In Unjournaling by Dawn DiPrince and Cheryl Thurston, students will find the book’s 250 prompts interesting and challenging, and teachers will appreciate the flexibility and variety this second edition brings to class. Everyone will have fun too, promises Anne Anderson.
Learning Transformed offers a still timely blueprint of practical ideas to reinvent schools so all students receive a useful education, all teachers are treated as professionals, and all families and community members are welcome and value the role schools play, says teacher Theresa Wood.
If you’ve found class book clubs frustrating, it’s time to read Sara Kugler’s Better Book Clubs. She guides teachers through each step in developing clubs that will help students want to read and talk about books. Literacy leader Sarah Valter highly recommends this resource.
Authentic Literacy Instruction cuts through the literacy fog and all the opposing claims about reading instruction to present practical, actionable techniques teachers can use with any curriculum in grades 6-12, says ELA/reading teacher Erin Corrigan-Smith.
Phelps and Lewis offer a comprehensive guide to setting goals, delineating a process that is sure to be impactful for gifted learners. Specialists working with 2E or underachieving students will appreciate the strengths-first framing, writes gifted education leader Kim Rensch.
Intentional Moves: How Skillful Team Leaders Impact Learning is a treasure for any educator who coaches, is a team leader, an administrator or spends a significant amount of their time working with professional colleagues, writes adult learning consultant Cathy Gassenheimer.
Book Reviews / Social & Emotional Learning
by MiddleWeb · Published 03/16/2023 · Last modified 04/01/2023
Social-Emotional Learning Starts with Us by DiFazio and Roeser offers SEL stories from educators, experts, and students, along with grade-level activities. The authors not only share their knowledge and expertise, writes consultant Anne Anderson, they share their hearts.
Brittany Collins, the founder of Grief-Responsive Teaching, has taken her own personal experience as a grieving student and skillfully woven it together with knowledge of pedagogical practices and extensive research on navigating loss. For all educators, writes Sara Coppola.
Educator Amber Chandler’s feel-good Movie Magic in the Classroom prepares any teacher to guide students through 10 films that address a range of SEL topics, from creating a sense of belonging to building an inclusive community, writes Sarah Cooper. For ELA, history and more.
Students continue to struggle with the effects of trauma from the pandemic and their lives outside of school. To help school communities support healing and growth, four authors suggest strategies and policies based in research and their own experiences, writes Brenda Yoho.
