Classroom Management for Middle and High School Teachers

by Edmund T. Emmer, Carolyn M. Evertson

Dealing with student misbehavior and encouraging student motivation are two of the most important concerns for new teachers. "Classroom Management for Middle and High School Teachers, Ninth Edition, " provides new and experienced teachers with the skills, approaches, and strategies necessary to establish effective management systems in the secondary-school classroom. Based on 30 years of research and experience in more than 500 classrooms, the newest edition of this best-selling text presents step-by-step guidelines for planning, implementing, and developing classroom management tasks to build a classroom environment that focuses on and encourages learning. Students can apply what they learn as they review and complete the examples, checklists, case study vignettes, and group activities presented in each chapter.

Genres: Education, Teaching, Professional Development, Textbooks, School, Nonfiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published March 31, 2005

Reviews

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you've spent more than 2-3 months in a classroom and feel like you're drowning, this may be a good book for you if you want someone to lead you step by step through claim management. However, I read this book after doing my student teaching and after substitute teaching in a school for 5 months. I feel like the hands on experience taught me the principles shared in this book on such a deeper level. For a first year teacher there are some good ideas about setting up a classroom and there were some good questions to consider, but as a whole after chapter 6 I skimmed the rest and called it good. My personality is such that some things are obvious to me as a teacher and I don't need them to be explained to me.

[Erin McDonnell-Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fluid, easy-to-read text to be implemented in my upcoming 400 level classroom management course. It flows well from chapter to chapter and the authors do a good job of offering vignettes for discussion and a variety of activities for students to complete at the end of each chapter.

The major criticism I have is that I think they brush over some issues without offering a thorough discussion (ex: classroom management problems caused by technology or use of technology). Also, sometimes they offer ideas that are too "young" for middle and high school. This may be my own bias interpretation but I found myself writing a few annotations saying "it's not appropriate" or "you may not use."

[Rebecca]

This is a very basic introduction to classroom management. Many topics and chapters left me wanting more, especially the sections on correcting problem behavior and handling special needs. Each chapter does include an annotated suggested reading list which points the way to additional reading.

[Kathleen O'Mara]

Reading and discussion group book. Some helpful hints that work. Classroom management ideas that work with younger kids... Basic management information.

[Liliya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great resource for new teachers. It is a book I enjoyed and will come back to. It is pretty thorough on the classroom management aspect but this isn't a book about student behavior specifically.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dated but useful.

[Jordan · Rating 2 out of 5]

A better title: Classroom (Micro)Management for Middle and High School Teachers.

While I am all over Chapter Nine, and while other chapters offer glimpses of the student-led, democratic, empowering, and constructivist pedagogy I am honing for my own classroom, Emmer and Evertson have problems with classroom management that I simply can't see as problems:

-Who cares if my students all use the same heading, and if they align their papers with the left-hand corner of their desk when completed?
-Who cares if my students are a few seconds late, especially when so much can be going on to keep them from taking their seats, shutting up, and following my "orders"?
-Who cares if supportive discipline and conferences take time, if they'll help avoid the dehumanizing effects of a detention slip?
-Who cares if collaborative learning inhibits my ability to micromanage individual students, when my lesson plans should be engaging enough to limit obstructive behaviors?
-Why would you ever make grading and discipline a public affair just to maintain order, when other chapters and basic human decency suggest quieter, more private conversations on behavior and expectations?

Issues aside, everything tied to positive behavior supports, teacher-student conferencing, and differentiated instruction were on-target (though the last of these only gets a last-minute honorable mention in Chapter Eleven). I do intend to empower students to create their own rules, write their own behavior contracts, and meet with them to discuss behavior issues when they arise; in fact, I've already done those things at my practicum sites.

But as for the rest of it, who cares?

[Christin Edge · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book as part of a +30 graduate class in Education Psychology and I really like the information and case studies it shared. It primarily focuses on middle grades which is exactly where I am. Even though I do most of these things with 7 years in the profession, I always gain new ideas and perspectives.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome classroom management book! Wish this had been included in my management class at state!

[Ashley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty dry. Lots of micromanagement. Read this for a post-masters class. Might be more helpful to first-time teachers.

[Alyssa Tallama · Rating 2 out of 5]

A light read. A lot of the information is good and helpful, but some of it just seemed like common sense.

[Louis Fritz v · Rating 2 out of 5]

Greater emphasis on middle school than high school which is the focus of my program.