarizing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
15-7 Timed Reading. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 19-7 Creating Groupings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
15-8 Learning Sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 19-8 Solving a Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
15-9 Dramatic Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 19-9 Brainstorming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
15-10 Jigsaw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 19-10 Assessing the Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
19-11 Language to Advance Thinking. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
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vi I n s p i r i n g A c t i v e L e a r n i n g 2 n d E d i t i o n

20-1 Plain Corrects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265 25-9 Inspiring Stories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327

20-2 Plain Incorrects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266 25-10 DESCA Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
20-3 Incorrects with Appreciation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267 25-11 DESCA Proclamation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
20-4 Praise and Rewards for All . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
20-5 Silent Response to Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269 26-1 Common Sense Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
20-6 Can-You Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270 26-2 Shared Responsibilities,
20-7 Honest I Appreciates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271 Personal Responsibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
20-8 I’m with You’s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272 26-3 Self-Management Goals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
20-9 DESCA Inspirations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273 26-4 Rights, Responsibilities, Rewards . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
20-10 Spontaneous Delights. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
20-11 Caring Attention Without Praise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277 27-1 Validations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
20-12 Saying No Slowly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279 27-2 Recognition for Everyone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
27-3 Promoting Kindness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
21-1 Outcome Sentences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284 27-4 Distress-Easing Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
21-2 Like/Might Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285 27-5 What-I-Like-About-You Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
21-3 Learning Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286 27-6 Sensible Risk Taking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
21-4 Concluding Whip Around . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287 27-7 Prize Sprinkle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
21-5 Mental Pictures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287 27-8 Star of the Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
21-6 Learning Log Exchange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288 27-9 Positive Parent Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
21-7 Thought/Feel Cards. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
21-8 Mini-celebration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290 28-1 Strength-Building Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
21-9 Progress Proclamation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291 28-2 Personalized Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
28-3 Gratitude Journal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
22-1 Assignments with Choice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292 28-4 Whole-Self Lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
22-2 Homework Unlike Class Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293 28-5 Choose, Be, Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355
22-3 Homework in Layers, Not Lumps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294 28-6 Goodness Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357
22-4 Responsible Homework Discussions . . . . . . . . . . . 295
22-5 Homework Games. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297 29-1 Self-Acceptance Monologue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
22-6 Managing Long-Term Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297 29-2 Reality-Acceptance Monologue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
22-7 Avoiding Homework Overload . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298 29-3 Healthy Response to Misbehavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
29-4 Asserting Our Priorities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
23-1 How-Read Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303 29-5 Respecting Our Own Stage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
23-2 Note-Taking Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
23-3 Detailed Oral Learning Statements . . . . . . . . . . . . 306 30-1 Response to Undone Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
23-4 Charts of Learning Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307 30-2 Next-Time Feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371
23-5 Teaching Specific Learning Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308 30-3 Avoiding Paperwork Overload. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372
30-4 Positive Feedback Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373
24-1 Concept-Generalization Focus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
24-2 Using Subject Matter to Learn About Life . . . . . . . 312 31-1 Dignifying Grading Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374
24-3 Application Brainstorm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317 31-2 Tests with Choice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
24-4 Personalizing Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317 31-3 Portfolios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378
31-4 Focus-on-Learning Statement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380
25-1 High Expectations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318 31-5 Retest Offer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383
25-2 Active Learning Thermometer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319 31-6 Pre-final Exam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384
25-3 Clarifying Excellence Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322 31-7 Rubrics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384
25-4 Best-Work Lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323 31-8 Failure Insulators. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385
25-5 Inspiring Statements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324 31-9 High-Achievement Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386
25-6 Going for the Gold. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324 31-10 Self-Selected Learning Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386
25-7 E-for-Effort Certificates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325 31-11 Quick Feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387
25-8 Personal Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
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L i s t o f S t r a t e g i e s vii

