This episode features a conversation with David Strahan and Madison Sides White, coauthors of the recently released book “Teaching Well with Adolescent Learners.” David is Distinguished Professor emeritus at Western Carolina University having spent 50 years in education, largely focused on the development and preparation of teachers entering middle grade classrooms. Madison is a secondary English teacher in North Carolina. With a heavy use of narrative examples, their book attempts to bring together the research base in adolescent development and effective teaching in the middle grades, a combination that highlights how essential it is that teachers and students continuously build relationships of trust to foster positive social and academic development.

In part one of their conversation, David, Madison, and Jason talk about how their book came about and how the current fragmented state of teacher education and preparation was a prime motivator for writing it, the ways in which the book brings together the latest research on adolescent learning and development and narratives that showcase teacher practice in their own voice, and why and how building a foundation of trusting relationships becomes a thriving environment of teaching and learning.

Additional Readings and Resources

• Teaching Well with Adolescent Learners: Responding to Developmental Changes in Middle School and High School
• Association for Middle Level Education
• Western Carolina University
• Rowan-Salisbury School District