Wayside Teaching

Book excerpt: Wayside Teaching: Connecting With Students to Support Learning is about intentionally practicing what building level educators do every day in perhaps intentional and/or unintentional ways: relate to students. Wayside-teaching practices enhance academic learning and complement academic rigour because they build student self-concept, motivate learners to engage in the curriculum, and provide a sense of belonging and safety that can help free learners to participate more fully in their own education. In this practical guide, Sara Davis Powell uses the framework of attitude, approach, and action to demonstrate how wayside teaching--the informal curriculum, the implicit instruction, the teaching and learning that happens in sometimes unintentional ways--can be intentionally practiced across all grade levels to facilitate learning and bring about enhanced student outcomes.