This book focuses on how educators can efficiently establish ongoing rapport with each student through three simple steps: Seeing beyond barriers, sharing their intentions, and showing their "face". Connecting with Students: Strategies for Building Rapport with Urban Learners focuses on how educators can efficiently establish ongoing rapport with each student through three simple steps: Seeing beyond barriers, sharing their intentions, and showing their "face". Chapter details are narrated through anecdotal experiences, confirmed by research, and seconded by actual urban learners. Educators are prompted to consistently reflect on their classroom practices and implement new strategies and techniques. This text will provide immediate strategies and techniques to build relational capacity in the urban classroom, so that frustration levels are lowered, classroom management is enhanced and academic deficiencies can be addressed. The content of the text is delivered in a multi-genre format. Within the narration there are several true anecdotes, analogies, extended metaphors, dialogue, and genuine student reflections on teaching.