New books for January

Some of the more fun and interesting book titles are:  The big book of quick and easy art activities (Scholastic,  K-3, 372.5 Ben) and Artist to artist: 23 major illustrators talk to children about their art(Philomel, 741.642 Art).

Also, Leveled books K-8 by Fountas and Pinnell (Heinemann, 372.41 Fou) and Learning to listen, listening to learn (NAEYC, 372.218 Jal).

To borrow, give us a call at (416) 395-8289.

Rowan

Bibliography on Questions and Questioning

questioning.doc.    We’ve created a short bibliography of resources on Questions and Questioning.  Asking the right question can spark interest and discussion amongst students, engage the brain at a higher level, and might make it harder to plagiarize.  Call the library (416 395-8289) to borrow books and receive articles. Rowan

How do we select the books we buy?

Good question. Money is limited and we can’t afford to purchase everything, so we have to consider many things before we choose the books we purchase.  We rely on  professional journals to eke out books with favourable reviews. 

Foremost, the book has to fit into our subject specialty of education and teaching, but we also consider books on related topics like child development or leadership or various socioeconomic issues such as poverty or gangs. 

We need to respond to teacher hot topics - like books on teaching reading (boys and reading = a BIG topic), or teaching students with special needs or English language learners. Teachers like practical books with hands-on classroom strategies. 

Sometimes we buy books with catchy titles, like Math Doesn’t Suck: How to Survive Middle School Math Without Losing Your Mind or Breaking a Nail (Danica McKellar, 510 Mck) because it is fun and high interest.   We often buy books that are revised editions, like Beyond Discipline: From Compliance to Community[10th Anniversary edition] (Alfie Kohn, 371.5 Koh) because the author is well respected and the book is a classic. 

We buy books by authors who are strongly associated with subject specialties, like Schooling by Design (Wiggins & McTighe, 370.1 Wig) or Five Minds for the Future (Howard Gardner, 370.152 Gar) or Don’t Speed. Read!: 12 Steps to Smart and Sensible Fluency Instruction (Michael F. Optiz, 372.416 Opi).  We would buy any book by Michael Fullan and David Booth because they are Canadian and relevant and will always be requested.

Generally, we don’t buy books with older copyright dates (unless it is a replacement copy of a classic); we don’t buy books that are so specialized or esoteric that they don’t have broad appeal; we don’t buy textbooks – neither K-12 student texts nor for teacher AQ courses.

We are always happy to receive recommendations from teachers, and we seriously consider all requests. Call us at (416) 395-8289 to borrow any of the new books listed here.

Rowan

High School Success

The National High School Centre is a source of information on high school improvement.  It  aims to  identify effective programs, tools,  interventions and research-based practices to improve the outcome of high school learning and preparation for graduation, employment and post-secondary education.  It is totally American, but includes useful research on topics like dropout prevention, transition into and out of high school, technology, literacy, workplace skills, best practices.

I couldn’t find a similar Canadian organization. The Ontario Ministry of Ed. does have a web site titled More Ways to Succeed in High School, but frankly you can’t compare the two. More Ways is very general in a brochure sense, short on data and research – mainly aimed at parents looking for information about how the secondary system operates. 

Rowan