Teaching Essentials
Regie Routman

Looking for a great book to refresh and inspire your teaching over the winter break? If you love Regie Routman's words as much as we do, you will love her newest book, Teaching Essentials. Typical to Regie's style, her common sense, respect for students, high standards for all and passion for children comes out in each word of this book.  Although it is full of wonderfully insightful, practical information, we also appreciate the manageable length of the book; we devoured it on a single flight home (although her words resonate with us well beyond our initial reading!).  A must read to accompany her other 'Essentials' Reading Essentials and Writing Essentials.

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9 Rights of Every Writer: a Guide for Teachers
Vicki Spandel

This is a wonderful book, one we would consider a must read, for new and veteran teachers alike. When we are faced with testing, testing, testing it can be difficult to maintain our perspective on good writing instruction.  In her book, Vicki does a wonderful job bringing us back to the Writing Workshop and excellent writing instruction.  She continues to bring home that good writing instruction also teaches deep and thoughtful teaching.

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Becoming a Literacy Leader
Jennifer Allen

Whether you are in a position as a literacy leader in your school or district, or working with your team, this is a book for you!   

Becoming a Literacy Leader chronicles the work of Jennifer Allen, an elementary teacher who moved to a new school and a new job as a literacy specialist, and found herself tackling everything from teacher study groups to state-mandated assessment plans. The book is rooted in Jennifer's belief that teachers know what they need when it comes to professional development in literacy, and the best literacy leaders are those who listen to and respect the educators in their midst.  At a time when all administrators are urged to be literacy leaders, this insider's view helps to define what leadership looks like and shows how to create an environment that fosters professional development. Jennifer Allen shares the balance leaders struggle with, as they strive to support and honor the fine practices of teachers, even as they nudge colleagues to improve their literacy instruction. Ultimately, Becoming a Literacy Leader is a hopeful book, an optimistic and realistic portrait of life in schools among teachers committed to doing their jobs well.

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Beyond Reading and Writing
Barry Hoonan

Meet Barry Hoonan! We had the opportunity of meeting Barry while speaking in Bahrain. A fellow Washingtonian and teacher of 5th and 6th grade students on Bainbridge Island, Barry became the seventh recipient of the NCTE Edwin A. Hoey Award for Outstanding Educator in the English Language Arts in 2004. He also co-authored, Beyond Reading and Writing: Inquiry, Curriculum, and Multiple Ways of Knowing, NCTE 2000. Barry works with teachers through professional development opportunities and has been a featured teacher in a video series. Besides being an accomplished teacher, he is just plain fun! He is in the process of writing his second book and we are anxiously awaiting its arrival!

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Classrooms That Work,
Schools That Work
Richard Allington

We love to read Richard Allington’s work. We think both this book and Schools Work that are both worth taking the time to savor. We use many of his strategies in our own classrooms. — Gail and Joan

Now in a revised and updated third edition, Classrooms That Work is a solid, practical no-nonsense guide to creating a positive educational environment in schools, with emphasis on teaching literacy in first through sixth grades. The authors offer useful strategies and techniques for helping children learn including cross-checking, means of accurately assessing reading skill, multilevel guided reading, and much more. Classrooms That Work is a superb resource for teachers and concerned parents seeking to improve the quality and learning atmosphere of the formal and informal classroom setting.

>> Buy the book (Classrooms)
>> Buy the book (Schools)

Georgia Heard books (Various)
Georgia Heard

We were so thrilled to meet and spend time with Georgia Heard while in Bahrain. The more time we spent with her engaged in long conversations and, at times, uncontrollable giggles, the more we felt we were connecting with a familiar friend. Her passion professionally is poetry and we encourage you to check out her collection of books ranging from creating poetry from the heart to teaching students to revise their writing. We were familiar with Georgia’s work, but since learning from her in Bahrain, we have gone online and purchased all of her books! Check her out--We are sure you will love her collection as much as we do!

>> Buy Georgia's books

Managing Transitions

Are you changing grade levels, schools, jobs all together? Is your school reorganizing, changing it's structure of focus? Or are you going through a transition in your life? If so, this book, or his first book: Transition Making Sense of Life's Changes, is for you!

William Bridges is one of the world's leading experts in the area of managing the human side of change. Bridges originaly introduced the notion of "transitions" in his first book, Transitions: Making Sense of Life's Changes (1980), which was a primer on coping with the tumultuous life changes we all face on a personal level. In Managing Transitions, Bridges applies the concept of transition within the context of organizational change.

Bridges asserts that transition in not synonymous with "change." A change occurs when something in the external environment is altered. In an organizational setting this would include changes in management, organizational structure, job design, systems, processes, etc. These changes trigger an internal psychologoical reorientation process in those who are expected to carry out or respond to the change. Transition is this internal processs that people must go through in order to come to terms with a new situation. Unless transition occurs, change will not work.

