#Leila sizer professional#
Yet Four Quartets is a huge part of my professional influence. The revered, even canonical Anglophile Eliot is known for his turgid cultural philosophy as well as influential and occasionally incomprehensible poetry (notably “The Wasteland”). It may seem odd to include in a list of five professional books a collection of poems. He is a brilliant and wide ranging researcher and thinker (as is his co-author and spouse, Susan), and this comprehensive and creative look at what an English language arts teacher can accomplish in a classroom opened many doors for me Steve Tchudi (his original family surname and one he reclaimed after the publication of Handbook) was the youngest editor ever of NCTE’s English Journal and possibly one of the youngest presidents of NCTE. The English Teacher’s Handbook, Stephen N. He also attempted, in his later career, to operationalize his vision into the Coalition of Essential Schools, and while the experiment did not endure, the landmark effort was terrific. Sizer was both a visionary and a practical man, and the wisdom in the three Horace books is undeniable. The three books constitute a superior commentary on American secondary education.
#Leila sizer series#
For me, his series of books, Horace’s Compromise, Horace’s School, and Horace’s Hope (I’m cheating again oh well), envisions new structures for American high schools and real understanding of teachers and students. If there is a Mount Olympus where education gods reside, Ted Sizer lives there. For me, it completely changed how I saw classrooms and teachers, and it also influenced the foundation of my own teacher preparation work. In hindsight this strategy seems so self-evident-but Goldhammer in Clinical Supervision makes it workable and clear. Goldhammer sets up a workable, consistent strategy for observing teachers and, through the teacher’s own self- designation of what matters, what to look for, what is important, the observer can then make intelligent and perceptive-as well as individualized-suggestions and assessments about any classroom event. Still in print these many years later but my only copy lent out, never to return to me, I read this book in my doctoral studies, and while its tenets are surely well known to most, they were a bombshell to me. This is a smart, engaging book, and it made me see literacy very differently. She puts a human face on the subject and, through the work and life specifics of ordinary people, clarifies the issues. In a post doc many years ago I was wisely warned against embarking on a just such study of the changing definition of literacy-I abandoned the effort, and good move on my part, as Brandt has done the job superbly. Who knew that changing literacy practices could be so engaging? Just as interesting as the foundational Shirley Brice Heath’s Ways with Words (yes, I’m cheating), this book is a fascinating look at what constitutes a definition of literacy and how it morphs over time (Brandt details 1895-1985). Literacy in American Lives, Deborah Brandt The likely candidates are just too numerous.īut for this brief essay, I will, with some pain and difficulty (and some cheating, which will be obvious as you read), highlight five professional books that have shaped my thinking. So choosing one is never easy for me-and I suppose there is some consistency in this failure in that I also cannot choose just one in other likely categories: movies, trips, songs, pieces of art, or even memorable meals. It’s not that I love them all it’s that I love too many of them, and I love them for different reasons.
I am a consistent and abysmal failure regarding selecting “greats”: I have never been able to settle on a favorite author, a favorite book, or to determine which single text, should I be marooned on a desert island, would be my constant companion. Her most recent book, the fourth edition of Making the Journeywas published by Heinemann in September 2016. In this installment, we bring you the professional book top five of Leila Christenbury, a 40-year veteran teacher both in secondary English and higher education, former editor of English Journal and past president of the National Council of Teachers of English, and currently Commonwealth Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University. Every so often we like to ask our authors about the books that most affected their teaching, the books that served as turning points in their practice or opened their eyes to a new way of approaching their work, thinking about education, or seeing children.
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