Chapter 7: Teaching Difficult Academic Material

The first paragraph of this chapter made a great deal of sense to me. Although this is rather basic information, it is true that the teacher and student need to create a mutual trust in order to gain success from the classroom. If a student trusts that the teachers cares about students and wants them to learn and grow, the student will recognize that the material being taught is useful and will be more likely to be engaged. Likewise, the teacher will understand and anticipate student needs, therefore adapting lessons in a way that fosters student success. I agree with the steps leading to fostering student growth, beginning with understanding what students already know, while at the same time building upon concepts students already understand to challenge them with harder work. Complicated work should be broken down, with various methods of approaching the target growth. Finally, real life connections should be made to engage students in their learning.


A great portion of this chapter was the portion based on pushing students to think. Rather than providing answers or accepting unformulated answers, students should be pushed to challenge their own thinking and assumptions. In addition, allowing time to think and draft allows for further student understanding. If we simply ask a question and expect a response, students will not have the time it takes to think deeply about a subject and will instead shut down. Instead, giving time to consider and discuss a topic allows for further growth.