Cultivating Questioners

I can hardly believe that 2014 is coming to an end. It’s been a good year for me, particularly professionally, as I completed my first year of teaching and dove into a second with much greater confidence. I’m hard at work now thinking about what my aspirations for 2015 might be. It is definitely going to be a year with a lot of changes for me, personally and professionally, and it is difficult to envision what the year might hold in store due to the uncertainty surrounding those changes.

But, for now, I’m content to merely reflect on the last year. When 2014 began, I compiled a reading list that I hoped to tackle during the year and, for several months at least, wrote about the books that I had read here on this blog. My intent in reading these books was to try to maintain a connection to the broader world of education beyond my school and classroom and to become more informed, inspired, and more critical in my practice. While I fell off the bandwagon in terms of providing updates about these books, I did read all of the books on my list, except for one. In so doing, I definitely achieved my goal of becoming more informed about the world of education and keeping my finger on the pulse of what is happening in the field. Additionally, a number of these books inspired me with a profound vision of the classroom that I want to continue to work towards this year — a classroom with meaningful, relevant curriculum that helps my students become savvy and considerate citizens.

I’m copying my reading list here and am annotating it for anyone who might be interested in reading one of these books!

Gender and Sexuality:

• The Second Sex – Simone de Beauvoir (Not explicitly about education, but I found this book to be such a powerful mediation on what it means to be female. Fortunately, some of the conditions de Beauvoir reports have been improved, but so much of what she said seemed relevant today, decades after the publication of this seminal work.)
• Real Boys – William Pollack (The male counterpart to The Second Sex; more information here: https://wordpress.com/post/53713735/453/)
• From the Dress-Up Closet to the Senior Prom – Jennifer Bryan (Without a doubt, the most comprehensive and relevant book for educators on gender and sexuality that I’ve encountered; more here: https://cultivatingquestioners.com/2014/07/25/reading-update-2/)

Language and Literacy:

• Literature as Exploration – Louise Rosenblatt (An excellent read for English nerds — an apt summary of the work Rosenblatt did in advancing her transactional view of reading; more here: https://wordpress.com/post/53713735/502/)
• The Experience of Reading – John Clifford (A collection of responses to Rosenblatt’s work; see same link as above.)
• Mosiac of Thought – Ellin Keene and Susan Zimmerman: (A practical text advocating for the teaching of reading comprehension strategies as a means for attaining higher-level thinking; more here: https://wordpress.com/post/53713735/647/) 
• Readicide – Kelly Gallagher: (A brief but powerful text advocating for a return to reading for pleasure, for the use of powerful and relevant texts, and a turn away from the skill-and-drill reading associated with standardized tests.)

Instruction:

• Teach Like a Champion – Doug Lemov (Going to try to read this later — when I am in a mindset to reflect on my practice as a whole. I’ve also heard mixed things about this volume recently…)
• Make Just One Change: Teaching Students to Ask Their Own Questions – Dan Rothstein (A highly readable text that shows you how to encourage higher-order thinking by having students create their own questions, rather than respond to the ones that we develop for them; more here: https://cultivatingquestioners.com/2014/07/25/reading-update-2/)
• Invent to Learn – Sylvia Martinez (A down and dirty guide to the “Maker” movement, which encourages students to tinker and create as a significant piece of the learning process; this book captures and projects a vision for what I think is the greatest potential for using technology in the classroom.)
• Place-Based Education – David Sobel (A brief but lovely book that outlines an ecological, relevant, and community-centered approach to education. This book stuck with me all year and inspired a year-long, nature-based, writing project that we are working on in my classroom; more here: https://cultivatingquestioners.com/2014/05/11/place-based-education/)
• Real Talk for Real Teachers – Rafe Esquith (Rafe Esquith is one of my heroes — hearing him say that he has bad days in the classroom was incredibly grounding for me. This book has tips for everyone, from novice educators to seasoned veterans.)

The Broader World of Education:

• Reign of Error – Diane Ravitch (An intelligent and searing indictment of the problems with contemporary education policy in the United States; more here: https://wordpress.com/post/53713735/471/)
• The Smartest Kids in the World – Amanda Ripley (A fascinating and readable examination of education in Finland, South Korea, and Poland; more here https://wordpress.com/post/53713735/647/)
  
  
• The Death and Life of the Great American School System – Diane Ravitch (Highly recommended for those wanting to understand the roots of current education policy — this was the book that we read in the course that I TA-ed this fall; more here: https://cultivatingquestioners.com/2014/05/11/place-based-education/)
• The Flat World and Education – Linda Darling-Hammond (My first encounter with Darling-Hammond; this book is an examination of the how the achievement gap and inequities play out across the many different domains of education — student outcomes, teacher preparation, school resources, etc.)

Inequality, Diversity, and Multiculturalism: 

• Teaching Toward Freedom – Bill Ayers (This book profoundly inspired me and pushed me to return to the essential questions about why I teach. Highly recommended and a quick read!)
• Rethinking Multicultural Education – Wayne Au (Rethinking Schools) (I love anything Rethinking Schools offers. This book did not disappoint — it was full of articles and ideas for incorporating multiculturalism into the classroom.)
• Open Minds to Equality – Nancy Schniedewind and Ellen Davidson (Rethinking Schools) (My favorite book of the year — this volume is chock-full of ready-to-implement lesson plans that all revolve around social justice and activism; more here: https://cultivatingquestioners.com/2014/02/09/open-minds-to-equality/)
• The Skin That We Speak – Lisa Delpitt (An edited volume examining language politics, practices, and identity. Essential reading for those interested in literacy and social justice; more here: https://wordpress.com/post/53713735/509/)
• Multiplication is For White People – Lisa Delpitt (An excellent work from Delpitt, advocating for high expectations for all and proffering ideas about how to prevent an “opportunity gap from becoming an achievement gap.”)
• The Price of Inequality – Joseph Stiglitz (An economics text that may not be the faint of heart; for those seeking sobering information about the wealth gap in the US, this book will lay it for you very clearly; more here: https://wordpress.com/post/53713735/647/)
• There Are No Children Here – Alex Kotlowitz (Recommended reading for all human beings — Kotlowitz brings a Chicago project to life in vivid detail; more here: https://wordpress.com/post/53713735/659/)

What books did you read in 2014 that are worth sharing? I’d love to hear about them!