Education Teaching Books

The Girl with the Brown Crayon
Vivian Gussin Paley
Review by K. Winick-Ford

I am inspired and amazed- such a treasure to American literature, Paley shares her numerous years as a kindergarten teacher with her unique insight. She is insightful, being mindful of her students, their needs and the changes our society is facing.

Although all her stories are wonderful and easy to read, the girl with the brown crayon connects well-loved stories by a well respected author and how the class connects and adapts and evolves through the days. Too often we read about the short attention span of youngsters and their self-involvement and disconnectedness. Paley revives the soul- she shares authentic stories of her children, seeing the light they bring to our culture.

My favorite quote from the book is this, "apparently I needed classroom after classroom of young children demanding to be heard before I could identify my own voice and imagine my own questions." Pg. 43

This story, with obvious connections to racial identity is an easy read for all adults. The connections between Leo Lionni's books parallel What truly inspires me is how the class, as young as they are, relate to the books and the hidden messages they reveal. The book won several awards and there's no doubt to me, well deserved.

The main character, Reeny is strong and dominate throughout the book, showing signs of great leadership. The author reveals on her birthday why she is at the school she attends rather than a more local one. The issue of race and leadership is unveiled. It reminded me not only of the racial inequalities we face each day, but also how a child will not respond internally to leadership but will react when opportunity presents itself.

The issue of sexual identity is also presented and how children respond to the characters in the stories. The author explains to the children why they were written the way they were and poses an in-depth question as to whether or not they have to be male. Again, the children respond thoughtfully.

Never underestimate children. As the book draws to a close, Paley tells how the children respond to emotional crisis in the classroom and in their lives. She also tells how they mature and develop. Their insightful connections to the stories they have heard and how they connect them to their lives is amazing! From the Polish boy back to Reeny, the story comes full circle. The closing is appropriate. Not only is it the end of Paley's school year and her teaching career, but she leaves us with the tools we may wish to use- a list of Leo Lionni books, which many must be eager to revisit. In short, this is a fantastic book that you will be a better teacher and a better person having read it.

This particular piece of writing by Palely is describing her last thoughts she will have as a teacher. Palely is going to retire at the end of the school year and keeps a diary of her last year. She barely mentions math and science or gym and music. Her main focus turns to her language arts sessions. Her class begins to focus of a series of books written by Leo Lonny. Soon, all of their lives are entangled with Leo Lionni and all of his characters.There are several themes to this book that are of importance. The main theme, however, is knowing as adults, we can learn from children. As an example, the children in this book all have their very own personalities, as well as ethnicities in this classroom. Every one of them gets along and learns to understand each other. As adults, we must wonder why is our world so corrupt? These children refuse not talk to another because of skin color or personality difference. Another example is how well the children took off on learning and digesting each piece of literature. They are so excited to read and color and act out each book as if each book touched each individual child in some spectacular way. They are excited about reading! As adults, we need to learn from that. There are many adults who don�t read or can�t read and have no enthusiasm to try. It is sad to think that somewhere along the line the fun of reading is drained from their minds and reading will strictly turn into a task for some of these children.
I support this book, particularly on how the book expresses life long learning and growing (mentally). It really redefines who we are as adults and makes me take a second look at life. There are so many things that I don�t know about myself that I think I know. I am glad I read this book. I recommend this book 150% to anyone who wants to learn more about yourself through a child/children. Buy this book today and rediscover who you really are!

Paley's purpose for writing this book consists of helping to open our minds to the insights of children. She implies in her writing that we, as adults, can learn from children. Paley wrote about events that took place in her classroom during her last year of teaching. This book has many stories within itself. The theme or topic revolves around the children and how they react to literature and each other. This book is good that it opens us up to the world of children and how they think and feel. A good portion of the book is Paley's thought and feelings about what is going on with the children. It is good that we know her thoughts, but I would like to have read more about what the children were doing. I think more details about how the other children reacted and behaved would have been nice, other than concentrating a good deal on Reeny. Also when Paley writes about the stories she read to the class, I think she should have given a little bit more detail about the stories. Some people, including myself, may not have read some or any of Leo Lionni's books. Overall, it is a fun book to read.

