Literacy Lessons: Teaching and Learning with Middle School Students

Rating:
Summary: every middle school English teacher needs this book
Review: Experienced Cooks don't always use exact recipes to make their finest cuisine, just as experienced teachers don't always use an exact formula to deliver their best lessons. Both have invaluable experience which aids them in their daily jobs. However, for anyone who is starting out as a new chef or teacher, a recipe/formula for "how things should go" allows for the rookie to build confidence while gaining the invaluable experience that's characteristic to the pros. Margaret Finders and Susan Hynds' book, Literacy Lessons: Teaching and Learning with Middle School Students is the "grandma's foolproof cookie recipe" of teaching advice. The authors give you step by step instructions about teaching literacy to middle schoolers, however providing room for your own individuality and creativity to spark the skeleton of ideas that they provide for you.
From instructions on how to join professional organizations to writing prompts that allow you to reflect upon your craft, this book is the "how to" that every language arts pre-service and first year teachers should never be without. Finders and Hynds sprinkle the pages with information, advice, real life case studies, problems, challenges and most importantly, questions that make the reader consider aspects of teaching that have been forgotten or perhaps misplaced in the hustle and bustle of teacher preparation. For example, in one of the fieldwork journals the writing prompt asks you to focus on one class and to describe the students in terms of grade level, age, gender ratio, ethnic diversity, socioeconomic levels, etc.. while keeping in mind questions that you may have about IEP's, the abilities and disabilities of your students, support services, ESL students, social dynamics, and many others. (55-56) This journal entry helps bring questions to the surface that new teachers have but possibly forget to ask their mentor teachers/colleagues, in the whirlwind of lesson planning, meetings, parent conferences, professional development, etc...
Finders and Hynds also give you step by step examples of how to include multiple intelligences into your language arts lessons as well as keep your assessment of students in conjunction with your goals for the students as well as those of the curriculum guide and district and state standards. For example, the authors give suggestions to "secure a copy of the standardized tests given in yours state or school district, (or test booklet depending on the time of the year) and analyze what is required of your students by asking questions such as `What purposes do the test makers suggest the tests serve?, What forms of reading and writing are expected by the students?, Which of your students might have difficulties with parts of the test and how can you minimize this? and How does what your doing in your classroom on a daily basis help or hinder the students as far as this test is concerned?" (137-138) The topics of standards and testing are mentioned and loathed in teacher preparation but rarely does anyone tell you "This is what to do if you have no other idea how to incorporate the standards into your teaching". However, more than just a manual, this book is entertaining and inspiring at the same time as it is useful.
This entertainment is displayed throughout the book with humorous stories but also prevalent at the end of the book, when Finders and Hynds incorporate a few humorous sketches of what a beginning teacher will look like at the beginning of student teaching and how that will compare to weeks 9 and 10. From comfortable shoes to the never-ending coffee drinking, these sketches are realistic, funny and attached to a poster which gives organizational tips as well. (313) Finders and Hynds pack it in for the reader, to give as much assistance as they can. Their teaching insights, combined with exemplary writing skills, push this book to be a great educational tool for anyone considering or entering the profession.
If this wasn't a wealth of information already, Finders and Hynds have done even more leg work to help pre-service teachers secure a job and prepare a professional portfolio. "Margaret conducted telephone interviews with 50 middle school principals and asked them specifically, `What in particular makes one candidate's materials rise to the top of the application files?'". (309) Principals responded with such comments as explicit interest in teaching at the Middle School Level, classroom experiences and evidence of success at the middle school level, abilities to work on teams, abilities to work with students beyond the academics, and many more important insights about how to secure a job in the middle school setting. For anyone considering middle school teaching, this book is a must have and a must read. These two teaching and literacy experts have risen above their normal excellence to provide us with a book that goes straight to the cream of the crop. As I said at the beginning, novice chefs may use a cookbook in their early days of food preparation, novice teachers will use Literacy Lessons: Teaching and Learning with Middle School Students.

