Co-Teachers in Classrooms Getting Coffee (Season 3 Episode 9)
Engagement isn’t about calling on more students—it’s about designing lessons where everyone participates. Today, we’re learning how from the experts who wrote the book on getting every student engaged. In this episode, we speak with Pérsida and William Himmele, authors and educators, about the 3rd edition of their seminal book, Total Participation Techniques: Making Every Student an Active Learner (ASCD, Jan 2026). This edition builds on years of classroom practice and research to help teachers create deeply engaging learning environments where every student participates and demonstrates understanding. Check out the 1st or 2nd edition from our VT T/TAC Library.
Listen as Pérsida and Bill discuss the importance of the Ripple - the idea of prompting each learner to think first before giving them an opportunity to share with peers and finally calling on a few students to report out to the whole class. The Himmele’s shared with us a poster to remind teachers to use the Ripple as well as a planning document for analyzing lessons based on the Cognitive Engagement Quadrants.
Total Participation Techniques has been a key strategy during our coaching sessions with many co-teaching teams. The 1st edition contained 37 instructional ideas for engaging all learners. The 2nd edition included 51 techniques along with a chapter dedicated to wrapping up the lesson. We can’t wait to get our hands on the 3rd edition (scheduled to be released on February 13, 2026) to see how many new ideas the Himmele have compiled.
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