The Corwin Editors’ Holiday Reading List

This weekend is a small respite for many educators, but we all know there are still a few more weeks until the highly anticipated Winter Break. You’ve started planning your festivities with family, but this is also a great time to get some holiday reading done!

Corwin’s editors have put together a list of excellent Holiday Reading recommendations for you—and we’re offering all of these books at 25% off until December 31, 2015. Use discount code N15BC1 at checkout on Corwin.com.

Corwin Holiday Reading List:

1. Leading Professional Learning by Tom Murray and Jeff Zoul

This short book is the perfect light read for the holiday season. You might already be planning a new implementation for 2016—but have you thought about how you’re going to prepare teachers for that transition? Murray and Zoul write that “We must shift from thinking [professional development] is something we do to teachers to something we (with their active participation) do with them.”

Recommended by Ariel Bartlett, Acquisitions Editor

2. What Really Works in Elementary Education and What Really Work in Secondary Education by Wendy Murawski and Kathy Scott

Straight from the minds of teacher experts, these two books provide educators with the best practices as well as common misconceptions in areas such as literacy, arts, and math instruction; the use of technology in the classroom; co-teaching; and assessment of ELs and students with disabilities. Many resources and reproducibles are also included.

Recommended by Jessica Allan, Senior Acquisitions Editor

3. Better Conversations by Jim Knight

Not only do these strategies supporting coaching conversations, but they are critical for any educator engaged in dialogue – whether professional or personal.

Recommended by Kristin Anderson, Senior Director of Professional Learning

4. Five Principles of the Modern Mathematics Classroom: Creating a Culture of Innovative Thinking by Gerald Aungst

Aungst takes us on a journey through what today’s ideal math classroom should and can look like, one that engages students in collaborative problem solving, productive struggle, and use of technology to ultimately create enthusiastic, independent mathematicians. Through the Five Principles of Conjecture, Communication, Collaboration, Chaos, and Celebration, Aungst leads us through the very do-able classroom strategies that foster these traits, with concrete examples across the K-12 span.  Cindy Johanson, Executive Director of Edutopia calls this book “a perfect blend of inspiring and practical!”

Recommended by Erin Null, Acquisitions Editor

5. Coherence by Michael Fullan

It may seem trite to pick a Michael Fullan book for the holiday list, but consider this a gift to yourself! In clear and implementable steps Michael Fullan and Joanne Quinn lay out the steps to take, the steps to avoid and the RIGHT DRIVERS that will move a school or district to much better results. The book lays out the 4 main components that schools, districts and systems need to focus on and supports them with examples and cases of success.

The four essential components:

• Focused direction to build collective purpose
• Cultivating collaborative cultures while clarifying individual and team roles
• Deepening learning to accelerate improvement and foster innovation
• Securing accountability from the inside out

As John Hattie noted about this book: “This is the blueprint for a new vocabulary of education action; it shows where we need to go next, and is another example of Fullan at the top of his game.”

Recommended by Arnis Burvikovs, Executive Editor

6. The PLC Book by Nancy Fichtman Dana and Diane Yendol-Hoppey

In her foreword to this book, Joellen Killion described it as “an investment in the continuous improvement of collaborative learning in schools.”  I especially appreciated the authors’ goal of bringing simplicity back to the PLC process while simultaneously honoring the complexity inherent in teaching itself.

Recommended by Dan Alpert, Program Director