Summer is upon us, and for many teachers this means some extra time to relax, and to read. Light reading for a day at the park, thrillers for stormy evenings, audio books for road trips: the choices are endless.
Summer can also be a time for professional development, and books are a great resource on that front as well. Whether you are reading to hone a teaching strategy or checking out books that you may use in future coursework,
your summer reading list can help prepare you for next fall’s classes.
Last summer we asked our authors to name the books that they felt all teachers—be they student teachers or experienced supervisors—should read. We liked their ideas so much that we decided to repost them this summer, in case you didn’t get through the entire list.
Their suggestions are drawn from literature to classroom management texts, and cover nearly all aspects of teaching. We are certain that this list of 30 books every teacher should read will inspire your teaching next year, and entertain you as well.
Note: Authors and books are listed in no particular order.This is a repost from July 4, 2013.
Otis Kriegel, author of Everything a New Elementary School Teacher REALLY Needs to Know
Teacher by Sylvia Ashton-Warner is a great book for all K–5 teachers about methods designed to use the relevancy of life experiences outside of the classroom to teach literacy and other skills inside the classroom.
Ann Camacho, author of Bookmarked
I can’t read, “Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your father’s passin’” without choking up, even after teaching Harper Lee’s novel for well over 20 years. Even now, tears sting my eyes, because everything in me longs to be that kind of person, that kind of parent, who can claim that kind of respect. To Kill a Mockingbird gives us a blueprint for parenting, and thus, can greatly impact our interactions with students. Lee’s novel shows us how to maintain our integrity of self while being there for our kids and is proof that raising children in a village is still the most effective and loving approach. It’s a must-read for students and teachers alike!
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky is well on its way to becoming the new Catcher in the Rye. Both feature a teen male protagonist struggling with coming-of-age issues and past personal demons, and both have a tone that many adolescents of its generation can relate to. However, the differences are notable as well, for the overriding motif of isolation and loneliness in each young man is handled entirely differently in each text. It seems indicative of the emotional direction of the different generations, as well, and sheds light to many difficult issues. Insightful and sensitive to the modern teen, Perks is a must-read for any high school teacher.
James J. Crist, Ph.D., CSAC, author of Mad and What to Do When You’re Scared & Worried and coauthor of Siblings
I still recommend the Elementary Discipline Handbook: Solutions for the K–8 Teacher by Richard E. Maurer. It’s an oldie but goodie and gives many useful tips for handling students in the classroom. I like the section on Reality Therapy and the inclusion of surveys for students to complete, rating their feelings about the teacher and other students in the class. Too often, teachers take a “hard line” approach on discipline, forgetting that developing a positive relationship with students while at the same time setting firm and fair limits works best. Kids won’t listen to you unless they are motivated to, and the relationship you establish with the students—and the relationships you help them build with each other—makes a huge difference.
Too often kids tell me how hurt they feel by comments and actions from their teachers. This leads me into another recommendation: Teaching with Love & Logic: Taking Control of the Classroom by Jim Fay and David Funk gives a comprehensive description of how “love and logic principles,” which I use all the time in my therapy with kids, teens, and parents, can be used to create a positive class atmosphere. Four principles of love and logic from the book: “Share the control, share the thinking, balance consequences with empathy, and maintain self-concept.”
Erin Frankel, author of the Weird series
I gave a copy of Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire by Rafe Esquith to my daughter’s third-grade teacher last year because she lit a spark in my daughter and reminded me of the book’s author. They both share a vision for what their students can achieve and understand that achievement goes far beyond standardized test results. They strive to make learning meaningful and fun while cultivating an awareness in students about choices and what it means to do the right thing. They bring passion and energy to the classroom, and as the title goes, teach like their hair’s on fire. Their message to students is loud and clear: “There is no place I would rather be than right here with you. Our work is important. Our work matters.” This book was truly inspirational and made me want to be a better teacher myself. It reminded me that the sky is the limit when it comes to teaching and learning.
