I loved A Reason to Teach. It challenged me to think about how to infuse democratic principals into the intellectually charged reading and writing workshops that thrive in our best schools. Every thoughtful educator needs this book. - Stephanie Harvey, coauthor of The Comprehension Toolkit This book shows why James Beane's work is so crucial to all of us. It needs to be read by anyone who is both deeply concerned with countering the challenges coming from conservative movements in education and committed to building an education that is worthy of its name. - Michael W. Apple, coauthor of Democratic Schools Over his long career, James Beane has worked with teachers at all levels and been a voice for progressive reform in American education. In A Reason to Teach, he brings together many of the best ideas about teaching, learning, curriculum, collaboration, and community. Not only does Beane show us how to make deep learning happen in the classroom, he also challenges us to enact our nation's noblest ideals in our work with young people. A Reason to Teachis written for teachers who want to bring democratic teaching to their classrooms and schools. The book not only explains whyteachers should choose this point of view, but tells how, offering a wide range of practical resources for classrooms and schools at all levels, including tools for: involving students in planning and assessing their work embedding social issues in classroom content arranging projects and collaborative activities organizing integrative curriculum units building classroom communities. All of these ideas are illustrated with vibrant examples from real classrooms around the country, including an extended case study of how one teacher and his students in a large city organized their curriculum around the goal of getting a new school for their neighborhood. Throughout A Reason to Teach, Beane offers specific guidance on instructional strategies that emphasize students' choice, participation, and critical inquiry. The book offers suggestions on how to get started in the classroom, how to think in new ways about what we already do, and how to reach out to colleagues for support. Eminently practical and thoroughly principled, A Reason to Teachshows the how, the why, and the power of the democratic way. In a time when national educational policy is drifting away from its founding principles, James Beane takes us back to the real basics, building upon the long history of progressive education with insights, encouragement, and hope for renewing our commitment to it in the classroom and the nation.

Teaching is a lifelong challenge, but the first few years in the classroom are typically a teacher's hardest. This expanded collection of writings and reflections offers practical guidance on how to navigate the school system, form rewarding relationships with colleagues, and connect in meaningful ways with students and families from all cultures and backgrounds.

Presents a collection of essays that explore a college education as a means through which serious-minded individuals broaden their minds and acquire life skills, arguing that higher learning is an essential remedy for today's problems.

Book In the second edition of this renowned book, you will find pearls of wisdom, heartfelt advice, and inspiration from one of the nation’s leading authorities on staff motivation, teacher leadership, and principal effectiveness. With wit and understanding, Todd Whitaker describes the beliefs, behaviors, attitudes, and interactions of great teachers and explains what they do differently. New features include: Meaning what you say Focusing on students first Putting yourself in their position DVD Bundle This bundle includes a DVD featuring Todd Whitaker speaking about what great teachers do differently. It runs for approximately two hours and is the perfect addition to teacher training events and professional development meetings/workshops. Filled with pearls of wisdom, humor, and practical strategies, the video will motivate your staff and inspire them to be the best they can, each and every day. The DVD comes with a free copy of What Great Teachers Do Differently as well as a Facilitator's Guide.

Grades 3-6 "Active literacy is the means to deeper understanding and diverse, flexible thinking, and is the hallmark of our approach to teaching and learning. Reading, writing, talking, listening, and investigating are the cornerstones of active literacy. The Toolkit captures the language of thinking we use to explicitly teach kids to comprehend the wide variety of informational text they encounter. Through the Toolkit lessons, we demonstrate how the kids adopt and adapt our teaching language as their learning language." - Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis In The Comprehension Toolkit, Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis have created an intensive curricular resource designed to help students understand, respond to, and learn from nonfiction text. By actively engaging students in reading, talking, and writing about information and ideas, The Comprehension Toolkit provides a foundation for developing independent readers and learners across the curriculum and throughout the school year. Framed around the Gradual Release of Responsibility approach, The Comprehension Toolkit provides scaffolded comprehension strategy instruction. First through modeling and guided practice, then releasing responsibility to students through collaborative practice, independent practice, and application, the Toolkit's lessons teach students to use comprehension strategies flexibly in a variety of texts, topics, and subject areas. Professional Support A series of resources introduce, support, and extend the Toolkit's core lessons. The Teacher's Guide outlines the thinking behind the Toolkit and describes its components, instructional design, and assessment options. The Resources for The Comprehension Toolkit CD-ROM provides an array of print and video resources including a photographic overview of an Active Literacy Classroom, downloadable research articles, templates, assessment masters, and full-colour lesson text. Extend and Investigate helps you extend the Toolkit's comprehension strategies across the curriculum and throughout the year. It provides strategies for content area reading and research, textbook reading, test reading, and a variety of practical bibliographies. 6 Strategy Clusters The 26 strategy lessons in The Comprehension Toolkit are organized into six Strategy Cluster books. Informational Text A series of short, engaging, real-world informational texts provide an effective context for using and practising the Toolkit's comprehension strategies. The Source Book of Short Text provides two kinds of nonfiction text: Lesson Text, 24 articles from children's magazines; and Nonfiction Short Text, 43 short informational articles specially written for the Toolkit.

A no-holds-barred assault on outdated teaching methods—with dramatic and practical proposals on how education can be made relevant to today's world. Praise for Teaching As a Subversive Activity “A healthy dose of Postman and Weingartner is a good thing: if they make even a dent in the pious . . . American classroom, the book will be worthwhile.”—New York Times Book Review “Teaching and knowledge are subversive in that they necessarily substitute awareness for guesswork, and knowledge for experience. Experience is no use in the world of Apollo 8. It is simply necessary to know. However, it is also necessary to know the effect of Apollo 8 in creating a new Global Theatre in which student and teacher alike are looking for roles. Postman and Weingartner make excellent theatrical producers in the new Global Theatre.”—Marshall McLuhan “It will take courage to read this book . . . but those who are asking honest questions—what’s wrong with the worlds in which we live, how do we build communication bridges cross the Generation Gap, what do they want from us?—these people will squirm in the discovery that the answers are really within themselves.”—Saturday Review “Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner go beyond the now-familiar indictments of American education to propose basic ways of liberating both teachers and students from becoming personnel rather than people . . . the authors have created what may become a primer of ‘the new education’ Their book is intended for anyone, teacher or not, who is concerned with sanity and survival in a world of precipitously rapid change, and it’s worth your reading.”—Playboy “This challenging, liberating book can unlock not only teachers but anyone for whom language and learning are not dead.”—Nat Hentoff

Miller and Sharp provide the game-changing tools and information teachers and administrators need to dramatically increase children's access to and engagement with books.