Twelve-year-old June Farrell spends the summer at her Vermont home getting used to the woman her mother is planning to marry and practicing her pie-baking skills, as she hopes to win the blue ribbon at the fair.
A young girl learns how to cope with her noise sensitivity and step outside of her comfort zone in this “thoughtful” (Beth Turley, author of If This Were a Story and The Last Tree Town), heartwarming middle grade novel that’s perfect for fans of Tune It Out by Jamie Sumner and El Deafo by Cece Bell. Ten-year-old Amelia does not like noise. From subway brakes to squeaky sneakers, she is sensitive to sound, just like her dad. Amelia has always worn noise-canceling headphones, but now that she’s going into fifth grade, her parents want her to stop wearing them. To make matters worse, she must learn to play an instrument! Or, as Amelia sees it, make noise on purpose. To help Amelia cope, her father gives her a pair of earmuffs to wear instead. Even with her new earmuffs, Amelia struggles at school…until she gets partnered with Madge in music class. Madge is loud and bold and goofy—everything Amelia is not. And so Amelia is surprised when Madge wants to be friends. Still, it’s not long though before Amelia’s quiet nature clashes with Madge’s loud personality. And when Madge disappears after an argument, Amelia fears Madge might be in trouble. If she’s going to help her friend, she will have to find a way to let in the noisy world she’s muffled for so long.
Pedagogical research faces a challenge in acknowledging and integrating the valuable insights provided by narrative inquiries, particularly those centered around educators' tipping points. Despite the richness of these narratives in understanding pedagogy, there exists a bias towards traditional, quantitative research methods, leading to limited recognition and acceptance of qualitative studies. This lack of acceptance poses a barrier to leveraging the authentic experiences of educators for designing effective professional development and teacher education opportunities. The key challenges include the undervaluation of narrative inquiries, concerns about generalizability, the need to balance authenticity with research rigor, and the restricted influence on professional development due to the limited integration of narratives into the research base. Addressing these challenges is crucial for fostering a more holistic understanding of pedagogical development and improving the quality of teacher education. Inquiries of Pedagogical Shifts and Critical Mindsets Among Educators delves into unexplored pedagogy through a compendium of original research studies. The focus is on narrative inquiries, case studies, and phenomenological investigations, offering a nuanced understanding of pedagogical shifts and critical mindsets among P-16 educators. Inspired by Novoa's conceptualization of "Tipping Points," the book unfolds the narratives and lived experiences that propel educators toward transformative shifts in their teaching methodologies.
This book focuses on queering texts with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and/or transgender (LGBT) themes in collaboration with students - young to young adult – and their teachers - both pre- and in- service. It strives to generate knowledge and deeper understandings of the pedagogical implications for working with LGBT-themed texts in classrooms across grade levels. The contributions in this book offer explicit implications for pedagogical practice, considering literature for children and young adults, and work in elementary school, high school, and university classrooms and schools. They give insights on exploring how queer and trans theories might inform the teaching and learning of English language arts with great respect to people who live their lives beyond hegemonic heternormativity and cisnormativity. They provide wisdom on how to provoke, foster, and navigate complicated conversations about sexuality, queer desire, gender creativity, gender independence, and trans inclusivity. In addition, they show how all of these are informed by an epistemological and ontological understanding of gender embodiment as a process of becoming. They offer insights into how queer and trans theories, as informed and driven by trans, non-binary and gender diverse scholars themselves, can move all of us beyond LGBTQ-inclusivity and inform reading, discussing, teaching, and learning in all of the classrooms and school contexts where we live and work. This volume was originally published as a special issue of Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education.
