Summer Reading for our Staff

This past summer, each division was asked to choose a book to read that would support their work in helping children to learn. The administration and Board of Trustees also chose to read and discuss books that would further their knowledge. I thought that you might enjoy learning more about the books that were selected. Lower School: The First Six Weeks of School by Paula Denton and Roxann Kriete The First Six Weeks of School is part of the Responsive Classroom approach to teaching and learning. It is a very teacher-friendly book, targeted for grades K-6. Along with our study of differentiated instruction we are discussing effective strategies for instruction and classroom management. This book describes essential habits and procedures to put in place during the beginning weeks of school in order to maximize learning throughout the rest of the year. The book communicates effective establishment of expectations, rules, procedures, and structures to foster an orderly and cooperative learning community. A deliberate and systematic schedule is communicated for teaching students to function with autonomy in a classroom full of freedoms, responsibilities, and choices. The book focuses on four prime factors: 1) a climate and tone of warmth and safety; 2) teaching of the schedule and routines of the school day and expectations for behavior in each of them; 3) introduction of the students to the physical environment and materials in the classroom and the school, and how to use and care for them; 4) expectations about the ways we will learn together in the year ahead. Middle School: Middle School teachers had the option to read either Ishmael or My Ishmael by Daniel Quinn, and/or Last Child in the Woods, Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, by Richard Louv. Quinn won the $500,000 Ted Turner Tomorrow Fellowship for Ishmael, the largest prize for a single literary work in history. Ishmael is taught in thousands of schools. It also inspired Pearl Jam’s album, “Yield”, and the major motion picture “Instinct.” (My Ishmael is very similar to Ishmael thematically, except that it offers a dialogue between a 16-year-old girl and Ishmael, the gorilla.) Quinn offers a way of thinking that calls the reader to consider an amazing paradigm shift that represents a challenge to the “human” being the center of the world. The imaginary dialogue between a gorilla, Ishmael, and the human, is convincing, profound, and extremely challenging to the commonplace thinking of those of us who have “adapted” to the Mother Culture, our world as we mostly know it. The distinction between the Takers and the Leavers in human history is carefully drawn-out by Quinn as a way to determine what cultural/lifestyle orientation is in harmony with the survival of living things on earth and what has taken us down the road of destruction, including self-destruction. Quinn also alludes frequently to the change in the development of culture when we began to “lock-up” our food supplies; this represents an important real and symbolic point from which increases in conflict among humans and with the “natural order” began. Quinn’s thinking has helped us to begin some important discussions in Middle School about curriculum, teaching methods, relationships, leadership, and common interdisciplinary themes. Louv has offered a much more “practical” and “graspable” challenge about the needs of our students, their parents, families, and ourselves relative to the time that we allow for imagination, creativity, interaction in and with nature, how we structure (or over-structure) time, and how good teaching and learning happens “indoors” vs. “out-of-doors.” The Middle School faculty has set the goal during this school year to communicate with our families about Louv’s work. We will be encouraging parents to read Louv’s book or some of his articles. We will likely schedule one or more opportunities to sit with parents and discuss the implications of Louv’s contentions regarding “nature-deficit disorder.” Upper School: Activating a Desire to Learn, by Bob Sullo Activating a Desire to Learn presents the theory of internal motivation as an alternative to education’s time-worn external motivational reward-punishment model. The book outlines humans’ need to: connect, be competent, make choices, and have fun. It uses a combination of theory and case studies and provides guidelines for integrating the principles of internal control/motivation with standards-based instruction. Administrative Staff: A Whole New Mind, by Daniel Pink A Whole New Mind describes the growing importance of “right-brain” thinking, which deals with creativity and empathy. Pink's premise is that creative thinking which incorporates design and social/emotional concerns will dominate the future as we move from a society of scarcity to one of plenty. He points out that this is already happening when stores like Target and Wal Mart stock electronics, appliances and clothing from "upscale" famous designers. He claims that more and more people are looking for aesthetics and functionality in what they purchase and use. The implications are that we need to design curriculum that supports students in developing greater “right-brain” skills. Board of Trustees: The 10 Lenses, Your Guide to Living & Working in a Multicultural World, by Mark A. Williams Mark Williams is the founder and CEO of The Diversity Channel and works with organizations throughout the world on issues of diversity and multiculturalism. His book offers ten lenses that he believes people use to view issues of race, culture, national, and ethnic differences in this country. He devotes one chapter to each lens as he describes such views as the Assimilationist, who believes that everyone should act like a true-blue American; the Culturalcentrist, who believes that a person’s race or ethnicity is central to their personal and public identity; the Meritocratist, who is sure that if you have the abilities and work hard enough you can make your dreams come true regardless of race or culture; and the Victim/Caretaker, who believes that because of bias they will never succeed.