Keeping a Head in School: A Student's Book about Learning Abilities and Learning Disorders

By Mel Levine

This nonfiction book--a blend of realism and optimism--helps students with learning differences gain insights into their problems. Dr.Levine suggests specific ways to approach schoolwork, overcome learning differences, and manage struggles that students face at school.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0838820697
• ISBN13: 9780838820698
• Release Date: January 1990
• Publisher: Educators Publishing Service, Incorporated
• Length: 297 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 7.0" x 8.9"
• Age Range: 9 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 4 to 7

Customer Reviews

Essential book for every educator/ parent

This is an excellent resource book, which envelopes the various ways which every child/ student learns. How you can target learning issues and enable your child/ student to gain greater access to overcome such learning/ academic obstacles. Every parent/ educator should consider this book which will be a great asset. Dr. Mel Levine is a compassionate, resourceful individual. Combining resources and also sharing from personal case studies. What I have read and learned will be applied for my two daughters and also students.

Helping Kids Meet Academic Challenges

_Keeping A Head in School_ is designed to help students with a wide range of learning disorders "gain a realistic insight into their personal strengths and weaknesses." The book is targeted at adolescents and pre-adolescents. It can also be used effectively by younger and older students, however. Dr. Levine makes information accessible to young people by presenting it in small chunks with frequent headings. His style is conversational, and he uses familiar metaphors to explain physiological concepts. Attention, for example, is described in terms of channel selection and filtration.Levine heartens his readers -- not only by demonstrating a clear understanding of their difficulties but also by providing hope for the success that everyone needs. While he recognizes that people succeed in different areas -- academics, athletics, and art, to name just a few -- he acknowledges that during the school-age years, lack of success in the academic area can have far-reaching consequences. After explaining how the brain functions normally to help a person focus attention, use language, and employ memory, Levine discusses various problems that might arise in these areas. He then relates performance in reading, spelling, writing, and math to those disorders. Levine even addresses social skills, recognizing that school has a very strong social component.Levine celebrates the many strengths that people with learning disorders might have. He encourages them to appreciate and bolster their strengths even as they are attempting to understand and bypass their weaknesses. He empowers students to advocate on their own behalf, and he reassures them that they are likely to be more successful in life after school -- when they are free to work in their preferred area rather than in one assigned to them by someone else._Keeping A Head in School_ is most effective if readers with learning disorders have the opportunity to discuss concepts presented with parents, teachers, and/or other adults. The book can also provide valuable insight for those who interact with people who have learning disorders: siblings, friends, parents, teachers, and others. Understanding the problems will help people to be more compassionate and encouraging.

Finally, a book for students!

As the parent of two learning disabled students, I wholeheartedly recommend this book to all the kids out there who are in need of a wonderful guide not only for school, but every day problem solving. My son refers to this book often, for reinforcement, for reassurance, and for guidance. There are many books written about learning disabilities, but this one stands out as a wonderful guide for your child to use.

Students can learn to manage their own learning disorders

We all have learning disorders, as Mel Levine's Keeping A Head in School points out. The difference in Dr. Levine's approach is that students can learn to identify and remediate their own problems, giving them greater power over their own lives. In this book Dr. Levine models the strategies he advocates that students learn: Lots of diagrams, webs, illustrations, as well as case studies, fill the pages, helping all readers to better grasp his techniques.Written with humor and "reader-friendly" language, the handbook explains the complexity of learning disorders in terms all readers can understand. Parents, teachers, counselors, as well as students, will better understand learning and how to maximize their potential after reading this book. The reader will recognize his/her own learning disorders and how to overcome them--whether or not diagnosed as a problem learner. A must read for anyone dealing with this condition.