So one of the things I’m hoping to do with our new faculty (once we have one) is read some books together to develop a shared vocabulary together. I think that reading and discussing several books could act as a powerful frame for then talking about how we can come to a shared vision of what we want SLA to look like.
Right now, I’m thinking about several books…
- Understanding By Design. I’m stealing this from Bronx Lab… Michelle and Marc both talk about how using this as a shared text made curriculum design so much easier because everyone was pulling in the same direction.
- Teaching to Transgress by bell hooks — it’s such a controversial and yet powerful way to look at teaching, and it remains one of the most influential texts in my personal teaching evolution.
- In Schools We Trust — Yeah, I’m reading it now and loving it… and there are a dozen possible books to put here as this kind of book… but I think this piece is as good of a conversation starter as any of the others.
- The World is Flat — Tom Friedman — this is not a book about education that’s all about education.
I’ve thought about Sergiovanni… Frierie… Alfie Kohn… right now, these four are the list. It’s very much subject to chance.
If you could pick books to read with a group of teachers that were starting a school… what would you read together?
