Category: Book Reviews

Knowing WHEN to Use Technology in Class

Suzanne Kelly and Elizabeth Dobler help us understand that technology, when used with intention, can help teachers augment instruction without letting it dictate what we do.They offer many tools and ideas to guide decision making as we integrate tech into our lesson plans.

Edupreneurs Share Their Side-Career Tips

In The Edupreneur’s Side Hustle Handbook Lisa Dunnigan, Tosha Wright and eight other educators relate how they’ve followed their passions, traveled a more challenging path, and developed profitable side gigs with success. Laura Von Staden recommends this easy-to-use book.

Keys to Using Text Sets across Content Areas

“Text Sets in Action” provides expert guidance for any teacher interested in using this engaging strategy to deepen learning. The authors define “texts” broadly and provide advice and examples across the core content areas, writes teacher educator Dr. Sarah Pennington.

Reimagining Teaching as We Lead Literate Lives

In her book Stephanie Affinito brings together the importance of reflection and the need to examine our classroom practices. She provides a framework for celebrating our reading and writing lives and offers ways we can help our students develop these habits for themselves.

Trauma-Informed Schools to Support All Students

In Equity-Centered Trauma-Informed Education, Alex Shevrin Venet has written not only to inform us but also to call us to reflect and take action, writes middle school leader Bill Ivey, who anticipates readers will evaluate their practices to find areas for improvement.

Differentiating History Instruction with Menus

Laurie E. Westphal offers a comprehensive introduction to student choice and how to make menus successful. Aimed at high school, the ideas can also work for advanced students in middle school as they develop their strengths, writes history teacher Erin Corrigan-Smith.

Taking Middle Schoolers’ Reading Journals Online

Educators Daniel Rose and Christine Walsh receive a thank-you note for their new book, Talking Through Reading and Writing: Online Reading Conversation Journals” from middle school director and teacher Jeny Randall. She’s ready to reinvigorate her practice with their ideas.

Using Guided Practice with Hesitant Readers

Literacy experts Robb and Harrison draw directly from their current middle grades teaching practice to identify the causes of reading hesitancy. Their tested lessons focus on improving student reading and vocabulary using videos and high-interest texts included in the book.