Category: Book Reviews

A Love Letter to Reading

Reviewer Ellen Berg finds 2009’s The Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child by Donalyn Miller to be a refreshing glint of sunshine in the gathering CCSS storm – with ways teachers can support students’ journeys to love affairs with books.

Unorthodox View of Research

Though Christopher Lehman offers strategies to make the research process interesting to gr 4-8 students in Energize Research Reading and Writing: Fresh Strategies to Spark Interest, Develop Independence, and Meet Key Common Core Standards, his approach may prove too difficult, says reviewer Brooke Schultz.

Those Beautiful Howler Monkeys

Cindi Rigsbee & Laurie Wasserman each reviewed Heather Wolpert-Gawron’s ‘Tween Crayons and Curfews: Tips for Middle School Teachers, a middle school teaching guide. The two teachers drew the same conclusion: funny & full of great ideas.

Wounded by School: Broken, then Healing

Reviewer Lorie Shiveley agrees with many of Kristen Olson’s concerns about wounded students in Wounded by School: Recapturing the Joy in Learning and Standing Up to Old School Culture, but Shiveley says teachers get too much of the blame.

Co-Teaching: Ideals & Realities

Special ed teacher Cossondra George found Co-Teaching That Works: Structures and Strategies for Maximizing Student Learning by Anne M. Beninghof to be a smart book full of excellent resources and ideas. But a little naive about Time.

Dear Cindi Rigsbee

José Vilson writes a book review in the form of a professional love letter to middle grades teacher Cindi Rigsbee, author of Finding Mrs. Warnecke: The Difference Teachers Make.

Respect for Young Writers

Beyond the Five Paragraph Essay by Kimberly Hill Campbell and Kristi Latimer provides a process, plan & writing formats “that breathe life back into student writing,” says teacher-reviewer Liz Wisniewski.

Becoming a Together Teacher

The Together Teacher™: Plan Ahead, Get Organized, and Save Time! by Maia Heyck-Merlin helps readers recognize that being organized “is a means to an end –strong student outcomes and more free time,” says reviewer Beth Fabijanic.

Unique and Necessary

In our second review of The Together Teacher, popular blogger Ariel Sacks says the organizational advice from Maia Heyck-Merlin suits her busy but Type B teacher-leader life.