Publisher's Synopsis
This is a comprehensive introduction to classroom management in elementary schools. It combines what research has to say about effective classroom management with knowledge culled from practice. This is done by integrating into the research discussions accounts of actual management practices and thinking of four case study teachers. The research discussions comprise approximately two-thirds of most chapters, and the case study materials approximately one third. A companion volume dealing with classroom management in secondary classrooms is now available for use in mixed classes enrolling both elementary and secondary majors.;The case studies illustrate how four real teachers from different grade levels and school settings think about their management tasks. Readers learn their decisions, and then, through the use of discussion questions, have a chance to react to these decisions. Positive communication with students and parents is stressed throughout, but especially in chapters 5 and 11. The book recognizes that management demands vary as classrooms shift from on type of activity to another. Consequently, whole chapters are devoted to the management demands of each of these classroom activities: seatwork, groupworks, and recitations. In addition to being a core text for classroom management courses, the book's size, price and its companion volume allow it to be used as part of a customized teaching package in any course in which classroom management is a major topic. This is often the case in courses with titles such as General Methods of Teaching, Teaching Strategies, or Classroom Instruction and Management.
