In "A Practical Postscript," Burke concludes the book by applying the four C's to
administrators and teachers. For example, he shows how administrators will show
commitment by listing areas that need to be addressed, like professional development and
strategic planning. Teachers will show their commitment by how they foster student
access and being involved in school activities that go beyond the classroom.
Burke summarizes and refers to a lot of research that bears on his topic (seven pages
of material cited by the author appear in the book's Appendix A). Although he does
mention ways of actually achieving the goal of transforming indifferent students into more
enthusiastic and capable learners, the bulk of what one finds in this relatively short volume
makes a case for the four Cs' relevance. I don't think too many educators really need
convincing that these things are important.
Pages: 160
Price: $18.50
ISBN: 0-325-00632-6
Reviewed by Robert F. Walch, Retired educator, Monterey, California
Carnie, Fiona (2003)
Alternative Approaches to Education: A Guide for Parents and Teachers.
London: RoutledgeFalmer.
“What is education for? Is it about lighting a fire or filling a bucket? Is it about
personal development or providing fodder for the economic markets? Is it about keeping
children off the streets or installing in them the knowledge, skills and attitudes to create a
fairer and more sustainable world?” (p.1).
So begins Fiona Carnie’s Alternative Approaches to Education, the subtitle
of which pitches itself as “a guide for parents and teachers.” It is to parents, in Great
Britain, seeking alternatives to public, religious, and elite preparatory schools that this
work most directly speaks. Parents outside of the UK will find this less useful, though
many of the formal options described here are present in (say) the cities of North America.
It is a descriptive catalog, including personal testimony by students, parents, and teachers,
of alternative schools that adhere in significant part to the philosophy of “human scale
education.”
The elaborated principles of human scale education are: 1) positive relationships, 2) a
holistic approach to learning, 3) democratic participation, 4) partnership with parents and
the local community, 5) environmental sustainability, and 6) small structures (which the
author defines and explains in pp. 17-21). The core thesis of human scale education is that
large comprehensive schools fail to meet the needs of many of their students, and that “a
smaller scale,” smaller-sized and more personal environments, is better-suited to
accomplish this. Carnie briefly mentions American research that attests to the
effectiveness of smaller schools (p. 176). Besides praising American research and
experimentation with smaller-scale schools (particularly the Coalition of Essential
Schools, pp. 173-185, and see Sizer, 1996) she commends the openness of American
curriculum. The British National Curriculum is brought under frequent criticism, and
alternative schools are portrayed as an escape from this imposition. With No Child Left
Behind and its concomitant craze for testing, however, American students and teachers are
facing the prospect of a similar straightjacket.
Carnie is not a disinterested observer. As the back cover of the book notes, “for over
ten years she has been working for Human Scale Education” (www.hse.org.uk). This non-
profit organization coordinates the efforts of the schools presented in the “Small
Alternative Schools” chapter (Chapter 2). Her work gives her a close understanding of,
and passion for, alternative schools in the UK. There is, however, no critique in this book.
The reader gets little insight into how a particular alternative school may not be ideal for
particular children or a particular social context. This lack of critique must be counted as a
deficit.
Chapters 3, 4, and 5 talk about older alternative educational philosophies and schools
that cleave to them. Here we find Montessori, Steiner Waldorf, and democratic schools
(particularly Summerhill). Chapter 6 brings in an international perspective, discussing the
Jenaplan schools in the Netherlands, Freinet’s socialist influence in France, the Reggio
Emilia phenomenon in Italy, and Dewey-based schools in the United States. Carnie
believes that the ideas behind these alternatives offer insights applicable in British schools.
This section (Chapters 2 through 6) forms the core of the catalog of alternatives to
state schools. The next (Chapters 7 through 9) discusses homeschooling, but in a
refreshingly atypical way. Carnie’s concern is with bringing people—parents, students,
teachers, and the community—together, rather than in facilitating their functioning in
complete isolation. These chapters contain a great deal of “how-to” insight for those
looking to homeschool, to join with several other families to form a small “learning
center,” or to have their children attend public school only part-time. Since much of this
section concerns navigating the British institutional and legal context in order to
accomplish one of these goals, it will be of limited usefulness to parents and students in
other countries. It is, however, useful to be aware of a greater range of options than the
either-or choice of public schooling versus homeschooling.
Besides parents, this work will be useful to two (not necessarily distinct) groups of
scholar-practitioners. One group consists of comparativists who are interested in
responses in various countries to the hegemony of state-run schools. The other group
consists of philosophers of education, to whom the options described here can suggest
different ways of understanding the ways a school can be from the public schools most of
us are most familiar with. The hegemony of state-run schools is under attack in the US,
the UK, and elsewhere. Carnie’s work provides an inspiring, if unbalanced, picture of
what the future may hold. Unlike thoroughgoingly school-critical work such as that of
John Gatto (2002), John Holt (1981, 1990, etc.), or Ivan Illich (1971), Carnie presents an
affirmative, if transformed, vision of the social learning context called school. Her final
chapter calls upon parents to be involved in the lives of school, whether mainstream or
alternative, for the betterment of their children and their society.
References
Gatto, J. (2002). Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory
Schooling. Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers.
Holt, J. (1981). Teach Your Own: A Hopeful Path for Education. New York:
Delacorte Press.
Holt, J. (1990). Learning All the Time. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley.
Illich, I. (1971). Deschooling Society. New York: Harper & Row.
Sizer, T. (1996). Horace’s Hope: What Works for the American High-School.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Pages: 197
Price: $32.95
ISBN: 0-415-24817-5
Reviewed by Brian Burtt, a PhD student at the University of Pittsburgh. His primary
interests are the role of education in political theory and the philosophy of educational
research.
Culham, Ruth & Wheeler, Amanda (2003)
40 Reproducible Forms for the Writing Traits Classroom: Checklists, Graphic
Organizers, Rubrics and Scoring Sheets, and More to Boost Students’ Writing Skills in All
Seven Traits.
New York: Scholastic.
Ruth Culham and Amanda Wheeler have combined with Scholastic Teaching
Resources to produce 40 Reproducible Forms for the Writing Traits Classroom:
Checklists, Graphic Organizers, Rubrics and Scoring Sheets, and More to Boost Students’
Writing Skills in All Seven Traits. The workbook, designed for teachers of students in
grades three and up, has tear out forms (with reproduction privileges), and includes
checklists, graphic organizers, rubrics, rubric scoring sheets, as well as tips and
suggestions for using the forms in a classroom. The authors have expanded the traditional
six writing traits (ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and
conventions) to a 6 +1 model through the addition of presentation as the seventh trait.
They claim that through the use of these materials student writing skills will be boosted.
The text includes a brief introduction to the use of six plus one traits as a teaching
and learning tool in the writing classroom. In addition to a description of the traits, the
authors describe a “powerful relationship” between the six trait writing process and
multiple modes of writing. According to the authors, six trait writing can be used
successfully with narrative, expository, persuasive, descriptive and imaginative writing
and should be used at all levels of the writing process. The resources are presented in two
major divisions, section one includes “Reproducible Forms for Teaching the Writing
Traits” while section two includes “Reproducible Forms for Teaching the Writing
Modes”. Pages are clearly numbered and the contents thoroughly outlined.
In the first section, the authors provide rubrics that can be used by both teachers and
students with a 4, 5, and/or 6 point scoring system. The rubrics are complete and user
friendly, yet they lack a place to tally the overall score (average or total). The student
sample scoring sheets are an important tool for student reflection on their own or their
peers’ work. The parent communication subsection that follows provides valuable tools
for parent-student communication about writing and the subsequent lesson planning
support is of good quality. However, both of these subsections would be better placed if
located prior to all other tools in the first section.
The reproducible forms for teaching the traits are clearly described with actual
pictures of the forms and specific page references. In addition, the authors suggest how to
use the specific tear-out sheets and provide teaching tips for using the forms in classrooms.
Some of the forms designed specifically for students may be too juvenile beyond the
junior high classroom using the writing traits model.
Section two comprises one-third of the total text and provides for application of the
writing traits to a variety of modes of writing (including narrative, expository, persuasive,
descriptive and imaginative). The format is similar to section one, yet unlike the previous
section, it starts with forms designed to increase parent communication regarding the
writing process. This is followed by checklists and then quick references and graphic
organizers. The checklists and quick reference pages give students good guidance and tips
for writing in each mode.
The authors present practical tools for using 6 + 1 trait writing in the classroom. The
workbook is inexpensive, clearly notated, and easy to use. Teachers who use this tool may
be more effective with prior training in the 6-trait process, even though the authors do
provide background information for those unfamiliar with the use of writing traits.
The authors claim that student writing in all seven traits will be boosted through the
use of the materials in this book. While this claim is difficult to support without any
student data, it is true that the organized presentation of reproducible material for teachers,
students, and parents will be an efficient and valuable tool in the writing traits classroom.
Teaching writing traits is indeed appropriate and effective for both a variety of different
grade levels and a variety of writing modes, however a majority of the student
reproducible forms found in 40 Reproducible Forms for the Writing Traits
Classroom seem best suited for use with students in grades three through eight.
Pages: 64
Price: $11.99
ISBN: 0-439-55684-8
Reviewed by Kristin K. Stang, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the Department of Special
Education, College of Education, at California State University, Fullerton.
Culham, Ruth, & Wheeler, Amanda (2003)
Writing to Prompts in the Trait-Based Classroom: Content Areas.
New York: Scholastic.
Culham, Ruth, & Wheeler, Amanda (2003)
Writing to Prompts in the Trait-Based Classroom: Literature Response.
New York: Scholastic.
These two titles by Culham and Wheeler offer teachers of Grades 3 to 8 ways to
encourage their students to write well. Both books mainly consist of writing prompts that
teachers can photocopy for immediate use in the classroom, but both books also provide
teachers with a method for creating their own writing prompts, following the style used by
the authors.
The writing prompts that Culham and Wheeler present here are based on the "6 + 1
traits of writing" that Culham has written more extensively about in 6 + 1 Traits of
Writing : The Complete Guide (Scholastic, 2003). These writing traits are the
characteristics of good writing, as identified by a group of teachers in the mid-1980s, and
include ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, conventions and
presentation (pp. 7-8, Literature Response; pp. 7-8 Content Areas).
Culham and Wheeler have devised a tidy writing prompt format for creating writing
assignments that encourage students to include the desirable writing traits in their written
work. The Culham and Wheeler writing prompt always includes five elements: a role, an
audience, a specific format, a topic, and a strong verb that suggests a tone for the writing.
Referred to as R.A.F.T.S. prompts, these writing assignments require students to write
from a particular perspective (Role), to write for a particular person or group (Audience),
to organize their writing within a particular structure (Format), to write on a particular
subject (Topic), and to write with a particular purpose in mind (the Strong verb). In both
books teachers are encouraged to create writing prompts by first identifying the
components of the R.A.F.T.S. prompt on a grid, and then to transfer the prompt to
paragraph form. The authors suggest underlining and identifying the R.A.F.T.S.
components for the students' information, although some teachers may find this
identification of the prompt components unnecessary, depending on the writing levels of
their students. Certainly the identification of the assignment pieces assures that the
students have clear directions for their writing.
