Category: Book Reviews

Leadership Traits That Engage and Transform

School leaders and leaders-to-be will find a rich resource in Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey’s Leader Credibility. The authors and their co-authors use research, anecdotes and their own experiences to help readers engage, inspire and transform their schools, writes Jeny Randall.

250 Boredom-Proof Writing Prompts. Fun!

In Unjournaling by Dawn DiPrince and Cheryl Thurston, students will find the book’s 250 prompts interesting and challenging, and teachers will appreciate the flexibility and variety this second edition brings to class. Everyone will have fun too, promises Anne Anderson.

8 Keys to Designing Tomorrow’s Schools Now

Learning Transformed offers a still timely blueprint of practical ideas to reinvent schools so all students receive a useful education, all teachers are treated as professionals, and all families and community members are welcome and value the role schools play, says teacher Theresa Wood.

How Reimagining Book Clubs Deepens Learning

If you’ve found class book clubs frustrating, it’s time to read Sara Kugler’s Better Book Clubs. She guides teachers through each step in developing clubs that will help students want to read and talk about books. Literacy leader Sarah Valter highly recommends this resource.

Empower Students to Become Lifelong Readers

Authentic Literacy Instruction cuts through the literacy fog and all the opposing claims about reading instruction to present practical, actionable techniques teachers can use with any curriculum in grades 6-12, says ELA/reading teacher Erin Corrigan-Smith.

Strength-Based Goal Setting for Gifted Kids

Phelps and Lewis offer a comprehensive guide to setting goals, delineating a process that is sure to be impactful for gifted learners. Specialists working with 2E or underachieving students will appreciate the strengths-first framing, writes gifted education leader Kim Rensch.

Team Leader Moves That Impact Adult Learning

Intentional Moves: How Skillful Team Leaders Impact Learning is a treasure for any educator who coaches, is a team leader, an administrator or spends a significant amount of their time working with professional colleagues, writes adult learning consultant Cathy Gassenheimer.

Trauma-Informed Support for Grieving Students

Brittany Collins, the founder of Grief-Responsive Teaching, has taken her own personal experience as a grieving student and skillfully woven it together with knowledge of pedagogical practices and extensive research on navigating loss. For all educators, writes Sara Coppola.