Teaching Troubled Youth:
A Practical Pedagogical Approach

edited by Billie Travalini

Teaching Troubled Youth

Teaching Troubled Youth is an anthology of writing and art by students served by the Delaware Department of Services for Children, Youth, and Their Families.

This collection of creative work by young people was compiled by Billie Travalini, Educational Consultant for the Department. In a review of the book, Matthew J. Mauriello of the Institute for Behavior Change, writes, “Billie Travalini has done a remarkable job capturing and sharing the inner thoughts of a population of children often feared, forgotten, and misunderstood. These compelling stories, poems, and works of art serve as a powerful inspiration to educators and clinicians working with this population, as well as to parents and youth struggling in troubling situations.”

Starting with the idea that adjudicated youth, 12 to 18, never receive the traditional yearbook to celebrate their accomplishments, it quickly became evident as the students submitted their poems, stories and artwork that this would be more than a yearbook. Ms. Travalini and her team set a new goal: to develop a practical pedagogical approach, designing lesson plans using the students’ own work with the hope that the resulting canon would give students a sense of achievement and be viewed by others as a work of beauty and service.

2008, soft cover, 8½" x 11", illustrated, 176 pages
ISBN 978-1-892142-39-4
- $24.00