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I enjoyed the chapter on giving students your BEST. I feel I am already practicing these methods, but there is room for "tweaking." I do express belief in students, and I do use the method of "guiding" students to come up with better answers. I also use follow-up probing questions and often ask for elaboration in a tone that expresses confidence and matter-of-factness that they will have something relevant to say. I have become more conscious of "wait time" for answering questions, however.

I do offer encouragement by smiling and nodding, making positive remarks, and writing positive remarks on their papers. I even use stickers. I often remind the students that I am available for extra help particularly before or after school, thus offering support and time.

A specific idea I would like to try is exploring points of view through the "Two Voices" poems. I often have students write poems anyway, and this assignment would work with many works of literature that contain characters with contrasting viewpoints. A good example would be Brutus and Cassius (in Julius Caesar) in their attitudes toward Caesar. The foils Finny and Gene in A Separate Peace are other examples.

I model instructional behaviors. For example, when students write, many times I write as well. I like the modeling ideas of "What to Do When You Don't Know a Vocabulary Word." The suggestions listed on that chart would make a good poster for the classroom. It will take discipline on my part not to reel off a definition when someone asks for one. They really do need to do this for themselves.

Another idea I like is the "Think-Pair-Share" method of asking questions.

I will continue to minimize negative aspects of grading , paradoxically, by taking many formative grades so that one or two grades do not generally wreck a cumulative grade.

I will repeat this mantra--success leads to confidence leads to more success leads to more confidence. . . .