For Teachers

FOR TEACHERS

A secondary teacher for 33 years, the last five spent working as a literacy mentor supporting other educators, Don has created a number of resources for teachers, among them his book Hitting the Mark: Assessment Tools for Teachers, which outlines practical ways to assess student performance fairly and accurately while attending to curricular outcomes and a wide range of student abilities. This book offers time-saving approaches to anecdotal reporting as well as helpful suggestions for assessing both process and product, essential elements of assessment for and of learning.

Reader's Guides

Don has also created reader's guides for his young adult novels, which are available to teachers free of charge. While he understands that perceptions of reader's guides are often negative ("I can think of no more effective way to 'destroy' a novel," he says, "than to print off a list of questions and pass it to students along with a copy of the book"), he feels they can be helpful for teachers as a means of planning instruction around a particular work. 
     Teachers interested in receiving guides for Delusion Road, Running on Empty, The Fifth Rule, The Space Between, One on One, The First Stone, Stranger at Bay, and Of Things Not Seen may request them by emailing Don at mail@donaker.com.

Content of Guides

Don's guides do NOT contain chapter summaries. Instead, they include the following:

"Pre-reading" questions that help activate students' prior knowledge around the novel's subject matter
"During-reading" questions that focus students' attention on significant aspects of the narrative
"Post-reading" activities that help students extend their reading experience with practical applications of thematic issues 
"Writer's craft" questions that help students explore the various techniques Don has used to tell his story