School Books

Say What? by Margaret Petersen Haddix
Genre: Realistic Fiction, Children's lit. (out of 10): 8
I have enjoyed several other books by Margaret Petersen Haddix for older readers, specifically her Among the Hidden series. I am working on boning up my collection of lower-level books for my students, and this book is written at a third-grade level. It was a very cute story about kids whose parents try a nontraditional technique to get their behavior in line.

The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of All Learners by Carol Ann Tomlinson
Genre: Nonfiction, education (out of 10): 9
My spring class is on differentiated instruction, and this is the text. It is a wonderful book. I had previous knowledge of DI and had tried to implement it, but it all makes sense now that I've read the book. Chapter nine, particularly, is wonderful for making it seem like differentiation is doable for all teachers. Personally, I think that for public education to survive, teachers need to become differentiators on a large scale.

Belated

I finished this book on the way to Mackinac...

The Shame of the Nation by Jonathan Kozol
Genre: Education Rating: 6
This book documents the current reversal of Brown vs. Board of Education (desegregation) currently taking place in our schools. More and more schools- particularly in urban areas- are heavily segregated. The book focuses quite a bit on money and unequal distribution of resources to the schools. In my opinion, funding is a big part of the schooling problem. If school dollars are based on tax revenues, it stands to reason that there will be less money for the schools in areas in which many people rent. Right?