Cultivating Questioners

I mentioned in a previous post that one of my goals for this year is to try to maintain a connection to the broader world of education beyond my school and my classroom. To that end, I’ve decided to finally tackle some of the books that I kept writing down in the margins of my notes during graduate school but never had the time to read when I had so much other reading to do.

So, here’s my list. I am including it here both to find out if any of you have read these books and to let you know what the subjects of some of my future posts are likely to be. I plan to write up my thoughts and reflections on these titles as I read my way through this list. My hope is that they will leave my more well-informed about many different facets of education, inspired and prepared to implement more “radical” practices in my own classroom, and endowed with a stronger critical lens through which to filter my teaching experiences.

I’ve broken the books down by category — it’s going to be a busy year for reading!

Gender and Sexuality:

• The Second Sex – Simone de Beauvoir
• Real Boys – William Pollack
• From the Dress-Up Closet to the Senior Prom – Jennifer Bryan

Language and Literacy:

• Literature as Exploration – Louise Rosenblatt
• The Experience of Reading – John Clifford
• Mosiac of Thought – Ellin Keene and Susan Zimmerman
• Readicide – Kelly Gallagher

Instruction:

• Teach Like a Chamption – Doug Lemov
• Make Just One Change: Teaching Students to Ask Their Own Questions – Dan Rothstein
• Invent to Learn – Sylvia Martinez
• Place-Based Education – David Sobel
• Real Talk for Real Teachers – Rafe Esquith

The Broader World of Education:

• Reign of Error – Diane Ravitch
• The Smartest Kids in the World – Amanda Ripley
• The Death and Life of the Great American School System – Diane Ravitch
• The Flat World and Education – Linda Darling-Hammond

Inequality, Diversity, and Multiculturalism: 

• Teaching Toward Freedom – Bill Ayers
• Rethinking Multicultural Education – Wayne Au (Rethinking Schools)
• Open Minds to Equality – Nancy Schniedewind and Ellen Davidson (Rethinking Schools) 
• The Skin That We Speak – Lisa Delpitt
• Multiplication is For White People – Lisa Delpitt
• The Price of Inequality – Joseph Stiglitz
• There Are No Children Here – Alex Kotlowitz

What titles are on your “to-read” lists?