In the Literature Response book Culham and Wheeler offer R.A.F.T.S.
prompts for 19 "Realistic Fiction" titles, 12 "Historical Fiction" titles, and 14 "Fantasy
Fiction" titles. The novels are popular titles, including several Newbery award winners.
Teachers of the middle grades will certainly recognize most of the titles and will find, too,
that the Culham and Wheeler method of creating these writing prompts makes creating
your own prompts for other novels a less daunting task that in it may otherwise seem. The
inclusion of a page of "Formats to Consider When Creating Your Own Prompts" and
"Strong Verbs to Consider When Creating Your Own Prompts" is helpful for teachers who
want to prepare writing assignments based on the literature studied in their classrooms.
In the Content Areas book Culham and Wheeler offer many R.A.F.T.S.
prompts for Social Science, Math, and Science classrooms, with an emphasis on the
national standards in each discipline. For teachers who want to promote writing across the
curriculum as an effective way of learning, this book will provide excellent ideas for
integrating writing into the content areas. A page of formats and strong verbs is again
helpfully included at the end of this book, along with clear instructions for teachers on
how to create their own R.A.F.T.S. prompts.
These two teacher resource books offer elementary and middle school teachers many
ready-to-use writing prompts and a straightforward method for creating their own clear
and imaginative writing assignments. Teachers of Grades 3-8 literature, science, math,
and social studies who are looking for new ways to encourage their students to write will
find these well-organized books a helpful source of curriculum-related writing ideas. Both
titles are recommended for all teacher resource centers and especially for teachers who
want new ideas for writing prompts.
Content Areas book
Pages: 80
Price: $12.99
ISBN: 0-439-55685-6
Literature Response book
Pages: 80
Price: $12.99
ISBN: 0-439-55683-X
Reviewed by Brenda Reed, Queen’s University, Canada
Dew-Hughes, Denise (2004)
Educating Children with Fragile X Syndrome: A Multi-Professional View.
London: RoutledgeFalmer.
During a teaching career many teachers will have opportunities to work with students
with Fragile X Syndrome in mainstream classes. In depth knowledge of the features of the
syndrome and appropriate instructional strategies will help teachers work successfully and
compassionately with this group of students.
Fragile X Syndrome is a common inherited disability previously known as a type of
“mental retardation”. The specific genetic mechanism producing this disability was
identified in the early 1990’s. Many individuals with this syndrome experience life-long
learning and other disabilities.
Educating Children with Fragile X Syndrome was written for classroom
teachers, and other educators. It was edited by a British educator in association with the
Fragile X Society. Included are 24 chapters by international authors representing a variety
of disciplines. This interdisciplinary approach is likely to be of value to a teacher wanting
to learn more about the instructional implications of this syndrome.
The contributors aim to help teachers learn about the syndrome and then differentiate
their instruction to attend to the specific learning needs and disabilities of these students.
For example, social anxiety is a common characteristic for children with Fragile X and
certain types of learning environments are likely to increase anxiety and trigger
problematic reactions. Knowing this, teachers can intervene.
Much research has been done on Fragile X Syndrome and the empirically based
content of this book is a strength. While the research results may be found in the journal
literature, it is more accessible to teachers and others when collected into an edited
monograph such as this one.
Attention to gender differences and life span developmental issues in the
manifestation of the syndrome are additional strengths of the book as is the use of
affirming language and tone in the text. In contrast, given that the audience for the book is
teachers, the use of more case examples to illustrate features of the syndrome in the
classroom context would enhance the book. Some content, for example, that referring to
education legislation and policy is specific to England, and readers elsewhere will need to
consult other sources for material relevant to their own country.
This book is recommended for academic libraries serving teacher preparation
programs, education practitioners, and others wanting to learn about the syndrome.
Pages: 196
Price: $47.95
ISBN: 0415314887
Reviewed by Laurel Haycock, Librarian for Education, Psychology, & Speech-Hearing-
Language Science, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN.
Fidler, Brian & Atton, Tessa (2004)
The Headship Game: The Challenges of Contemporary School Leadership.
London: RoutledgeFalmer.
In all fairness, I probably anticipated reading The Headship Game with
unreasonably high hopes. For years I have studied school leadership, with particular
emphasis on headship. Much of this study was self-serving, as I have pondered my own
career path. Thus, I grew excited when Fidler and Atton state early on,
We hope that aspiring heads will gain an understanding of the contributions of their
learning and experience through a series of posts in school and more formal qualifications
before headship. It should also make them more aware of the demands on heads and the
pitfalls. We hope that this does not discourage them but makes them more realistic and
determined to be well prepared (p. 4).
They also wish to help educate those
who work with heads on professional issues and governors/trustees. Admirable goals,
indeed. Unfortunately, at least for me, the book does not meet them. It falls short in both
content and style.
I am one of those readers who sits with pen in hand, marking and starring passages
that grab my attention. A provocative idea, some new information, a well-written
section—I highlight anything that I may want to refer to later. After the introduction, I
found myself marking little in The Headship Game. Much of the material was
very basic information on leadership and education. And while on the surface Fidler and
Atton deserve credit for their research—they cite many studies and have a long list of
references—they seem to cite their own work much more frequently than any other.
The book also remains much too conceptual. It included plenty of theory about
school headship, as it must; but the case studies seem almost afterthoughts. In fact, they
are presented in separate shaded boxes, with only rather superficial analysis and
commentary. To make the book work better, Fidler and Atton should have developed the
cases in greater depth and used them to introduce the theories and concepts that they
wished to explore. Doing so would have made school heads seem fuller as people and thus
better as real-life lessons.
The heavy majority of the case studies also seemed to dwell on the pitfalls of the job:
problems with boards; poor accreditation reviews; sticky personnel issues; all the demands
on one’s life. In many ways, the book supported the notion that heads are hired only to be
eventually fired. While Fidler and Atton certainly want to make their readers fully aware
of the job’s overwhelming and often precarious nature, they only make some general
references to the rewards and pleasures. I know many heads who, despite the pressures of
the game, crave no other role.
So, while I admit that my expectations and awareness may have made me the wrong
audience for The Headship Game, I also would not recommend it to anyone just
beginning to consider a headship. Despite their goals quoted above, I can see the book
scaring potential heads away rather than nurturing their interest and talents. We need more
young educators rising to the challenges of serving as a school head. After all, headship
should not be a game, but a calling.
Pages: 248
Price: $39.95
ISBN: 0-415-27781-7
Reviewed by Mark Crotty, Director of Curricular Programs PreK-12, Greenhill School,
Addison, TX
Galey, Paula (2004)
Keep Cool! Strategies for Managing Anger at School.
Markham, Ontario: Pembroke Publishers,
distributed by Stenhouse.
This book is directed to teachers and specifically, in my opinion, to middle school
teachers, to help them offer children positive ways to manage their anger in school. There
are teaching suggestions, and both strategies and hands-on activities to use with children
to manage or channel their anger into non-aggressive, non-violent behaviours that are
more socially acceptable. The author mentions several times that these strategies are also
useful for the teacher to use to manager her/his own anger.
This short easy-to-read book is divided into seven chapters, starting with an
introduction. The first chapter introduces anger, then describes a useful “hassle log” – a
reproducible sheet to help students document and reflect on their own behaviour when
they get angry. To raise the awareness of the students, the suggestion is to start with an
“anger control game” – a game intended to have the players experience the feeling of
anger. Another activity has students complete a Johari-like window (Luft, unreferenced
by Galey) about themselves, where they identify things, time, people, or actions that make
them angry. Several more suggestions are provided to help students display anger in
themselves as an identified reaction to something that occurred, such as putting up pieces
of paper that look like bricks on a classroom wall to explain one’s present state of anger.
Some of the activities lead students to understand why they are angry. Some of the
activities are more academic ways of identifying one’s anger; however, the final activity is
a physical activity – students keep colored balloons in the air by hitting them as a way to
release their pent-up anger.
Each of next five chapters has a similar format starting with Key Ideas. This is
followed by Starting Off Ideas (activities that introduce the topic), Let’s Talk about Habits
(our good and bad habits), Let’s Talk about Rules, and Let’s Talk about Behavior Rules.
Chapter 1, “Where does my anger come from?” discusses just that. I like how the focus is
on “me,” rather than the impersonal ‘you’ or ‘one.’ Following these sections are more
reproducible handouts to reinforce the points learned about habits, rules, and behavior
rules. I particularly like the saying at the end of this chapter: “Anger is only one letter
away from Danger,” to reiterate the concern that while people can be and are angry, they
must avoid hurting themselves, others, or property.
Chapter 2 is entitled “I’m boiling over,” and includes feelings of anger, excess
baggage, and finally triggering anger in others. Each of these topics has a work sheet,
with “permission to copy for classroom use.” Simplistic pictures help to convey the
intention or meaning of each of the worksheets.
Chapter 3, “Focus on the Physical,” introduces the key idea of how our bodies
respond when we are angry, and how we can respond so as not to harm others or
ourselves. As before, there are “starting off ideas,” (the lesson motivator), our physical
reactions, ways to keep calm, and ending with a section on the strategy of time out in order
to cool out. The work sheets are in an unexpected order following these ideas: first, there
are several work sheets on time outs; the work sheets next are on the physical reactions to
anger, following by ways of keeping/maintaining calm, then ending with a work sheet of
an anger thermometer where students are to name and draw their degree/level of anger.
The work sheets are in a different order than the topics presented in this section, making it
somewhat confusing for the reader. Moreover, they provide unnecessary detail and
prescription. Surely students can brainstorm different ways that they remain “cool, calm,
and collected,” as an example of an unnecessary work sheet. After reading this chapter, I
am surprised that the balloon activity was detailed in the introductory chapter, and not put
here. Moreover, there are many other physical ways not provided here that are well
known to help eradicate anger – such as making faces, yelling outside, pounding a pillow,
etc.
Chapter 4 is entitled “Focus on Thoughts,” and explores the power of our thoughts
for: remaining positive, putting things in perspective, thinking ahead and recognizing the
consequences of one’s actions. It suggests anticipating situations by working through
anger scenarios. Each of the issues in this chapter is accompanied by a straightforward
work sheet. I consider this to be one of the more important chapters in this book; here, I
contend, is where more work sheets would be beneficial.
The next chapter, “Powerful Words,” should really be titled “Managing Conflict
Effectively.” It very briefly underscores the importance of talking things through with
others, and discusses how to negotiate. The author provides the “I feel” words on how to
talk and explicitly express what is bothering a person. Again, as the author states,
interpersonal communications is a very important concept. I would add that it is a very
sophisticated form of interacting. As with the previous chapter on thoughts, I do not think
that the topic can be so easily addressed.
