Breaking the Learning Barrier for At-Risk Students: Practical Strategies for Dramatic Results

This guide explains the special learning and discipline needs of dramatic or at-risk learners and outlines specific teaching strategies for helping dramatic learners succeed.

Make a breakthrough with underachieving and at-risk students!

Little compares to the thrill of seeing a young mind come alive with wonder. But despite the best efforts, there are always students who seem unreachable, unteachable. So what can educators do to make learning fun and rewarding for all students?

Breaking the Learning Barrier for Underachieving Students provides a strong theoretical understanding of learning styles, focusing on at-risk, or "dramatic" learners and why traditional teaching methods fail to meet their educational needs. Offering innovative yet practical teaching strategies, disciplinary policies, and lesson plans designed to engage even the most reluctant learners, Nelson demonstrates the importance of the principles that guide his groundbreaking work with at-risk students:

• Learning requires active involvement, participation, and effort from the learner
• Learners need dramatic elements to gain meaning and inspiration
• Teachers must consider the values and preferences of the learner
• Learning must be fun

Using Nelson's classroom-tested strategies to modify existing lessons and the learning environment so that these conditions are met, you will be amazed by the progress you can make with every student in your classroom!

George D. Nelson is a professor, writer, teacher, curriculum designer, director, and educational consultant. His work and influence has been felt in a wide range of institutions and educationally oriented organizations, colleges and universities, state departments of education, state departments of corrections, public schools, corporations, community outreach organizations, and foundations. Curriculum he has created has been used internationally to help teachers and trainers better reach their dramatic learners.

Professor Nelson travels extensively giving workshops, lectures, and inservice training for trainers, teachers, professors, and administrators. He is presently an associate professor at Brigham Young University with a dual appointment in the David O. McKay School of Education and the College of Fine Arts and Communications. He has received numerous teaching awards and has been recognized by the American Alliance for Theatre in Education with the Linn Wright Special Recognition Award for his work with incarcerated dramatic learners.