Category: Book Reviews

50 Strategies to Create Classroom Communities

As educators seek to return to a safer and more predictable learning environment, Barron and Kinney’s We Belong can be a valuable easy-to-use classroom management resource for teachers wanting to connect with their students so they thrive both academically and emotionally.

Supporting Twice Exceptional Learners

In Teaching Twice-Exceptional Learners in Today’s Classroom Emily Kircher-Morris clears up misconceptions about twice-exceptional students and shares many easily accessed tools for teaching 2E students in general and with specific exceptionalities, writes Sarah E. Pennington.

How Educators Can Reclaim Student Agency

Reading and writing experts Penny Kittle and Kelly Gallagher detail how to use essays, book clubs, poetry and digital composition to support student literacy and build student agency. Reviewer Helene Alalouf says your students will thank you for bringing the book’s ideas to class.

An Inspiring Quote for Every Day of the Year

365 Quotes for Teachers: Inspiration and Motivation for Every Day of the Year does what author and principal Danny Steele intends – motivates, challenges, and helps keep the job in perspective. Reviewer Anne Anderson suggests ways to use the book and offers some samples.

17 Ways Teachers Can Build Resilience

Filled with great tips and references in a concise easy-to-access format, Bryan Harris’s book “17 Things Resilient Teachers Do (And 4 Things They Hardly Ever Do)” provides an authentic, must-have resource to build teacher resilience, writes teacher Laura Von Staden.

Implementing CIM to Nurture Every Reader

In The Comprehensive Intervention Model: Nurturing Self-Regulated Readers Through Responsive Teaching by Dorn, Soffos and Klein, educators will learn how other districts have used CIM with real success and find the detailed guidance to implement the model with fidelity.

Ed Leaders Share Ideas for Going Forward

After two years of pandemic strain and distraction, it’s time for educators to reclaim the “why,” writes district leader Brian Taylor. “10 Perspectives on Learning in Education” can help teachers and administrators refocus attention “on what we do every day for students.”

Re-envisioning Teacher Responses to Burnout

The increase in teacher burnout started well before the pandemic, author Patricia Jennings writes in “Teacher Burnout Turnaround.” Jennings’ strategies can help educators overcome and replace a worn-out education system, reading specialist and coach Ashley Falkos believes.

An Illustrated ABC of Inquiry-Based Teaching

I Is for Inquiry presents a diverse repertoire of concepts to help teachers be intentional about embedding inquiry-based teaching and learning strategies into their lessons and supporting K-12 students in embracing a learning mindset, writes Michael McLaughlin.

A Captivating Dive into Student Self-Motivation

The new edition of Debbie Silver’s Fall Down 7 Times, Get Up 8 is an essential handbook for adults who want to help kids become committed, continuous learners. NBCT Kathie Palmieri finds the book’s attention to self-motivation, ZPD and growth mindset particularly helpful. Highly recommended.