The final chapter reviews the unit on anger management, and offers more handouts
that students can use when feeling angry and to help them remember what to do when one
is angry (time outs, calming down, positive thinking). I am doubtful as to whether these
reproducibles should be handouts, or if they might be better used as signs put up around
the classroom, to remind the students about the strategies they have learned for managing
their anger. I do like the last reproducible however; it is the certificate that teachers can
give to students who “know the skills for how to keep cool!”
This book is a useful book, for both teachers and students. It does, more or less,
what the author purports it does – provides some strategies to help students control their
anger and manage it effectively (i.e., so as not to hurt themselves, others or property). Its
content, approach, and reproducibles vary, however, in effectiveness; at times, the book
seems to be addressing younger children; at other times, it addresses more mature children
(i.e., those in middle school). In particular chapters 4 and 5 contain much more
sophisticated content than the previous chapters. Even the drawings on the handouts vary
in substance and quality: very simple black and white sketches of the same girl and boy
throughout, animals, and more cartoon-like characters.
I want to end by thanking the author for providing all those handouts (albeit too
many) and giving explicit permission for them to be copied for classroom use. After all,
this book was written for its utility; in that, it has accomplished its objective.
References
Luft, J. (1969). Of Human Interaction. Palo Alto, CA: National Press.
Pages: 71
Price: $17.00 (US), $18.95(Canadian)
ISBN: 1 55138 168 0
Reviewed by Reviewed by Ruth Rees, PhD, Associate Professor, Faculty of Education,
Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Graves, Donald H. (2004)
Teaching Day by Day: 180 Stories to Help You Along the Way.
Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
The utility of stories for educating young children cannot be understated. As Neil
Postman wrote in Atlantic, human beings require stories to give meaning to the
fact of their existence. To answer simple and complex questions that children raise about
their existence requires more than just information; it requires stories through which facts
can assume meanings. Stories provide the context to the imagination and a structure to
our perceptions of the self and of the ‘other’.
Stories provide normative theories about how the world and life work. They arrange
the information that a child uses to make sense of the things around her and also to
reorganize what can be regarded as information in the first place. Once children form
perceptions of their own self they often change stories and come up with their own.
Donald Graves’ Teaching Day by Day: 180 Stories to Help You Along the
Way is a collection of stories from various facets of his life. The usefulness of Graves’
collection not only lies in that it provides teachers with a ready to use anthology but also
in the fact that this collection of stories is an extremely useful guide for authentic teaching.
The 180 stories in the volume are arranged in 9 sections. Stories in each section pertain to
the author’s experiences as a person, as a family man, as a teacher and as a learner.
Graves combines autobiography, thick qualitative description, anecdotes, narratives
and touching stories from the inner landscape of a caring teacher to come up with 180
vignettes (roughly one for each day of the average school calendar) that can be used in
many teaching situations. Teachers can use these stories to not only for teaching writing
but for a multitude of teaching and learning activities at various levels of education. They
can also use these stories to explore their inner landscapes, inspect their emotional and
intellectual baggage and bring out their authenticity.
References
Postman, N. (1989). Learning By Story. The Atlantic, 264(6), 119-124.
Pages: 204
Price: $18.50
ISBN: 0-325-00598-2
Reviewed by Muhammad Ayaz Naseem, McGill University, Montreal
Hamm, Barbara (2004)
Media Center Discovery: 180 Ready-to-Use Activities for Language Arts, Grades 5-
8.
San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Barbara Hamm presents us with a new offering in the realm of guiding upper primary
and middle school students through activities and lessons designed to promote effective
use of libraries in writing tasks. This 48 lesson book is structured to meet the American
Association of School Librarians (AASL) and the Association for Education
Communications and Technology (ACET) joint guidelines which established nine
Information Literacy Standards for Student Learning in 1988.
The eleven Units have from one to nine lessons each, arranged in general categories
(Using Reference Resources, Dewey Decimal System, Fiction, Electronic Materials, etc.).
Each lesson has activities for students, while most also have transparencies and
worksheets. Some also have ideas for playing games, which research shows increases the
engagement of students in their learning.
The strengths of this work are that many of the elements of the various lessons
include explicit instruction to guide teachers in teaching students the areas, genres,
resources, layout, and applications for the resources in a library. Hamm’s extensive
experience as a classroom teacher and library media specialist is evident. Her use of
activities, games, worksheets, and transparencies supports student learning. The
transparencies and worksheets she provides are designed to be photocopied right out of the
book, making it easy to select and develop a lesson quickly. She also provides
recommendations, based on her experience, for the approximate grade level of difficulty
the activities represent. These guidelines would be helpful in designing differentiated
lessons for students at varying levels of readiness for library skills.
One limitation of the book is the numbering system used to identify parts of lessons
across units. The transparencies, activities, worksheets, and games are numbered
sequentially within a unit, but span several lessons, making identification of which one
goes with which lesson somewhat tedious. A few of the games suggested lack some of
the details necessary to envision the structure for the games, or how students would
understand defining success in the game. (e.g.: p.121, “Encyclopedia” – results are a guess
of common topic, without description of how teams “win” or define success or how to
deal with close but not exact guesses—much teacher discretion in design required.) Some
minor distractions occur as the author refers to home reference libraries (p. xxiv),
indicating that yearly updates of encyclopedias are a large investment. While this may be
true for paper versions, CD-ROM versions of Encyclopedia Britannica are available for
under $10. In addition, much emphasis is placed on lessons focused on traditional card
catalogs (five lessons) while two are designed to teach electronic retrieval. As we move
through the technological revolution in schools, the balance of attention might be better
allocated to additional attention in the area of electronic catalog searching.
In this era of accountability and standards-based instruction, this book presents an
entire curriculum on the use of libraries tied to a nationally established set of standards.
For a library/media center specialist or a teacher who has considerable available time to
spend with students in familiarizing them with the library, many of the activities
recommended would do well in serving the purpose of enhancing students’ understanding
of what is in a library and how to find it.
Pages: 360
Price: $29.95
ISBN: 0-7879-6960-5
Reviewed by Karen S. Romito, Educational Consultant (Curriculum Management
Systems, Inc., Phi Delta Kappa, Association of California School Administrators,
Consortium on Reading Excellence) and doctoral student, St. Mary’s College of
California.
Kelly, Jennifer (2004)
Borrowed Identities.
New York: Peter Lang.
As educators we come into constant contact with children from various backgrounds
who adhere to a wide range of values, interests and styles. Quite often, with minority
groups in particular, we tend to educate ourselves in the differences that cross the
abundance of cultures but disregard behavior that we see as having more to do with urban
street culture than race or ethnicity.
Borrowed Identities looks at the impact the technology of the 21st century
has had on African-Canadian youth and the way they view themselves in relation to other
students, blacks, Canadians and Africans. In a search for both, meaning and
interconnectedness, this qualitative study rests on the narratives of black Canadian high
school students. In it they share their views on a host of topics ranging from national
identity to music and clothing.
Kelly’s basic premise is this: due to the pervasive and dominating presence of U.S.
media in Canada (and the world) along with its accompanying commodification and push
for consumption, black youth from Canada create, or rather borrow, an “Imaginary
blackness…. upon visuality, icons, [and] images” (p. 147, quoted from Gilroy, 2000)
transmitted via electronic and print media from urban America. At the heart of the book
are three chapters in which an “indication of how representation works intertextually to
contour meaning through racialized regimes of representation” (p. 59) are characterized
through music, magazines, television and film.
The hypermasculine attitude, style of dress, walk, argot and slang as imitated in
school hallways were first portrayed by U.S. hip-hop music and films like Boyz N the
Hood, and are adopted as universally symbolic of the black experience. The
application to those of us who reside and teach in the U.S. is this: the Canadian youth who
take upon themselves this Hollywood persona are no farther removed from this ultra-urban
image being marketed to them as authentic, than are black youth living in rural or
suburban America. Until we recognize “the extraordinary diversity of subjective
positions, social experiences and cultural identities which compose the category ‘black,’
that is the recognition that ‘black’ is essentially a politically and culturally constructed
category, which cannot be grounded in a set of fixed transcultural or transcendental racial
categories” (p. 191, as quoted from Hall, 1988) we will be faced with students who
subscribe to an artificial youth culture to fill the gap in their search for who they really are.
Kelly does a marvelous job of addressing the issue of the African diaspora as it
relates to black collective consciousness in a white-dominated society. Here we see the
youth “articulate a discourse of ‘blackness’ and ‘belonging’ that crosses geographic
borders” (p. 32). Coming from a U.S., politically-correct environment in which we use the
reference African-American, I was amazed to read that these Canadian youth identified
more with the label of Black. None of them seemed to distinguish themselves as Canadian
even though they may have been born there. Nor was there much of a connection with
Africa, many recognized specific countries, like Jamaica and the West Indies, as the origin
of their roots. As one boy put it:
Saaka: I don’t like when people say… they are African. ‘What
country in Africa are you from?’ When people ask me if I am African, I go ‘No, I am
Nigerian.’ They ask, ‘Where is that?’ ‘Africa.’ They go ‘Oooh.’ No one knows anything
about Africa because it’s never taught. [Nigeria is the biggest] country in Africa and no
one can find it on a map. It’s like Americans [laugh] Americans don’t know anything
about Canada (p.38).
One of the most refreshing points of the book is to break away from the weightiness
of the “expert,” theoretical verbiage, and get to read the simple words and thoughts of the
actual kids being examined. Kelly weaves the student narratives from both one-on-one
interviews and focus groups into her explanation of the theories and issues surrounding
identity formation and black Canadian youth. At times the author’s own bias is revealed
as she makes assumptions tying the students’ mind to academic theory. The ties are not
always straightforward, at times ambiguous. Early in the book the author admits that
inherent in this type of study is a certain level of subjectivity and researcher bias. She
does not see that bias as being problematic, but rather a virtue to be embraced. The most
obvious point for me was that there were few clear threads connecting the students. Each
had views and opinions, backgrounds and tastes that crossed the gamut of human
existence.
Although Borrowed Identities draws on the views of only fourteen black
Canadian students from two Edmonton schools, their thoughts on matters of race, gender,
sexuality and religion as impacted by popular movies and music echo through school
corridors and on street corners clear across America. While not a casual read by any
means it does, in the best standards of academic writing, serve as a seed for thought and
consideration in how we look at our children and their struggle to find self and meaning in
this global and consumption driven world.
References
Gilroy, P. (2000). Between camps. London: Allen Lane, Penguin Press.
Hall, S. (1988). The toad in the garden: Thatcherism among the theorists. In
L. Grossberg & C. Nelson (Eds.), Marxism and the interpretation of culture (pp.
35-57).
Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
Pages: 231
Price: $29.95
ISBN: 0-8204-6127-X
Reviewed by Kevin D. Simmons, Adams State College. Currently a student in the MA
program in Counseling Psychology. He is also the At Risk department head and Student
Support Team (SST) chair of an 800+ student middle school in an economically depressed
area of southern Utah. He will also be taking on the position of Guidance Counselor at the
Liahona Academy (an RTC for teenage boys) this year. This book review was completed
as a class project for "Lifespan Development." The book was selected because of an
interest in the impact of communication (BS in Organizational Communication from the
University of Portland) and its impact on adolescent identity formation; particularly in
minority groups.
Kristo, Janice V. & Bamford, Rosemary A. (2004)
Nonfiction In Focus: A Comprehensive Framework for Helping Students Become
Independent Readers and Writers of Nonfiction, K – 6.
New York: Scholastic.
I’m a freelance writer of non-fiction essays, with published stories about travel and
food around the world. I was curious then, about teaching non-fiction to school age
children.
For a comprehensive review in “how to” form, turn to Nonfiction in Focus.
Authors Kristo and Bamford present a complete system for teaching students to
comprehend, respond to, and write nonfiction. Divided into two parts, the first half of the
book explains nonfiction and how to evaluate this genre for use in a literacy program. The
second half details strategies for using nonfiction as a literacy learning activity, building
sequentially from teacher-guided through independent student activities.
The book’s teaching/learning framework is derived from Vygotsky's Social-Cultural
Theory. Scaffolding by the teacher of literacy activities in nonfiction is a primary strategy,
while other facets of Vygotskian theory are demonstrated in the “read aloud” and “think
aloud” activities encouraged by the authors. Each chapter clearly illustrates with examples
and tables the type of scaffolded instruction presented.
Each chapter presents a figure, highlighting activities for that chapter against the total
framework. In Part Two of the book, the authors wisely begin at the most scaffolded level
of teaching (Instructional Read-Alouds and Modeled Writing) and progress to the most
teacher-independent instruction (reading and writing through Discovery Circles). Each
Part Two chapter begins with “Quick Points” explaining the purpose, scaffolding level,
teacher/student roles, instructional context, types of materials and possible future
directions for the chapter’s instructional method.
Along the way are lists of suggested books and “text sets” reflective of a particular
theme for the curriculum. Figures and tables clearly explain the major points and are
useful resources for comprehending the framework, particularly within a teacher-training
setting. Other sidebars include benefits of instruction, prompts to use, points to consider,
and stages of reading behaviors across the K-6 spectrum, comparison charts, classroom
guides and check sheets. The chapter’s main points are summarized at the end in “Closing
Thoughts.”
Nonfiction in Focus also includes multiple appendices that list nonfiction
award winners, magazines of nonfiction for children and helpful checklists for student
assessment of nonfiction works, teacher assessment of instruction, and curriculum design
for K-6 nonfiction studies.
The book is awash with figures, boxes and sidebars, which may be both its strong
suit and its Achilles’ heel. I found my eye continually drawn to the figures attractively
scattered over nearly every page. But the text was gnawingly similar to the boxes I had
just read. The prose-heavy figures provide a quick summary, explanatory content and
easily digested points, which contribute to the implementation of the learning framework.
The text covers the same information, often without adding depth to the fine explanations
in the figures.
Suggested non-fiction text sets in the book are narrowly focused. Nature topics are
favorites, as are books of historical non-fiction. Other areas like cultural studies,
recreation, personal essay, manufacturing processes, travel and customs are clearly
missing from the repertoire suggested for the K-6 student. The enterprising teacher can dig
through the appendices for further suggestions, or arrive at the conclusion that these topics
are, perhaps, less conductive to K-6 student learning. I disagree.
Overall, Nonfiction in Focus provides a well-researched and comprehensive
system of instruction grounded in relevant educational theory. This book would be an
excellent addition for the new teacher, or as a faculty development and teacher training
resource. It can help literacy students understand how nonfiction information is presented
and used, and how to wisely approach the material, whether it’s is the life cycle of
butterflies or a first-person tale about eating gelato in Italy.
References
Lefrancois, G. R. (1994). Psychology for teaching. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth
Publishing Company.
Vygotsky, L.S. (1978.) Mind in society: The development of higher psychological
processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Pages: 304
Price: $27.99
ISBN: 0-439-36598-8
Reviewed by Deborah J. Smith, Ed. D., Empire State College, Saratoga Springs, New
York
Levin, Diane E. (2003)
Teaching Young Children in Violent Times: Building a Peaceable Classroom.
Second edition.
Cambridge, MA: Educators for Social
Responsibility .
Diane Levin’s Teaching Young Children in Violent Times provides step-by-
step guidance for pre-school and kindergarten teachers who want to make their classrooms
more peaceable. Well integrated with this guidance are useful summaries of relevant
theory in child development, conflict resolution, and the effects of media on young
children’s thinking. Levin favors child-based and child-initiated discussion over all else,
and her book includes many interesting verbatim transcripts of discussions among children
and teachers, and discussions between teachers and individual students. Some of these
transcripts include running commentary by the author about what the teacher or child is
doing, and what the teacher ought to do. The primary framework of her method can be
seen in her advice about how to talk with children about violent events in the media: listen
to what children say and ask open-ended questions to discover what they know and think;
respond to the issues they raise rather than bringing in adult agendas, answers, facts;
provide information necessary for child to “feel safe;” consider each discussion as part of
an ongoing process.
In the first section, “Establishing a Foundation for Peace,” Levin describes the
ubiquitousness of violence in the contemporary American world as existing on a
continuum from “real” experienced violence in home (low prevalence of exposure), to
media violence (nearly universal exposure). This unending exposure to violence leads
children to develop repertoires of conflict behaviors grounded in the use of violence,
rather than peace, to achieve solutions. According to the constructivist developmental
theory presented by Levin, the meanings that young children construct from events and
experiences are egocentric, imitative, conflated with fantasy, stimulus-bound, and non-
logical. In this stage they are prone, without active adult help, to make the very worst of
violence. Adults must provide opportunities and scaffolding in order to complicate
children’s thinking/actions in such a way that they can think/act peaceably. From here,
Levin presents a model of a peaceable classroom where the first need is to be safe and to
feel safe. The developmental needs most important for the teacher in the peaceable
classroom to meet are safety, autonomy, connectedness and mutual respect, gender
identity and appreciation of diversity, understanding of violent experiences, and support
for personal meaning making. Guidelines for teaching practices that support this model are
provided.
In the second section, “Building a Peaceable Classroom,” Levin addresses conflict
resolution, anti-bias education, creative play, and dealing with media violence. Conflict
resolution is an essential aspect of peace education, made difficult by the level of
aggression and the poor repertoire of peacemaking skills brought to schools by children,
by teachers’ own dispositions and training, and by the emphasis in schools on discipline
and performance. According to Levin, teachers must go beyond treating children’s
behavior as a management/discipline problem and help children build skills for solving
their own conflicts peaceably (i.e. through discussion), arriving at win-win, rather than
win-lose, solutions. A frequent source of conflict and violence are the stereotypes and
biases brought from home, and the world generally, into the classroom. Teachers are
urged, when confronted with, e.g., racist or sexist behavior and words to suppress the urge
to “pour adults ideas into kids’ heads,” and instead to allow kids to talk freely and safely
and together about what they think and why. They must help children construct bias-free
representations, incorporate all aspects of diversity in their curricula, encourage mutual
respect and promote just action: this should be the core of social studies in the early
childhood classroom.
Levin goes on to say that anti-bias education is not colorblind, not adult-oriented, and
does not “exoticize” otherness. The chapter on fostering creative play centers on
overcoming the tendency of children to overuse media characters, like the Power Rangers,
and media-scripts, like simple good vs. evil scenario in which the good characters are
permitted every form of violence against the bad. In the author’s view play is primarily
cognitive, that is, working out cognitive solutions to understand “violence” or other kinds
of affective problems. The role of teacher is to help children complicate their play in ways
that allow them to move beyond the narrow, prescriptive and violent solutions to conflicts
offered in the media, to more nuanced understandings and peaceable solutions. Levin
concludes this section with discussion and guidelines related to dealing with children’s
exposure to violence in the news, with a special emphasis on work with children in the
aftermath of 9/11. The emphasis here is on using whatever material children bring to the
table to arrive at safe, constructive, helpful representations. For example, one boy’s art
suggests that we should give Osama Bin Laden money to buy building materials so he
doesn’t have to live in a cave. The modes of dealing with these kinds of mediated “real”
violence are discussion, play and art, with a sort of pseudo-therapeutic bent directed at the
“working through” of internal fears and misunderstandings. The most important goals are
promotion of feelings of safety among children, and the construction of narratives that
feature helping and hope, rather than exclusively death and despair.
The final section of the book offers curricular suggestions for building a peaceable
classroom, starting from familiar early childhood educational activities. Levin
recommends, and offers detailed guidelines for creating class charts, cooperative games,
“us” puppets, conflict stories, curriculum webs, and for using children’s literature. Her
ideas are eminently practical and grounded in the principles of a peaceable classroom. The
goal of the activities she proposes are community-building, development of children’s
autonomy and freedom, collaborative problem-solving, perspective-taking, peaceful
problem solving, literacy and numeracy development, to name a few. Teaching Young
Children in Violent Times would be a useful and salutary addition to the library of
almost anyone who works extensively with young children. Having visiting many
kindergartens as a teacher, supervisor and parent, I can only applaud the goal of making
these classrooms more peaceable, and more child-centered. It is unfortunately rare that
peace, or even cooperation and mutual understanding, is a real goal of early childhood
education. This book contains many very useful strategies for creating a peaceable
classroom, from how to conduct a discussion that is not a teacher lecturing, to how to
think about community and curricula in ways that further rather then hinder development.
I do have some complaints. The “finding” that aggression is learned and not a
constituent part of the human makeup is overstated, which affects the way that one might
understand “working through.” In general, the adoption of a pseudo-therapeutic approach
to dealing with important emotional issues with children requires a fuller explication.
Additionally, that media violence has a negative impact on children’s development, a
position often taken implicitly or explicitly by the author, is certainly not something that
everyone agrees upon. Following from Levin’s assumptions about the importance and
valence of media influence, there is, it seems to me, an overemphasis on countering the
media and its representations of violence, and a neglect, bordering on denial, of “violence
in the world.” Sometimes this leads to what seems to me a rather simplistic view of social
violence and aggression, and to the false conclusion that one might keep children safe
merely by turning off the television and staying away from Toys’R’Us and Walmart. Part
of my reaction is probably due to my own experience working with older children and
adolescents, for whom peace cannot be achieved without due consideration of questions of
justice and truth. That said, almost all the specific strategies for discussion, problem-
solving, re-presentation of personal meaning and curricula that Levin presents here would
be quite applicable for a teacher of older children, or even for a teacher of college
students. I know that this book would be a very valuable resource in a teacher education
class, where I plan to use it.
Pages: 184
Price: $23.95
ISBN: 0942349180
Reviewed by William New, Associate Professor of Education Studies, Beloit College
Lyon, Anna & Moore, Paula (2003)
Sound Systems: Explicit Systematic Phonics in Early Literacy Context.
