This is a highly select list of sources related to diverse learners. To find more sources, consult the Locate Books page to learn how to search for books.
Ways of Seeing by
This book, based on the television series of the same name, explains that the way we view art is often relative to our attitudes and background knowledge.
Seeing Berger: a revaluation of Ways of Seeing by 
Other People's Children: cultural conflict in the classroom by
The classic, groundbreaking analysis of the role of race in the classroom and a guide for teaching across difference, from the MacArthur Award-winning educator "Phenomenal. . . . [This book] overcomes fear and speaks of truths, truths that otherwise have no voice." --San Francisco Review of Books In this groundbreaking, radical analysis of contemporary classrooms, MacArthur Award-winning author Lisa Delpit develops the theory that teachers must be effective "cultural transmitters" in the classroom, where prejudice, stereotypes, and assumptions often breed ineffective education. Delpit suggests that many academic problems attributed to children of color are actually the result of miscommunication, as primarily white teachers educate "other people's children" and perpetuate the imbalanced power dynamics that plague our system. Now a classic of educational thought and a must-read for teachers, administrators, and parents striving to improve the quality of America's education system, Other People's Children has sold over 150,000 copies since its original publication. Winner of an American Educational Studies Association Critics' Choice Award and Choice magazine's Outstanding Academic Book Award, this anniversary edition features a new introduction by Delpit as well as important framing essays by Herbert Kohl and Charles Payne.
Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire: the methods and madness inside room 56 by
Read Rafe Esquith's posts on the Penguin Blog. The New York Times bestseller that is revolutionizing the way Americans educate their kids-"Rafe Esquith is a genius and a saint" (The New York Times) Perhaps the most famous fifth-grade teacher in America, Rafe Esquith has won numerous awards and even honorary citizenship in the British Empire for his outstandingly successful methods. In his Los Angeles public school classroom, he helps impoverished immigrant children understand Shakespeare, play Vivaldi, and become happy, self-confident people. This bestseller gives any teacher or parent all the techniques, exercises, and innovations that have made its author an educational icon, from personal codes of behavior to tips on tackling literature and algebra. The result is a powerful book for anyone concerned about the future of our children.
Bad Boys: public schools in the making of Black masculinity by
Statistics show that black males are disproportionately getting in trouble and being suspended from the nation's school systems. Based on three years of participant observation research at an elementary school, Bad Boys offers a richly textured account of daily interactions between teachers and students to understand this serious problem. Ann Arnett Ferguson demonstrates how a group of eleven- and twelve-year-old males are identified by school personnel as "bound for jail" and how the youth construct a sense of self under such adverse circumstances. The author focuses on the perspective and voices of pre-adolescent African American boys. How does it feel to be labeled "unsalvageable" by your teacher? How does one endure school when the educators predict one's future as "a jail cell with your name on it?" Through interviews and participation with these youth in classrooms, playgrounds, movie theaters, and video arcades, the author explores what "getting into trouble" means for the boys themselves. She argues that rather than simply internalizing these labels, the boys look critically at schooling as they dispute and evaluate the meaning and motivation behind the labels that have been attached to them. Supplementing the perspectives of the boys with interviews with teachers, principals, truant officers, and relatives of the students, the author constructs a disturbing picture of how educators' beliefs in a "natural difference" of black children and the "criminal inclination" of black males shapes decisions that disproportionately single out black males as being "at risk" for failure and punishment. Bad Boys is a powerful challenge to prevailing views on the problem of black males in our schools today. It will be of interest to educators, parents, and youth, and to all professionals and students in the fields of African-American studies, childhood studies, gender studies, juvenile studies, social work, and sociology, as well as anyone who is concerned about the way our schools are shaping the next generation of African American boys. Ann Arnett Ferguson is Assistant Professor of Afro-American Studies and Women's Studies, Smith College.