32-1 Report Card Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389 33-12 Silent Response to Misbehavior. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411
32-2 Dual Grades. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390 33-13 Apologizing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
32-3 Supportive Report Card Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . 391 33-14 Mindset Switch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414
32-4 Surprise Personal Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392 33-15 Ask for Help. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416
32-5 Reverse Report Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392
34-1 Person-to-Person Dialogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418
33-1 Broken Record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397 34-2 Self-Management Contract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421
33-2 Calm Reminder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398 34-3 Parent Notification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425
33-3 Next-Time Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400 34-4 Cool-Quick-Certain Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427
33-4 Honest I Statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400 34-5 Dramatic Distraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428
33-5 Conciliation Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403 34-6 Calamity Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429
33-6 Conflict-Resolution Lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403 34-7 Bully Lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431
33-7 Behavior Checklist. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405 34-8 Temporary Removal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433
33-8 Peer Mediators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407 34-9 Discipline Squad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434
33-9 Visitor’s Chair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408 34-10 Safety Drill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435
33-10 Waiting Place . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409 34-11 Diagnosing Student Motivations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437
33-11 Redirecting Student Energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410
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viii

A Personal Note
on Using This Book

This book brings good news to teachers. No longer need teaching be so stressful.
No longer need we struggle with our unmotivated students and passive learners.
No longer must we abandon so many of our ideals. We now know how we can
run our classrooms so students will want to cooperate, will want to do good work,
will in fact want to do the very best they can for us.
Some background: I started off as a math teacher and, I thought, I was a
pretty good one. No one complained too much and my students produced good
test scores. But then I visited my colleague Peter’s classroom. At the time, Peter
was teaching a group of students I had taught the year before, a group I was par-
ticularly fond of. And as I watched those students in Peter’s classroom, I noticed
they were much more actively involved in learning than they ever were in my
class. Many more hands waved to answer teacher questions. Eyes were brighter
with attention. No one was fussing in his or her seat or looking aimlessly out the
window. How come Peter got more from those students than I ever did?
I took that question with me when I became a teacher educator, wondering
especially how some teachers motivated even the most reluctant and resistant of
students to do good work. The answer to the question seemed to involve more
than the methods those teachers used; other teachers could use the same meth-
ods without producing nearly the same results. And it seemed to involve more
than the personalities of the teachers; teachers with many different personalities,
from warm to cool, organized to disorganized, demonstrated that gift to motivate
learning. And it was clearly more than a matter of educational knowledge; some
of the brightest teachers lacked the gift and some of the most poorly prepared
had it. What was it?
Being in the business of training teachers, my interest soon shifted from seek-
ing an abstract answer to that question to seeking ways all teachers could
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A Personal Note on Using This Book ix

develop more of that inspirational ability. Since it was obviously possible to run
classrooms that motivated even the most unmotivated of our students—some
teachers clearly had the knack—what could the rest of us do to move more
closely to that outcome?
For many years, my colleagues and I played with various ideas, finally craft-
ing an approach that led to the first edition of this book. A decade later, now with
much more experience available to us, we offer this revised and expanded edi-
tion—and offer it with more assurance than ever. Yes, almost any teacher, K–12,
can run a highly inspiring classroom. The profession now knows in practical
detail how we can conduct a classroom that naturally, steadily draws even the
most unmotivated of today’s students toward active, cooperative, self-responsible
learning.
But this is not to be taken on faith. You can easily test the idea for yourself.
This book will show you how to do just that. More specifically, the book offers The best preparation
for being a happy or
• Clarity about what makes a classroom inspiring to students. What is at the useful man or woman
heart of an inspiring classroom? If it’s not our personality or teaching methods, is to live fully as a
child.
what is it? That is the first question to address, and it’s the focus of Chapter 1.
• A simple,four-step process for making your classroom more inspiring.That is —Plowden Report

the focus of Chapter 2. It presents a straightforward process for you to give this
material a brief test for yourself. Then if you like what’s showing up, you can use
that process to gradually move ahead and create your own style of a highly inspir-
ing classroom.
• Practical strategies for running an inspiring classroom. All the chapters after
the first two contain examples of teacher-tested strategies that have been shown
to be effective in the running of an inspiring classroom. They illustrate how we
can handle almost all our daily tasks in a way that keeps eliciting the most posi-
tive response from students. Scan the Table of Contents and you’ll see the com-
plete list of teacher tasks for which strategies are provided.