Portland, Maine: Stenhouse Publishers.
Sound Systems is a guide for teaching phonics as an integrated part of a
literacy block consisting of shared reading, shared writing, and guided reading and writing
workshops. The goal is to provide teachers with the tools to meet the needs of individual
students while directing the overall progress of the class in understanding the complex
letter-sound relationship in English. The book is divided into three sections: phonics
research, phonics assessment, and phonics instruction. Included are appendices with key
concepts for developmental reading stages as well as resource materials for implementing
the assessments and instructions in the book.
The book was written in the context of the No Child Left Behind Act (2001) and the
new emphasis on proven scientific research for education. What this means for educators
is that the pendulum is swinging strongly in favor of phonics instruction in the long-
standing dispute regarding the importance of phonics instruction versus whole language
instruction. Newcomers to the debate can read the history going back to the seventeenth
century in an article by Robinson, Baker and Clegg (1998).
Sound Systems is based on the findings of research from the Report of the
National Reading Panel stressing the importance of systematic phonics instruction in
learning to read (NICHHD, 2000) and the recent findings in brain research related to
reading (Bransford, 2000). Reading ability is divided into the broad developmental
categories of emergent, early and transitional to track progress in reading (Lyon and
Moore, 2003, p. 11). The authors provide a theoretical and research based context for
what is ultimately a practical resource.
The position taken by Sound Systems echoes the view of the International
Reading Association, a key player in literacy standards development. The IRA presented a
position paper in 1997, which is still relevant today. The IRA states, “When phonics
instruction is linked to children’s genuine efforts to read and write, they are motivated to
learn. When phonics instruction is linked to children’s reading and writing, they are more
likely to become strategic and independent in their use of phonics than when phonics
instruction is drilled and practiced in isolation. Phonics knowledge is critical but not
sufficient to support growing independence in reading” (IRA, 1997. p. 4).
The program designed in Sound Systems incorporates the use of periodic
assessments such as Running Records, the Names Test, and Analysis of Errors in Writing
Samples as a key component of phonics instruction. The results of assessments are used to
design individual, small group, and entire class instruction. Cumulative records of
individual and class achievement are used to guide phonics instruction during the course
of the year.
Using a tailored approach to phonics instruction allows children who read at grade
level to continue in their development while providing necessary tutoring for children
whose knowledge base is below grade level. This is in keeping with the findings of the
National Reading Panel who state, “Children who have already developed phonics skills
can apply them to reading and do not require the same level and intensity in phonics
instruction provided to children at the initial phases of reading acquisition” (NICHDD,
2000 p.11).
Lyon and Moore admit that it is “complex to assess students’ needs and match
instruction to the students” (p. 65). This is an obstacle that might prevent some teachers
from implementing the program of instruction that is recommended in the book. The
alternative of a commercial phonics program may be attractive to some teachers.
Only history will tell us whether the current focus on scientifically proven methods
and nationally mandated standards assessment will have a successful outcome in
improving literacy. Past history indicates that extreme positions do not lead to success and
inevitably lead to a swing of the pendulum back to other extreme approaches (Robinson,
Baker and Clegg, 1998). Sound Systems is trying for a compromise by integrating
systematic phonics instruction into the literacy block devoted to reading, writing and
spelling.
I recommend this book for undergraduate (and graduate) courses that prepare
teachers to teach phonics as well as K-3 teachers who are looking for a way to
systematically incorporate phonics instruction into a literacy block.
References
International Reading Association. (1997). “The role of phonics in reading instruction: A
position statement of the International Reading Association.” Access July 28, 2004 from
http://www.reading.org/pdf/pho
nic_statement.pdf.
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development(NICHHD). (2000). Report of
the
National Reading Panel. Teaching Children to Read: An Evidence-Based Assessment of
the Scientific Research on Reading and Its Implication for Reading Instruction. (NIH
Publication No. 00-4769). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Accessed
July 14, 2004 from http://www.nichd.nih.g
ov/publications/nrp/smallbook.pdf.
No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, Pub. L. 107-110. Accessed August 6, 2004 from http://www.ed.gov/policy/e
lsec/leg/esea02/index.html.
Robinson, R.D., Baker E. & Clegg, L. (1998). “Literacy and the pendulum of change:
Lessons from the 21st century.” Peabody Journal of Education, 73, 3/4. Pp 15-30.
Accessed from EBSCOhost on July 14, 2004.
Pages: 167
Price: $21.88
ISBN: 1-57110-346-5
Reviewed by Cynthia Crosser, Social Science and Humanities Reference
Librarian/Education and Psychology Bibliographer at the University of Maine. In addition
to her M.S. in Library Studies from Florida State University, she has an M.A. in
Linguistics from the University of Florida with a specialization in language acquisition.
Melwani, Mona (2003)
Just the Right Words: 201 Report Card Comments: Short Narrative Comments, Word
Lists, and Sentence Starters That Cover any Situation, Let Parents Know How Their Kids
Are Doing-And Save You Time!
New York: Scholastic.
This is a book that should be read before the school year begins and then referred to
before each marking period. The title says it all! Just the Right Words is a helpful
resource for all elementary classroom teachers. It is especially helpful for beginning
teachers just getting the hang of assessment and treading the difficult waters of parent-
student-teacher communication through report cards. In just 96 pages the author provides
a blueprint for organizing and synthesizing all the myriad teacher observations, notes,
parent-teacher conferences, interventions, behavior modifications, student conferences and
rubrics into a seamless assessment tool.
Author Mona Melwani confesses that she has a unique background and experience as
an educator. She taught at an international school in Asia for over twenty years. Students
were well behaved and highly motivated. The student body represented over fifty
countries. Melwani’s approach reveals her to be a sensitive, caring teacher. She
succinctly explores the dilemmas of communicating with students and parents of ESL,
developing, proficient and struggling learners.
Each chapter gives an overview of the topic. Chapter 1 contains a general review of
report cards, and assessment. The author gives guidelines for report cards. She discusses
the impact of report cards on the parent-teacher relationship. Chapter 1 also includes a
handy rubric of common report-card descriptors (p. 11). Each chapter contains a
representative student report card, and then reviews the descriptors and comments used for
students at different proficiency levels. Chapters 2-4 cover the disciplines of language arts,
mathematics, science and social studies. Chapter 5 covers social - emotional behavior and
work habits. Chapter 6 covers general comments used by homeroom teachers. Lists of
synonyms for terms that describe student work are also interspersed throughout the
chapters.
Appendix A contains generic paragraph descriptions of curricula with examples of
how to tie these to individual student work. The other appendices contain alphabetic
listings of useful phrases divided according to discipline, a list of do’s and don’ts and a list
of active verbs. A bibliography of recent resources is contained at the end of the book.
In addition to all of this, the graphic layout of the book is very appealing. Text boxes
resembling lined notepaper are used to clarify the text. Shaded underlined text in bold,
reminiscent of hyperlinks, classify the narratives and comments. These elements coupled
with lots of white space, chunked information, and appropriate photographs of diverse
teachers and students at the beginning of each chapter; create a dialogue between the
author and the reader. It is a pity that the paper and binding are so flimsy.
Just the Right Words is an engaging student assessment handbook for
beginning teachers and a useful review for their more experienced colleagues. The
suggestions of veteran teacher Melwani, subtly guide readers through the organizational
demands of creating a three dimensional portrait of student work and achievement in the
classroom and of creating a respectful dialogue between teacher, parent and student. A
useful addition to the Scholastic Teaching Strategies series.
Pages: 96
Price: $13.99
ISBN: 0-439-53136-5
Reviewed by Sheila Kirven, Education Services Librarian, New Jersey City University,
Jersey City, NJ.
Owocki, Gretchen (2003)
Comprehension: Strategic Instruction for K-3 Students.
Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Owocki, who has focused on children’s literacy in her teaching and past work,
delivers a more than respectable guidebook about the practical nuts and bolts of teaching
reading to primary students. Based on recent research and her experience with young
readers, the author details a systematic approach for working in a variety of reading
contexts: whole-class, small-group, partner, independent, and individual instruction, as
well as literature circles. Owocki bases her macro-process approach on ten tested
strategies known to be used by proficient readers: predicting, inferring, setting the
purpose, retelling, questioning, monitoring, visualizing, connecting, deciding what is
important, and evaluating. She then breaks down these basic strategies into twenty-seven
mini-strategies that help children develop their comprehension over time.
Stemming from her premise that teachers should nurture a passion for literature,
Owocki, in a step-by-step fashion, carefully guides teachers in the ways they may help
primary readers to improve their listening and reading comprehension. Chapter 1 describes
the most important characteristics of good readers and what teachers should do to support
their development. She cautions that while decoding and preparing for future grades is
important, teachers should provide books whereby children connect reading to content of
interest to them, so that reading becomes a vital, relevant part of their lives.
Chapters 2 thru 6 are chock full of graphic organizers, instructional charts, evaluation
tools, and numerous examples of teacher-talk meant to engage students in their
comprehension tasks. Besides delineating the ten basic strategies, Chapter 2 includes
useful charts that outline “Successful Reader Strategies” and “Strategies for Kids” with
questions that young readers should ask of themselves as their comprehension skills
become increasingly advanced.
Besides explaining “A Framework for Comprehension Instruction,” Chapter 3
features a much needed tool for outreach to parents, “Information Request for Families,”
in the form of a reproducible letter, and a lesson plan, “Deciding What’s Important,” that
employs actual teacher-talk at the primary level. Owocki also provides a clear explanation
of scaffolding (a term that some educators have used to describe almost any type of
teacher support). To properly scaffold, for example, she advocates that teachers utilize
conversational rather than interrogational talk.
Chapters 4 thru 6 describe how to work with the ten strategies, including the
adjustments for teaching comprehension in various groupings. Chapter 4 alone has twenty-
nine figures that teachers can copy and use to initiate the comprehension strategies.
Chapter 7 is an unexpected delight in guidebooks of this nature. In this last chapter,
Owocki develops in great detail the specific pieces of children’s literature that are most
appropriate for developing each of the twenty-seven mini-strategies for comprehension.
Even if her book choices are not accessible, a teacher could determine an equivalent book
for addressing each of the twenty-seven specific comprehension mini-strategies.
Owocki has provided an accessible, easy to understand, useful guide for teachers to
quickly get primary children started on their path toward greater reading comprehension.
Her examples and graphic approach (whether through detailed descriptions, or her charts,
graphs, and other figures) would be most useful to first- and second-year teachers, while
her systematic approach could augment or improve the efforts of a veteran teacher. This
book is close to a state-of-the-art approach to teaching reading comprehension, straight-
forward yet eloquent at times, designed for teachers who must keep track of student
progress and yet function in-the-moment with their young readers.
