Teaching to Strengths: Supporting Students Living with Trauma, Violence, and Chronic Stress

Debbie Zacarian · Lourdes Alvarez-Ortiz · Judie Haynes

Sep 2017 · ASCD

About this ebook

Half the students in U.S. schools are experiencing or have experienced trauma, violence, or chronic stress. Much has been written about these students from a therapeutic perspective, especially regarding how to provide them with adequate counseling supports and services. Conversely, little has been written about teaching this population and doing so from a strengths-based perspective.

Using real-world examples as well as research-based principles, this book shows how to

• Identify inherent assets that students bring to the classroom.
• Connect to students’ experiences through instructional planning and delivery.
• Foster students’ strengths through the use of predictable routines and structured paired and small-group learning experiences.
• Develop family and community partnerships.

Experts Debbie Zacarian, Lourdes Alvarez-Ortiz, and Judie Haynes outline a comprehensive, collaborative approach to teaching that focuses on students’ strengths and resiliency. Teaching to Strengths encourages educators to embrace teaching and schoolwide practices that support and enhance the academic and socio-emotional development of students living with trauma, violence, and chronic stress.

About the author

Debbie Zacarian, EdD, is known for her work in advancing student achievement. With an advanced degree in clinical psychology and a doctorate in educational policy, research, and administration and over three decades of combined experience as a district administrator, university faculty member, and educational service agency leader, she founded Zacarian & Associates. She presents and publishes extensively on working successfully with culturally and linguistically diverse populations, including working with students living with trauma, violence, and chronic stress. Her authored and coauthored books include In It Together: How Student, Family, and Community Partnerships Advance Engagement and Achievement in Diverse Classrooms; Mastering Academic Language: A Framework for Supporting Student Achievement; Transforming Schools for English Learners: A Comprehensive Framework for School Leaders; The Essential Guide for Educating Beginning English Learners; and Teaching English Language Learners Across the Content Areas.

Lourdes Alvarez-Ortiz, PhD, is a highly accomplished bilingual/ bicultural school psychologist with more than two decades of experience working in inner-city school districts serving culturally and linguistically diverse student and family populations. In addition to her expertise assessing and supporting students’ socio-emotional and academic growth, she has collaboratively led initiatives supporting teachers and administrators in their efforts to optimize students’ potential, work successfully with families, and use culturally responsive practices. Working in partnership with public school districts, Alvarez-Ortiz successfully pioneered innovative educational reform initiatives targeted at improving opportunities and outcomes for students and schools/districts deemed at risk of failure. At the center of Alvarez-Ortiz’s work is the relentless pursuit of students’, families’, educators’, and communities’ strengths that empower them to capitalize on their potential.