Note that six of the most far-reaching of our teaching tasks are grouped in Part
II, Strategies for Handling Six Fundamental Teaching Tasks. Because teaching is
so much easier when those fundamental tasks are well handled, it’s valuable to
consider those chapters before the others. After that, you can jump around
among the other strategy chapters according to your personal interests.
However, you need not look at every strategy in every chapter. The introduc-
tory paragraphs in each chapter specify a few strategies to look at first. Each of
those is marked with an arrow like this:
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x Inspiring Active Learning 2nd Edition

You can then dip into the other strategies if you need more examples. You
may discover that once you become familiar with the inspiring approach to run-
ning a classroom, it will be easy to invent your own strategies.
As you will see, many of the strategies in the book will be familiar to you.
That’s because the intent here was not to present new strategies but effective
strategies, and many standard and familiar practices can be used to run a highly
inspiring classroom or can be tweaked to do so. In general, my intent was to take
the best wisdom from research and theory and the best practices from experi-
enced teachers and craft these ideas into a handbook that shows us how we
might handle all our teaching tasks in a way that keeps eliciting the best students
have in them.
Some of our teaching tasks can be handled with one-step strategies. Such
tasks include motivating a class to start thinking and getting a student to stop dis-
rupting. Other tasks are more complex and require multistep strategies. Exam-
ples: Conducting whole-class lessons, preparing students for a high-stakes test.
You will note that several of the one-step strategies are also included in multipart
strategies, so don’t be surprised when you run into some strategies more than
once in these pages. Indeed, you can safely assume that strategies used more
than once were found by our field teachers to be especially flexible and valuable.
You can quickly find a definition of all the strategies in the book by looking
into the glossary that begins on p. 439.
My good friend Melanie Toth gets most of the credit for the book’s organiza-
tion and for preparing much of what went into this expanded second edition. It
was a task well beyond my ability. I hope you appreciate the job she did as much
as I do. Yet when it comes to credit, most of it goes to the many teachers who
shared their best ideas with us and tested our field editions. The book would cer-
tainly not exist without all of them.
They have given us an encyclopedic array of strategies for handling our many
teaching tasks. It’s an array that I think you will find particularly useful whenever
you need something extra or face an unusually challenging group.

Like the first edition, this second edition is dedicated to a most remarkable
educational innovator, Grace H. Pilon, the creator of Workshop Way. She was the
first person who demonstrated to me that almost any teacher could teach a large
classroom of unwilling students in a way that never discouraged anyone and,
instead, inspired everyone, including those of us who do the teaching. We bless
you, Grace.
—Merrill Harmin, White Plains, New York
chapter1 7/1/06 10:02 PM Page 1

PART I

Two Keys for

Running an Inspiring
Classroom
chapter1 7/1/06 10:02 PM Page 2

This part of the book provides an overview of an approach that increases active
learning. It also offers you an efficient way to test the approach yourself.
The language we use as we handle our teaching tasks makes a difference.
What wording will inspire students to be most actively, constructively engaged?
Consider the impact these three messages have on students:

Least inspiring: “The rules and consequences in this class are as follows. If you
cannot obey these rules, you will be punished accordingly.”

In between: “I want you all to respect one another here, and I know you can do
that. What are some guidelines that can help us?”

Most inspiring: “I expect us to respect one another in this classroom, and I’m
going to begin by pledging to respect each of you. If you ever feel I’ve slipped,
please speak to me confidentially so I can learn to do better.”
chapter1 7/1/06 10:02 PM Page 3

1
Clarity About What
Makes a Classroom
Inspiring to Students

In a fantasy world, all students would march in on the first day of school, quietly
seat themselves, and promptly look up, bright eyed, ready and willing to get to
work. But this is the real world. In this world, students show up with a variety of
motivations, such as