The Freedom Writers Diary: how a teacher and 150 teens used writing to change themselves and the world around them (20th Anniversary Edition) by
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER .The twentieth anniversary edition of the classic story of an incredible group of students and the teacher who inspired them, featuring updates on the students' lives, new journal entries, and an introduction by Erin Gruwell Now a public television documentary,Freedom Writers- Stories from the Heart In 1994, an idealistic first-year teacher in Long Beach, California, named Erin Gruwell confronted a room of "unteachable, at-risk" students. She had intercepted a note with an ugly racial caricature and angrily declared that this was precisely the sort of thing that led to the Holocaust. She was met by uncomprehending looks-none of her students had heard of one of the defining moments of the twentieth century. So she rebooted her entire curriculum, using treasured books such as Anne Frank's diary as her guide to combat intolerance and misunderstanding. Her students began recording their thoughts and feelings in their own diaries, eventually dubbing themselves the "Freedom Writers." Consisting of powerful entries from the students' diaries and narrative text by Erin Gruwell,The Freedom Writers Diaryis an unforgettable story of how hard work, courage, and determination changed the lives of a teacher and her students. In the two decades since its original publication, the book has sold more than one million copies and inspired a major motion pictureFreedom Writers. And now, with this twentieth-anniversary edition, readers are brought up to date on the lives of the Freedom Writers, as they blend indispensable takes on social issues with uplifting stories of attending college-and watch their own children follow in their footsteps.The Freedom Writers Diaryremains a vital read for anyone who believes in second chances.
The Freedom Writers Diary: Teacher's Guide by
A standards-based teacher's guide from the educator behind the #1New York TimesbestsellerThe Freedom Writers Diary,with innovative teaching techniques that will engage, empower, and enlighten. Don't miss the public television documentaryFreedom Writers- Stories from the Heart In response to thousands of letters and e-mails from teachers across the country who learned about Erin Gruwell and her amazing students inThe Freedom Writers Diaryand the hit movieFreedom Writers,Gruwell and a team of teacher experts have writtenThe Freedom Writers Diary Teacher's Guide,a book that will encourage teachers and students to expand the walls of their classrooms and think outside the box. Here Gruwell goes in depth and shares her unconventional but highly successful educational strategies and techniques (all 150 of her students, who had been deemed "unteachable," graduated from Wilson High School in Long Beach, California)- from her very successful "toast for change" (an exercise in which Gruwell exhorted her students to leave the past behind and start fresh) to writing exercises that focus on the importance of journal writing, vocabulary, and more. In an easy-to-use format with black-and-white illustrations, this teacher's guide will become the essential go-to manual for teachers who want to make a difference in their pupils' lives.
Reaching and teaching : students with special needs through art by
Written for art educators and those who value the arts for students with special needs, this book provides an overview of special needs students in the art room—addressing each group separately and including current definitions and descriptions and recommended teaching strategies. Art lesson adaptations and behavior management strategies are included, and follow-up activities at the end of each chapter offer further insights into each group of students. It also addresses school-wide concerns: collaboration among educators and school staff; art therapy and therapeutic teaching; paraeducators in the art room; and resources for the arts for special needs students. Step-by-step directions aid readers in obtaining funding to expand their own teaching opportunities.
Teaching with Poverty in Mind: what being poor does to kids' brains and what schools can do about it by
In Teaching with Poverty in Mind: What Being Poor Does to Kids' Brains and What Schools Can Do About It, veteran educator and brain expert Eric Jensen takes an unflinching look at how poverty hurts children, families, and communities across the United States and demonstrates how schools can improve the academic achievement and life readiness of economically disadvantaged students. Jensen argues that although chronic exposure to poverty can result in detrimental changes to the brain, the brain's very ability to adapt from experience means that poor children can also experience emotional, social, and academic success. A brain that is susceptible to adverse environmental effects is equally susceptible to the positive effects of rich, balanced learning environments and caring relationships that build students' resilience, self-esteem, and character. Drawing from research, experience, and real school success stories, Teaching with Poverty in Mind reveals: What poverty is and how it affects students in school. What drives change both at the macro level (within schools and districts) and at the micro level (inside a student's brain). Effective strategies from those who have succeeded and ways to replicate those best practices at your own school. How to engage the resources necessary to make change happen. Too often, we talk about change while maintaining a culture of excuses. We can do better. Although no magic bullet can offset the grave challenges faced daily by disadvantaged children, this timely resource shines a spotlight on what matters most, providing an inspiring and practical guide for enriching the minds and lives of all your students.