I would also recommend Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain. The book gives a fascinating account of what it means to be an introvert in a society that hails extroverts. I was particularly interested in Cain’s observations and tips regarding introverted kids and the dominant group-work culture that prevails in classrooms today. I found myself wondering if we are teaching only to the extroverts and whether we are sensitive to cultural differences when it comes to how students learn. Cain made me reflect on the false assumption that introverted children are shy children. And I was surprised to learn about all of the great thinkers, inventors, authors, and others who considered themselves to be introverts and whose greatest ideas or inventions came at moments of quiet contemplation and reflection. Truly inspiring.
Judith Galas, M.S., author of The Power to Prevent Suicide: A Guide for Teens Helping Teens
I can’t imagine a junior high reading experience that doesn’t include To Kill a Mockingbird. I have taught it in seventh-grade English for many years, and never a year goes by when students don’t tell me that the book was the first serious book they had ever read—no vampires, no fantasy, just real people, in real struggle, doing the right thing. My class also included a yearlong examination of the virtues, and each student would give a short talk about his or her virtue. As part of the exercise, the speaker had to pick one fictional character that demonstrated the virtue under discussion. Virtues like honesty, courage, compassion, empathy, and integrity almost always included one name: Atticus Finch. This fictional man loomed large in the impressionable minds of my young readers, which delighted me.
Moving toward fantasy, I also love The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. This small book has had millions of devoted fans since its publication in 1943, all drawn in part to the lessons gently delivered about love and loss, childhood innocence and adult intransigence, responsibility, sacrifice, and an engaged life. Most readers don’t expect to find the book a portal into discussions about World War II, Nazis, Jews, adventurous pilots, romantic love, bullying, heaven, and the Harry Potter series, but all those topics and more lie in wait for those willing to look.
When I taught the theme of love in literature to sophomores, I plucked from my reading shelf a book I discovered when I was fourteen—Les Misérables by Victor Hugo. Like I did, my sophomores felt a major sense of accomplishment when they read through to the last page. The book pulses with love on every level—man for God and for country, parent for child, neighbor for neighbor, lover for lover, idealist for a cause, and to the foundational love—love and acceptance of self. It helps immeasurably that this dauntingly huge book also has been recreated as a world-famous musical and now as a movie, making the text and its rich characters even more accessible. I know of no other work of fiction—other than Shakespeare’s plays—that teaches so much about the human condition and how profoundly people impact others’ lives.
Richard M. Cash, Ed.D., author of Advancing Differentiation
Ronald Takaki’s book, A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America (2012 revised edition), is one of my favorite looks into the complexities of American history. As schools become more and more diverse, it is essential that teachers familiarize themselves with the burden many of our families carry as they try to achieve the allusive American Dream. Takaki, a preeminent multiculturalism scholar, masterfully retells the stories of minority people’s struggles within early America. From colonization to current events, this book will help us better understand our children, their families, and their cultural past.
As a teacher, I often analogized my role to that of a race car driver. The track was the school year time I had with each student, and each student was a car I drove. The fuel I used to run the car was the curriculum and instructional practices to “put into the car’s tank.” The one part of my car (students) that I had little to no understanding about was the engine (their brains). Therefore, I spent many years trying different fuel types (instructional practices) within my classroom that either worked or didn’t work. I would never be sure if it was the fuel, the track, the car model, or me (the driver) that won or lost the race. Therefore, I started my own journey to learn about how children learn. Patricia Wolfe’s Brain Matters: Translating Research into Classroom Practice transformed my teaching. She lays out the fundamentals of how our brains process information and learn. Her book is full of useful strategies for teaching and learning. Dr. Wolfe’s work has helped thousands of teachers gain a better understanding of how to efficiently and effectively tune our children’s engines for greater learning achievement.
Very few books have truly had an effect on all parts of my life outside of Carol S. Dweck’s Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Dr. Dweck is a world-renowned psychologist out of Stanford University in California. For over 25 years, she has studied the hows and whys behind the achievement or lack of success. She found that two types of “mindsets” are in play: either a fixed mindset (I am what you tell me I am) or a growth mindset (as long as I work at it, I can achieve). Important for teachers to know is how to assist students in moving from the fixed (I can’t) mindset to the growth (I can) mindset. Her book, though not specifically written for educators, provides useful information in refocusing how we work with students to assist them in gaining greater achievement.