1. The fully active learners. Some students will be ready and willing to dive
into schoolwork. When we assign four problems for homework, such students
will not only do all four but do them with style. They might even recopy their
work before handing it in, so it’s very neat, or attach a cover sheet to make it look
professional. Students in this category may not be the brightest in the classroom,
and they may not get the highest exam scores. But they are our go-getters, self-
motivated, ready to do the best work they possibly can. These students are a joy
to teach.
2. The responsible students. Other students will enter the classroom ready to
do whatever we ask, but not much more than that. When we assign these students
four problems for homework, they will do all four carefully, but rarely will we get
the sense they did their very best. These are dutiful, respectful students, more
motivated to please us than to put themselves fully into their work. These students
are easy enough to teach.
3. The halfhearted workers. Our class is also likely to contain students who
are, at best, halfhearted workers. Give them four problems and they complete
only two. Or, if they do all four, their work will be sloppy, full of careless errors.
These students are often slow to start work and quick to give up, and they can be
quite frustrating to teach.
4. The work avoiders. Finally, we might have students who will do little or no
work. Indeed, some will do their best to avoid work altogether. Give these students
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4 P a r t I : Tw o K e y s f o r R u n n i n g a n I n s p i r i n g C l a s s r o o m

four problems for homework and they are likely to groan and then lose the assign-
ment. They are the students most likely to become discipline problems, the ones
most likely to drive us batty.

This is the array of motivations that we are likely to find when our students
first arrive. Unfortunately, it is also the array of motivations we are likely to see in
the last days of the school year. Despite all the books that have been written
about motivation and all the teacher meetings devoted to the issue, most of us
still have a hard time turning work avoiders and halfhearted workers into respon-
sible students and fully active learners.
But this is not so for all teachers.

Learning from Great Teachers

Some teachers, those we might call our great teachers, have a knack for moving
students up those motivation levels. If we visited their classrooms, we would see,
week by week, fewer and fewer students working at levels three and four, more
and more at levels one and two. Somehow these teachers are able to inspire stu-
dents to work harder than they were initially inclined to work. As a result, the stu-
dents tend to climb what we call the Active Learning Ladder (Figure 1).

F i g u r e 1
Active Learning Ladder
chapter1 7/1/06 10:02 PM Page 5

Chapter 1: Clarity About What Makes a Classroom Inspiring 5

You probably remember having such teachers yourself. Most schools have at
least a few. They are the ones who elicit such comments from students as

• I liked coming to class. I hated being absent.

• She turned us on to history and made it come alive.
• I never worked so hard in my life.
• I didn’t expect to like that class, but I really did.

We might reasonably conclude, therefore, that it is possible to inspire stu-

dents to become more fully active learners. Clearly, some teachers manage to do
it. Might we do it, too? If so, how?
Interestingly, those great teachers don’t achieve their results in any standard
way. Look at a group of great teachers and you will notice that some do a lot of The most powerful
lecturing, others very little. Some are strict and demanding, others lenient and factors in the world
accepting. Some appear to be warm, others to be distant. Apparently, there is no are clear ideas in the
one way to motivate students to do the best work they are capable of doing. This minds of energetic
is good news for those who would like to inspire active learning. It suggests that men of good will.
we need not change our teaching personality or follow any standard model. —J. Arthur Thomson
Rather, we can create our own brand of great teaching, motivating higher levels
of active learning in our own way. That is assuming, of course, we have a clear,
realistic sense of how to go about doing so.
One of the unrealistic suggestions bantered about would have us start with stu-
dents’ interests and base all instruction on topics students are already motivated to
learn more about: space travel, baseball, popular music. Another suggestion would
have us build units around real-life issues that naturally motivate students: making
friends, staying healthy, encouraging world peace, or the like. A third suggestion
recommends that we convince students of the importance of grammar, history, or
whatever else we want to teach them, so that the students will want to learn it.
These suggestions can help some of the time with some topics and some stu-
dents, but rarely are they sufficient to move a classroom of students steadily up
the Active Learning Ladder. Students need to be touched more deeply if they are
to be inspired to do the best work they are capable of doing.

