Why Did I Read This Book? **THIS BOOK REVIEW IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION** I felt like I needed a bit of an intellectual challenge heading into my third year as a teacher, so I enrolled in the Master of Arts in Teaching and Curriculum program at Michigan State University. I read this book for my graduate course TE 808: Inquiry into Classroom Teaching and Learning. It was the guiding text for our Action Research Projects that we conducted over the course of the semester. When I shared with my students the title of this book during a Reading Roll Call in September, they were not that intrigued. Usually a student will ask me what the book I'm reading is about. I will provide the class with a short book talk with me either reading from the back of the book or a quick update on where I'm at in the book. I was met with silence and some laughs about this one. "Reading this for my grad class," was the response I gave the silence. No one cared to hear anything else, so I moved on to the first student and carried on with Reading Roll Call. Oh well ... I am also able to count The Power of Questions for the following reading challenges:
Strengths As stated on the back of the book, this book provides the reader with the process of action research in an illustrated and step-by-step process. My course followed this set up exactly, so it was interesting to read about the research process and then enact it with my own research question about my practice in my classroom. This was very helpful to see how the book's directions and the process of research was to be conducted. The authors also provided a wide variety of excellent examples of how action research could be done in a classroom. I enjoyed reading the secondary examples the most, as I am a secondary teacher. The examples used connected from chapter to chapter as well, so you could trace both the writing and research process from the same teacher throughout the book. WeaknessesWhile the text does an excellent job of scaffolding the reader into understanding the many ways research can be conducted, I felt like most of the chapters were dry and not compelling. I know I wasn't reading a thrilling novel or nonfiction account of an event, but, man, this book was easy to put down and walk away from. This is a minor weakness to the book, but some of the sentences were very close together meaning there did not seem to be a space in between the period of the previous sentence and the capital letter of the next. Again, minor detail, but it became distracting after a while, so much so that I am writing about it here. Recommendation The book is great for teachers of all levels whether they are a preservice teacher, a new teacher looking for a way to be proactive in their new setting, a graduate student in education, or a veteran teacher looking to investigate problems or issues that have been plaguing their practice. I would recommend it to any of my colleagues at my school or within my various networks. It is a quality text that I will keep close by as I continue to rewrite, revisit, and reflect on the teaching and curriculum decisions in my classroom.
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Welcome to "The Avalanche ... of Books" blog! In this first post I hope to answer the usual "first blog post" questions, including who I am, why I am blogging, and why I am calling my blog "The Avalanche ... of Books."
To begin, I am a 2014 graduate of Michigan State University. I completed three degrees in English, history education, and social sciences education. These three degrees led to a lot of required reading. I am three weeks away from completing my teaching internship from MSU's College of Education. I have been teaching several sections of English Language Arts 9 for the past school year at Clarkston Junior High. I have also had the opportunity to observe and learn from other educators in the building. Overall, it has been a great experience and I have learned a ton about myself and teaching! As an English teacher and lifelong learner, I love to read, and I feel like I am in a constant avalanche of books. My bookshelves are teeming with titles ranging from fiction to history to historical fiction to classics to texts focused on teaching and so much more! I am a huge proponent of reflection. During my internship, I constantly asked my students to reflect on the units we accomplished and asked questions centered around what did they did/did not enjoy, what was easy, what was difficult, which type of reading/annotations/assessment did they prefer. I greatly appreciated their details, notes, and feedback. It helped me improve as a teacher both in the moment and for future units and classes. I hope to continue this type of reflection as I move into my first classroom. This blog will be my reflection on the books that I read, along with the classroom implications that they may have. Some posts will be reflections of what I'm doing in the classroom related to books and reading. Other posts will be about books that I read and how I hope to bring them into my classroom. The possibilities and titles are endless (trust me!). |
The Avalanche of Books
As an educator and avid reader, I am constantly hearing about books. I feel like I am being chased by a giant, rolling avalanche of titles and authors. Rating System
5 books - New fave! Read it now!
4 books - Shelf worthy 3 books - Quality read, but ... 2 books - Borrow it 1 book - Skip it Archives
December 2017
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