Finally, Diane Heacox’s book Differentiating Instruction in the Regular Classroom: How to Reach and Teach ALL Learners is THE best book for introducing teachers to doable differentiation. Dr. Heacox draws on her wealth of experience in education from a classroom teacher to program manager to university professor to lay out manageable ways to meet the needs of all students in the widely diverse classroom. This book is never far from my reach! I refer to it so often that its pages are dog-eared and tattered—the true sign of a useful text!
Alison Feigh, author of I Can Play It Safe
My recommendation is Protecting the Gift: Keeping Children and Teenagers Safe (And Parents Sane) by Gavin de Becker. De Becker handles concerns about the personal safety of children in a proactive and positive way. This book allows parents and caregivers to reexamine issues around abuse prevention using real-world scenarios and current research. The second appendix, titled “Questions for your child’s school,” is a great way to self-check that your school is taking personal safety seriously. Examples: What are the student pickup procedures? If there is an emergency in a classroom, how does the teacher summon help?
Have you ever felt stuck and not sure if you will make it to the other side? The In-Between by Erica Staab helps define that stuck feeling and reminds the reader that healing takes time and the help of others. Some of the best conversations I have had with high school students have been after reading this together. The reassuring words of hope are framed with gorgeous nature photographs to create this calming, hope-filled book. It can be used as a conversation starter or as a sit-quietly-and-breathe resource.
Mariam MacGregor, author of Building Everyday Leadership in All Kids
I recommend Lord of the Flies by William Golding. Yes, that book. The one nearly everyone reads in high school. This book presents teachers with a clear view into the social politics of boys, whether 1950 or 2013. Imagine the fictional interactions of these characters in one’s classroom, and a teacher gains a greater understanding of how boys learn, how power and influence affect their interactions, and the unspoken emotional chaos that occurs between and among them. In the world of girls, there are queen bees and wannabes, where emotions and manipulation are used as currency. But this book reminds us that the world of boys is no different, and attempts to alter the pecking order (on the playground, the sports field, in the classroom, online, in public or private) can go from innocent to high stakes in a matter of minutes.
Emotional Intensity in Gifted Students: Helping Kids Cope with Explosive Feelings by Christine Fonseca will change a teacher’s outlook about every child who enters his or her classroom. Emotional intensity is a trait of giftedness that no amount of standardized or topical testing can measure. Emotionally intense kids are affected by a teacher’s voice, attitude, choice of words, and style of communicating as well as the interactions with and treatment of their peers. Emotional intensity can be wrongly interpreted as a kid being off-task when in fact these kids (and adults!) are busy reading the vibe of the classroom or managing their high level of empathy when they perceive mistreatment or injustice around them. After reading this book, teachers who “get it” will realize that the tone and culture of their classroom and teaching style can make or break the learning environment for emotionally intense kids.
Judy Molland, author of Get Out!
If you’ve ever wondered what’s really going on with middleschoolers, Not Much Just Chillin’ by Linda Perlstein is the perfect book for you. Perlstein spent a year immersed in the lives of a group of Maryland eighth graders, and she shares with us all the innuendoes of their preteen lives, from arguing and flirting, to studying and texting “NMJC.” A brilliant read!
A Hope in the Unseen by Ron Suskind tells the inspirational story of Cedric Jennings through his last years in high school and first years in college. With the odds distinctly not in his favor, this young man, a student at Ballou High School in Washington, D.C., manages to complete an amazing journey: from the inner city to the ivy league. Suskind tells Jennings’ story with compassion and intelligence.
Phil Schlemmer, coauthor of Teaching Beyond the Test and Teaching Kids to Be Confident, Effective Communicators
Here are three books that I think will help teachers see the “big picture” of their profession. They are all very readable books and great summer reads as teachers recharge and start thinking about next year and the impact they hope to have on their students.
Essential Questions: Opening Doors to Student Understanding by Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins. Effective education is all about questions—student engagement, depth of knowledge, inquiry, ownership of learning, memorability, understanding. All of my work has been based on helping students become confident, self-directed, lifelong learners, which is dependent on them pursuing answers to intriguing, challenging, personally meaningful questions. This book is extremely helpful in making that happen.