An Inspiring Approach
After years of experimentation, we have crafted a practical approach that does
stir the deep positive abilities of students. Our approach resembles those that rec-
ommend a focus on the natural needs of students (deCharms, 1976; Havighurst,
1952; Maslow, 1999; Raths, 1972; Thelen, 1960; White, 1959).
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6 P a r t I : Tw o K e y s f o r R u n n i n g a n I n s p i r i n g C l a s s r o o m

Yet our approach is distinct in several ways. First, our focus is squarely on the
highest needs of students, such as the need for students to become fully function-
ing or to be the best persons they can be. It does not ignore other needs, includ-
ing what Maslow (1999) calls students’ deficiency needs, such as the need for food
and safety. But we place those needs in the background. We want to concentrate
on the heart of the matter, on bringing out the very best students have in them,
which often includes positive qualities the students themselves do not yet know
they possess. In this regard, we agree with Erich Fromm when he says that the
heart of education is “helping the child realize his potentialities.” By aiming high
we also take advantage of Goethe’s wisdom: “Treat people as if they were what
they ought to be, and you help them to become what they are capable of being.”
A second key difference in our approach is that our target is not to bring out
Habit is habit, and students’ best potentials in a general way. We are teachers. We have jobs to do.
not to be flung out of Our approach is grounded in classroom realities. Our target, then, is very practi-
the window by any
cal: to see students apply their best potentials to daily schoolwork.
man, but coaxed
A final difference is that our target is made more concrete and manageable
downstairs a
step at a time. by focusing on five student potentials that teachers have the power to influence
and that directly contribute to school success. These five student abilities are dig-
—Mark Twain
nity, energy, self-management, community, and awareness. We refer to them col-
lectively as DESCA.

Five Key Student Abilities

All students have an inherent ability to live with dignity, to engage tasks with
energy, to be appropriately self-managing, to work in community with at least
some others, and to be aware of what is going on around them. Collectively, these
DESCA abilities point to the heart of students’ best, most productive selves.

D Is for Dignity
Students have an innate ability to live and work with dignity, as do we all.
Moreover, deep down, students want to live and work with dignity. They do not
want to feel belittled, demeaned, diminished, unimportant, unworthy. Yet tradi-
tional school practices can fail to take advantage of this ability to work with dig-
nity. Some practices, in fact, frustrate students’ impulses to do so. Our task, if we
want to inspire students to be fully active learners, is to run our classrooms in a
way that is comfortable to us, nourishing, never depressing, students’ ability to
work with dignity. We might, for example, take care to
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Chapter 1: Clarity About What Makes a Classroom Inspiring 7

• Avoid embarrassing students, as by temporarily backing off when some

feel blocked or are otherwise unable to learn what we are asking them to learn.
• Use only those discipline procedures that communicate care and high
respect for students.
• Find practical ways to give students credit whenever they do the best they
can, even when that falls far short of mastery.
• Announce high expectations without raising unproductive anxieties in
low-ability students.

Practically speaking, can we do those things? Is it, for instance, realistic to

expect us to avoid embarrassments and to discipline in ways that always commu-
nicate care? Yes, it is, as the strategies presented later in this book should make
abundantly clear.

E Is for Energy
Students also have a natural ability to engage life energetically. They, in fact,
want to engage life energetically. They suffer when they must sit still or stand
around for too long with nothing much to do. We do well to nurture that ability to
live energetically. It’s after all what we, too, want. We certainly do not want stu-
dents handling schoolwork apathetically or slumping in class listlessly. Nor do we
want them running wildly out of control. Rather, we want students to engage
schoolwork with a comfortable, steady flow of energy. To build on and draw out
students’ ability to do that, we might, for example

• Use very small groups, preferably pairs, to reduce chances that some stu-
dents will be left uninvolved in group work.
• Adopt instructional procedures that allow students to occasionally move
about so they can vent any built-up restlessness.
• Use whole-class choral work for information we want students to
memorize.

S Is for Self-Management
All humans also have the ability to self-manage, and we would do well to
develop this in our students. We do not want students asking us every little ques-
tion that comes to mind. Rather, we want them to think for themselves, managing
themselves as intelligently as they can. This is what they, too, want. They do not
want to be bossed. Nor do they want to fly about out of control. To nurture stu-
dents’ self-managing ability, we might
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8 P a r t I : Tw o K e y s f o r R u n n i n g a n I n s p i r i n g C l a s s r o o m

• Include choices in each homework assignment; for example, give options

on how many questions to answer or on how to handle a topic.
• Allow students to select their own work partners, chairs in the room, or
focus for a small-group discussion.
• Ask each student to make a personal plan to tutor a younger student.

