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Removing Labels, Grades K-12
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Removing Labels, Grades K-12
40 Techniques to Disrupt Negative Expectations About Students and Schools

Foreword by Marcia Tate


Other Titles in:
Literacy, K-12 | Social Justice

February 2021 | 240 pages | Corwin

Disrupting the cycle starts with you.

No matter how conscientious we are, we carry implicit bias… which quickly turns into assumptions and then labels. Labels define our interactions with and expectations of students. Labels contribute to student identity and agency. And labels can have a negative effect beyond the classroom.

It’s crucial, then, that teachers remove labels and focus on students’ strengths—but this takes real work at an individual, classroom, and schoolwide scale. 

Removing Labels urges you to take an active approach toward disrupting the negative effects of labels and assumptions that interfere with student learning. This book offers:

  • 40 practical, replicable teaching techniques—all based in research and best practice—that focus on building relationships, restructuring classroom engagement and management, and understanding the power of social and emotional learning 
  • Suggestions for actions on an individual, classroom, and schoolwide level
  • Ready-to-go tools and student-facing printables to use in planning and instruction

Removing Labels is more than a collection of teaching strategies—it’s a commitment to providing truly responsive education that serves all children. When you and your colleagues take action to prevent negative labels from taking hold, the whole community benefits.

 
Foreword
 
Publisher’s Acknowledgments
 
Introduction: Interrupting the Cycle Begins With You
 
Section 1. Individual Approaches
 
Technique 1. Learning Names the Right Way
 
Technique 2. Interest Surveys
 
Technique 3. Banking Time
 
Technique 4. 2 × 10 Conversations
 
Technique 5. Affective Statements
 
Technique 6. Impromptu Conferences
 
Technique 7. Empathetic Feedback
 
Technique 8. Reconnecting After an Absence
 
Technique 9. Labeling Emotions
 
Technique 10. Solving Problems (Do the Next Right Thing)
 
Section 2. Classroom Approaches
 
Technique 11. Creating a Welcoming Classroom Climate
 
Technique 12. Class Meetings
 
Technique 13. Classroom Sociograms
 
Technique 14. The Mask Activity
 
Technique 15. Asset Mapping
 
Technique 16. Peer Partnerships
 
Technique 17. Five Different Peer Partnerships
 
Technique 18. Self-Assessment in Collaborative Learning
 
Technique 19. Equitable Grouping Strategies
 
Technique 20. Gradual Release of Responsibility Instructional Framework
 
Technique 21. Teaching With Relevance in Mind
 
Technique 22. Jigsaw
 
Technique 23. Accountable Talk
 
Technique 24. Making Decisions
 
Technique 25. Alternatives to Public Humiliation
 
Technique 26. When Young Children Label Others—The Crumple Doll
 
Technique 27. When Older Students Label Others—Insults and Epithets
 
Technique 28. Trauma-Sensitive Classroom Design
 
Technique 29. The Dot Inventory
 
Technique 30. Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies
 
Technique 31. Schoolwide Inclusive Practices
 
Technique 32. Student Empowerment
 
Technique 33. Collective Responsibility
 
Technique 34. Recognizing and Responding to Implicit Bias
 
Technique 35. Racial Autobiography
 
Technique 36. Social Capital
 
Technique 37. A Welcoming Front Office
 
Technique 38. Community Ambassadors
 
Technique 39. The Master Schedule
 
Technique 40. Distributed Leadership
 
Coda
 
References
 
Index

Dominique Smith

Dominique Smith, EdD, is chief of educational services and teacher support at Health Sciences High and Middle College in San Diego, California. Smith is passionate about creating school environments that honor and empower students. His research and instruction focuson restorative practices, classroom management, growth mindset, and the culture of achievement. Dominique also provides professional learningto K-12 teachers in small and large groups that address classroom and school climate and organization. He holds a doctorate in educational leadership from San... More About Author

Douglas Fisher

Douglas Fisher is professor and chair of educational leadership at San Diego State University and a leader at Health Sciences High and Middle College. Previously, Doug was an early intervention teacher and elementary school educator.  He is a credentialed teacher and leader in California.  In 2022, he was inducted into the Reading Hall of Fame by the Literacy Research Association. He has published widely on literacy, quality instruction, and assessment, as well as books such as Welcome to Teaching, PLC+, Teaching Students to Drive their Learning, and Student Assessment: Better Evidence, Better Decisions, Better Learning. More About Author

Nancy Frey

Nancy Frey is professor of educational leadership at San Diego State University and a leader at Health Sciences High and Middle College. Previously, Nancy was a teacher, academic coach, and central office resource coordinator in Florida.  She is a credentialed special educator, reading specialist, and administrator in California.  She is a member of the International Literacy Association’s Literacy Research Panel. She has published widely on literacy, quality instruction, and assessment, as well as books such as The Artificial Intelligences Playbook, How Scaffolding Works, How Teams Work, and The Vocabulary Playbook. More About Author

Also available as a South Asia Edition.

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ISBN: 9781544398174
$34.95

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