After what can only be described as the month from Hell, I am trying desperately to get myself back on track. Grading Crucible essay can only help, right?
Today, I thought I would give my Top 3 Educational Book all teachers (current and future) should take a gander at. These have greatly affected the way I teach for the better.
1. Readicide by Kelly Gallagher
Simply put, Gallagher is awesome! He is such an inspiration as a teacher, and who I hope to eventually become like. In Readicide, he writes on the systematic killing of reading done in public schools and how simple changes can be made to help bring that love back. His ideas on Articles of the Week, Books of the Month are easy additions to anyone's class that can help foster reading importance in the classroom. In addition, his thoughts on overteaching and underteaching were quite eye-opening. A great read if you are currently a teacher. My department read it this year and many enjoyed it.
2. Teaching Argument Writing by George Hillocks Jr
A little dry, but great for starting the thoughts on how to teach writing to middle and high school students. In particular, his mini-lessons are fun and really start the kids thinking about how to build arguments. There is nothing like completing a murder mystery with a bunch of freshmen to get the morning going. Really well done book by Hillocks.
3. They Say. I Say by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein
Again, another must have for writing. There use of templates are fantastic and very user friendly to students and teachers alike. They really help the students on how to "enter the conversation" and become part of a greater discourse. The later editions have some great mentor texts for students to read in conjunction with lessons using their templates. Helping students with writing is one of the hardest parts of teaching. Graff and Birkenstein ease that burden with this book.
So there you have it. Let me know what your favorite educational books are or if you want me to write on any others.
PS. Just finished Kelly Gallagher's new book. Will review soon.
So for some reason blogger just doesn't want me to post, so this is Anne...
ReplyDeleteI have the third book, but I will definitely be getting the other two!
May I also recommend Appleman's Critical Encounters in High School English: Teaching Literary Theory to Adolescents; I'm not currently teaching, but it is the main resource for my unit plan with Roopsi.
I second Anne's recommendation of Critical Encounters. It is SO useful for thinking about how to make literary theory accessible at the high school level.
DeleteI'll have to read Readicide--sounds like it could be really important for my research on digital reading.
ReplyDeleteI have an interesting relationship with Graff and Birkenstein's book. When it first came out, I didn't give it the time of day. My most pressing reason: the fill-in-the-blank templates position writing as formulaic, and that is HUGELY problematic. But then, in about 2008, I was teaching an HEOP course at SU (a course for adults who are economically and academically "disadvantaged") and for some reason (can't remember now), I brought in a template. One of the students, who had just returned to school after 15 years, said "why didn't you show us this earlier?!" He said "we need these training wheels!" I then realized that "training wheels" is the most perfect description for how instructors might use this book in a productive way.
Tanya, I am actually re-reading They Say, I Say now and am having some major revelations in terms of my own teaching of writing and realizing that these training wheels are so needed in the classroom. Definitely doing some adjusting this summer.
DeleteThanks for the recommendations. I simply MUST read Readicide -- maybe it'll finally happen this summer. And I've promptly added Teaching Argument Writing to my Amazon wish list. ;)
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