The Transformative Power of a Classic Novel
Chinua Achebe's most famous novel, Things Fall Apart, a trenchant exploration of colonialism and culture, has long been staple of of high school and college reading lists. Read Full Post >
Recently in Books Category
March 28, 2013
October 01, 2012
Is Jonathan Kozol Too Gloomy?
Jonathan Kozol, at age 76, has new book out entitled Fire in the Ashes: Twenty-Five Years Among the Poorest Children in America. In it, he looks yet again—reportedly in career-summation mode—at the devastating consequences of America's failure to provide equitable educational opportunities in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Read Full Post >
August 20, 2012
Teachers Stocking Up on Ayn Rand Books
According to the Ayn Rand Institute's Books to Teachers Program, teachers requested more than 400,000 copies of the author's books in the 2011-12 school year, a 30 percent increase in requests from the 2010-11 school year. Read Full Post >
July 19, 2012
Is Encyclopedia Brown Young-Adult Literature?
The passing of Donald J. Sobol, the author of the popular Encyclopedia Brown series, recently prompted the editors of Flavorwire to dig up some of their favorite book series and post their version of the 10 greatest young-adult series of all time. Read Full Post >
July 09, 2012
What's New in Teacher PD: Read a Book, Get Graduate Credit
Here's a new take on continuing education for busy teachers: Corwin, together with California Lutheran University, has just launched a professional development initiative in which teachers can acquire one unit of graduate course credit for reading a Corwin book—yes, any Corwin book—and completing a written assignment within three months. Read Full Post >
April 25, 2012
Resource Watch: Free Books for Low-Income Students
Do you have any students in your class who don't own books at home? According to her press agent, the founder of the nonprofit First Book, Kyle Zimmer, likes to share the anecdote about a teacher in a Title 1 classroom who asked her students to bring in a book from home to read in class. To her surprise, three students brought back a phone book, the only book they found at home. Read Full Post >
April 10, 2012
Delpit vs. Charter Schools (or Maybe Not)
Monday night, I had the chance to see Lisa Delpit, author of our upcoming Teacher Book Club selection, "Multiplication Is for White People:" Raising Expectations for Other People's Children, speak at a restaurant/performance space in Washington. The event, hosted by the nonprofit Teaching for Change... Read Full Post >
March 23, 2012
Feeding 'The Hunger Games' Frenzy
If you're working in a school right now, this is probably all you're hearing about today (I'm not working in a school and it's been a dominant topic of conversation in my social circles). The premier of "The Hunger Games." The Columbus Dispatch jumped on "The Hunger Games" hubbub to write about th... Read Full Post >
January 04, 2012
A Payne-ful Discussion
On his blog Borderland, teacher Doug Noon laments the reading assignment he was given over the winter break—Ruby Payne's Framework for Understanding Poverty. He writes: This is to prepare us for the indoctrination session [part of his school's improvement plan] to follow upon our return from o... Read Full Post >
October 19, 2011
An English Teacher's Envy
Miss Eyre at NYC Educator describes feeling "insanely, irrationally jealous" of her students during their free reading time. She writes: It's really hard to do quality reading during the school year, especially if you're an English teacher and you have to stay on top of the texts you're reading wit... Read Full Post >
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