Schools and Instruction Books

It is great to see that a variation of the clinical supervision model developed by Goldhammer & Cogan and modified by John Smyth (now at Flinders University) has been dusted off and polished up by Peters and March. Those of us who worked with the clinical supervision model realised that the term "clinical supervision" was problematic, particularly when applied in schools. To us, CS was a collegial model of pedagogic improvement where the teacher who wanted the feedback on performance initiated the process and this was the tack taken by Smyth who used the model for peer assisted learning.

Preobservational conference
V
Collaborative action plan
V
In-class data collection
V
Postobservational conference

Figure 1: COMPASS cycle. (Start at top, move to the bottom and loop to the top again).

Peters and March have called this four part process COMPASS (Collaborative Observation for Monitoring Practices to Achieve Sustained School reform).

The real strengths of the book are that it develops proformas for teachers to show how COMPASS works in the classroom situation, and it gives teachers current research references to support this process.

This book is worth purchasing for teachers' reference libraries in schools which are trying to develop a "bottom-up" approach to improving classroom instruction.

This book is a very accesible account of Heathcote's work in the field. There are a number of articles on a variety of facets of her work. I first read this book when I was thinking about working with drama in a cross curricular context and this book has advice on teaching and learning not just in the drama class-room but in other subject areas and non-statutory settings. Heathcote's writing style is very accessable and her humble nature about her own work is refreshing to read.

The Complete String Guide is specifically directed toward teachers of violin-family instruments, but is quite useful to anyone wanting to buy an instrument and who may not have a backgound for intelligently evaluating a purchase. It is originally published by MENC: the National Association for Music Education (formerly the Music Educators' National Conference), the professional association for music teachers. You will often see student violins advertised as conforming to MENC standards. This book is what they're talking about.

In addition to basic information about building a string program, perhaps the most useful information are the instrument standards. These go into specific details recommending everything from string guages to bridge curvatures to string spacings and details of every single part of the violin, bow and case (though oddly lacking details about rosin). There is a handy chart of instrument sizes (do you know the difference between a 3/4 and 4/4 size violin?). There are guidelines and checklists for evaluating an instrument to be purchased. This concise little book provides a fine grounding with objective criteria for anyone wanting to purchase a violin/viola/cello/bass with one caveat: just because an instrument conforms in every way to these standards, it does not automatically mean it's a good instrument or worth a given price. This is all just a starting foundation for an intelligent search. Highly recommended.

The authors present a school wide approach to teaching in our public schools where student diversity prevails in all ways - academic, socioeconomic, cultural, behavioral etc. This book is for you if you are a teacher, administrator or parent.

For our education professionals, it will help your school chart a course toward school improvement with a focus on staff development and tapping into student's own desire to learn. It includes specific strategies you can use in the classroom and in working with staff. Their approach is not a quick fix, but requires a long term, intentional commitment to improve teachers teaching and students learning. The authors bring hope to the process, yet their approach recognizes and addresses real constraints and impediments to school improvement and how to address these roadblocks. This book is valuable for parents too. The authors' descriptons of successful teacher moments, classroom environments and teaching strategies will help parents evaluate their childrens' educational experiences. It will help you identify when an effective, creative teacher is teaching your child and provide insight as to why. It will help you broaden your understanding of what "good" teaching is all about and help determine what school improvements efforts deserve your support.

This book has helped me quite a bit with my early childhood degree. The information in the book is easy to find and the authors know their material.

This is a "must have" for any Family and Consumer Sciences teacher just starting out. Yes there are still new people coming into the field. This book contains much information on various topics such as behavioral objectives, running labs, activities, bulletin boards, and much much more. I was lucky enough to find one in a used book store. It is currently out of print but it wouldn't hurt to keep requesting a check on the book. You never know, the author may just decide to put out a new edition if there are enough requests. :)

The cover calls this edition the "Brief Edition" I am almost tempted to buy the $50.00 edition

While the issue I have is the 1995 edition I found this book fairly useful. While nothing in it "reinvents the wheel" the information is concise and well laid out. It is a good resource for any beginning high school history teacher.

I attended Lin Kuzmich's conference this Spring and was really impressed with her. She is so knowledgeable, yet delivers literacy information in a very user-friendly, casual way. The book is good and has practical, useful resources you can implement immediately.

Differentiating Math Instruction starts by providing detailed information about "the mathematical brain" and multiple intellegences as related to mathematics learning. From there, the author explains easy-to-follow plans for differentiating instruction in elementary mathematics classrooms. This book includes many strategies and activities, as well as websites worth visiting for further information. It would be easy to implement many of the strategies discussed in the book without having to read the entire book, so busy teachers should not feel overwhelmed when attempting to add differentiation to their toolkits. I would recommend this book as an excellent starting point for learning more about differentiated mathematics instruction.