Curricular Aids
An Overview of Writing Assessment: Theory, Research, and Practice, by Willa Wolcott and Sue M. Legg (National Council of Teachers of English, 1111 W. Kenyon Rd., Urbana, IL 61801-1096; 206 pp., $25.95 original paperback, list price; NCTE member price $18.95). Reviews the strengths and weaknesses of the major types of writing assessment, both for large-scale evaluations and the individual classroom. The book includes practical examples, applications, and “Tips for Teachers” sections that suggest ways to integrate assignments with pedagogical goals and assessment methods that are viable and useful to students.
Delivering Web Reference Services to Young People, by Walter Minkel and Roxanne Hsu Feldman (ALA Editions, American Library Association, 155 N. Wacker Dr., Chicago, IL 60606-1719; 128 pp., $32 original paperback, list price; ALA member price $28.80). Helps children’s-services librarians--both technology enthusiasts and those just now discovering the World Wide Web--find the resources they need to use the Internet effectively. The book offers advice on evaluating Web sites, using search engines, and assembling the good sites into a subject directory for student, teacher, or library use.
Educational Policy
Teachers Evaluating Teachers: Peer Review and the New Unionism, by Myron Lieberman (Transaction Publishers, RutgersUniversity, New Brunswick, NJ 08903, 137 pp., $34.95 hardcover, $17.95 paperback). Published jointly by Transaction Publishers and the Social Philosophy and Policy Center at Bowling Green State University, this book explores the peer-review phenomenon and claims made by teachers’ unions that peer review enhances professionalism and accountability among teachers.
What To Look for in a Classroom, by Alfie Kohn (Jossey-Bass Inc., 350 Sansome St., San Francisco, CA 94104, 389 pp., $25 hardcover). In this volume of essays, a former teacher who writes and speaks widely on education, human behavior, and social theory tackles topics ranging from self-esteem and school uniforms to grade inflation, character education, and the impact of television on children.
Gender Studies
Women’s Science: Learning and Succeeding From the Margins, by Margaret Eisenhart and Elizabeth Finkel (The University of Chicago Press, 5801 S. Ellis Ave., Chicago, IL 60637; 272pp., $45 hardcover, $15 paperback). Confronts the assumption that successful careers in science occur only in research and laboratory situations. Includes cases studies of women involved in science or engineering “at the margins": an innovative high school genetics class; a school-to-work internship for prospective engineers; an environmental-action group; and a nonprofit conservation agency.
True to Ourselves: A Celebration of Women Making a Difference, edited by Nancy M. Neuman (Jossey-Bass Inc., 350 Sansome St., Fifth Floor, San Francisco, CA 94104-1342; 246 pp., $22 hardcover). Sponsored by the League of Women Voters, this collection of essays written by 22 American women--including second lady Tipper Gore, U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun, New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, and Los Angeles attorney Angela E. Oh--provides a portrait of the influence and expanding power of women in public life during the second half of the 20th century.
Race and Society
Channel Surfing: Racism, the Media, and the Destruction of Today’s Youth, by Henry A. Giroux (St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Ave., New York, NY 10010; 248 pp., $14.95 paperback). Shifting from one channel of communication to the next, the author builds a collection of media images that, he believes, sell American children short “by damning them to the preconceived role of alienated outcasts.”
White Reign: Deploying Whiteness in America, edited by Joe L. Kincheloe, Shirley R. Steinberg, Nelson M. Rodriguez, and Ronald E. Chennault (St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Ave., New York, NY 10010; 354 pp., $27.95 hardcover). A collection of essays exploring how “whiteness” is learned and deployed through a variety of social forces, including school, media, and cyberspace. Examines concepts such as “reverse racism” and “white privilege” and what it means to be white in a race-conscious society.
--IHSAN K. TAYLOR
