Bill Ferriter's Book List

My colleague Bill Ferriter was asked by his administrator to put together a list of books that may be helpful to the learning teams in his school yesterday.  Thought you guys might be interested in his list----caught him on Skype and he said I could share it with you! I noticed my friend Will's book made his list!

On Teaming
One of the challenges that many learning teams face is understanding the different stages of team development.  Mastering positive habits is essential for any group of teachers that are committed to collaboration, and yet these habits are elusive and poorly understood in a profession where isolation has been the norm.  These titles will help teachers and teams to understand what teaming looks like in action and provide strategies for improving efficiency:

Camel Makers:  Building Effective Teacher Teams Together
109 pages.  Copyright 2003
http://tinyurl.com/2jxum9

This title, written for the National Middle School Association by Daniel Kain, is a great read for teams that are still working through the storming and norming process of community building.  Written partly in fable form, it tracks the work of an imaginary team working to develop the world's first camel.  Teachers will clearly see the successes and struggles that teams must work through as they grow to know one another as collaborators.  The end of each chapter draws from extensive research on team development to make suggestions about behaviors and practices that lead to success.

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
227 pages.  Copyright 2002
http://tinyurl.com/3c3mkm

This title, which has been widely embraced by corporate America as a tool for developing highly productive teams in any organization--also uses the story of a fictional team as a foundation for exploring the kinds of issues that teams must work through in order to be successful.  Most interesting is a conversation of the important role that trust plays in a team's successful development.  Healthy conflict is also introduced and explored in detail.  Perhaps most valuable are ancillary materials that are readily available in the book and online that teams can use to assess their own development.

Teacher Teams that Get Results
248 pages.  Copyright 2007
http://tinyurl.com/2owt3o

This new book, released by Corwin Press, contains a collection of 61 practical strategies that teams can use to improve their efficiency and to establish practices that are likely to bring success.  The strategies
offered are approachable and easy to understand---and are broken into categories like "Building Resilience," "Creating Solutions," and "Determining Priorities."  While many of the ideas in this book may seem basic to professional developers, they will strike teachers new to teaming as valuable for creating the structures necessary for teamwork.

On Student Development
Professional Learning Teams remain committed to ensuring the success of every student.  In order to be effective, this commitment must be centered on an understanding of the nature of the student populations served.  These titles will help teachers to better understand the unique characteristics of
middle school children:

Not Much, Just Chillin:  The Hidden Lives of Middle Schoolers
267 pages.  Copyright 2003
http://www.notmuchjustchillin.com/

This title, written by a Washington Post reporter who followed a group of middle school students through one complete year, is an engaging look into the lives of children written from the perspective of an outsider.  While it doesn't directly deal with the development of professional learning communities, it draws the needs---both social and academic---of middle grades children into focus, driving conversations about instruction tailored for students of this unique grade grouping.

The Myth of Laziness
270 pages.  Copyright 2003
http://tinyurl.com/2dtauu

In this title, Dr. Mel Levine---expert on learning disabilities from the Center for Development and Learning in Chapel Hill---makes the case that student failure can often be tracked back to 7 learning challenges that can be identified and addressed through specific strategies taken by parents, students and teachers.  Written through the lens of students that Levine has worked with in his career, each chapter will resonate with teachers who will recognize students struggling with similar problems.  Most valuable, however, is a checklist that can be used to identify which learning challenge individual students are struggling with.  Without a doubt, this title is a must read for teachers interested in beginning to serve struggling students well.

On Documenting Practices that Work
A central focus of any learning team should be identifying and then amplifying instructional practices that work.  By documenting our teaching, we can--as a group--begin to more effectively serve students with teaching ideas that work.  What's more, we can eliminate practices that are inefficient!  These titles will help teachers to better understand how teachers can engage in reflective study of instruction:

Teacher-Researchers at Work
295 pages.  Copyright 1999
http://tinyurl.com/3ymxk4

This title---published by the National Writing Project---outlines the specific steps that teachers working through action research should take to collect information about practices and to document the impact of their instruction.  Topics covered include tools used to record steps taken while researching, data points that can be used to evaluate the impact of instructional practices, strategies for observing the impact of teaching, and structuring your findings for public review.  Also valuable are a collection of research reports completed by teachers in several content areas that serve as samples of what qualitative research looks like for classroom teachers.