Pages: 176
Price: $21.00
ISBN: 0-325-00576-1
Reviewed by James A. Therrell, an Assistant Professor of Education at Northwestern
Oklahoma State University in Alva, Oklahoma. A recent K-1 teacher, he is now teaching
both graduate and undergraduate classes, he is also the Facilitator of the Early Childhood
Education Network for the Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development. Dr.
Therrell’s research interests involve the teaching-learning processes that contribute to flow
experiences, as well as teacher collaboration.
Ray, Katie Wood & Cleaveland, Lisa B. (2004)
About the Authors: Writing Workshop With Our Youngest Writers.
Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Written by writer and researcher Katie Ray and kindergarten/first grade teacher Lisa
Cleaveland, this very readable text provides a “simple” and basic way to teach children to
write and ways to encourage them to want to write. The basic premise is that children
should write every day, “no matter what, let them write every day” (p. ix). Included in the
book are “books” written and illustrated by kindergarten and first grade students.
The book is divided into three sections to explain writing workshop in the classroom:
“Building a Strong Foundation,” “Understanding the Teacher,” and “An Overview of
Units of Study.”
Cleaveland includes time for writing workshop in her first grade class from the
beginning of the school year. Encouraging children’s curiosity and providing them with
materials for their writing allows them to use their energy “to fuel the writing” (p. 7).
According to the authors, teachers must be able to accept that the writing done by five and
six-year-olds will look just like that – writing by five and six-year-olds. The term
“approximation” is used to describe what teachers must be willing and able to accept from
the students. Teachers must see past the spelling and language to the understanding and
intent of the children.
Writing workshop is regimented only in that it is a regular occurrence in the
classroom. Cleaveland believes “that two things are essential for the development of
children as writers: experience and teaching” (p. 24) In order to learn to write they must
write and they must be taught through lessons during each writing workshop time. Also
necessary for the children to learn to write is “environmental support.” This means that
the children should be surrounded by writing. It is through the many kinds of writing that
children learn – games, banners, posters, songs, menus, blocks, and books.
The final section of the book provides units of study which include techniques,
resources, ways to make the writing and illustrating better, discussion of genre, and
sample children’s books.
This book gives the necessary information for a teacher to implement writing
workshop in the classroom. The authors have done their homework and tried the various
strategies and ideas in the classroom. It is organized and easy to follow, providing a
wealth of information. The examples of books written by children indicate just how much
children can do if they are allowed to freely write.
Pages: 256
Price: $25.00
ISBN: 0-325-00511-7
Reviewed by Naomi Williamson, Associate Professor, Library Services, Central Missouri
State University.
Robertson, Brian C. (2003)
Day Care Deception: What the Child Care Establishment Isn’t Telling Us.
San Francisco, CA: Encounter
Books.
One cannot fault Robertson’s goal to educate the public about the inside scoop on the
presumed ill effects of daycare on child development. His efforts in pursuit of this goal
are too often muddied by a convoluted and selective citation of what the author presents as
evidence. Selective, in this context, refers to Roberston's emphasis
on popular press articles and comments made by some day care proponents and far more
numerous day care opponents. Given the considerable body of academic research
concerning the effects of daycare on child development, its slim treatment by the author is
a serious omission.
When the author does examine the academic literature, his review of findings is often
unbalanced, a claim that he levels against the academic community in its own presentation
of daycare research findings. For example, the second chapter is largely devoted to the
academic response to Jay Belsky’s research, which often has been interpreted as yielding
anti-daycare conclusions. Those researchers whose findings do not concur with the
author’s beliefs that day care has harmful effects are portrayed as toeing a party line,
whereas those whose findings are consistent with Robertson’s views are portrayed as
academic outcasts. This imbalance, however, may pale in comparison with Robertson’s
polemic that indicts the day care establishment and today’s parenting style for ill effects
that are not clearly related to the care of children by individuals other than their parents.
The latter focus is evident in the first chapter, dedicated to a discussion of the 1999
Columbine killings. The perpetrators of this heinous crime, according to Robertson’s
telling, are adolescents exposed to deficient parental care as characterized by parental
absence at some unspecified time in the adolescents’ lives. How parental care of
adolescents is linked to early childhood daycare, which is presumably the focus of the
book, is far from clear and is not substantiated.
A clearer but still tenuous connection is made later by the author concerning the
number of prescriptions for antibiotics requested by mothers with children in day care.
The reader is supposed to infer that children in day care are more inclined toward illness
than children not in day care. However, without baseline information about how many
children, during whatever the author perceives as the day care era (which also is unclear),
require antibiotics, this conclusion cannot be reasonably drawn. Finally, comments such
as attributing the “process of internalizing moral requirements” to “consistent, devoted
individualized care” (p.78) are baseless, and emblematic of the relatively simplistic
accounts for children’s behavior that all too often appear throughout the book.
An opportunity for clarity and explication of Robertson’s suggestions for redressing
the liabilities of day care is presented in the final chapter. However, this opportunity is
allotted a mere 12 pages that are largely consumed by a review of current and proposed
governmental economic policies. Clearly, these policies have implications for the delivery
and use of day care and ultimately, its subsequent effects on child development. However,
one might have hoped for some concluding statement about ways to remedy the status of
day care, parenting, or whatever had ultimately been the focus of this book.
Pages: 222
Price: $25.95
ISBN: 1-893554-67-8
Reviewed by Fran C. Blumberg & Stacey J. Eger, Fordham University, Graduate School
of Education
Schmidt, John J. (2004)
A Survival Guide for the Elementary/Middle School Counselor.
San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Do you feel like you are functioning in a survival mode day-to-day as you go about
your job as a school counselor? Juggling all the duties a counselor is responsible for brings
about this feeling whether you are new to the profession or experienced. Author, John
J.Schmidt, Ed.D, believes counselors need to be proactive in their jobs instead of working
in a survival mode. Hence, the second edition of A Survival Guide for the
Elementary/Middle School Counselor, is now available to give practicing counselors
tools and strategies to help them become more proactive in what they do. Like the
sentences above, the book speaks directly to counselors.
This book is a treasure-trove of wonderful insights and resources from an author who
has been in the trenches and knows what it is like. He speaks from the heart with insights
and knowledge that only come from experience. Everyone can learn something from this
book to make any counseling program a little more effective. Reading the book may be
overwhelming at first, but remember to take it one step at a time. A quality comprehensive
counseling program takes time to develop and grow.
Throughout the book, Schmidt keeps in mind the American School Counselors
Association (ASCA) national model when sharing ideas. A comprehensive developmental
counseling program belongs to the entire school, not just the counselor, and should follow
the guidelines of ASCA, the state education agency, and local school district. An advisory
committee is a means to involve the entire school staff in the counseling program. Schmidt
shares ways to use the advisory committee in planning and developing the counseling
program in several chapters.
Each chapter includes ideas and strategies to help a counselor be: identifiable,
capable, available, and accountable. Schmidt believes these characteristics are essential to
being a successful counselor. From his experience he shares reasons why he believes
something should be done a certain way, along with pitfalls that may be encountered and
how to avoid them. Sample forms and checklists are included throughout the book to help
the reader put into practice the strategies outlined in the book. He also advocates that
readers examine his ideas and strategies and use only the ones that fit their personal style
and professional setting. Not all of them will work for everyone.
“Why are you here?” and “What are you supposed to do?” are addressed in Chapter
1. Schmidt contends that in a comprehensive program there should be preventive services,
developmental activities and remedial interventions that involve students, parents, and
teachers. This section gives guidelines to help in planning, organizing, implementing and
evaluating a comprehensive program. Ways to seek input from others are explored as this
is essential in an effective program. Schmidt includes suggested ways to communicate the
counselor’s role to the staff, parents and students, along with a glossary of services.
Schmidt suggests asking an advisory committee to do a needs assessment, write
program goals and objectives, develop services and activities, and recommend
assignments for delivery of services. The book includes practical ways to promote the
counseling program and balance time demands, while worksheets help prioritize activities
and set a schedule.
For program planning, Schmidt suggests assessment procedures, organizational
structures and evaluation processes. He shares tips on how to coordinate referrals,
schedules, records, and other aspects of a counseling program. In a discussion of essential
services Schmidt outlines three basic services Counseling, Consulting and Appraising
along with describing specific services that belong in each of these broad categories. He
provides basic information about individual counseling, interviewing children, brief
counseling, group counseling and parent/teacher counseling. Consulting may be
situational, informational, or instructional.
“The essence of a comprehensive school counseling program (is) to assure that each
student has every possible opportunity to develop his or her potential” (p. 107). In order
for this to be a reality, the counseling curriculum needs to be integrated within the
academic curriculum. Chapter 5 addresses this issue and shares ways to integrate affective
education, educational planning, test results and improved instruction and career
development in a way that promotes a “lifetime of learning.”
In today’s society, counselors work with a diverse population. Exceptional children,
English language learners, and culturally diverse populations. Schmidt does not fail to
address ways a counselor can be an advocate for all children; to be sure they receive the
services needed to develop to their fullest potential.
Every school needs a Crisis Intervention Plan in place. Schmidt describes in detail
how to go about setting up a team, what should be in the plan, how to set the plan up and
the procedures to run it. He describes preventive activities and programs involving
students and parents. A sample plan of action for crisis counseling is included which will
guide the counselor in working with the child in crisis.
Students come to the counselor with a variety of concerns. Schmidt devotes an entire
chapter to describing some of these concerns and possible strategies that can be used to
address them. For each concern the following questions are discussed: What is it? What
are the effects emotionally and educationally? and What do you do? The concerns
included are: bullying, divorce, child care, loneliness, relocation, stress, underachievers,
child depression and suicide, child abuse, chronic and terminal illness, substance abuse,
loss, violence and school phobia.
The last few chapters are devoted to the counselor's community relationships within
the school, the neighborhood, the area and the profession. Schmidt discusses ethics,
values, legal issues and emotional well being.
A Survival Guide for the Elementary/Middle School Counselor is a resource
packed full of information to help all counselors. The book is organized in such a way that
counselors can take one aspect of a program, develop a plan to implement some of the
ideas and strategies presented and then proceed to another area at a later date. It is meant
as a guide to take what matches individual program needs and leave behind what doesn’t
fit. Even after 20 years in the counseling profession, from reading this book I have learned
many strategies that I plan to implement to make my program the best it can be. There is
something useful in this book for every counselor out there, new and experienced.
Pages: 283
Price: $32.95
ISBN: 0-7879-6886-2
Reviewed by Mary Ann Sweet, Elementary School Counselor, Tomball Independent
School District. An educator for 25 years, with 5 years experience in special education and
20 years experience as an elementary school counselor.
Smith, Michael W. & Wilhelm, Jeffrey D. (2002)
Reading Don't Fix No Chevys: Literacy in the Lives of Young Men.
Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
I have to own a book in order to really read it. I write in it, post notes in it, draw
arrows and pictures and diagrams in it. My copy of Reading Don't Fix No Chevys
is literally bristling with papers, whichever were handy, wherever I was reading, in a
variety of colors and sizes. And each is marking the spot of a very profound statement by
the authors, or reference to a researcher I would like to follow (188 entries in the
Bibliography!). Each is marking information I must remember-always-forever; or risk not
being a very good teacher.
