Synopses & Reviews
Tom's new chapter, Speaking Back to the Common Core, is NOW AVAILABLE!
Click here to read. "Holding On to Good Ideas in a Time of Bad Ones
is my new favorite book about how to live as a teacher. Finishing it, I experienced what I can only describe as a state of grace-moved, renewed, and grateful that a mind like Tom Newkirk's has been intrigued by classroom matters for almost forty years now." -Nancie Atwell Author of
In the Middle, Second Edition
"Classic Newkirk: direct, incisive, and brimming with wisdom." -Harvey "Smokey" Daniels Coauthor of
Comprehension & Collaboration This book is one of the best teacher books ever. I'll be giving copies of it to lots of teacher friends as we find our way back to trusting what we know about kids, about learning, and about teaching writing. -Gretchen Bernabei Author of
Reviving the Essay Holding On to Good Ideas in a Time of Bad Ones is for every teacher who has struggled under top-down mandates, who ever had to slavishly follow the script of a reading lesson, who ever felt that tests were driving instruction. It is for those whose good, humane, and sensitive ways of teaching literacy are threatened by rigid, mechanical programs. It is for teachers who feel they are losing control of their daily work.
Book study groups and professional learning communities, click here to save 15% when you order 15 copies of Holding On to Good Ideas in a Time of Bad Ones: A $292.50 value for $248.50. Hear a podcast, where Tom Newkirk and Nancie Atwell discuss teaching principles worth fighthing for. In
Holding On to Good Ideas in a Time of Bad Ones, Tom Newkirk eloquently defends teaching against the "cult of efficiency" that turns classrooms into assembly lines of knowledge. Newkirk goes beyond diagnosing the problem to present six ideas worth fighting for. These transformative practices gently but firmly return instructional decisions to where they belong: with you, our teachers. Newkirk shows how to:
- increase your instructional emphasis on writing to reflect the reality that producing text is more important than ever
- help students access deep knowledge and expand their thinking through time to write freely
- build strong connections between school learning and the real world by teaching with popular culture
- propel the development of reading skills by helping students discover the pleasure of reading
- provide the time and space for meaningful, long-lasting teaching and learning by uncluttering the curriculum
- spark professional growth and avoid stagnation by discussing failure and uncertainty with colleagues.
Holding On to Good Ideas in a Time of Bad Ones is affirming, not argumentative. It celebrates the humanity and unpredictability of teaching with Newkirk's blend of humor, passion, and warmth. Let it inspire a search for the things in your teaching that are most worth holding on to.
Synopsis
Holding On to Good Ideas in a Time of Bad Ones is my new favorite book about how to live as a teacher.Finishing it, I experienced what I can only describe as a state of grace - moved, renewed, and grateful that a mind like Tom Newkirk's has been intrigued by classroom matters for almost forty years now.In this new book Tom invites teachers to decide and lay claim to what's worth fighting for, and he offers us substantive ammunition.His eclectic scholarship, spanning ages and disciplines, pierces the dogma and cant that can cloud our professional vision.He reminds us that we are professionals, not technicians, and he illuminates teaching as an intellectual endeavor: a continuous process of observations, small experiments, and reflections that inform and change what we do in the classroom.His realistic, humane argument for “the wisdom of practice” dignifies the work of a teacher.Both the classroom veteran and the novice will be heartened and braced by this brilliant book. - Nancie AtwellAuthor of In the Middle, Second EditionLately, we teachers have been suffering through some truly bad times. But as Tom Newkirk observes in this brilliant and stirring book, we and our educational forbears have been fighting this battle for centuries.There is always a struggle to put children first, to honor knowledge over compliance, and to place humanity above the aims of the state.Newkirk's good news: today we have an extraordinary opportunity to get things right. Always one of the most distinctive and thoughtful voices in education, Newkirk asserts that no curriculum can ever work unless it fits on the back of an envelope. And then he offers his own envelope-sized curriculum for teaching writing, four questions and sixteen focal points. That's it. Classic Newkirk: direct, incisive, and brimming with wisdom. - Harvey “Smokey” DanielsCoauthor of Comprehension &CollaborationRich with pedagogy and human enough to make you burst out laughing, Thomas Newkirk's thoughts made me feel both heartened and head-slapping awakened.This book is one of the best teacher books ever. I'll be giving copies of it to lots of teacher friends as wefind our way back to trusting what we know about kids, about learning, and about teaching writing. The book is written for anyone whograpples with the modern quagmire: the chasm betweenwhy we became teachers and what schools have become. The discussions have already begun, and Thomas Newkirk's book will shed light and warmth wherethey're so sorely needed. - Gretchen BernabeiAuthor of Reviving the EssayThis is a wise, insightful, and thought-provoking book that offers important and useful perspectives on many of the central issues in literacy education. What I like best aboutHolding On toGood Ideas in a Time of Bad Onesis (1) it's a BIG book, not in word count but in range, scope, and ambitiousness, and (2) it practices exactly what it preaches. In other words, the goals that Tom argues for--such as, suggesting that literacy educators should de-clutter our curricula by identifying and focusing on just a few key goals, that we should connect and balance reading and writing, that we should accept and encourage the role of pleasure and personal connection in learning--are supported by evidence and research but are also modeled by the way this book is written. - Lad TobinAuthor of Reading Student Writin
Synopsis
Tom's new chapter, Speaking Back to the Common Core, is NOW AVAILABLE
Click here to read.
-Holding On to Good Ideas in a Time of Bad Ones is my new favorite book about how to live as a teacher. Finishing it, I experienced what I can only describe as a state of grace-moved, renewed, and grateful that a mind like Tom Newkirk's has been intrigued by classroom matters for almost forty years now.-
Nancie Atwell
Author of In the Middle, Second Edition
-Classic Newkirk: direct, incisive, and brimming with wisdom.-
Harvey -Smokey- Daniels
Coauthor of Comprehension & Collaboration
This book is one of the best teacher books ever. I'll be giving copies of it to lots of teacher friends as we find our way back to trusting what we know about kids, about learning, and about teaching writing.
