Books

Introduction by Brett Bigham - 2014 Oregon Teacher of the Year

I don’t remember many actual lessons from fifth grade but I remember hanging on every word as my teacher read “Where the Red Fern Grows.” For weeks on end I was terrified I’d get sick and miss a day in the life of those dogs. 

In fourth grade I sat in horror realizing the ending of Anne Frank was the closest I’d ever been to attending a funeral. Rows of children silently crying. A few, not so silently. That teacher may well have tattooed me because that book made an indelible mark on my life.

Don’t even get me started on Charlotte’s Web.

The literature a teacher chooses to share with their students is an incredibly personal thing. It is a bond between teacher and students that has impact for years to come. 

How do you pick the right book?  Has the classic held up or has it become uncomfortable? Do you teach empathy through the pages of Charlotte’s Web or Wonder or Brown Girl Dreaming? And then there is that constant nagging question: Is the book you are about to invest several months in good enough? Is there something better?

As I travelled through Oregon as Teacher of the Year I was constantly asked what books I’d recommend. I’ve learned there is a lot of angst about the quality of books in a classroom library. Pre-service teachers wanted the nuts and bolts. They didn’t want to hear “Get books about social justice.” they wanted a list that said, “The Book Of Isaias by Daniel Connolly is a great book to teach about Dreamers.” 

The need for guidance was so clear the National Network of State Teachers of the Year and I joined up to create the NNSTOY Social Justice Book List. Working with Katherine Bassett and Laurie Calvert we surveyed Teachers of the Year from all over the country to find out what books they were using in their classroom to teach social justice.

We ended up with over two hundred books that had been vetted by our most recognized educators. The list is by grade level with an additional section of books for teachers themselves. Now, whenever I am asked what books I would choose to support LGBT students or kids living in poverty or dealing with bullying and racism I can send them the link for the book list.

The NNSTOY Social Justice Book List, edited by Katherine Bassett, Laurie Calvert and Brett Bigham is available free online at: 
http://www.nnstoy.org/wp-conte...

By Kathleen M. Collins
Teachers College Press, 2018, ISBN-13: 9780807756973, $44.95 (List Price), available at www.tcpress.com

How can we create classrooms where children historically positioned as “struggling” or “deficient” are able to participate fully and successfully? In detailed case studies, the author demonstrates how teachers integrated multimodal literacies and a sociocultural understanding of disability to inform their teaching and help students meet or exceed expected academic standards.

By Nel Noddings and Laurie Brooks 
Teachers College Press, 2016, ISBN-13: 9780807757802, $34.95 (List Price), available at www.tcpress.com

This book offers specific, concrete strategies for addressing a variety of issues related to authority, religion, gender, race, media, sports, entertainment, class and poverty, capitalism and socialism, and equality and justice. The goal is to develop individuals who can examine their own beliefs, those of their own and other group with respect and understanding for others' values.

By Susan E. Craig
Teachers College Press, 2017, ISBN-13: 9780807758250, $29.95 (List Price); available at www.tcpress.com

The trauma-sensitive schools movement is the result of a confluence of forces that are changing how educators view students’ academic and social problems, including the failure of zero-tolerance policies to resolve issues of school safety, bullying, and academic failure, as well as a new understanding of adolescents’ disruptive behavior.

By Susan E. Craig
Teachers College Press, 2015, ISBN-13: 9780807757451, $30.95 (List Price); available at www.tcpress.com

Growing evidence supports the important relationship between trauma and academic failure. Along with the failure of “zero tolerance” policies to resolve issues of school safety and a new understanding of children’s disruptive behavior, educators are changing the way they view children’s academic and social problems.

By Jamy Stillman & Lauren Anderson

Teachers College Press, 2017, ISBN-13: 9780807757840, $39.95 (List Price), available at www.tcpress.com

This book details how one school integrated equity pedagogy into a standards-based curriculum and produced exemplary levels of achievement. As the authors illustrate, however, the school’s dual commitment to bilingual education and standards-based reform engendered numerous complex tensions.

By Deborah L. Feldman, Antony T. Smith & Barbara L. Waxman

Teachers College Press, 2017, ISBN-13: 9780807758625, $33.95 (List Price), available at www.tcpress.com

The narratives and insights presented here will help readers to better understand the interplay of school-related and personal factors that lead students to drop out of school. "Why We Drop Out" is essential reading for K–12 educators, school principals, counselors, psychologists, and everyone concerned with our nation’s “dropout crisis.”

By Robert D. Barr & Emily L. Gibson

Solution Tree Press, 2013, ISBN-13: 9781936764624, $34.95 (List Price); available at www.barnesandnoble.com

Research demonstrates that children of poverty need more than just academic instruction to succeed. The authors draw from their own experiences working with high-poverty, high-achieving schools to illustrate how to support students with an approach that considers social as well as emotional factors in education.

By Mary Dilg

Teachers College Press, 2003, ISBN-13: 9780807743898, $28.95 (List Price); available at www.tcpress.com

This book focuses on the special needs of adolescents. The author provides examples of student observations, conversations, and writings; details approaches to curriculum and pedagogy that are particularly effective in the multicultural classroom; and more.