As Stephen Peters' points out in part two, "What Every Teacher Needs to Know," of his text Do You Know Enough About Me to Teach Me?, there is essential knowledge, skills, and strategies teachers can incorporate in and outside of their classrooms to meet students' needs. Module two, essential teacher knowledge, is a distillation of Peters' chapters five-ten.

Module Objective: Using this module, you will be able to examine the skills, knowledge, and understandings necessary to "teach and reach" today's youth. You will explore: (1) The Reality of Teaching, (2) Appreciating and Investing in Today's Youth, and (3) Success for All, using knowledge from Peters' text, case studies, and virtual library readings.

• The Reality of Teaching
• Appreciating and Investing in Today's Youth
• Success for All
• Culminating Workbook

The Reality of Teaching

This session parallels chapters five and six from Do You Know Enough About Me To Teach Me? The following case, virtual library readings, and journal and discussion prompts will assist you to better understand Stephen Peters' work.

Case Study Log out when you are finished viewing the case to avoid conflicting browser sessions. If you have trouble viewing the case, please see the CaseNEX login instructions. Go to www.casenex.com Enter this login into the green circle: USERNAME: peters08 PASSWORD: demo To access the CaseNEX Case, scroll through the list of cases that appear once you login. To access the CaseNEX Virtual Library, click on class materials, The Virtual Library, Readings (search), and enter the title in the Search Title field. What's Happening? Diversity comes in many forms including race, religion, ethnicity, community, gender, age, and socioeconomic status. This case features snapshots of classrooms nationwide and educators' responses to the opportunities and challenges surrounding diversity. View the full case...

Discussion: Building rapport or making sustained positive deposits is chiefly about "community building." Using Peters' list of positive and negative deposits (p38) and the knowledge from the readings, examine two of the teachers in the case "What's Happening." Identify the places in their teaching where you see them making positive and negative deposits. What issues do each have and what seem to be the student consequences of those teacher behaviors?

Journal: In their article, "Parents or Pop Culture?," Kristin J. Anderson and Donna Cavallaro discuss how pop culture (including TV, film, comic books, music TV, and video games) often perpetuate negative stereotypes and unrealistic thinking. Stephen Peters covers similar topics in chapter six of his text (pp 41-46). Using this knowledge, describe how you see your students "buying into" the media hype and negative stereotypes within media today? What are the long-lasting issues of negative media's influence? What might students' perspectives be about the media today? How do you combat these views and urge your students to invest more wisely in their time and efforts?

• Culture and Adolescent Development  
• Parents or Pop Culture? Children's Heroes and Role Models
• Rapport-Building: Creating Positive Emotional Contexts for Enhancing Teaching and Learning 
• Stages of Social-Emotional Development In Children and Teenagers 

Appreciating and Investing in Today's Youth

The following module compliments chapters seven and eight from Do You Know Enough About Me To Teach Me?  The following case, virtual readings, and journal and discussion prompts will assist you to better understand Stephen Peters' work.

Case Study Log out when you are finished viewing the case to avoid conflicting browser sessions. If you have trouble viewing the case, please see the CaseNEX login instructions. Go to www.casenex.com Enter this login into the green circle: USERNAME: peters08 PASSWORD: demo To access the CaseNEX Case, scroll through the list of cases that appear once you login. To access the CaseNEX Virtual Library, click on class materials, The Virtual Library, Readings (search), and enter the title in the Search Title field. What's Happening? Diversity comes in many forms including race, religion, ethnicity, community, gender, age, and socioeconomic status. This case features snapshots of classrooms nationwide and educators' responses to the opportunities and challenges surrounding diversity. View the full case...

Discussion: Chapter seven addresses ways to create welcoming and caring environments for students. Identify issues that might arise when students don't feel as though their teachers care about them. How do the teachers' non-verbal behaviors in "Glimpses into Differentiated Classes" communicate a feeling of warmth for students?

Journal: How have the schools and classrooms examined in "Glimpses into Differentiated Instruction" embraced change and met the tenets of "Capture, Inspire, and Teach?" Use the knowledge from Peters' pages 58-59 to assist you in answering the prompt. In addition, describe how your school might incorporate differentiation on a school-wide level. What might be the students' perspectives if teachers increased efforts to address learning styles, interests, and levels of readiness?

• Are You With It? 
• Establishing a Positive Classroom Climate: Teacher Tips for Managing Group Behaviors 
• Learning Environments that Support Differentiated Instruction 
• Teacher Responsibilities and Teacher Behaviors
• Seven Practices for Effective Learning
• Schools in Which All Minds Can Grow

Success for All

The following module compliments chapters nine and ten from Do You Know Enough About Me To Teach Me?  The following case, virtual readings, and journal and discussion prompts will assist you to better understand Stephen Peters' work.

Case Study Log out when you are finished viewing the case to avoid conflicting browser sessions. If you have trouble viewing the case, please see the CaseNEX login instructions. Go to www.casenex.com Enter this login into the green circle: USERNAME: peters08 PASSWORD: demo To access the CaseNEX Case, scroll through the list of cases that appear once you login. To access the CaseNEX Virtual Library, click on class materials, The Virtual Library, Readings (search), and enter the title in the Search Title field. Borders and Barriers Students and teachers at ethnically diverse Aldebaron High School struggle with literal and figurative borders as they work together on an interdisciplinary project. Teachable moments, racial bias, and issues of accountability pose unexpected problems along the way. View the full case...

Discussion: Many of our students come from urban communities or the inner-city. Describe the issues you have had with your urban learners in the past and how the readings "City Kids, City Dream" and Stephen Peters' chapter ten will inform your future actions with these students. What consequences do you expect from your actions?

Journal: In her article "Unlocking the Potential of African American Students: Keys to Reversing Underachievement," Yvette Jackson states, "many African American students with the capacity for high intellectual performance are underachievers. They sit in classrooms waiting for the opportunities that can elicit their attention, creativity, and potential." How are the team teachers in Borders and Barriers confronting the issues of underachievement? Take the perspective of one of the students from the class and discuss how the interdisciplinary unit you're involved in "elicits [or fails to elicit] your attention, creativity, and potential." Use the knowledge from Jackson's article and Peters' chapter nine to inform your response.

• Beyond School Promotion and Retention: Five Strategies that Work
• City Kids, City Dreams
• Creating a Culture of High Expectations 
• Teacher Expectations Student Achievement 
• The Cultural Identity of Students: What Teachers Should Know
• Unlocking the Potential of African American Students: Keys to Reversing Underachievement 

Culminating Workbook

The second part of Stephen Peters' Do You Know Enough About Me To Teach Me? is devoted to "What Every Teacher Should Know."  Suppose that you have Keisha, Marta, Marvin, Andy, Vanessa, Caroline, Tyrone, and Terrell in your class along with twenty other students. Create an action plan for getting to know each of these students, meeting their individual and collective needs, and addressing the issues they face. Use your knowledge from Peters' chapters, the virtual library readings, and the article "Beyond School Promotion and Retention: Five Strategies that Work" to frame your action plan. Accordingly, describe how you will:

• Intensify learning;
• Provide Professional Development to Ensure Skilled Teachers;
• Expand Learning Options;
• Assess to Inform Teachers; and
• Intervene Often and Early.