Fires in the Mind: What Kids Can Tell Us About Motivation and Mastery

Kathleen Cushman, The students of What Kids Can Do

John Wiley & Sons, Feb 21, 2012 - Education - 208 pages

Teens talk to adults about how they develop motivation and mastery

Through the voices of students themselves, Fires in the Mind brings a game-changing question to teachers of adolescents: What does it take to get really good at something? Starting with what they already know and do well, teenagers from widely diverse backgrounds join a cutting-edge dialogue with adults about the development of mastery in and out of school. Their insights frame motivation, practice, and academic challenge in a new light that galvanizes more powerful learning for all. To put these students' ideas into practice, the book also includes practical tips for educators.

• Breaks new ground by bringing youth voices to a timely topic-motivation and mastery
• Includes worksheets, tips, and discussion guides that help put the book's ideas into practice
• Author has 18 previous books on adolescent learning and has written for the New York Times Magazine, Educational Leadership, and American Educator

From the acclaimed author of Fires in the Bathroom, this is the next-step book that pushes the conversation to next level, as teenagers tackle the pressing challenges of motivation and mastery.

Contents

• Catching the Spark: 11
• Keeping at: 31
• Asking the Experts: 55
• Exploring Deliberate Practice: 71
• Practice and Performance: 87
• Is Homework Deliberate Practice?: 117
• School Projects That Build Expert Habits: 135
• Making School a Community of Practice: 153
• The Practice Project A FiveDay Curriculum Outline: 159
• The Student Contributors: 173

About the author

Kathleen Cushman writes, speaks, and consults to a national audience of educators. A journalist and documentarian, she cofounded the nonprofit What Kids Can Do, which collaborates with diverse youth in the United States and abroad, bringing their voices to bear on the complex challenges that affect their lives and learning. She is also author of Fires in the Bathroom and coauthor, with Laura Rogers, of Fires in the Middle School Bathroom.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Fires in the Mind: What Kids Can Tell Us About Motivation and Mastery
• Authors: Kathleen Cushman, The students of What Kids Can Do
• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, 2012
• ISBN: 1118160215, 9781118160213
• Length: 208 pages
• Subjects: Education / General; Education / Teaching / General