Book Club Suggestions
After reading and discussing several provocative books this year, the RCWP Book Club is looking for book suggestions for our 2008-09 season. We're interested in everybody's recommendations and hope to maximize our input by utilizing this blog. Whether it's a book you've been wanting to read, a book you have read and would like to discuss, or a book you recently encountered in the latest catalog, we want to know about it!
Please add your recommendations by simply clicking on the "Comments" link below.
Please add your recommendations by simply clicking on the "Comments" link below.
Labels: Book Club
posted by Carlin at 12:03 PM
8 Comments:
To give you some ideas, here is a list of books we read in 07-08:
* The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America by Jonathan Kozol
* The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell
* Choice Words: How Our Language Affects Children's Learning by Peter H. Johnston
* Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams
* Rethinking Rubrics in Writing Assessment by Maja Wilson
* Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture is Actually Making Us Smarter by Steven Johnson
For the most part (by popular demand) we have selected non-fiction titles related to professional interests and goals. These selections took us in interesting directions and now we're looking for a whole new variety of possibilities. At this point, anything is fair game.
Courageous Conversations About Race: A Field Guide for Achieving Equity in Schools by Glenn E. Singleton and Curtis Linton
I have not yet read the book, but my understanding is that it discusses racial awareness, racial achievement gaps, and how to talk about race; it also includes resources for schools to use. As standardized testing becomes more prevalent, schools become more diverse, and racial inequities linger, this seems an appropriate book choice.
If anybody out there has already read the book, feel free to add something or to correct me!
I wonder about the possibility of inviting an author to talk to us. I was pleasantly surprised when coordinating Bright Ideas last year that we can get adolescent lit folks here at a reasonable rate. Some of you attended the breakfast since RCWP helped to subsidize Jacqueline Woodson. We could do a public event with the author, then have them sit in on the book club. So, in addition to thinking of book titles, I would encourage us to think about authors with whom we would enjoy being in closer conversation.
Thanks SO MUCH Carlin and Carrie, for your efforts to coordinate this for RCWP this year!
Though I appreciate and have read many instructional books concerning teaching, I have to admit that I've been focusing more on fiction as of late. The below list doesn't contain a lot of "feel good" texts, but rather books that have blown my hair back. I wouldn't recommend some of these texts to more sensitive readers. It's not that they are scary, just perhaps potentially insulting. However, I think we can learn from everything. Wicked, The Kiterunner, Women Who Run With The Wolves, Skinny Legs and All, Invisible Monsters, and The Stranger.
It might be fun to focus on fictional works from which we can learn. As teachers, we don't just teach what we know, but probably moreso, who we are.
J. Ruth Gendler's The Book of Qualities was highly recommended by Tom Romano in an amazing session I went to in NYC. It's beautiful, short, and has some incredible potential for use in our writing classrooms.
With gender studies still a hot topic I've been wanting to read more. One book that my curriculum director gave me a couple of months ago, that I have yet to read, is Boy Writers: Reclaiming Their Voices by Ralph Fletcher. Fellow teachers say it is excellent.
During NWP in NYC, I attended the session "21st Century Girls in the Mix" and a highly referenced book was All about the Girl: Culture, Power and Identity by Fine and Harris
Maybe the book club could do these two at the same time, for one meeting- they aren't terribly long.
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sorry about the deleted comment. I experienced a computer wig-out. Here's what I was trying to say:
1. Chris Crutcher is coming to MCTE's Bright Ideas in April. We could read Whale Talk or another of his books and try to arrange an author visit.
2. What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy, Second Edition by James Gee. I saw his session at NCTE Pittsburgh two years ago and found it very interesting.
3. What is the What by Dave Eggers. Fictionalized memoir of a Sudanese Lost Boy.
4. The Road by Cormac McCarthy. A friend of mine is teaching this book this year and raves about it.
Thanks for lots of great recommendations, everyone! Keep them coming.
Post a Comment
<< Home