Literacy
Bullying in Schools
Bullying in Schools: Tips and Strategies for School Leaders and Classroom Teachers by Elizabeth A. Barton (Skylight Professional Development, 1900 E. Lake Ave., Glenview, IL 60025; 150 pp., $27.95 paperback).
Written by the associate director for Peace Studies at Wayne State University, this primer defines the bully-victim-witness relationship and identifies bullying behaviors in the classroom. Methods for intervention described include the use of conflict-resolution techniques and improvement of students’ social skills.
Girl Wars: 12 Strategies That Will End Female Bullying by Cheryl Dellasega and Charisse Nixon (A Fireside Book, Simon & Schuster, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020; 256 pp., $13 paperback).
Examines relational aggression—defined as “hurting one’s peers through gossip, teasing, forming cliques, and other insidious cruelties"— and explains why people engage in it, what damage it does to both victim and abuser, and how to stop it, including by changing the culture that gives rise to it. True stories of victims and abusers are featured, as well as a list of 12 strategies to prevent and combat female bullying.
Please Stop Laughing at Me: One Woman’s Inspirational Story by Jodee Blanco (Adams Media Corp., 57 Littlefield St., Avon, MA 02322; 276 pp., $12.95 paperback).
A memoir of one girl’s experiences of being excluded, bullied, and even physically abused by her classmates from the 6th grade through high school. Now a book publicist and college instructor, the author also examines such topics as the mistakes that parents of bullied children can make, why schools are not always able to prevent bullying and its consequences, how bullying has been misdiagnosed by the mental-health community, and why some children become popular, while others are teased, abused, and excluded by their peers.
They Don’t Like Me: Lessons on Bullying and Teasing From a Preschool Classroom by Jane Katch (Beacon Press, 25 Beacon St., Boston, MA 02108; 142 pp., $23 hardcover).
Examines the problems of bullying, teasing, and exclusion in the classroom. The author, a veteran teacher whose career has included counseling emotionally disturbed children with Bruno Bettelheim and teaching with Vivian Paley, explores these issues with the aid of conversations, observations, and interactions gathered from her own class of 4- and 5-year-olds, a group of high school students, and her brother, who teased her as a child. The exploration leads her to new conclusions about why some children bully—and how others withstand the abuse or exclusion.
Wounded Innocents and Fallen Angels: Child Abuse and Child Aggression by Gregory K. Moffatt (Praeger Publishers, 88 Post Road W., Westport, CT 06881; 314 pp., $44.95 hardcover).
Written for counselors, teachers, psychologists and other medical professionals, and law- enforcement officials, this book examines various forms of mistreatment of children, such as Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, sexual and physical abuse, and neglect. It also investigates aggression committed by children against other people, property, and self, with chapters devoted to bullies, vandals, child murders, and suicides. Case studies that highlight treatment options are included.
Teachers
Chalkdust: Prayers of Encouragement for Teachers by Elspeth Campbell Murphy (Baker Books, PO Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516; 128 pp., $10.99 hardcover).
A collection of 87 meditations.
Guilty Until Proven Innocent: Teachers and Accusations of Abuse by Matthew D. Olson and Gregory Lawler (New Forums Press, 1018 S. Lewis St., Stillwater, OK 74074; 228 pp., $16.95 paperback).
Written by a journalist and a teachers’ union lawyer who has defended more than 2,000 teachers against allegations of abuse, this text examines in detail 13 real cases litigated by Mr. Lawler, and recommends several reforms in the system.
Losing My Faculties: A Teacher’s Story by Brendan Halpin (Villard, 1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019; 256 pp., $21.95 hardcover).
In this memoir, a 34-year-old high school English teacher reflects on nine years of teaching in various schools located in Boston and its suburbs.
Mentoring Across Boundaries: Helping Beginning Teachers Succeed in Challenging Situations by Jean Boreen and Donna Niday (Stenhouse Publishers, 477 Congress St., Suite 4B, Portland, ME 04101; 214 pp., $18.50 paperback).
A guide written for mentors, administrators, and teacher-educators that examines specific issues and how they affect the mentoring relationship. These include: age, gender, and culture in the mentoring relationship; new teachers in urban or rural environments; veteran teachers moving across buildings or into a new school; teachers working with at- risk students; mentoring “burned-out” teachers; self-mentoring; and mentoring through technology.
Rookie Teaching for Dummies by W. Michael Kelley (Riley Publishing, 111 River St., 4th Floor, Hoboken, NJ 07030; 360 pp., $19.99 paperback).
A guide to help beginning teachers set up and maintain an orderly classroom, develop a grading system, engage students, and form positive relationships with parents and school administrators. It is written by a veteran teacher of high school calculus.
Tuned In and Fired Up: How Teaching Can Inspire Real Learning in the Classroom by Sam M. Intrator (Yale University Press, PO Box 209040, New Haven, CT 06520; 188 pp., $23 hardcover).
A discussion of the moments when “inspired learning” happens in the classroom, and an attempt to understand how and why such moments occur and how teachers can replicate them. Written by an assistant professor of education and child study at Smith College who is a former high school teacher and administrator, the book is the fruit of a year’s study of a high school English class, where the purpose, the author says, was to “identify the ways transcendent educational exchanges come about.”
Literacy
An Island of English: Teaching ESL in Chinatown by Danling Fu (Heinemann, 361 Hanover St., Portsmouth, NH 03801; 168 pp., $21 paperback).
Insight into the experiences and struggles of Chinese immigrant students from a researcher who worked in New York City’s Chinatown as a literacy consultant at a middle school. She weaves her personal story as an immigrant, as well as the experiences of her son as an immigrant student, into the story, then extrapolates to other immigrant populations, offering a number of practical recommendations for educators.
Raising a Reader: A Mother’s Tale of Desperation and Delight by Jennie Nash (St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Ave., New York, NY 10010; 146 pp., $19.95 hardcover).
An anecdotal guide in which the author recounts the positive and negative aspects of teaching her children to read. She ends each chapter with reading games and practical tips.
The Wasted Years: American Youth, Race, and the Literacy Gap by James McCabe (Scarecrow Press, 4501 Forbes Blvd., Suite 200, Lanham, MD 20706; 300 pp., $39.95 paperback).
Identifies the origins of the literacy gap between white students and their black and Hispanic counterparts, then examines how classroom practices and national educational strategies perpetuate this gap in American secondary schools.