-Gretchen Bernabei
Author of Reviving the Essay
Holding On to Good Ideas in a Time of Bad Ones is for every teacher who has struggled under top-down mandates, who ever had to slavishly follow the script of a reading lesson, who ever felt that tests were driving instruction. It is for those whose good, humane, and sensitive ways of teaching literacy are threatened by rigid, mechanical programs. It is for teachers who feel they are losing control of their daily work.
Hear a podcast, where Tom Newkirk and Nancie Atwell discuss teaching principles worth fighthing for.
In Holding On to Good Ideas in a Time of Bad Ones, Tom Newkirk eloquently defends teaching against the -cult of efficiency- that turns classrooms into assembly lines of knowledge. Newkirk goes beyond diagnosing the problem to present six ideas worth fighting for. These transformative practices gently but firmly return instructional decisions to where they belong: with you, our teachers. Newkirk shows how to:
- increase your instructional emphasis on writing to reflect the reality that producing text is more important than ever
- help students access deep knowledge and expand their thinking through time to write freely
- build strong connections between school learning and the real world by teaching with popular culture
- propel the development of reading skills by helping students discover the pleasure of reading
- provide the time and space for meaningful, long-lasting teaching and learning by uncluttering the curriculum
- spark professional growth and avoid stagnation by discussing failure and uncertainty with colleagues.
Holding On to Good Ideas in a Time of Bad Ones is affirming, not argumentative. It celebrates the humanity and unpredictability of teaching with Newkirk's blend of humor, passion, and warmth. Let it inspire a search for the things in your teaching that are most worth holding on to.
Synopsis
"Holding On to Good Ideas in a Time of Bad Ones
is my new favorite book about how to live as a teacher. Finishing it, I experienced what I can only describe as a state of grace-moved, renewed, and grateful that a mind like Tom Newkirk's has been intrigued by classroom matters for almost forty years now." -Nancie Atwell Author of
In the Middle, Second Edition
"Classic Newkirk: direct, incisive, and brimming with wisdom." -Harvey "Smokey" Daniels Coauthor of
Comprehension &Collaboration This book is one of the best teacher books ever. I'll be giving copies of it to lots of teacher friends as we find our way back to trusting what we know about kids, about learning, and about teaching writing. -Gretchen Bernabei Author of
Reviving the Essay Holding On to Good Ideas in a Time of Bad Ones is for every teacher who has struggled under top-down mandates, who ever had to slavishly follow the script of a reading lesson, who ever felt that tests were driving instruction. It is for those whose good, humane, and sensitive ways of teaching literacy are threatened by rigid, mechanical programs. It is for teachers who feel they are losing control of their daily work.
Book study groups and professional learning communities, click here to save 15% when you order 15 copies of Holding On to Good Ideas in a Time of Bad Ones: A $292.50 value for $248.50. Hear a podcast, where Tom Newkirk and Nancie Atwell discuss teaching principles worth fighthing for. In
Holding On to Good Ideas in a Time of Bad Ones, Tom Newkirk eloquently defends teaching against the "cult of efficiency" that turns classrooms into assembly lines of knowledge. Newkirk goes beyond diagnosing the problem to present six ideas worth fighting for. These transformative practices gently but firmly return instructional decisions to where they belong: with you, our teachers. Newkirk shows how to:
- increase your instructional emphasis on writing to reflect the reality that producing text is more important than ever
- help students access deep knowledge and expand their thinking through time to write freely
- build strong connections between school learning and the real world by teaching with popular culture
- propel the development of reading skills by helping students discover the pleasure of reading
- provide the time and space for meaningful, long-lasting teaching and learning by uncluttering the curriculum
- spark professional growth and avoid stagnation by discussing failure and uncertainty with colleagues.
Holding On to Good Ideas in a Time of Bad Ones is affirming, not argumentative. It celebrates the humanity and unpredictability of teaching with Newkirk's blend of humor, passion, and warmth. Let it inspire a search for the things in your teaching that are most worth holding on to.
About the Author
Thomas Newkirk's most recent books with Heinemann are The Art of Slow Reading (2011), Holding Onto Good Ideas in a Time of Bad Ones (2009) and Teaching the Neglected "R" (2007, coedited with Richard Kent). His Misreading Masculinity (2004) was cited by Instructor Magazine as one of the most significant books for teachers in the past decade. A former teacher of at-risk high school students in Boston, Tom is Professor of English at the University of New Hampshire, the former director of its freshman English program, and the director and founder of its New Hampshire Literacy Institutes. He has studied literacy learning at a variety of educational levels - from preschool to college. His other Heinemann and Boynton/Cook titles include the NCTE David H. Russell Award winning Performance of Self in Student Writing (Boynton/Cook, 1997), Taking Stock: The Writing Process Movement in the 90s (Boynton/Cook, 1994, coedited with Lad Tobin), and Nuts & Bolts: A Practical Guide to Teaching College Composition (Boynton/Cook, 1993). In addition, Tom is coeditor (with Penny Kittle) of Children Want to Write, which is a collection of Donald Graves' most significant writings paired with recovered videotapes that illuminate his research and his inspiring work with children and teachers, and coeditor (with Lisa Miller) of The Essential Don Murray, which gathers the most important insights about writing and teaching writing from "America's Greatest Writing Teacher." Thomas Newkirk has been named the 2010 recipient of the Gary Lindberg Award for his outstanding contributions as a faculty member of the University of New Hampshire. Read the Award Announcement »