Near the very end of the book the authors explain that most of their preservice
teachers fall into two categories. I know these! I see it every day at school, at conferences
and in various readings: teachers who teach literature, and teachers who teach kids. To
some the material matters most, to others the kids matter most. Smith and Wilhelm
challenge us to something further, or more complex, "our goal ought to be to teach English
to kids or teach kids English" (p. 187). I would translate that into "Because I teach kids, I
teach literature." I find it amazing how changing a simple premise, can have such far-
reaching results.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's "flow" theory is given deep credence by the authors.
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (1990) is not a title I would have
thought would give new insight into how I teach my less than enthusiastic juniors. Yet, it
is just that. Our authors compact Csikszentmihalyi's eight characteristics of flow into four:
- A sense of control and competence
- A challenge that requires an appropriate level of skill
- Clear goals and feedback
- A focus on the immediate experience
They found that these four characteristics were found again and again to be the backbone
of all real reading in the data collected during the research for this book.
Forty-nine boys, from a variety of ethnic backgrounds, and socio-economic levels;
enrolled in the seventh grade through twelfth grade; from urban, suburban and rural
schools; in private and public educational settings, and who exhibited all skill levels were
the raw material with which Smith and Wilhelm worked. They did not want to fall into
unfair stereotyping of these young men. They worked scrupulously to insure that the
literacy levels of these boys would be accurately approached, examined and appropriate
conclusions reached.
Through conferences, protocols (think alouds), surveys, and a plethora of other
activities, the authors found their research activities in alignment with the "flow"
principles. They found that the approach commonly taken in the teaching of reading and
literature is completely out of step with how these young men, albeit all young people,
make meaning of communication in all of its forms. They refer to Vygotsky's similar
findings that "all learning occurs in social situations where expertise is shared between
people" (p. 44), thus underscoring the social aspects of literacy.
Repeatedly through the book the authors ask questions. I have used one in particular
to guide my planning and actions in the classroom. "What is the quality of the experience
I want them to have today?" (p.50). Statements that set me to soul-searching are,
"teachers can avoid or overcome resistance with teaching that builds on students' interests
and abilities."(p. 80); "It is part of our responsibility as teachers to create contexts that
develop and sustain the interest of our students" (p. 81).
It will take more than one reading to plumb the depths of this text. Ideas that seem
most relevant to me and my practice include the not so new idea that "frontloading" is
essential in generating interest to create relevance to achieve the control and confidence of
"flow ." The authors speak of intrinsic motivation as paramount in efforts to achieve
success in any endeavor, including reading. The authors remind me in Chapter 5 that the
importance of engaging materials matter when mining intrinsic motivation. Teachers
must lead students into Seeing texts as music, texts as storied, texts as visual, and
exportable into conversations. Texts that sustain engagement, texts that provide multiple
perspectives and that provide new, novel, experiences, texts that are edgy or subversive,
texts that have powerful ideas, texts that are funny do not seem to be the everyday fare of
our students. And again, in order for them to see any of this I have to have carefully
crafted an "into" experience worthy of their attention.
Smith and Wilhelm offer ideas for providing engaging reading experiences for our
students. "...we need to attend to our students and how they are learning. We must make
adjustments and change our strategy as needed. We must teach as if we are surfing on the
crest of the future's breaking wave" (p. 187). Surfing is a dramatic, but completely
accurate metaphor for our work in the classroom. The authors suggest that the power of
inquiry can motivate and drive both the students we teach and our plans for teaching them.
The asking of big questions and the location of all of the possible scenarios, and answers,
will guide them into more sophisticated levels of literacy.
The authors don't give lesson plans for tomorrow; instead they inform our practice
with information that will lead us to learn (and they quote Smagorinsky, 2002), "...by
making and reflecting on, things [we] find useful and important" (p. 189) .
References
Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. (1990). Flow: the psychology of optimal experience.
New York: Harper & Row.
Pages: 224
Price: $23.00
ISBN: 0-86709-509-1
Reviewed by Charlene Roberts Koenig, who teaches, juniors and less than enthusiastic
juniors at Shasta High School in Redding, California
Stull, Elizabeth Crosby (2004)
Global Discovery Activities for the Elementary Grades.
San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Global Discovery Activities for the Elementary Grades is an ambitious text.
The format is excellent and the illustrations are clear and engaging. As those of us who
have written on the topic of multiculturalism know, tackling folk tales, celebrations, arts
and crafts, games, songs, food, and general activities runs the risk of stereotyping people
and reducing complex, contemporary societies to dated cultural images of things as they
were.
Stull suggests in the dedication that the ideas for this book have come from study
tours of the various countries. I would have appreciated hearing more about whom she
spoke to, how the selections were made, and how the various activities were generated.
Her directions and illustrations are excellent, and the black line masters for actual
classroom activities are clear and ready to use with little effort.
Each section contains a list of recommended books, and these lists are adequately
annotated. Having said that, any list risks leaving out more things than it includes, but I
believe that Stull has made wise choices and has endeavored to insure that all the items are
readily available and are reasonably priced.
I have two concerns about books of this type. The first is the scope of the project.
Asia and Africa are tackled in one section while North America, itself, is broken into three
sections. This presents a challenge as the diversity within Asia or Africa is immense.
Lumping the indigenous populations of Australia and New Zealand together with its
European population is also problematic.
The second concern is the departure of some of the extension activities from the
actual cultural of the countries studied to more a generic curriculum tie to North American
schoolwork. It would be helpful for the teacher who is new to the field of global
education for the book to make a distinction between traditional activities and mainstream,
curriculum ties.
Used thoughtfully and carefully, this text offers teachers a resource of activities to
build from in their classroom. Having traveled extensively myself and written
multicultural curriculum, I know the risks of tackling such an immense project as this
book. Subtle errors such as placing an activity looking at Picasso’s work in the section
about Latin America and references to the Inuit population of northern Canada as Eskimo
are a concern. However, in the hands of skilled teachers, this text could assist teachers and
their students inquiry into our global community and begin to make sense of the richness
of the diversity around them.
Pages: 496
Price: $29.95
ISBN: 0-7879-6924-9
Reviewed by Susan Crichton, Educational Technology, Faculty of Education, University
of Calgary
Sullivan, Joanna, Ed.D (2004)
The Children’s Literature Lover’s Book of Lists.
San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
The rapid publication of children’s books makes book selection and recommendation
an often daunting, albeit, fun task. So many wonderful books, so little time to read them
all. What’s a librarian, teacher, or parent to do? Ta da! The Children’s Literature
Lover’s Book of Lists is at your service. While this practical no-frills guide does not
offer annotations (it is, as the title implies, a book of lists), well-organized chapters group
thousands of titles according to grade level (preschool through sixth grade) and topic.
Drawing from her own extensive knowledge of children and reading, Joanna Sullivan,
who currently serves as the Director of the Family Literacy Program for Migrant Workers,
compiled the booklists from a variety of reputable sources such as the National Council of
Teachers of English, The American Library Association, professors of education, teachers,
and school librarians
Although numerous high quality guides to children’s literature exist, there are three
particularly valuable aspects of this book; the lists are entirely reproducible, arranged by
reading level, and based on curriculum standards. Each list includes copyright information
and the author encourages dissemination of lists to parents, teachers, librarians, and
students. A list of children’s books specifically on science topics at a certain grade level,
for example, could be passed out to students in a teaching science class. The author also
includes a bibliography of Web resources such as professional organizations, book awards,
and author and illustrator sites. This particular list would make a nice handout for
librarians who assist students in children’s literature classes. The publication’s “lay-flat”
binding should ensure better preservation of the book’s spine due to the wear and tear of
copying.
A shortcoming of some children’s literature guides is that grade or reading level of
books is not indicated. Although, as this author notes, grade level should not be used as a
boundary, it is often a useful way to gauge how well suited a book is for a child. The lists
in this book are grouped by grade level (pre-K through grade one, grades two through
three, and grades four through six). Within the grade level sections, the author introduces
genres and topics that typically emerge in the covered reading level. In fact, a survey of
the booklists reveals an outline of the different stages of reading encountered at different
ages. For example, a booklist for “sound awareness” is included in the chapter for pre-K-
through first grade. Suggested in this list are those books that “reinforce the concept of
letter/sound relationships” such as “long E” or “short U.” Books on idioms, palindromes,
homonyms, and oxymorons are recommended for grades four through six.
Books have also been selected that meet curriculum standards, particularly in content
areas such as reading, social studies, mathematics, and science. After reviewing state
standards, the author decided to use those from New Jersey, Illinois, and California, as
they reflect, according to the author, what is required by most state standards. To find a
book that covers mathematical concepts expected to be covered at the second grade level,
one only has to look at the math section under “grades two through three.”
The Children’s Literature Lover’s Book of Lists is a focused and easy to use
guide. Pointing out its flexibility, Sullivan writes “it is not meant to be read in one sitting
from cover to cover. Rather, it is designed to be savored in small chunks in order to gather
ideas for books on different topics to use with students of various grade levels and ability
levels”(p. vii). This title will definitely be a wise addition to any children’s literature
collection. It should prove to be an invaluable selection tool for years to come.
Pages: 352
Price: $29.95
ISBN: 0-7879-6595-2
Reviewed by Laurie A. Charnigo, Education Librarian, Jacksonville State University,
Jacksonville, AL.
Talvacchia, Kathleen T. (2003)
Critical Minds and Discerning Hearts: A Spirituality of Multicultural Teaching.
St. Louis, Missouri: Chalice Press.
The greatest task of education as we enter the 21st century
is to address pedagogically the radical reconfiguration
of social life brought on by the proliferation
of multiplicity and difference.
—Dimitirades & McCarthy1
Few works on the theory and practice of teaching and learning in multicultural
contexts engage the issues from the dimension of spirituality. Kathleen Talvacchia’s
Critical minds and discerning hearts: A spirituality of multicultural teaching
provides a theoretical and spiritual reflection addressing the understandings of mind and
habits of heart teaching professionals are called to acquire in light of continued persistence
and awareness of alterity and difference in contemporary U.S. society and classroom
contexts.2 Informed by theories of critical pedagogy, social justice, and
spirituality in education, the author delineates a spirituality of multicultural pedagogy.
Rather than answering the methodological question of how teachers should teach
in multicultural contexts, Talvacchia takes the reader on a more holistic and integrated
journey on the understandings of mind and habits of heart she has come to understand as
imperative for the important work of teaching we do as professional educators: “[the book]
is in effect a spirituality of teaching in a context of radical diversity” (p. 2).
