Dr. Elizabeth M Bemiss

This review of professional books helps us to consider the power of informational texts from varying perspectives. Each book offers a unique insight into the current landscape of classroom literature. Building on ample research suggesting that informational texts in the classroom throughout elementary and upper grades is beneficial for student motivation and literacy development, these books add to our professional knowledge on integration of informational texts into instruction. The books reviewed also address social justice issues and literacy in diverse contexts.

A discussion of four books current to literacy research regarding informational texts, this book review includes topics such as: close reading of informational texts, teaching with text-based questions, social justice in the social studies classroom, and language and ethnography in education. These various themes are connected by a desire to help teachers integrate informational texts in the classroom as mandated by the adoption of Common Core State Standards.

This issue’s professional book reviews examine a range of texts that explore teacher inquiry in a variety of contexts. Whether the authors are examining educational philosophies such as Reggio Emilia and its application to literacy workshops or ways to consider how our research and practices position youth, this month’s authors all engage in research that changes how teachers approach their students and curriculum. Underlying each of the professional books is a foundation of the integral nature of reflection in refining one’s teaching practices. These reflective practitioners help us consider curricular structures, critical literacy, humanizing research, and the joy in teaching diverse students. Each of these texts enriched our conversations and affected our practice in small and big ways. We hope they do the same for you.

Prior to the 1990s, publishers, rather than legislators, had one of the heavier influences on classroom curriculum. Then came national standards and legislative agendas like reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, aka No Child Left Behind, and the subsequent Reading First legislation. The most current top-down invention is Common Core State Standards (CCSS). While some teachers support them, others do not and are working on the long-term agenda to repeal them. Meanwhile, in classrooms all across the country, teachers who agree with the best practices advocated by NCTE and other professional organizations struggle with how to reconcile those practices with CCSS. We reviewed seven books, four of them published by NCTE, that suggest ways teachers can continue with best practices in the era of CCSS.