Still looking for a last minute gift for that educator on your list? There are a few books that I personally can’t live without and I find myself reaching for constantly--and belong on any educator’s shelf.They’re a mix of curriculum and culture, or what makes any classroom successful.
You’ll notice that the first two books on here are related more to climate and culture than to curriculum, assessment, and instruction. That’s because I truly believe in the old adage that “students don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care” (John C. Maxwell). The first book is really all about setting up positive relationships with students and the second book is a bridge between that positive mindset and instruction.
1. How to Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk
By Adele Faber & Elaine Mazlish
I cannot emphasize enough how much this book has changed not only the way that I talk to young people, but to just about everyone. I recommend it to basically every person I come across who interacts with young people in any capacity, including both educators, parents, daycare workers, etc.. When my son, who is now 8, went through some pretty heavy live events, this book got us through. Chapters include: Helping Young Children Deal with Their Feelings, Engaging Cooperation, Alternatives to Punishment, Encouraging Autonomy, Praise, and Freeing Children from Playing Roles, and each chapter has concrete strategies, is easy-to-read, and has helpful comic illustrations that give further scenario examples.
The book covers most ages but the examples are mostly elementary and middle school (though like I said, I definitely use many of the strategies even with adults!) But if you teach other levels, check out How to Talk So Little Kids Will Listen: A Survival Guide to Life with Children, Ages 2-7 or How to Talk So Teens Will Listen and Listen So Teens Will Talk.
2. Smart But Scattered: The Revolutionary “Executive Skills” Approach to Helping Kids Reach Their Potential
By Peg Dawson and Richard Guare
After the How to Talk books, this has been the second-most life-changing book for both myself and my son. Before this book, our mornings were a hectic whirlwind of no one knowing where anything was as we frantically tried to get out the door. “Smart but scattered” is the perfect description for him and it was his teacher who recommended I read this book. Instead of me just being frustrated with his inability to sit still and the constant disorganization of everything he touches, this book helped us see it not as a matter of “Why can’t you just…” but rather, “Here’s where we need to grow your skills and here’s how we can do it.”
I’ve since done several PDs that combine this book and Executive Skills in Children and Adolescents: A Practical Guide to Assessment and Intervention (by the same authors but geared for teachers). It’s probably my favorite PD to do and participants always talk about how much it changes their outlook and takes them from frustrated with certain children to ready to implement concrete action plans.
3. Understanding by Design
By Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe
This should be anyone’s starting guide to determining how to plan for learning. Also known as a “backwards design” approach, Wiggins & McTighe walk teachers through how to align curriculum, assessment, and instruction in a way that engages students and uses authentic learning to help students learn and actually understand at a deeper level. It’s a seminal work that should inform the work of any educator who plans learning for students.
(As a side-note, I'm also a big fan of their follow-up book: Essential Questions: Opening Doors to Student Understanding.)
4. The Art and Science of Teaching
By Robert Marzano
In 2007, this book took the educational world by storm because it basically said that it wasn’t enough to think that strategies were effective; we needed to look across thousands of educational studies and see what strategies are actually most likely to produce positive outcomes for students achievement. Marzano breaks down nine high-yield strategies, what they look like, and what they don’t, in order to help teachers choose what will actually make a difference in their classrooms.
5. Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement and Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximizing Impact on Learning
By John Hattie
Following closely on the heels of Robert Marzano was New Zealand educational researcher John Hattie. Like Marzano, Hattie conducted several meta-analyses, which means that he looked at anywhere from dozens to thousands of studies on various topics in order to determine what instructional strategies actually seem to make a difference on measures of student achievement. Unlike Marzano, who came up with nine general strategies, Hattie looked at dozens of various educational factors, from retaining students in their current grade to cooperative learning to implementing learning intentions and success criteria. His first book, Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement, is a dense read...but I find it an imperative one any time someone starts a sentence with “Research says…” because I always want to know exactly what the research says rather than just someone’s synopsis of Hattie’s synopsis.
His 2011 book, Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximizing Impact on Learning, is a much easier read, and follows more the format of Marzano’s Art and Science of Teaching, in that he picks some of the most gainful instructional strategies and discusses them as more of a how-to than a literature review.
6. Total Participation Techniques: Making Every Student an Active Learner
By Persida Himmele and William Himmele
I love this book because it’s a quick read with easy strategies that will liven up any classroom and immediately engage students. It contains 51 alternatives to “stand and deliver,” with simple instructions and suggestions for higher-order thinking. I’ve not only used several of these in my teaching, but also in the professional developments that I do. These techniques get students up, moving, and talking so that they’re not only absorbing information, but processing it on a deeper level.
7. Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery
By Garr Reynolds
This isn’t strictly an educational book, but it should be a must-read for anyone who ever designs presentations. What’s worse during a presentation than a slide with tiny font that the presenter reads to the audience? In this book, Garr Reynolds not only walks you through how to create a storyboard for an engaging presentation, but also simple design tips that can make your presentation aesthetically appealing while helping to underscore your major points.
8. Get Better Faster: A 90 Day Plan for Coaching New Teachers
By Paul Bambrick-Santoyo
Admittedly, this book is written for leaders, but there’s no reason that any teachers can’t also read this and learn both the fundamentals and nuances of almost every aspect of instruction. Bambrick-Santoyo breaks instruction down into simple, easy-to-follow and implements chunks and the book comes with videos that show each technique and what it should look like in the classroom.
9. How to Create and Use Rubrics for Formative Assessment and Grading
By Susan Brookhart
Quite simply, anyone who does any sort of project that needs to be graded with a rubric needs to read this book. Sure, rubrics seem simple enough, but it turns out there’s both an art and a science behind what actually needs to be on a rubric and how to word it to get the maximum possible value, and ensure that the rubric is actually fair for all students.
10. Teacher-Made Assessments: How to Connect Curriculum, Instruction, and Student Learning
By Christopher Gareis and Leslie Grant
Anytime I either write an assessment or teach a course on assessment, I pull out this book. It breaks the different types of assessments down into item types and has easy “rules” for creating items with higher reliability and validity. The authors provide examples of poor assessment items and how to strengthen them. Each section is an easy read and takes the guess work out of creating assessments.
Kate Maxlow is the Professional Learning Coordinator at Hampton City Schools in Hampton, Virginia. She can be reached at kmaxlow@hampton.k12.va.us
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