Besides the academic and theoretical understandings Talvacchia uses to bring the
book to life, this “spirituality of multicultural teaching” is also and explicitly informed by
her own life experiences as a daughter of immigrants living in an urban context saturated
by a non-assimilationist Italian ideology. Talvacchia draws from her many identities as a
Catholic feminist, professional lay minister, and a lesbian sexual orientation to provide a
personal and contextual scenario for her discussion of theoretical and spiritual matters in
multicultural teaching and learning: “When I came out as a lesbian, in addition to
contending with the homophobia and heterosexism of society, I contended with a faith
community that could not understand my lesbian orientation and a gay and lesbian
community that could not accept my religious orientations and values. Like many of us, I
have personally lived many differences that have significant social and political
consequences” (p. 3). Each chapter opens the discussion with a personal event in the
author’s life as a traveler exposing herself to different world cultures and societies, and to
different ways of seeing within academic/professional settings. Thus, infused in the
narrative of this work, we find the academic as well as the personal voice of a caring
practitioner reflecting on her experiences as a social being and as an educator; we find the
reflections of a situated, positioned subject who begins to walk the talk as a result
of critical meditation on her positionality, and as a response to her ethical commitment to
embody a sensitive and socially engaged logic of multicultural pedagogical practice:
insights from a critical mind and a discerning heart—the essence of a spirituality of
multicultural teaching—and an example of teaching as an “embodied action” (p. 16).
In her quest for finding a way to living morally in a diverse world (p. 3), and in her
understanding of teaching as a ministry and as a service to others in the name of God,
Talvachia has “sought to understand how [the] habits of heart and mind [she delineates]
might become a fundamental aspect of a teachers identity, practice, and spiritual
formation” (p. 4). Talvacchia is concerned with questions such as: How are teachers to
function effectively within the diverse society and educational contexts we find ourselves?
In considering the ethical “imperatives” for the work teachers do in the midst of today’s
radical diversity of peoples, ideas, and contexts, the author addresses a number of
important and critical issues for teachers who consider their practice as one tied to the
spiritual realm.
The book is divided into five interrelated chapters, each containing a section on
‘Reflection of Teaching Practice,’ as well as a series of questions for further study. In
“Perceptive Attentiveness,” Talvacchia reveals how she came to understand the
functioning of the logic of oppression given “the fact that members of the dominant
culture often cannot see the ways in which they discriminate” (p. 22). As such, the author
asserts that “multicultural teaching demands the formation of teachers as professionals
who forms herself spiritually as a person who is able to relate openly to her students in
their totality as human beings” (p. 22-3), and offers a spiritual stance that reiterates “The
spirituality of multicultural teaching encompasses a deep and abiding concern for
understanding identity groups in their social location of difference and teaching in a
manner that honors that difference” (p. 23). From this understanding can then emerge
useful instructional techniques given these are informed with a holistic understanding of
persons in particular, situated social contexts. The critical and discerning teacher makes
use of social analysis to understand the sociocultural context, ideological worldviews, and
broader political, economic, and social structures in which teachers and students alike live,
move, and have their beings. This inquiry into the self and the social is driven and assisted
by an intellectual, an affective, and a theological standpoint or the spiritual stance to which
multicultural teaching and learning are committed.
For Talvacchia, “the spirituality that develops a critical mind and a discerning heart
grows from a spiritual stance that embraces perceptive attentiveness” (p. 25).
Attentiveness as such involves connecting one’s heart empathetically to the real
experiences of people living in an unjust social system (p. 26). The elements of the
spiritual stance of perceptive attentiveness comprise: a) a metanoia or conversion of heart
and mind into accepting others in Christian love; b) a politically active stance, which
“indicates that the work of compassion, solidarity, and self-knowledge in community
concerns itself with power in the world and how it is used against some people and for
others” (p. 28); and c) a just transformation of injustice against structurally discriminated
groups.
“Listening and Understanding” is another key chapter reflecting on two of the most
important competencies any teacher must have. Talvacchia reiterates the fact that
“listening demands attentiveness to another, an active participation in what that person is
revealing. But the goal of listening is not only hearing but to understand” (p. 39). These
skills are essential given that without them “we cannot comprehend who we are, let alone
who our students are as persons or what they need in order to learn” (p. 40). The listening
and understanding discussed in this chapter pertains to attentiveness to experiences of
marginalization, both in our selves and in others. Talvacchia holds that the discipline of
listening and understanding involves attentiveness to: a) our own experiences of
marginalization, or lack of it, in relation to the experiences of others; b) the
marginalization experiences of others from an empathetic standpoint; and c) self/other
experiences of marginalization from the perspective of social structural power, and the
privilege of some groups over other groups in a hegemonic society. She also asserts we
must recognize that “empathy for another’s experience cannot be an excuse to appropriate
that experience and make it our own” (p. 40-1).
Talvacchia calls for attentive awareness in interaction. Teachers must learn to listen
and to understand by a) developing our awareness of our own woundedness, and making
an effort to educate ourselves about social groups outside our current knowledge; b) by
making a commitment to create more space in our pedagogy for students to find their own
voices; and c) to attend to the contradictions that we observe in our social interactions
between groups of persons. We need to ask questions such as: (1) Who makes the
decisions and has the access to the most power in a particular context? (2) Who benefits
from the decision and to what end? (3) Who bears the cost of the decision, and is it right to
ask them to bear it? (p. 50). These issues are related to the notion of interpreting the
“signs of the times,” an idea emerging from St. Augustine of Hippo in his The City of
God and later used in Vatican Council II encyclical, Gaudium et Spes.
Talvacchia asks: “How can we discern the signs of the times in our teaching practice? In
what ways do we perceive the spirit of God operating in our teaching experiences? What
are the ways in which we ignore it or miss it altogether?” In sum, “How do we discern
God’s Spirit at work in multicultural education settings? And “What are the ways in which
we resist God’s Spirit or miss it entirely? (p. 51). The answers provided range from
cultural miscommunication to assumptions of monoculturalism in the classroom setting—
an all fits one logic. For this reason, Talvacchia encourages teachers to always maintain a
“hermeneutics of suspicion” (p. 53); one that allows us to critically examine what is
missing in a given context. When we are clouded by the assumption that the classroom is
monocultural and seems to have one point of view, we could begin our critical reflection
by asking: a) What questions are not being asked? Which groups are not asking questions
and why? b) Whose perspective is being left out? Whose perspective is dominating?; c)
Who, more precisely, is our “audience”? Do we need to reassess our
comprehension of the composition of the class?; d) have we done an adequate needs
assessment of the group? Have we asked the fundamental question, “Who needs what as
defined by whom?” and what questions do we need to ask directly to the students in order
to be clear about what we are missing in the classroom dynamic? (p. 53).
Talvacchia speaks of “Seeing Clearly” as “the discipline we need to develop for
multicultural teaching that centers us squarely in the fear of someone who is extremely
different from us” (p. 60), and as “as a function of how well we listen and understand the
experiences of others” (p. 67). In this sense, the presence of conflict is seen as essential to
the multicultural teaching context: “multicultural teaching challenges us to handle the
conflict so that it becomes a teachable moment for all learners” (p. 60). Further, the work
explores ways of “Acting Differently,” which “involves incorporating the disciplines of
learning and understanding and seeing clearly, so that our teaching practices demonstrably
changes” (p. 76). Acting differently will spring from a change in conviction; given
convictions are the embodiments of the particular worldviews and value orientations we
bring to any teaching context. According to the author, the conviction to become a critical,
discerning educator “result[s] from both analytic rigor and spiritual reflection on our lives
and teaching practices” and calls us to act from that very conviction in the classroom
setting: to walk the talk or the conviction (p. 80). As such, educators operating
from the socio-spiritual standpoint of multicultural pedagogy are called to make a
commitment to “knowing, relating, and understanding those who have different
experiences from us” (p. 89), and to “Staying Faithful” with courage and patience as we
engage in the process of developing critical minds, discerning hearts, and a hospitable
classroom.
The spiritual nature of this work makes it relevant to those who understand the act of
teaching and learning in multicultural contexts as a spiritual endeavor; one that is
intimately connected with a sense of self as being with and for others in the work of co-
creation with God. It is also relevant to those who might question or critically assess the
spiritual standpoint Talvacchia brings to the issues. Although, as Talvacchia demonstrates,
a conviction for teaching for social justice--and as a response to acquiring a critical mind
and a discerning heart--need not be necessarily related to lofty, beyond-the-realm-of-
experience spiritual goals; the spiritual in this context refers to that which is embedded in
the very fabric of the every day, the mundane, the social world--a spirituality named
critical awareness, empathetic understanding, and concrete action in the here and now.
Notes
1
See their Reading and teaching the postcolonial: from Baldwin to Basquiat and
beyond. (2001) New York: Teachers College Press.
2
Talvacchia begins the book by reiterating: “It is not that the world has become
multicultural. We have always been a world of pluralistic cultures and peoples. The
change that has happened is that now we accept the reality of pluralism as a norm and a
value that we have not before” (p. 1).
Pages: 102
Price: $16.99
ISBN: 0-8272-0491-4
Reviewed by Cristian R. Aquino-Sterling, a doctoral student in the College of Education
at Arizona State University. His academic and research interests pertain to contemporary
social and multicultural theory and language and identity in education. He can be
contacted at cristian.aquino@asu.edu.
Walker, Catherine & Schmidt, Edgar (2004)
Smart Tests: Teacher-Made Tests that Help Students Learn.
Markham, Ontario: Pembroke Publishers,
distributed by Stenhouse.
In today’s externally imposed testing environment it is important for all teachers to
gain the power and authority to play a key role in the assessment and evaluation of their
students. Smart Tests is a valuable tool to achieve this purpose. This book is not
only for teachers but any person who designs assessments and teaches others how to
engage in this task.
The key features presented in this book are:
- the rationale for teacher designed tests
- pre-planning necessary to develop these tests
- samples of variety of tests in different subjects taught at the elementary level
- techniques to design and implement challenging tests
- strategies to prepare students and parents to meet the challenge
- approaches to evaluate the tests
- ways to communicate the results to all the stakeholders.
There are several aspects that set this book apart from others publications of its kind;
the most significant being the focus on the views and opinions of teachers, students, and
parents. Rather than present a “how-to-do-one-size-fits-all” tone the book accentuates the
reasoning and strategies to identify and include the opinions of all the stakeholders in the
process of assessment (test) design and implementation. In the same manner, it
emphasizes not only the inclusion but also active participation of the students and parents
in the test evaluation and communication process.
The authors present assessments (tests) as an integral part of the teaching process and
not as something to be imposed externally and disassociated from the process of teaching.
As a matter of fact, all the examples included are instructional (teaching) tools based on
current best practices. Several tips for successful implementation of the various samples
and strategies are included in a very easy-to-use format. Overall, the rhetoric is kept to the
minimum and to the point. The sample assessments and evaluations are detailed and
clearly explained.
The book would benefit from the addition of samples of diagnostic assessments or at
least some explanation of the importance of knowing students’ prior concepts to allow
designing instruction and assessments based on students’ prior knowledge. It should also
have included weblinks to international, national, state and local released items and
provided a few examples from these released items in each subject area. These