The Girl with the Brown Crayon is a book that displays a journey through a kindergarten classroom which can only be described as a unique adventure of self discovery. Vivian Paley is the author as well as the kindergarten teacher of this very classroom. During her last year of teaching, she meets an interesting child named Reeny who leads Paley as well as the rest of the class on an exploration through the books and illustrations of Leo Lionni.
The Girl with the Brown Crayon is a book which covers important topics that cannot be learned in any college course. It discusses issues of identity and acceptance seen and felt through a child. I enjoy Paley's excessive use of dialogue. It aides in capturing the emotions felt by the characters and allows experiences to become more realistic in the readers eyes.
Overall, I recommend this book to future educators. It will teach you to become more open to your students thoughts and ideas rather than constantly focusing on certain curriculum. It will allow you to see the vastness of opportunities education can hold for you and your class!

The Girl with the Brown Crayon is a non-fiction book that is also an autobiography. It does not describe the complete life of the author, but it does explain a year in her life and in her classroom. This book is intended for any one interested in becoming a teacher. I would recommend this particularly a lower elementary teacher, because it would help them to understand the wonderful things children and comprehend and accomplish at such a young age. Ms. Paley has a simple, straightforward writing style that is easy to read.
There is one sentence that sums up Ms. Paley's last year as a teacher. "...I resist the uninvented classroom." (p. 50) Throughout the year, Ms. Paley and her students are books of Leo Lionni. It is through these books that the students and Ms. Paley discover themselves. One student in particular plays a major role in the development of the class. Reeny "sees" things before any one else does. She also brings new interpretations to the class.
I would say that The Girl with the Brown Crayon was an interesting book. At the beginning the author warns us that it might not seem like a true story. She is right, the events to seem incredible. It takes a very special class full of very special students to have a year such as they did. Throughout the book the author is very analytical of herself. She keeps finding traits of herself that the characters in the books also posses. Due the fact that this is her last year of teaching, she is very reflective, and rightfully so. Ms. Paley is also a good teacher in the sense that she is constantly reviewing what she is doing with her class. It has become stereotyped that older teachers follow the same exact curriculum from their first year. Ms. Paley fights that, and is always inventing something new and creative for the class she is teaching that year, not the class she taught the previous year.
There is a common theme of a person versus society. Throughout the book the students discuss the feeling of the characters and whether what they did was appropriate or not. While the students were looking at the books with a very high intellectual level, it should have also been brought down to their level. For example, would they give into the peer pressure of giving up the golden wings? The key words in that sentence are peer pressure. Through out the entire book, this idea was never brought up. The students could think higher, but only when they were talking about wings. What about issues in their lives.
Overall, this was a very good book and I would recommend it to anyone that is looking to teach in the near future. Ms. Paley has wonderful ideas, which she brings into her teaching. Ms. Paley makes her children excited about what they are doing.

Great contents with lovely color in Math, Basic skills, Social studies, Science and Language arts. With it my kid has fun in playing. Through it I sharpen my kid's related skills. My kid enjoys it very much. It worths my recommendation.

I am a public school speech pathologist and I was able to immediately use this resource with students in a productive manner. Excellent!

Playing it Right! Social Skills Activities for Parents and Teachers of Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders, Including Asperger Syndrome and Autism

This book is EXACTLY what I was looking for! My 7.5 year old son is very high functioning autism spectrum disorder (PDD-NOS) and is cognitively very bright, but he does have difficulties managing his anger, and social skills (understanding the position of others, unwritten social rules) do not come naturally to him. He needs to be taught and practise these skills.

Whereas many books talk about the reasons that kids in the ASD have difficulties with these issues and give background and theories, and talk about things these kids need to be taught, this book actually gives you specific lesson plans for 20 specific social issues that your child may have. The lesson plans are simple, straightforward, short, child-friendly and very effective. The lessons are very interactive and include a short craft where the child is involved to facilitate understanding. They are very visual (child-friendly), very sensory and many include a "reminder card" that the child can make to refer to in their pocket or have posted in a convenient space. A list of things that you need to complete the lesson is at the very start of the lesson.

The book starts off with a social skills checklist of 20 social issues so that you can check off the specific social skills that your child needs to learn / practice and then directs you directly to the specific lesson plan to work on that skill. I found that 16/20 pertained to my child in one way or another. My son is 7.5, but I think this book would be very suitable for high functioning children as young as 4 and as old as 9 or 10.

This book is set up to use over and over again with completed examples of the work sheets in the lesson plan and then blank templates in the back. I have recently bought a second copy of this book for my son's school.

If you have to buy one book to work on social skills with an ASD child, I would highly recommend this one.

This book transformed the way we teach reasearch at our school. Our students can't wait to dig deeply into subjects and share what they've learned with others. We've truly become a community of learners and the tools and encouragement in this book helped to make that happen. I re-read it every year.

