What are we Reading?

As an English teacher, I love this book. It transformed my English classroom. I have read it several times and often review it. In Book Love: Developing Depth, Stamina and Passion in Adolescent Readers, Penny Kittle provides us with a guide on how to create a community of readers. She believes all teens want to be readers, and it is up to us to open the door to great books for them. Throughout Kittle insists that “Teenagers want to read – if we let them. Students … become committed, passionate, readers given the right books, time to read, and regular responses to their thinking.” Through her conversational tone, the reader feels called to make a change and to try the strategies she suggests: understanding readers, providing choice, making time to read, conferencing and much more. This is a must read for teachers of English or literacy. Implementing the strategies suggested by Kittle transformed my teaching practice and allowed me to truly center the students' reading experiences.

In 180 Days Two Teachers and the Quest to Engage and Empower Adolescents, two of my favourite educational authors collaborated to write about planning a reading and writing program for adolescents. The book begins with setting out their beliefs for teaching and learning. These shared beliefs anchor the rest of the book as they tackle the question: "How do I fit it all in?". This book is practical and inspiring read. As an English teacher, reading this book transformed my classroom to be a more student-centered place.

Learning is not about grades. And grades do not always reflect the learning, but they should in Grading for Equity Joel Feldman dives into the history of grading, and how we should change our grading practices to be more equitable. He provides specific strategies teachers can use and evidence of the effectiveness of these strategies.

In truth, I wish I had read this book before I ever read the Growing Success document. This book provides a rich and thoughtful discussion about grading ideologies that not only supports Growing Success, but adds to the tool kit. I highly recommend this book. It reshaped my views on grading.

This amazing book encourages us to get our students thinking deeply about math. Liljedahl offers us practical practices that can be implemented in the classroom. The organization of the book encourages educators to try new strategies in manageable ways.

Over 15 years of research, Liljedahl identified 14 factors where he in essence turned institutional norms on their head to see how student thinking would be impacted, and what he found was remarkable. In each and every case, this contrarian approach produced practices that generated more thinking than the normative baseline data. He ultimately refined his research into what he calls, optimal practices that promote thinking .

This is an important read for ALL educators as we can all use these strategies to engage our students.