Summer 2020 Book Study Title Announced @stenhousepub #EngagingLitMinds
For the last three summers, contributors have responded here to the following books:
Becoming a Literacy Leader by Jennifer Allen (2017)
Literacy Essentials by Regie Routman (2018)
The Listening Leader by Shane Safir (2019)
This summer our book study selection is Engaging Literacy Minds: Developing Children’s Social, Emotional, and Intellectual Lives, K–3 by Peter Johnston, Kathy Champeau, Andrea Hartwig, Sarah Helmer, Merry Komar, Tara Krueger, and Laurie McCarthy.
Many thanks to Stenhouse Publishers for supporting this professional learning experience!
Engaging Literate Minds promises to be a valuable resource for all educators, regardless of age levels we currently work with. Below is a brief description from the book's back cover:
Increasingly, educators are recognizing that for children to thrive intellectually they need socially and emotionally healthy classrooms. Conveniently, this is exactly what parents have always wanted for their children—classrooms that offer and grow positive relationships and behavior, emotional self-regulation, and a sense of well-being.
If you are not familiar with Peter Johnston's work, I highly recommended his two previous books with Stenhouse, Choice Words and Opening Minds. In Engaging Literate Minds, you'll find the following:
Practical ways to develop a caring learning community and children's social-emotional competence
Powerful teaching practices from real classrooms
Engaging ways to encourage inquiry and student agency
Suggestions on how to use formative assessment in everyday teaching practices
Helpful research behind the classroom practices and children's development
Ways to help students inspire and support each other
Next are explanations on how the study works and how you might participate.
How does the study work?
During the summer months, mid-June to early August, the following educators will be reading the book and responding in writing on this blog:
Paige Bergin
Jamie Cicconetti
Ryanne Deschane
Jennifer McDonough
Heather McKay
Annie Palmer
Rhonda Precourt
Virginia Soukup
Carrie Thomas
We have a few additional spots available if you are interested in formally join us this summer. Click here and scroll to the bottom to start the inquiry process. Update 5/2/20: All contributor spots have been filled at this time. See next section to participate.
Posts will be shared out on social media using the hashtag #EngagingLitMinds. Readers can expect around 2-3 posts per week. A round-up of the week's responses will also be published on Saturdays on the newsletter.
How can I participate?
Everyone is encouraged to participate by reading the book together during the summer months. Next are a few ways educators have engaged in these studies in the past.
Read the blog posts here and offer one's thinking in the comments.
Read the book with building colleagues and continue the conversation in an online discussion group.
Share out these blog posts on social media, tagging other connected educators.
Write responses to the book on your own blog and share it with this community.
If the summer doesn't work for you, all posts for this book study will be curated for later reading on this blog. Whenever or wherever you decide to join this learning community, we are grateful you are here.
We leave you with a quote from Engaging Literate Minds:
This is not only a book about teaching and children's development, it is also a book about growing teaching, about how, together, a group of teachers are advancing their practice, having saved each other from abandoning the profession.
- pg. 8