Teacher "Must Have" Books
From the desk of Carol C…
Everywhere you look on the web you can find lists of books children must read or books that bookclubs must read or books that you shouldn’t die without reading or…the list goes on. What I don’t find as much is a list of books that educators must read. I have helped to fill in that gap today. (I hear the excitement rumbling from inside your head!) I find one of the best ways to determine if a book is worth buying and/or reading is to find it on lots of different lists. That tells me LOTS of people like it, and it must have some merit. I know, I know. We can all think of at least one book that three gazillion people read and loved, but we hated. The other tool I use for choosing books to buy/read is to see what choices I have read that have been recommended by the author of a particular list. If I agree with the author about most books then I am more likely to investigate her proposed titles. If I don’t agree, I immediately close the window and wonder what in the world she was thinking when she wrote THAT list. Here’s my almost fool proof list of must have educational books. (My guru, Lucy Calkins, will have an entire blog dedicated to her coming soon.)
- Guiding Readers and Writers (Grades 3-6): Teaching, Comprehension, Genre, and Content Literacy by Irene Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell-Can you say prolific writers? This book is expensive but so worth it. It has everything that deals with literacy in grades 3-6 included. One of the great features is the first 20 days of school chart the authors include in the beginning of the book. This chart shows you what to teach each day and includes explanations on how to implement each of the strategies in the chart. Want to know more about guided reading? Look in here. Want to know about independent reading? Look in here. Want to know about teaching writing? Look in here. Want to know one of the best new shows on TV? Check out Major Crimes on TNT Monday nights. Seriously, this book has about every topic you can think of in it. I wouldn’t go without it.
- Math By All Means by Marilyn Burns-Any and I do mean any of the books Ms. Burns has written with this title are excellent! (Actually, I suspect any book that Ms. Burns writes is excellent.) Each book in this series focuses on a different mathematical topic. Most recently I have used Math By All Means: Multiplication and Math By All Means: Division. Each book in this series has multiple lessons on the topic and each includes a materials list and an overview of how to teach the lesson. Then Ms. Burns goes one step further by giving a detailed account of how the lesson might actually go in a classroom. She includes pre and post assessments, blackline masters, and plenty of hands on activities. Most of the units (books) are designed to use for a month to a month and a half. I don’t know how I taught math before finding Ms. Burns.
- Second-Grade Math: A Month-To-Month Guide by Nancy Litton-This book is one part of a whole series of month-by-month books with one for each grade level through 5th grade. I happened upon this second grade book several years ago and have been preaching about it ever since. I came across it right before my first year back in second grade after YEARS of teaching upper grades. It was a lifesaver for me. I set up my classroom as Ms. Litton suggested, implemented her daily routines, and taught with book in hand until I began to understand what I was doing. I promise that I had never had students who understood how numbers worked to the degree that these kids did until I taught with this book. Every book in the series covers how to set up your classroom for math, math investigations, routines, menu choices, games, writing assessments, and parent communication. I used it all in second and then in third grades. Fantastic!
- In the Middle: Writing, Reading, and Learning with Adolescents (1st edition) by Nancie Atwell- I was going to recommend just 3 books, but I cannot make a list without including Nancie Atwell. Before I read this book in my early teaching career all I knew about process writing was that you “throw away the language textbooks and spelling doesn’t count”. What misconceptions! Ms. Atwell taught me about ownership, voice, and choice in writing. She gave me firsthand accounts (her own) of how the writing process worked with middle schoolers. She talked about it in such a way that I could use the same ideas in the lower grades. She gave me forms to use and mentor texts to read. Ms. Atwell changed my whole way of thinking about how to teach writing. She was and continues to be remarkable.
Last but not least…if you cannot get to a bookstore, friend, or neighbor to check out any of these titles in person then head to Amazon or webpage of the company that publishes that title. (The titles are linked to Amazon in this blog.)
When you go to the site, you should be able to look at the table of contents and read at least a bit of the information inside the book. I’d love to know what you would include on an educator “must have” list. Let me know!