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Notebook Know How
by Aimee Buckne

We LOVE this book!  If you are new at setting up a Writer’s Workshop or a veteran, this book will be a great guide! We use it with children in grades 2 and up. 

A writer's notebook is an essential springboard for the pieces that will later be crafted in writers' workshop. It is here that students brainstorm topics, play with leads and endings, tweak a new revision strategy, or test out a genre for the first time. In Notebook Know-How, Aimee Buckner provides the tools teachers need to make writers' notebooks an integral part of their writing programs. She also addresses many of the questions teachers ask when they start using notebooks with their students.  This compact guide is packed with lessons, tips, and samples of student writing to help teachers make the most of writers' notebooks, without sacrificing time needed for the rest of the literacy curriculum. In fact, Notebook Know-How shows how smart and focused use of writers' notebooks enhances and deepens literacy learning in both reading and writing for students.

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Please Understand Me II

As we go back to our schools, we may see many new staff faces, or even familiar ones.  Often times as we participate in staff meetings, team meetings, or even parent conferences, we cannot help but to wonder why our colleague or friend is reacting a certain way to a particular topic.

This second edition of Keirsey’s book gives a simple look into his portraits of temperament and character types.  The essential message:  members of families and institutions are OK, even though they are fundamentally different from each other, and that they would all do well to appreciate their differences and give up trying to change others into copies of themselves.

Our plan is to start our first staff meeting of the year with his quick personality profile – providing common language and new patience and understanding for our colleagues.  (It’s great with family members too!)

>> Buy the book

Reading Essentials

Another wonderful book by Regie!  Reading Essentials offers such a practical approach to literacy teaching, honoring all students while offering a clear picture for teachers as a guide in this high-standards world. 

With all the controversy and confusion over "best practice" issues in teaching reading, someone with the necessary experience, the ability to take the long view, and most of all a level head is essential to set things straight. This is where Regie Routman steps in: giving clarity, support, specific demonstrations, and confidence to teachers so they can teach reading in a manner that is consistent with research and learning theory and respectful of students' needs, interests, and abilities. In Reading Essentials, she realistically describes how to achieve these goals—and get high test scores too.

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Rosemanywells.com

When we think of Rosemary Wells, we usually think of young children’s books.  However we encourage you to check out Rosemary’s newest publication geared directly toward PARENTS!  Her work is geared toward parents and their children.

Under "For Parents and Teachers" section you will find "The Most Important Twenty Minutes of Your Day" A GREAT poem to use in a parent newsletter, or to send home with your children! 

>> Visit the Site

Starting with Comprehension
Ruth Shagoury

If you teach our youngest learners, you understand the necessity for teaching comprehension as well as how to decode words.  The question that so many of our primary teachers ponder on a daily basis is how do I do this in a developmentally appropriate way?  The book Starting with Comprehension by Ruth Shagoury and Andie Cunningham is a fabulous resource for teaching comprehension to our youngest learners!

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Still Learning to Read

The saying goes that "children learn to read in grades K–2, and read to learn in grades 3 and up." However, teachers in grades 3 through 6 are discovering this conventional wisdom is wrong—their students have to deal with an increasingly sophisticated range of texts that require additional reading skills. Upper elementary teachers face the difficult task of trying to offer appropriate reading instruction just as many of their students have their first experiences with textbooks, high stakes exams, and complex reading in new genres.

In Still Learning to Read, Franki Sibberson and Karen Szymusiak provide guidance on how to devote more time to reading instruction, without neglecting the content demands of the curriculum. Because they work daily with students, the authors share a teacher’s perspective on building reading instruction into the packed school day, and matching instruction and texts to the specific needs of older readers. The book presents many sample lessons, descriptions of classroom routines, and stories taken from the heart of the authors' reading workshops.

Teachers will be inspired and reassured that reading in the upper elementary grades can be purposeful, thoughtful, and effective.

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Words Chosen Well
Brenda Miller

For many teachers, this begins the report card time of year.  Trying to find just the right words to describe our children in a limited space can prove to be challenging to say the least! That’s why  Well Chosen Words by Brenda Miller Power  is a book we cannot live without!  Well Chosen Words gives  the best strategies and techniques teachers use to write narrative assessments and report card comments.

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Words Their Way

Is there a child or group of children who you are perplexed with in regards to their reading and spelling performance?  If so, Words Their Way by Donald Bear, Marcia Invernizzi, Shane Templeton and Francine Johnston is a great resource. This book features a simple assessment administered to children ages K-8th grade.  The authors  “advocate basing student learning on the appropriate developmental level. This philosophy is supported with more than 250 ready-to-use word study, spelling, vocabulary, and phonics activities presented in developmental sequence.”