Show Me How to Learn: Key Strategies and Powerful Techniques That Promote Cooperative Learning

Luke Lawson is a teacher and administrator in Vancouver, B.C.

Aimed at new teachers of Grades 3 to 8, this brief book outlines
strategies that “support all students and reflect the range of
learning styles in the classroom.” The book is divided into several
chapters, including “Goal Setting and Reflection,” “Student
Self-Evaluation,” “Establishing Learning Centres,” and “Putting
the Principles into Practise.” This last chapter, by far the best one,
presents teachers with a detailed method of how to teach students to
take notes, write sentences, write concept maps, analyze text material,
and compare and contrast. While the volume does have some useful ideas,
much of it can been found in other books, especially those focusing on
study skills.

Show Me How to Learn is filled with many reproducible worksheets for
classroom use. However, despite the numerous calls for more analytical
writing and research, especially in the higher grades, teachers may get
carried away or too easily convenienced with the boxed-in approach to
learning through worksheets.