Teaching and learning in grades 4-8

A Love Letter to Reading

Reviewer Ellen Berg finds 2009’s The Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child by Donalyn Miller to be a refreshing glint of sunshine in the gathering CCSS storm – with ways teachers can support students’ journeys to love affairs with books.

Unorthodox View of Research

Though Christopher Lehman offers strategies to make the research process interesting to gr 4-8 students in Energize Research Reading and Writing: Fresh Strategies to Spark Interest, Develop Independence, and Meet Key Common Core Standards, his approach may prove too difficult, says reviewer Brooke Schultz.

Those Beautiful Howler Monkeys

Cindi Rigsbee & Laurie Wasserman each reviewed Heather Wolpert-Gawron’s ‘Tween Crayons and Curfews: Tips for Middle School Teachers, a middle school teaching guide. The two teachers drew the same conclusion: funny & full of great ideas.

Wounded by School: Broken, then Healing

Reviewer Lorie Shiveley agrees with many of Kristen Olson’s concerns about wounded students in Wounded by School: Recapturing the Joy in Learning and Standing Up to Old School Culture, but Shiveley says teachers get too much of the blame.

Co-Teaching: Ideals & Realities

Special ed teacher Cossondra George found Co-Teaching That Works: Structures and Strategies for Maximizing Student Learning by Anne M. Beninghof to be a smart book full of excellent resources and ideas. But a little naive about Time.