Classroom Planning, Effective Teaching, Students & Student Life

Collaborating with Students in Instruction and Decision Making: The Untapped Resource

Name: Collaborating with Students in Instruction and Decision Making: The Untapped Resource
Author: Jacqueline S. Thousand
ISBN: 9781412972178

by Jacqueline S. Thousand, Richard A. Villa, Ann I. Nevin

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Overview

Take advantage of a resource that’s right in your classroom—your students! This book offers practical strategies for empowering students as co-teachers, decision makers, and advocates.

Synopsis

Take advantage of a resource that’s right in your classroom-your students!

This book offers practical strategies for empowering students as co-teachers, decision makers, and advocates in the classroom. Ideal for K–12 general and special education teachers, this guide describes how to:

Involve students in instruction through collaborative learning groups, co-teaching, and peer tutoring that foster self-discipline and responsible behavior
Make students a part of decision making by utilizing personal learning plans, peer mediation, and more
Use assessment tools, lesson plans, case studies, and checklists to put collaboration with students into practice

About the Author, Jacqueline S. Thousand

Jacqueline S. Thousand is a professor in the College of Education at California State University, San Marcos, and coordinates the special education professional preparation and master's programs. She previously taught at the University of Vermont, where she directed Inclusion Facilitator and Early Childhood/Special Education graduate and postgraduate professional preparation programs and coordinated federal grants concerned with inclusion of students with disabilities in local schools. Thousand is a nationally known teacher, author, systems change consultant, and disability rights and inclusive education advocate. She has authored numerous books, research articles, and chapters on issues related to inclusive schooling, organizational change strategies, differentiated instruction and universal design, cooperative group learning, collaborative teaming and teaching, creative problem solving, and positive behavioral supports. Thousand is actively involved in international teacher education and inclusive education endeavors and serves on the editorial boards of several national and international journals.

Richard A. Villa is president of Bayridge Consortium, Inc. His primary field of expertise is the development of administrative and instructional support systems for educating all students within general education settings. Villa is recognized as an educational leader who inspires and works collaboratively with others to implement current and emerging exemplary educational practices. His work has resulted in the inclusion of children with intensive cognitive, physical, and emotional challenges as full members of the general education community in the school districts where he has worked and consulted. Villa has been a classroom teacher, special education administrator, pupil personnel services director, and director of instructional services and has authored 4 books and over 70 articles and chapters. Known for his enthusiastic, humorous style, Villa has presented at international, national, and state educational conferences and has provided technical assistance to departments of education in the United States, Canada, Vietnam, and Honduras and to university personnel, public school systems, and parent and advocacy organizations.

Ann I. Nevin is professor emerita at Arizona State University and visiting professor at Florida International University. The author of books, research articles, and numerous chapters, Nevin is recognized for her scholarship and dedication to providing meaningful, practice-oriented, research-based strategies for teachers to integrate students with special learning needs. Since the 1970s, she has co-developed various innovative teacher education programs that affect an array of personnel, including the Vermont Consulting Teacher Program, Collaborative Consultation Project Re-Tool sponsored by the Council for Exceptional Children, the Arizona State University program for special educators to infuse self-determination skills throughout the curriculum, and the Urban SEALS (Special Education Academic Leaders) doctoral program at Florida International University. Her advocacy, research, and teaching spans more than 38 years of working with a diverse array of people to help students with disabilities succeed in normalized school environments. Nevin is known for action-oriented presentations, workshops, and classes that are designed to meet the individual needs of participants by encouraging introspection and personal discovery for optimal learning.

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Editorials

Denise M. Gudwin

"The authors brilliantly bring the reader's focus downto the core of the educational process: the student. This powerful focus on the purposeful engagement of students in their own learning process guides us through reflection, cooperative learning groups, planning, choice, a sense of belonging, and advocacy, as well as social, emotional, academic, and life-skills issues. Resources abound in this contribution to the dialogue of increasing student achievement and well being while reflecting on the whole student."

Peggy King-Sears

"How powerful learning could be if students and educators shared more of the teaching responsibilities! Educators who use even a few ideas from this text will find their teaching and learning experiences greatly enhanced and far more enjoyable. Best of all, involving students in the teaching experience helps them learn more academically and do more socially."

Cathy L. Taschner

"In this easy-to-read resource, the authors help educators understand that inclusion isn’t something that we do to and for students, but rather, something we must do with students. The powerful anecdotes of educators and students planning, tutoring, and teaching side by side give us new hope and further direction for the creation of inclusive schools."

Kimberly R. Donahue

"This book is a must-read for every administrator seeking to build a school that meets the needs of diverse learners. Villa, Thousand, and Nevin practically and purposefully demonstrate how the reallocation of existing resources can be instrumental in ‘re-forming’ schools. The descriptive, step-by-step planning guides empower administrators, new and experienced, to redesign their school community in a way that will increase student achievement without increasing the budget!"

Mary A. Falvey

"This book emphasizes the work of students as significant members of the school and classroom community, not just as recipients of the work that teachers do, but as an integral part that can benefit from the teaching as well as be part of the teaching force. I loved the emphasis on empowering students in this co-teaching arrangement. I also appreciated the focus on listening to students' voices so the work of teachers is based on what students really need. The authors provide knowledgeable and practical advice for personalizing and individualizing instruction for all students while maintaining high expectations."

Renee Salazar-Garcia

"Classrooms go further when they are student-driven, and this book provides amazing resources and ideas to empower both students and teachers. From providing a rationale for teacher/student collaboration to helping with the nuts and bolts of the actual work, the authors have written a practical, useful, and inspiring guide for collaboration."