Stenhouse Newslinks
May 24, 2007
C O N T E N T S
1) The Power of Our Words
2) Author Conversations: Joan Brodsky Schur
3) PD Corner: Questioning
4) Making authentic connections with science
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1) The Power of Our Words
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The language and style that teachers use when speaking with
students has a profound effect on learning, classroom management,
and children's self-control and sense of belonging. What kind of
language should teachers strive to adopt, and what kind should
they avoid?
The Power of Our Words is a new book that provides practical
advice starting with the very first page. Author Paula Denton
presents five general guidelines for teacher language and then
explores a variety of situations and communication strategies such
as envisioning, questioning, listening, and redirecting. Filled
with tips, real-life anecdotes, and concrete examples, The Power
of Our Words also explains the principles behind using
constructive language in the classroom.
Published by the Northeast Foundation for Children (creators of
The Responsive Classroom), The Power of Our Words is available
through Stenhouse and your Stenhouse distributor. You can browse
the entire text online for a limited time:
http://www.stenhouse.com/8918.asp
The Power of Our Words:
Teaching Language That Helps Children Learn
Paula Denton * 180 pp/paper * $22.00
Published by Northeast Foundation for Children
http://www.stenhouse.com/8918.asp
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2) Author Conversations: Joan Brodsky Schur
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"History is too often events that kids have to memorize without
really imagining them."
Joan Brodsky Schur, author of the new book Eyewitness to the Past,
says that when students imagine events through different
"eyewitness perspectives" of ordinary people using primary
sources, it brings suspense, debate, and excitement to history
learning that doesn't happen with textbooks alone. Listen to Joan
in the latest installment of our Author Conversations series:
http://www.stenhouse.com/html/mp3joanschur1.htm
Joan is the Social Studies Coordinator at the Village Community
School in New York City where she has taught American history and
English for over twenty-five years. You can browse the entire text
of her new book online:
http://www.stenhouse.com/0497.asp
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3) PD Corner: Questioning
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"The power to question is the basis of all human progress."
--Indira Gandhi
How can you make your classroom more "question-friendly"? The new
flipchart Out of the Question provides many starting points for
guiding students to critically evaluate what they read, see, hear,
and do. Browse the entire flipchart online:
http://www.stenhouse.com/8214.asp
How do rate as a questioner? Assess your own questioning style and
ability using tools from the Center for Teaching Excellence:
http://www.cte.uiuc.edu/Did/docs/QUESTION/quest4.htm
Jamie McKenzie explores links between questioning, thinking, and
creativity in Chapter 7 of his book Learning to Question to Wonder
to Learn. Imaginative and insightful, McKenzie draws examples from
education, business, the arts, and more:
http://questioning.org/may06/learn2q.html
Can we teach students to be better thinkers? The new edition of
the classic book Asking Better Questions deals with just this
issue in Chapter 2, "A Question of Thinking," where the authors
forge rich connections between the types of questions we ask and
the student thinking that results:
http://www.stenhouse.com/8209.asp
(Scroll down to the Chapter 2 link in the Table of Contents.)
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4) Making authentic connections with science
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How can teachers meet the challenge of raising test scores while
engaging students with inquiry-based learning? Mary Cowhey, author
of Black Ants and Buddhists, offers examples of authentic
activities that draw on community members through classroom visits
and field trips in this article from the January-February issue of
Connect magazine:
http://www.stenhouse.com/assets/PDFs/CowheyPages.pdf
Connect is published five times per year by Synergy Learning:
http://www.synergylearning.org/connect/
And the book Black Ants and Buddhists just received an Honor Award
from Skipping Stones magazine. Find details about the award and
the book here:
http://www.stenhouse.com/newsarchive.htm
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