Guiding School Improvement with Action Research
Copyright 2000.  216 pages.
http://shop.ascd.org/productdisplay.cfm?productid=100047

Written by Action Research Guru Richard Sagor, this title begins by making the case that teachers must document the impact of their instructional practices in order to elevate their status as professionals and to establish ownership over their work.  Without making efforts to document impact, teachers are often pushed aside in instructional decision making by those who believe that standardized testing is a more effective measure of student learning---and teacher performance.  Sagor then goes on to outline the steps that teacher researchers should take to identify instructional practices that work.  His text is approachable and easy to understand, leading teachers through the process of action research step-by-step.

On Instruction
Teachers working in isolation often find themselves relying on familiar practices that they find comfortable rather than stretching their collection of instructional strategies.  The following books can serve to introduce teams of teachers to new practices that are worth experimenting with:

Summarization in Any Subject
Copyright 2005.  225 pages
http://shop.ascd.org/productdisplay.cfm?productid=104014

Summarization is a critical thinking skill that requires students to wrestle with their understanding of content introduced by teachers across all disciplines.  While often associated with reading teachers, effective summarization practices will increase student learning and retention in any classroom.  This title, written by an accomplished teacher from Virginia, introduces readers to 50 specific strategies that can be used for summarization in any subject.  Each strategy is described in 2-3 pages, complete with rationale, process for implementation and variations.  What makes this title particularly interesting is that strategies are grouped by categories including those that are quick, involve artistic expression,
involve movement, or those that rely on writing and verbal expression.

Socratic Circles:  Fostering Critical and Creative Thinking in Middle and
High School
Copyright 2005.  162 pages
http://tinyurl.com/6ucah

One instructional practice that has been proven to move students beyond simple memorization of content are seminars.  The challenge for teachers, however, is learning to structure seminars that are engaging and meaningful to students.  This title makes that process approachable and easy.  Beginning with a rationale for seminars, the author then moves on to provide templates and tools that can be used to introduce students to the process, to evaluate student performance during seminars and to provide feedback after seminars have been completed.  By far one of the most practical titles on structuring seminars, this book will change your instructional practices in a profound way.

Deeper Reading:  Comprehending Challenging Texts, Grades 4-12
Copyright 2004.  223 Pages
http://tinyurl.com/2jolxg

One of the mistakes that educators often make is assuming that reading instruction begins and ends at the elementary level.  In reality, meaningful reading instruction must continue throughout a child's K-12 career.  This title works to provide practical pre, during and post reading strategies to teachers of all content areas and grade levels.  What makes it particularly valuable is that the strategies offered are simple yet engaging, requiring small changes on the part of classroom teachers yet yielding remarkable
results in a short period of time.

Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms
Copyright 2006.  148 pages.
http://www.corwinpress.com/booksProdDesc.nav?prodId=Book228840

The children that we serve in today's classrooms are some of the first to have spent their entire lives connected.  They are comfortable with digital learning in ways that most educators aren't.  What's more, they are some of the first who must become comfortable with technology to succeed in a world that is sprinting towards a future that will see global connections creeping into every profession.  Despite this reality, technology use in most classrooms remains simple.  This title, written by a widely respected classroom technology expert, seeks to provide the technological "know-how" necessary for educators to become more adept at using Web 2.0 tools in the classroom.  It provides practical strategies and step-by-step suggestions for introducing blogs, podcasts and wikis into your instruction.

Comments

[Karen Janowski]

Wow! That's some intense summer reading. Glad to see Mel Levine's book on the list - actually anything by Mel Levine is excellent to understanding learning differences but I do especially love The Myth of Laziness and recommend it all the time.
How many times have we heard, "If only she tried harder" or "if he just put his mind to it?" Every child wants to succeed and this book helps explain some of the factors that may be preventing success. Levine's work provides a different framework for viewing academic struggles seen by all teachers.

[Mark Collinson]

Wow. That's some list. I came here shortly after you posted the list, but what really grabbed my attention was the featured book in the left column.
"Coming of Age". Good stuff. Will be passing it on to my colleagues.

Thanks.