The Shame of the Nation: the restoration of apartheid schooling in America by
The nation needs to be confronted with the crime that we're committing and the promises we are betraying. This is a book about betrayal of the young, who have no power to defend themselves. It is not intended to make readers comfortable.” Over the past several years, Jonathan Kozol has visited nearly 60 public schools. Virtually everywhere, he finds that conditions have grown worse for inner-city children in the 15 years since federal courts began dismantling the landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. First, a state of nearly absolute apartheid now prevails in thousands of our schools. The segregation of black children has reverted to a level that the nation has not seen since 1968. Few of the students in these schools know white children any longer. Second, a protomilitary form of discipline has now emerged, modeled on stick-and-carrot methods of behavioral control traditionally used in prisons but targeted exclusively at black and Hispanic children. And third, as high-stakes testing takes on pathological and punitive dimensions, liberal education in our inner-city schools has been increasingly replaced by culturally barren and robotic methods of instruction that would be rejected out of hand by schools that serve the mainstream of society. Filled with the passionate voices of children and their teachers and some of the most revered and trusted leaders in the black community,The Shame of the Nationis a triumph of firsthand reporting that pays tribute to those undefeated educators who persist against the odds, but directly challenges the chilling practices now being forced upon our urban systems by the Bush administration. In their place, Kozol offers a humane, dramatic challenge to our nation to fulfill at last the promise made some 50 years ago to all our youngest citizens. FromThe Shame of the Nation “I went to Washington to challenge the soft bigotry of low expectations,” the president said in his campaign for reelection in September 2004. “It’s working. It’s making a difference.” It is one of those deadly lies, which, by sheer repetition, is at length accepted by large numbers of Americans as, perhaps, a rough approximation of the truth. But it is not the truth, and it is not an innocent misstatement of the facts. It is a devious appeasement of the heartache of the parents of the poor and, if it is not forcefully resisted and denounced, it is going to lead our nation even further in a perilous direction.
The Dreamkeepers: successful teachers of African American children by
In the second edition of her critically acclaimed book The Dreamkeepers, Gloria Ladson-Billings revisits the eight teachers who were profiled in the first edition and introduces us to new teachers who are current exemplars of good teaching. She shows that culturally relevant teaching is not a matter of race, gender, or teaching style. What matters most is a teacher's efforts to work with the unique strengths a child brings to the classroom. A brilliant mixture of scholarship and storytelling, The Dreamkeepers challenges us to envision intellectually rigorous and culturally relevant classrooms that have the power to improve the lives of not just African American students, but all children. This new edition also includes questions for reflection
See You When We Get There: teaching for change in urban schools by
Gregory Michie's first bestseller, Holler If You Hear Me, put him on the map as a compelling and passionate voice in urban education. In his new book, Michie turns his attention to young teachers of color, and once again provides readers with a unique and penetrating look inside public school classrooms. Featuring portraits of five young teachers (two African Americans, two Latinas, and one Asian American) who are "working for change," Michie weaves the teachers' powerful voices with classroom vignettes and his own experiences. Along the way, he examines what motivates and sustains these teachers, as well as what they see as the challenges and possibilities of public education
Educating Culturally Responsive Teachers: a coherent approach by
Offering a conceptual framework and practical strategies for teacher preparation in schools with increasingly diverse racial and ethnic student populations, this book presents a coherent approach to educating culturally responsive teachers. The authors focus on the importance of recruiting and preparing a diverse teaching force, as they propose a vision for restructuring the teacher education curriculum, reconceiving the pedagogy used to prepare prospective teachers, and transforming the institutional context in order to support the curricular and pedagogical changes they recommend.
White Like Me: reflections on race from a privileged son by
Racial privilege shapes the lives of white Americans in every facet of life, from employment and education to housing and criminal justice. Using stories from his own life, Tim Wise shows that racism not only burdens people of color, but also benefits those who are "white like him" -- whether or not they're actively racist. Using stories instead of stale statistics, Wise weaves a compelling narrative that assesses the magnitude of racial privilege and is at once readable and scholarly, analytical yet accessible.