Featuring 500 diverse book recommendations covering a wide range of subjects, this preteen and teen reading guide is a “go-to resource for parents, students of young adult literature, teachers, and librarians” (School Library Journal). Needed now more than ever: a guide that includes 500 reading recommendations for preteens and teens with the goal of inspiring greater empathy for themselves, their peers, and the world around them. As young people are diagnosed with anxiety and depression in increasing numbers, or dealing with other issues that can isolate them from family and friends—such as bullying, learning disabilities, racism, or homophobia—characters in books can help them feel less alone. And just as important, reading books that feature a diverse range of real-life topics helps generate openness, empathy, and compassion in all kids. Reading lists are organized around topics, including: • Adoption and foster care • Body image • Immigration • Learning challenges • LGBTQIA+ youth • Mental health • Nature and environmentalism • Physical disability • Poverty and homelessness • Race and ethnicity • Religion and spirituality Each chapter explores a particular issue affecting preteens and teens today and includes a list of recommended related books—all published within the last decade. Recommendations are grouped by age: those appropriate for middle-grade readers and those for teens. Better with Books is a valuable resource for parents, teachers, librarians, therapists, and all caregivers who recognize the power of literature to improve young readers’ lives.
Luminous Literacies shares examples of teachers and educators using local knowledge to illustrate literacy engagement and curriculum-making through scholarly accounts of experiences in teacher preparation courses, classrooms, and other community spaces in New Mexico.
Teaching and learning through Hollywood, or commercial, film and television productions is anything but a new approach and has been something of a mainstay in the classroom for nearly a century. However, purposeful and effective instruction through film is not problem-free and there are many challenges that accompany classroom applications of Hollywood motion pictures. In response to the problems and possibilities associated with teaching through film, we are developing a collection of practical, classroom-ready lesson ideas that might bridge gaps between theory and practice and assist teachers endeavoring to make effective use of film in their classrooms. We believe that film can serve as a powerful tool in the social studies classroom and, where appropriately utilized, foster critical thinking and civic mindedness. The NCSS College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) framework, represents a renewed and formalized emphasis on the perennial social studies goals of deep thinking, reading and writing. We believe that as teachers endeavor to digest and implement the platform in schools and classrooms across the country, the desire for access to structured strategies that lead to more active and rigorous investigation in the social studies classroom will grow increasingly acute. Our hope is that this edited book might play a small role in the larger project of supporting practitioners, specifically K-6 teachers of social studies content, by offering a collection of classroom-ready tools based on the Hollywood or History? strategy and designed to foster inquiry through the careful use of selected motion pictures and television productions.
Powerful Understanding explores effective ways to build social-emotional skills and help students make connections, question what they read, and reflect on their learning as they develop into stronger readers and learners. Lessons based in both strategic and critical thinking revolve around core anchor books that help integrate inquiry into everything you teach — from social responsibility, to immigration, to life cycles. This highly readable book includes a wealth of classroom examples and extensive hands-on activities designed to help students to think more deeply, learn more widely, and develop a more powerful understanding of what it means to be a responsible and compassionate person.
"Filled with practical advice, inspired reading lists, and thoughtful analysis of the challenges girls face, this book is an indispensable guide for anyone who cares about raising girls to be leaders." —June Cohen, executive producer, TED "Mother-daughter book clubs can help you navigate the daunting challenges of raising confident and mighty girls. This comprehensive guide, rich with discussion ideas and book, film, and media recommendations, will inspire more mothers to start their own book clubs." —Lesli Rotenberg, general manager, Children's Media, PBS Mother-daughter book clubs can do more than encourage reading, bonding, and socializing, suggests educational psychologist and parenting coach Lori Day. They can create a safe haven where girls can discuss and navigate the challenges of girlhood today. In Her Next Chapter, Day draws from experiences in her own club and her expertise as an educator to offer a timely and empowering take on mother-daughter book clubs. She provides overviews of eight of the biggest challenges facing girls today while weaving in carefully chosen book, movie, and media recommendations; thoughtful discussion questions and prompts; and suggested fun group activities. Lori Day, M.Ed., is an educational psychologist, consultant, and parenting coach with Lori Day Consulting. She has worked in the field of education for over 25 years and is a contributing blogger at the Huffington Post and several other websites, writing about parenting, education, gender, popular culture, and media. She lives in Newburyport, Massachusetts. Charlotte Kugler, Day's daughter, is a student at Mount Holyoke College. She lives in South Hadley, Massachusetts.
When fifth-grader Amelia learns to cope with her noise sensitivity, she steps outside of her comfort zone and makes new friends. Includes information about noise sensitivity.