High Expectations Teaching: How We Persuade Students to Believe and Act on "Smart Is Something You Can Get"

The myth of fixed intelligence debunked For all the productive conversation around “mindsets,” what’s missing are the details of how to convince our discouraged and underperforming students that “smart is something you can get.” Until now.  With the publication of High-Expectations Teaching, Jon Saphier reveals once and for all evidence that the bell curve of ability is plain wrong—that ability is something that can be grown significantly if we can first help students to believe in themselves.  In drill-down detail, Saphier provides an instructional playbook for increasing student confidence and agency in the daily flow of classroom life: Powerful  strategies for attribution retraining, organized around  50 Ways to Get Students to Believe in Themselves   Concrete examples, scripts, and classroom structures and routines for empowering student agency and choice Dozens of accompanying videos showing high-expectations strategies in action All children in all schools, regardless of income or social class, will benefit from the strategies in this book. But for children of poverty and children of color, our proficiency with these skills is essential . . . in many ways life saving. Jon Saphier challenges us all—educators, students, and parents—to get started today. About Jon Saphier The author of nine books, including The Skillful Teacher, Jon Saphier is founder and president of Research for Better Teaching, Inc. (RBT), a professional development organization dedicated since 1979 to improving classroom teaching and school leadership throughout the United States and internationally.

Table of Contents:
List of Resources Foreword Acknowledgments About the Author Introduction 1. The History of “Intelligence” References and Resources 2. Malleable Intelligence: The Evidence—Attribution Retraining and the Growth Mindset Data Challenging the Innate Ability Theory Attribution Retraining References and Resources 3. Verbal Behavior in Nine Arenas of Classroom Life 1. Calling on Students 2. Responses to Student Answers 3. Giving Help 4. Changing Attitudes Toward Errors 5. Giving Tasks and Assignments 6. Feedback According to Criteria for Success With Encouragement and Precise Diagnostic Guidance 7. Positive Framing of Re-Teaching 8. Tenacity When Students Don’t Meet Expectations 9. Pushback on Fixed Mindset Language and Student Helplessness References and Resources 4. Regular Classroom Mechanisms for Generating Student Agency 10. Frequent Quizzes and a Flow of Data to Students 11. Student Self-Corrections/Self-Scoring 12. Student Error Analysis 13. Regular Re-Teaching 14. Required Retakes and Redos With Highest Grade 15. Cooperative Learning Protocols and Teaching of Group Skills 16. Student Feedback to Teacher on Pace or Need for Clarification 17. Reward System for Effective Effort and Gains 18. Extra Help 19. Student Goal Setting References and Resources 5. No Secrets Instructional Strategies That Support Student Agency 20. Communicating Objectives 21. Criteria for Success 22. Exemplars 23. Checking for Understanding 24. Making Students’ Thinking Visible 25. Frequent Student Summarizing 6. Teaching Effective Effort 26. Effective Effort Behaviors 27. Student Self-Evaluation of Effective Effort 28. Learning Study and Other Strategies of Successful Students 29. Attribution Theory and Brain Research References and Resources 7. Choices That Generate Agency: Voice, Ownership, and Influence 30. Stop My Teaching 31. Student-Generated Questions 32. Negotiating the Rules of the Classroom Game 33. Teaching Students the Principles of Learning 34. Learning Style 35. Non-Reports and Student Experts 36. Culturally Relevant Teaching 37. Student-Led Parent Conferences References and Resources 8. Schoolwide Policies and Procedures 38. Hiring Teachers 39. Assignment of Teachers 40. Personalizing Knowledge of and Contact With Students 41. Scheduling 42. Grouping 43. Content-Focused Teams That Examine Student Work in Relation to Their Teaching 44. Reward System for Academic Effort and Gains 45. Push, Support, and Tight Safety Net (Hierarchy of Intervention) 46. Quality Afterschool Programs and Extracurricular Activities 47. Building Identity and Pride in Belonging to the School 48. Creating a Vision of a Better Life Attainable Through Learning the Things School Teaches 49. Forming an Image of Successful People Who Look Like Them and Value Education 50. Building Relations With Parents Through Home Visits and Focus on How to Help References and Resources 9. Conclusion What Leaders Do Teacher Preparation Obstacles Coda References and Resources Appendix A. Case Studies in High Expectations Teaching and Attribution Retraining Teacher Case Studies Administrator Case Studies Appendix B. Levels of Sophistication of Common Planning Time (CPT) Activities Appendix C. Hierarchy of Interventions Appendix D. Goal-Setting Experiments Appendix E. Kristin Allison’s Log Appendix F. Effort Books: A Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Dr. Jon Saphier is the Founder and President of Research for Better Teaching, Inc., an educational consulting organization in Acton, Massachusetts that is dedicated to the professionalization of teaching and leadership.  He is a recognized expert on supervision, evaluation, staff development, and adult professional culture. Since 1979, he and his RBT colleagues have taught in-depth professional development programs centered on the knowledge base of teaching to educators in hundreds of school districts each year in the United States and overseas. In 2001, he was appointed a panel member for the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences to study the best methods for transferring research knowledge to classroom practice. In 2010 RBT’s Skillful Teacher model was adopted by the country of Singapore as their national program for training beginning teachers. Beginning in the summer of 2001, Dr. Saphier became a member of the core faculty for aspiring urban principals of New Leaders for New Schools. Additionally, Research for Better Teaching provides training on “Observing and Analyzing Teaching” to KIPP principals and KIPP teacher leaders continuing to the present. Sloan-Kettering’s annual IDEA Institutes voted him “Best of the Best” for their first 25-year history. Dr. Saphier presents each year at Ron Ferguson’s Achievement Gap Initiative Conference at Harvard. Dr. Saphier has done on-site coaching to over 1,000 principals on instructional leadership. He has a bachelors from Amherst College, and a masters degree from the London School of Economics. He was a combat medic in Vietnam. After the war he entered teaching and holds degrees in early childhood from Univ. of Mass. and a doctorate from Boston University. He has been a high school history teacher and has taught fifth grade, second grade, first grade and kindergarten. He has been an administrator and a staff developer in an urban K-8 school. He is an author and co-author of nine books, including The Skillful Teacher in its 7th edition as well as numerous articles. The Skillful Teacher has sold over a half million copies and is the bible of teaching in hundreds of districts around the country. It is used as a text in 60 university teacher preparation programs, including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Dartmouth, Brown, Middlebury and Williams. RBT designed and trained all administrators on their Professional Growth System in Fairfax Va. late 80s through early 90s, Montgomery County Public Schools late 90s through the present, and 50 other districts nation-wide. RBT provides continued support for Montgomery County’s "Center for Skillful Teaching".

Review :
“Students and teachers need the language to learn how to support one another in their growth.  High Expectations Teaching provides not only that language, but also strategies to lead student and teachers to an understanding of the potential for improvement.” “High Expectations Teaching is a must read for anyone committed to creating equitable school systems allowing all students, especially students in poverty, educational opportunities for enhancing their lives. Included is a strong research base with practical instructional strategies for creating positive interactions with students, and suggestions for impactful school level policies and procedures.” “The techniques in High Expectations Teaching will help us all become better teachers for our students.”