Rating:
Summary: every middle school English teacher needs this book
Review: Experienced Cooks don't always use exact recipes to make their finest cuisine, just as experienced teachers don't always use an exact formula to deliver their best lessons. Both have invaluable experience which aids them in their daily jobs. However, for anyone who is starting out as a new chef or teacher, a recipe/formula for "how things should go" allows for the rookie to build confidence while gaining the invaluable experience that's characteristic to the pros. Margaret Finders and Susan Hynds' book, Literacy Lessons: Teaching and Learning with Middle School Students is the "grandma's foolproof cookie recipe" of teaching advice. The authors give you step by step instructions about teaching literacy to middle schoolers, however providing room for your own individuality and creativity to spark the skeleton of ideas that they provide for you.
From instructions on how to join professional organizations to writing prompts that allow you to reflect upon your craft, this book is the "how to" that every language arts pre-service and first year teachers should never be without. Finders and Hynds sprinkle the pages with information, advice, real life case studies, problems, challenges and most importantly, questions that make the reader consider aspects of teaching that have been forgotten or perhaps misplaced in the hustle and bustle of teacher preparation. For example, in one of the fieldwork journals the writing prompt asks you to focus on one class and to describe the students in terms of grade level, age, gender ratio, ethnic diversity, socioeconomic levels, etc.. while keeping in mind questions that you may have about IEP's, the abilities and disabilities of your students, support services, ESL students, social dynamics, and many others. (55-56) This journal entry helps bring questions to the surface that new teachers have but possibly forget to ask their mentor teachers/colleagues, in the whirlwind of lesson planning, meetings, parent conferences, professional development, etc...
Finders and Hynds also give you step by step examples of how to include multiple intelligences into your language arts lessons as well as keep your assessment of students in conjunction with your goals for the students as well as those of the curriculum guide and district and state standards. For example, the authors give suggestions to "secure a copy of the standardized tests given in yours state or school district, (or test booklet depending on the time of the year) and analyze what is required of your students by asking questions such as 'What purposes do the test makers suggest the tests serve?, What forms of reading and writing are expected by the students?, Which of your students might have difficulties with parts of the test and how can you minimize this? and How does what your doing in your classroom on a daily basis help or hinder the students as far as this test is concerned?" (137-138) The topics of standards and testing are mentioned and loathed in teacher preparation but rarely does anyone tell you "This is what to do if you have no other idea how to incorporate the standards into your teaching". However, more than just a manual, this book is entertaining and inspiring at the same time as it is useful.
This entertainment is displayed throughout the book with humorous stories but also prevalent at the end of the book, when Finders and Hynds incorporate a few humorous sketches of what a beginning teacher will look like at the beginning of student teaching and how that will compare to weeks 9 and 10. From comfortable shoes to the never-ending coffee drinking, these sketches are realistic, funny and attached to a poster which gives organizational tips as well. (313) Finders and Hynds pack it in for the reader, to give as much assistance as they can. Their teaching insights, combined with exemplary writing skills, push this book to be a great educational tool for anyone considering or entering the profession.
If this wasn't a wealth of information already, Finders and Hynds have done even more leg work to help pre-service teachers secure a job and prepare a professional portfolio. "Margaret conducted telephone interviews with 50 middle school principals and asked them specifically, 'What in particular makes one candidate's materials rise to the top of the application files?'". (309) Principals responded with such comments as explicit interest in teaching at the Middle School Level, classroom experiences and evidence of success at the middle school level, abilities to work on teams, abilities to work with students beyond the academics, and many more important insights about how to secure a job in the middle school setting. For anyone considering middle school teaching, this book is a must have and a must read. These two teaching and literacy experts have risen above their normal excellence to provide us with a book that goes straight to the cream of the crop. As I said at the beginning, novice chefs may use a cookbook in their early days of food preparation, novice teachers will use Literacy Lessons: Teaching and Learning with Middle School Students.