Nonfiction Matters by Stephanie Harvey is a great book that not only gives teachers great ideas on how to teach nonfiction writing, but also on how to learn along with the students by inquiring about real things in life anyone of them might have an interest in.
I recommend this book to any teacher who is willing to take the challenge and transform her / his classroom into what every classroom in the world should be. Teachers will find new incentives to motivate their students along with simple economic ideas that will get their students writing passionate, interesting nonfiction papers everyone will want to read.

Every middle-grade teacher should own this book! It is such a relief to find a book by an author who clearly knows how to engage students in authentic, "real world" material. Not only is this book enjoyable to read, but it actually shows you how to jump in and make nonfiction reading work for your students--or your children--wherever they may be on the ability spectrum.

I think it can be difficult to teach things which we intuitively do well, and many teachers are good readers. This book is marvelous, because it refuses to advocate a painful, repetitive break-down of dull practice skills. Instead, it shows teachers and parents how to explicitly address skills within a meaningful context. That is so critical! For example, the book talks about readers making connections, and recognizing types of connections, including text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world. Making connections is not a new idea for reading teachers, but these categories are great for making non-fiction accessible.

The ideas and strategies in the book are motivating and inspiring, if overwhelming. The author's journey is really that of a continuing learner, and it was so valuable to me to read about her overflowing ideas and philosophies and strategies, as well as the way she handled roadblocks with colleagues and students.

I love that this author has the courage to present teaching as a "messy" art and science. It doesn't pretend there is one right answer or one right method or one right kind of student or teacher. It recognizes the complexity of so many variables coming together--ability, interest, personality--and acknowledges and addresses these variables, instead of pretending they don't exist.

This is a book for thinking, reflective teachers, and it's good.

I just had this book assigned to me for my upcoming course in Materials for Teaching Reading. The semester hasn't even started yet, and I have devoured this book. Stephanie Harvey has done an incredible job of breaking down the process of reading, writing, and researching nonfiction in such a way that I really feel prepared to go out and start teaching it. Not only am I prepared, I am EXCITED! I can't wait to implement what I have learned in my future classes, as well as in my own life journey of continued learning and research. Not only is there great information, the book is written in a very readable, interesting manner, a good example of good nonfiction writing.

When I was in school, we were told to write papers, but were never really taught *how* to develop one. We were told *what* to do -- make an outline, write the paper, and revise it -- but that didn't help me figure out *how* to do any of these things.

Now my daughter is in third grade and I'm trying to help her learn how to write. Our first use of the book helped us capture and explore what she learned on a museum trip. I was really impressed with the resulting report. It was focused, full of real content, and had a delightful narrative style. We even used wondering questions to help us focus further inquiry.

This book is a must-have for anyone interested in life-long learning.

The text has been used for the past several terms in the class I'm teaching. It is an interesting read.

this was a required book for my master's program and let me say this is a HARD book to read. The language is difficult to understand and it is just plain drab to read. It lacks creative examples and activites. The information is good, just not presented in an interesting manner.

This book is not very user friendly, a very tough read!

This book has some interesting and useful information. On the downside-it is very dry reading and can be quite boring. I found some of the information to be over my head.

This book is required reading in a graduate class I am taking and is an excellent resource. It gives a comprehensive look at Bilingual Education. It begins with an overview of bilingual education, then moves into specific programs and policies which include important court cases that shaped the face of education today. The historical view was particularly interesting! After chapters on language and culture, Ovando does a great job of explaining how to teach in different content areas. Anyone in the field of education will benefit from reading this book. It is well researched and written by someone with a deep understanding of bilingual education.

The authors emphasize relevent material and content towards the importance of "teaching in multicultural contexts". The excepts from teachers and students provide a personal connection. This book addresses issues of cultural diversity, Bilingual/ESL strategies, and provides a reference on laws and policies that have evolved to focus on today's changing educational settings.

I only bought this because I needed it for grad. school. It's tough reading!!

I bought this because because every teacher needs some help working alongside parents. I have yet to have a class (undergraduate/graduate) where we have been taught how to collaborate with parents. This is not a list of what to and what to not do with parents. Instead, this book shares many personal accounts of both teachers and parents.

As I work toward my doctoral degree, I will remember this book as a text in my teacher-training classes.

I would not recommend this for the layman. The author is telling too many of her own stories.

This is certainly a "must-read" for both parents and teachers alike, in order to align their performance desires and expectations. This book paves the way for dialogue that is needed between parents and teachers.