New for teachers:

At–Risk Students: Feeling Their Pain,
Understanding Their Plight, Accepting Their Defensive Ploys

Bill Page, staff development specialist in at–risk education


 · Tested strategies for motivating and teaching at-risk students

 · For practical use by classroom teachers within the classroom

 · Proven methods developed from extensive classroom use

This new book will help classroom teachers engage, motivate and teach “problem students” in the regular classroom setting.
It is a practical guide prepared specifically for classroom teachers, providing them with proven strategies for working with their most intractable students within the regular classroom.
The presentation is in jargon-free plain talk. The author is a veteran classroom teacher and teacher–trainer with decades of experience in working with at–risk students in the classroom environment. The strategies presented have been developed and tested by extensive, practical classroom use. The strategies can be immediately implemented by individual teachers – and they work.
Copies are now available for prompt delivery.


Advance Reviews

 ·   “I highly recommend Bill Page because what he has to say is immediately implement-able and useful for all educators. He does this in a very commonsense, humorous and user-friendly manner.” – Harry K. Wong, author of best-selling book,The First Days of School

 · “Bill Page, with his straightforward, engaging style, enables us to feel the predicament of students who rarely have a good day, fail to learn, and develop self-loathing with a revengeful attitude. [The author] shows how to help ‘at-risk’ kids become ‘risk-free’ learners.” – Dr. Edward Frierson, former President, International Association of Children with Learning Disabilities

 · “He [the author] has presented his message of success with problem learners to thousands of teachers and school districts across the nation. This is the first written account of the unique and creative ideas that earned him the title, ‘America’s Favorite Classroom Teacher’.” – John G. Mitchell, author, User Friendly Classrooms

 ·  “Bill Page has written a wonderfully challenging, humorous and helpful book about working with ‘at-risk students’. Providing insights into ‘those kids’ who ‘can’t, won’t, or don’t learn’, he has done what ivory tower theorists have not done –– provide insight and understanding into the minds, souls, hearts and cognitive structure of students who struggle and fail. – Dr. Michael Shaughnessy, Professor of Special Education, Eastern New Mexico University, in EducationNews


From the Text

“Schools can change only when and to the extent that teachers change. Teachers do the work of education; they are the heart and soul of education. Learning occurs or fails to occur in each classroom. The increased achievement we seek will happen to each student and involve each teacher in the classroom.”


The Author

Bill Page brings to this new book his more than thirty years of experience as a classroom teacher, teacher-trainer, demonstration teacher, and program director specializing in at-risk education. He is the originator and director of Project Enable, a six-year project of the Central Midwestern Regional Educational Laboratory (CEMREL) funded by the U.S. Office of Education. Project Enable was implemented in St. Louis MO and Nashville TN inner city schools, and was continued with joint funding by Peabody College, The Kennedy Child Study Center, Nashville Schools, and Model Cities. For twenty-six consecutive summers he taught methods courses at the University of California at Riverside, San Diego, Irvine, Santa Barbara, and Davis. He has conducted seminars and workshops at more than 2,000 schools and districts, and has made conference presentations attended by more than 100,000 teachers and administrators.


Contents (slightly abridged)

 · Preface  · Introduction  · Annotated Contents  · At-Risk Students: A Point of Viewing  · Achievement Gap  · Take a Seat at the Bottom of the Class  · “We Get What We Get”: The Bottom Line in Parent Accountability  · Successfully Teaching At-Risk Students  · Failure Is Never an Option  · Discrimination Against Low Achievers  · Remediation Doesn’t Work  · Teacher Characteristics for Student Achievement  · Student Self-Concept and Achievement  · Murphy, the Tutor  · Labels Are For Jelly Jars  · The Teacher is the Difference  · Kids Are Never Not Learning  · My Teaching Credo  · teachers Are Individuals Too  · Marching to a Different Paradigm  · School Learning Occurs in School  · School Incident Reported in St. Louis  · A Great Model for Differentiation  · Florida Tries to Avoid Flunking 50,000 Third Graders  · If You Ask the Wrong Questions, You Get the Wrong Answers  · Kids Are Always Learning  · Teacher Self-Reflection  · Imposed Authority vs. Natural Authority  · Mandating vs. Teaching; People vs. Products  · Just Ask the Kids  · Afterword  · Annotated References

0–9773863–0–9, 2006, 247 pages, 6x9, laminated soft cover, $19.95