C Is for Community
Students, as do we all, have an ability to get along and relate comfortably with
at least some others. And they want to do so. They do not want to be rejected or
isolated. Rather, they want to be in community with at least some others. If, then,
we want to elicit students’ more cooperative and generous abilities, we might
• Structure lessons so students can often help one another.
• Encourage talkative students to create enough space for all students to be
able to speak out.
• Set up support groups in which students learn to support one another over
an extended time period.

A Is for Awareness
Finally, all students are aware beings. They have the ability to be alert, wake-
ful, observant, attentive. And they have an innate longing to be aware. They are
not meant to be bored. Indeed, it is their very nature to avoid boredom. And we,
of course, want students to stay alert and aware. That recommends we do not
repress but rather develop this awareness ability. To do so, we might
• Find a way to help slower learners without boring faster learners.
• Change whatever we are doing whenever we notice student attention slid-
ing, as by changing topics or procedures.
• Avoid having quick thinkers answering all our questions, as by having all
students jot an answer on scrap paper or share answers in pairs before we discuss
correct answers.
• Include activities students are highly interested in completing, as by asking
students to construct a toothpick model of an idea, teach a concept to a younger
student, or solve a real problem showing up in school.

Measuring Active Learning

Teachers have a great deal of control over the degree to which students will
express those DESCA potentials and apply them to daily schoolwork. And we can
measure how successfully we do that.
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Chapter 1: Clarity About What Makes a Classroom Inspiring 9

Several instruments can provide such measurements. One, the DESCA Scale
for Rating a Class (Figure 2 on p. 10), is useful when we want to assess our own
classes. We might also give the scale to observers so they can rate our students’
current ability to engage in active and constructive learning.
Teachers who want to know the perceptions of their students often prefer to use
something closer to the second form, the DESCA Questionnaire (Figure 3 on p. 11).
Also useful is a simple Active Learning Scale (Figure 4 on p. 12). Some
options for using this scale:

• Each student completes the form every day, anonymously. Slips are put in
an envelope. The teacher (or a mature student, volunteer parent, or office staff
member) sorts slips and makes a chart to show progress over time. The teacher
aims to gradually eliminate 1’s and 2’s and increase 3’s and 4’s. A teacher affects
• The above procedure is done on three random days each month. The eternity; he can never
three-day scores are averaged to give one monthly score. Scores are then charted tell where his
for September, October, and so on, with the aim, as before, to show progress influence stops.
toward eliminating 1’s and 2’s and increasing 3’s and 4’s. —Henry Adams
• To simplify scoring, ratings 1 and 2 could be collapsed and charted as “low
involvement.” Similarly, ratings 3 and 4 could be collapsed and charted as “high
involvement.” The aim, then, is to eliminate low-involvement scores.

Moving Education Forward

The strategies you will find in this book illustrate practical ways we can increase
the scores on such measures. They show in some detail how each one of us, in
our own ways, can run a classroom that keeps eliciting those DESCA abilities. Our
field tests, by now involving hundreds of teachers in all kinds of schools and at
all grade levels, show that when we do that, good things tend to happen. Students
tend to climb up that Active Learning Ladder, so we see fewer and fewer working
halfheartedly or not at all. As a result, students’ time on task increases. Test scores
rise. Discipline problems fade. Attendance improves. And, not insignificantly, we
enjoy teaching far more.
Indeed, the benefits seem to stretch far beyond current classrooms. Consider
the life-changing influence of a former 1st grade teacher, identified in the
research only as “Miss A” (Pedersen, Faucher, & Eaton, 1978). The school in which
Miss A taught was in the middle of a run-down neighborhood near the bus station
in downtown Montreal. It was a neighborhood dotted with many taverns, few gro-
cery stores. Some years ago researchers wondered if that school made much of a
difference in the lives of its students, almost all of whom were living in poverty.
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