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Writing the Playbook

A Practitioner’s Guide to Creating a Boy-Friendly School

Foreword by Michael Gurian, Author of The Minds of Boys and Boys and Girls Learn Differently!

Jump-start boys’ achievement with a step-by-step leadership plan that draws on brain research to provide a blueprint for creating schools where boys (and girls!) thrive.

Full description

Product Details
  • Grade Level: PreK-12
  • ISBN: 9781452242989
  • Published By: Corwin
  • Year: 2013
  • Page Count: 216
  • Publication date: March 13, 2013
Price: $34.95

Review Copies

This book is not available as a review copy.

Description

Your game plan for getting boys on the path to higher achievement

You've seen it in your school: boys struggling to master basic literacy skills, sitting outside the principal's office, collecting labels like "hyperactive," getting failing grades. Checked out, kicked out, or dropped out, they're benched when they should be scoring goals on the academic playing field.

As a school leader, Kelley King has walked the talk: she successfully led her own staff to close the gender gap in reading and writing in just one year. In her step-by-step, research-based leadership plan for jump-starting boys' achievement, she shares:

  • Critical insight into the brain-based differences between boys and girls
  • First-hand leadership and classroom experiences
  • Ready-to-use activities and resources for leading a successful gap-closing initiative

With tips, anecdotes, and more, Writing the Playbook provides educators in all roles with a blueprint for creating schools where boys (and girls!) thrive.


"Finally, some practical advice from an experienced educator on how to make boys into successful students. King's credentials—mother of both a son and daughter as well as a principal who successfully addressed gender gaps at her school—are unbeatable."
—Richard Whitmire, Author of Why Boys Fail: Saving Our Sons from an Educational System That's Leaving Them Behind

"Kelley King is both impassioned and level-headed, and she starts a conversation that we desperately need to have in our country."
—Michael Kimmel, Author of Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men
SUNY Distinguished Professor of Sociology

"This is a highly practical and highly relevant book. Two thumbs up!"
—Eric Jensen, Author of Teaching with the Brain in Mind



Key features

Marketing Features and Benefits

Every chapter includes a mix of examples, anecdotes and tips to make the reading interesting and practical.

Throughout the chapters, the uses a variety of special materials to make the book easier to read and to provide tools for immediate use:

· inset boxes that highlight quick tips, reminders, statistics, etc. for the reader

· ready-to-use templates/forms

· samples of student work

· photos from actual school and classroom settings

· key learnings at the beginning of each chapter

· chapter summaries- The Final Buzzer

· annotated bibliography

· index

Author(s)

Kelley King photo

Kelley King

Dr. Kelley King is a Corwin author and has been a Visible Learning consultant since the North American launch in 2013. With over 35 years of service in K-12 schools, Kelley has worked in both public and private schools and in regular education, special education and gifted education. As an award-winning school principal, Kelley’s success in leading initiatives to close gender achievement gaps has been featured on The Today Show, in Newsweek magazine, on National Public Radio, in EdWeek, in Education Leadership and more.

Kelley’s book with Corwin Press is titled Writing the Playbook: A Practitioner’s Guide to Creating a Boy-Friendly School and is a K-12 “how-to” guide for raising boys’ achievement, reducing discipline and fostering a sense of belonging and relevance for boys at school. Kelley has written two other books that take a brain-based approach to addressing gender gaps for girls in math and science and boys in literacy. Kelley holds a Doctorate of Education in Educational Administration and Leadership and a Masters Degree in Special Education.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Michael Gurian


Preface


Acknowledgments


About the Author


1. Making the Call: Is There Really a Boy Crisis?

Final Buzzer

2. Getting Your Head in the Game: "Need-to-Knows" about the Male Brain

Laying the Groundwork

Why Do These Sex Differences Exist?

Our Beginnings

Does That Mean That Our Abilities Aare Fixed?

The Male Brain 101

Is There Such a Thing as an "Extreme Male Brain"?

The Male Adolescent Brain

It's Nature AND Nuture

The Final Buzzer

3. Chalk Talk: A Game Plan for Moving Your Team down the Field

School Climate and Culture - What's the Difference?

Activities for Your Professional Learning Communities

Got Data?

Getting Teacher Buy-In

SMART Goals

Developing an Action Plan

School Improvement and Teacher Growth

Developing a Yearlong Professional Development Plan

The Final Buzzer

4. Leveling the Playing Field: School Policies and Procedures That Don't Squeeze Boys out

Expectations and the Stereotype Threat

Discipline

Time, Place, and Manner

Grades and Homework

Banning Aggression Themes

The Final Buzzer

5. Touching Base: Relationship-Building to Guide Boys on Their Journey

The Social-Emotional Lives of Boys

Forging Positive Relationships With Boys

Male Mentoring and Role Models

The Final Buzzer

6. The Ground Game: Setting up Classrooms That Help Boys Succeed

Physical Arrangement of the Classroom

Classroom Procedures

The Final Buzzer

7. Hitting It out of the Park: Game-Winning Instructional Strategies for Boys (and Girls!)

Lecture Strategies

Movement Strategies

Student Interests Strategies

Real-World Learning Strategies

Student Choice Strategies

Visual-Spatial Strategies

Technology Strategies

Competition Strategies

Single-Gender Grouping Strategies

Music Strategies

Test Preparation Strategies

Test Administration Strategies

The Final Buzzer

Afterword


Sticky Teaching Graphic


References


Index


Price: $34.95

Review Copies

This book is not available as a review copy.

Related Resources

  • Access to companion resources is available with the purchase of this book.