Richard Beach

After two years of teaching a course in Young Adult literature for preservice language arts teachers, I was fortunate to receive an examination copy of this book, which is the most comprehensive text I have found for introducing aspiring educators to the teaching of literature.

Although this text is not uniformly solid, it is robust and thorough in many respects. The two introductory chapters provide just enough of a theoretical/pedagogical foundation for students to familiarize themselves with dialogic teaching and an inquiry framework. The chapters also provide a strong argument for the importance of context and getting to know the students you will be teaching. Subsequent chapters address teaching YA literature, incorporating multiple literacies in language arts instruction, curriculum planning, backwards planning, designing inquiry units, supporting reading comprehension, the use of multiple theoretical critical lenses or perspectives to assist students in constructing meaning from literature, responding to poetry, using a variety of writing assignments (many informal and formative in nature), and using formative assessments to inform teaching. Each chapter concludes with a synthesis/sample lesson that is more illustrative than prescriptive, and the authors carefully align their methodology with their progressive, student-centered pedagogy even as they offer honest critique of the limited value of Common Core standards while simultaneously acknowledging the practical need to address the standards in instruction. Unfortunately, the chapters on teaching media literacy and using drama to teach literature are comparatively weak. The majority of this text, however, is more than enough to support a full semester of pedagogy instruction focused on teaching literature.

I plan to use this text in my course this coming fall, and I strongly recommend it to teacher educators, preservice and in-service English Language Arts teachers.… (más)

Web 2.0 tools open a host of possibilities for writing; better writing; creative writing; collaborative writing; personal writing; assigned writing; and, any other type of writing one seems to be able to think of. Writing using pencil and paper predominated; then came the typewriter; then the word processor; now, the web. But simply doing the same writing excercises from previous technologies is not likely to produce any gains in writing quality, amount, or sophistication. All teachers who expect writing products need to re-examine totatly what is possible using the new technolgies from texting to tweeting, to social networking, and on into the mainstream of Web 2.0. Then, it is not just a matter of making the tools available. It is the coaching of this digital generation how to take advantage of the new power within the world of learning. Beach and tem provide many many examples of real writing using the power of technology to actually make an impact on both writing skill and voice among many other qualities that need to be developed. That is why I recommend this book to suggest a variety of techniques. Test the ideas as collaborative teacher librarian classroom teacher teams. What works best? With what kinds of learners. Certainly real projects that naturally involve writing are likely to produce the best results and one-shot trials will not automatically produce the improvements we want. Bottom line. Milk this book for ideas. Add them to your repertoire disocover and share every other idea you can find. This generation deserves it.… (más)