Teaching Critical Thinking: Practical Wisdom (hooks)

I think the key word in the title is ‘wisdom.’ There is so much in this book. The only thing I would like more than reading this book is an audio of hooks herself reading it. I think this one is going to school. There are 32 pieces of wisdom here, and I think it will be useful to re-read one each day. This is the kind of book that you want to put under your pillow so it gets absorbed into your brain. A great gift for first-year teachers – for every teacher.

Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom (hooks)

This is the first hooks book I ever tried, and it still featured the bookmark indicating where I ran out of steam. With the hooks conference on tap for June, I returned to it, started over and finished it. I noted the passages I’d underlined before and marked some more. It is challenging, both in terms of what it has to say about teaching and how hooks writes. This will be one that I’ll continue to revisit.

Path Lit By Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe (Maraniss)

I think the challenge Maraniss faced here is similar to the challenges faced by those who sought to make a movie of Thorpe’s life. There are so many stories here, so many arcs, so many ups and downs, so many places and people, that is difficult to generate any narrative momentum. Maraniss is a good storyteller. I’ve enjoyed several of his other books and went to hear him when he was touring on behalf of this one. (If you go see him, ask him to tell his “Nice Tie” story featuring Bill Clinton.) While I enjoyed sections of this book, the whole thing does not really hang together well as a biography. It took me a surprisingly long time to finish it. So if you’re interested in the man and content to take your time with it, I do recommend it. Otherwise, I’d pass.

Blending Genre, Altering Style: Writing Multigenre Papers (Romano)

I was skeptical, even suspicious. My Instructional Coach was suggesting a multi-genre assignment, maybe even a multi-modal one. I’ve never assigned one. I’ve never attempted one.

Three factors tipped the scales:

1. It’s the end of the year. The right time to try things. Even Romano says this.
2. Romano cites one of my favorite authors – Michael Ondaatje – as an exemplar.
3. I have one hugely creative student. I can’t wait to see what he creates.
4. Let’s just say that the traditional essays haven’t been a smashing success. Why not try something else?

Okay, that’s 4.

We’ll see how it goes.

Belnding Genre, Altering Style: Writing Multigenre Papers (Romano)

I was skeptical, suspicious even. My Instructional Coach was suggesting a “multi-genre” assignment, or even a “multi-modal” one. I have never assigned one. I’ve certainly never creeated one. I think the big tipping point was when I realized that it is not like I’ve been having tremendous success at getting students to complete/submit effective essays. And I have one hugely creative student, and the prospect of turning him loose on this intrigued me. So I asked for some samples and some reading. Romano’s book won me over as soon as he cited Michael Ondaatje’s work to make his case for multi-genre pieces. Ondaatje is one of my absolutely favorites. He also includes a range of student examples. And, probably most importantly, he anticipates all of my reasons for hesitating, including: How does one grade such a thing?

So, what’s the worst-case scenario here? I get 4-5 good examples that I can use as models for next year. If I can get a dozen or so students (of close to 100) to even turn something (whether ‘finished’ or otherwise), I’ll consider that an accomplishment. It’s the end of the year. That’s when Romano recommends trying it, and I’m going to learn a lot. I’ve got some great help coming in to co-teach. I’ve got my Instructional Coach. I’ve got Romano.

I’m the right kind of nervous about this.

Curating a Literacy Life: Student-Centered Learning with Digital Media (KIst)

At the risk of sounding like a judge on Cutthroat Kitchen (we’re a bit addicted at my house these days), there are three things I look for in a book on teaching:

1. Is it clear that the author has actually been a teacher?
2. Is there a good balance between philosophical and practical?
3. Do I engage with the book? Am I in conversation with it? In other words, do I note ideas, objections and links in the margins?

Kist’s book succeeds on all three counts, especially since the school he’s writing about is in the same district as mine.

(Full disclosure: Kist is working as an ELA coach at my school this year.)

Like many other education authors, Kist as some vocabulary he wants to introduce, words that frame his ideas. These ideas were implemented at a school where he coached previously.

It starts with “Curating,: with all of its connotations from museums. We are, Kist asserts, natural collectors, and the digital world has only made the next step – organizing – even easier. From there, we move to re-purposing and reflection. Much of what he says here resonates with what I see as good practice. After almost 30 years of doing this, I certainly have amassed quite a collection of resources, and I could certainly do more to organize them. But how, Kist challenges, can I invite students to follow the same path – in what form and to what end? I have one quarter left to work with him, and this book certainly sparked some ideas (see #3 above).

While we may disagree on a few things – the importance of reading print on the page, the impact of some of the final projects he describes – he makes a compelling case for teaching and learning as a kind of digital collage-making. I’m certainly intrigued enough to give it a try.

On Your Mark: Challenging the Conventions of Grading and Reporting (Guskey)

The more I read and learn about grading, the more convinced I am that it’s unlikely that I’ve ever given a useful grade in my life. (If you are a former student who is reading this, I’m sorry. I did the best I could based on what I knew at the time!) My current school is trying to embrace mastery grading, and I was told that Mr. Guskey is the go-to person on this. He writes clearly, provides both pedagogical and practical explanations, and is very persuasive. But I don’t know how to begin to make a crack in this. We inherit grades. We have to pass on grades. There needs to be a common language, I think, and I don’t know how to get me, us (in any form) moving toward a new one. Part of me is tempted to design what I perceive to be an ideal report card (based on what I’ve learned over time), but who would want to receive that? Who would make use of it? Generally, my current students want to know if they passed or failed. Some ask about things like an Honor Roll. All I can do, I think, is to try to strengthen the integrity of the grades I do publish so I can, as Mr. Guskey requires, be prepared to defend/explain/validate them.

Are you happy with how you do grades?

Why Learn History [When It’s Already on Your Phone] (Wineburg)

This is not the first book to sound the alarm that we’re not really teaching history well. And this is not a complaint that a certain percentage of certain kinds of students can’t place the Civil War in the right century. This book seeks to clarify what it means to teach history and why, despite the presence of our phones, it is urgently necessary. I also think that the chapter “Committing Zinns” should be required reading for anyone who thinks they’re doing something rebellious and right by using A People’s History.

25 Great Sentences and How They Got That Way (Woods)

I know. Who reads this kind of book? Me. I’m a huge fan of the sentence and while Ms. Woods found plenty of interesting ones, I misread the “How” in the title. I thought I was going to see drafts – how a sentence was born, then edited and a discussion of the moves the author made along the way. Nope.

We get 25 different kinds of sentences. Some of the vocabulary Woods uses to describe them was familiar and some of it was new, interesting and potentially useful. But after a while, the structure of the book grew tiresome. The “How” of the title is more retroactive than anything else as in, “This sentence is great because the author used this technique. Now here are a dozen more examples.” Each of the sections ends (wince) with writing exercises to prompt you to write these kinds of sentences. Nope – not what I wanted at all.

Teaching with Clarity: How to Prioritize and Do Less So Students Understand More (Frontier)

This book asks a lot of important questions, outlines what seem like very useful procedures, and provides plenty of specific examples. What it doesn’t provide is time. Still, I think that if one can work a willing coalition and agree to start small, then there is a lot of power in what Frontier has to say here. The challenge will be in how to keep his ideas present as I get increasingly bogged down in the day-to-day activities of the year.