12 Brain/Mind Learning Principles in Action: The Fieldbook for Making Connections, Teaching, and the Human Brain by Renate Nummela Caine, Geoffery Caine, Carol Lynn McClintic, and Karl J. Klimek. Teachers should understand what’s going on between their students’ ears (or behind their eyes). This book focuses on brain research and translates it into useful information for teachers. Every chapter includes a section titled “Taking It Into the Classroom.” I have found the book useful in helping me think through ways of engaging students and helping them become thinkers as opposed to knowers.
TIME 100 Ideas that Changed the World: History’s Greatest Breakthroughs, Inventions, and Theories. If teachers want to emphasize innovation, creativity, inquiry, or the magnificence of the human mind, this book is a must. It highlights the greatest thinking in history. Information from this book can be woven into all kinds of instructional and learning situations to help students understand that all we are came from the minds of fellow humans. Bringing ideas from this book into the classroom is great for getting students excited about thinking.
Jim Delisle, coauthor of Building Strong Writers in Middle School and The Gifted Teen Survival Guide
I’ll recommend two books, one professional and the other . . . a life changer! The life changer is Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig. Ostensibly, it’s about a father and son crossing the country together, ending their travels in Montana. On a deeper level, it’s a book about the search for true quality in life—quality in people, ideas, humor, and so much more. I read this book every five years or so, just as a reminder of what life is and can become.
The professional book is How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci, by Michael J. Gelb. It’s partly a biography and partly a set of instructions on how to use the skills that DaVinci used in his life—curiosity, acceptance of ambiguity as a part of learning, the interdependence of everything, etc.—to enhance both your learning and your daily interactions with others. I find it very helpful to use with teenagers as they begin to explore their emerging selves.
Elizabeth Whitten, author of RTI Success
The First Days of School: How to Be an Effective Teacher by Harry K. Wong and Rosemary T. Wong. There are strategies in this book that even the most experienced teacher will find beneficial to meet students’ needs. It is a keeper!
Explicit Instruction: Effective and Efficient Teaching (What Works for Special-Needs Learners) by Anita L. Archer and Charles A. Hughes. This book can either improve your teaching if you are a seasoned teacher or provide a novice teacher with skills needed to be an effective teacher.
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Teach Like a Champion: 49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College by Doug Lemov. This is full of good examples of effective teaching and how to make it work in your classroom. A DVD is included that provides snippets of how to utilize the strategies addressed.
Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire by Rafe Esquith. This is a great book about how to deal with behavior and motivate a diverse classroom.
Cheri Meiners, author of the Learning to Get Along® series
While writing an upcoming children’s book on resilience, I reread The Optimistic Child: A Proven Program to Safeguard Children Against Depression and Build Lifelong Resilience by Martin E. P. Seligman, Ph.D., who is a founder of the Positive Psychology movement. A few years ago I shared the concepts from the book with my own children. Seligman focuses on teaching optimism to children to help them learn to avoid depression and learned helplessness, with examples from school districts who have used it. I found useful information on changing automatic pessimism and boosting problem solving and social skills through learned optimism. The book is directed primarily toward school-age children, but includes a chapter for babies and toddlers.
Marjorie Lisovskis, coauthor of How to Take the Grrrr Out of Anger and the Happy Healthy Baby® series and Editorial Director of Free Spirit Publishing
Kids are writing and speaking all the time these days, making it wise for teachers to brush up on their own self-expression skills. A perfect book for this is The Deluxe Transitive Vampire: A Handbook of Grammar for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed by Karen Elizabeth Gordon. This is a classic underground writer’s reference (along with Gordon’s equally popular book on punctuation, called The New Well-Tempered Sentence).
Yes, the book is an excellent reference guide; it is also so clever and devilishly humorous that it makes for great beach reading or read-aloud happy hours with friends. The blurb from William Safire says it all: “A book to sink your fangs into.”
Oh—looking at Gordon’s books online, I found one I haven’t yet read: The Disheveled Dictionary: A Curious Caper Through Our Sumptuous Lexicon. Better add that to my summer reading list!
What books do you think every teacher should read this summer?
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