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.

Jeffrey Miller spent eight years teaching middle school in urban Los Angeles and four years designing student success programs at Santa Monica College. Currently, he teaches courses in educational psychology and classroom management at California State University, Dominguez Hills. Miller is the managing director of the Miller Consulting Group and provides consultation and professional development to schools within Los Angeles and across the country, where he delivers keynote addresses and facilitates schools through organizational change. He completed his PhD in 2001 with a focus on motivation and learning in adolescent classrooms.

Peter Desberg is a professor of graduate education and coordinator of the Technology Based Education MA Program at California State University, Dominguez Hills. He is also a licensed clinical psychologist. Desberg is the author of 20 books and is a frequent presenter and keynote speaker at national conventions. He was the host of "Introduction to Computers" on the Los Angeles Unified School District’s cable channel for ten years and has appeared on many television shows and been written up in many newspapers and magazines, including Psychology Today, The Wall Street Journal, Cosmopolitan and Reader’s Digest.