Book Talk: Miss Harper Can Do It, Tuesday, 6/16, 4-6pm

The Gottesman Libraries sponsors book talks and lectures by faculty, students, staff, and others interested in sharing their work with the Teachers College community. Join us as we celebrate your achievements and promote social and intellectual discourse on key topics of relevance to the educating, psychological and health professions.

• Book Talk: Controversy in the Classroom, Thursday, 6/4, 4-6pm


Diana E. Hess, Professor of Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin Madison, and Principal Investigator at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research, School of Education, University of Wisconsin will speak on her latest publication, Controversy in the Classroom: The Democratic Power of Discussion (Routledge, 2009). The book addresses three broad themes: The Case for Controversial Political Issues; Inside Classrooms; and Controversy in the Curriculum. She bases her theories on empirical research drawn from classrooms across the country, showing how and why schools have the power to be influential sites for democratic education better sites, in fact, than most other venues inhabited by young people. One chapter is dedicated to September 11 as the “ultimate teachable moment”, as it examines the use of supplementary materials and textbooks in dealing with the topics of terrorism and religious extremism.

Diana Hess is a leading expert on controversial issues in education, and she is teaching a course, A&HW4043A, “Controversial Issues and the Secondary Classroom,” this summer in the Social Studies program at Teachers College. The author of numerous journal articles and books, her research interests include the social studies, democratic education, classroom discourse, and the teaching of legal and constitutional cases and issues in schools. Her work has been published in Social Education, Teachers College Record, Journal of Curriculum and Supervision, Theory and Research in Social Education, and Teacher Education, among other sources. She earned her Ph.D from the University of Washington.

This book talk is sponsored by the program in the Teaching of Social Studies and the Gottesman Libraries. Book sales and signing will be conducted prior to the talk in the Social Studies Office, 420 Zankel Building.

Where: 305 Russell


• Children, Language, and Literacy, Thursday, 6/11, 4-5:30pm


On Thursday, June 11, Celia Genishi and Anne Haas Dyson will discuss Children, Language, and Literacy: Diverse Learners in Diverse Times (Teachers College Press and the National Association for the Education of Young Children, 2009). In their latest collaboration, Genishi and Dyson proclaim diversity as the new educational norm; they feature compelling stories of young children whose learning in language and literacy exceeds the boundaries of standardized testing. Pre-kindergartners through second graders are better engaged through the language-rich context of play and the expert teachers -- observant, responsive, and attuned to the need for less convention -- as they grow with their students and find paths toward sociolinguistic flexibility.

The seven chapters in this timely publication cover “Children, Language, and Literacy Now: When Children Are Diverse and Practices Are Not”; “Standardized Language Standardized Childhood”; “Diverse Language Learners in Diverse Times: When the ‘Norm’ Isn’t English”; “Play, Story, and the Imagination”; “Written Language in Childhoods”; “Assessing Children’s and Literacy”; “Dilemmas in Time”; and “Children with Teachers: Looking Back and Moving Forward”. In conclusion, Genishi and Dyson affirm the “language-making genius of children and the pedagogical wisdom of teachers” who form the “(play)grounds for language-rich classrooms worthy of our society’s children – children of diverse times” (Ch. 7, Children with Teachers, p.146).

A former secondary Spanish and preschool teacher, Celia Genishi is professor of education and chair of the Department of Curriculum and Teaching at Teachers College, Columbia University. She teaches course related to early childhood education and qualitative research methods. Previously she served on the faculty of The University of Texas at Austin and the Ohio State University. Her research interests include collaborative research with teachers, childhood bilingualism, and children’s language use in classrooms. Dr. Genishi is the recipient of the Advocate for Justice Award from the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.

A former teacher of young children, Anne Haas Dyson is a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Previously she was on the faculty at the University of Georgia, Michigan State University, and the University of California, Berkeley, where she received the campus Distinguished Teaching Award. Dr. Dyson studies the childhood cultures and literacy learning of young schoolchildren.

Genishi and Dyson have collaborated on a number of publications, including On the Case: Approaches to Language and Literacy Research (Teachers College Press, 2005); The Need for Story: Cultural Diversity in Classroom and Community (National Council for Teachers of English, 1994); and Language Assessment in the Early Years (Ablex, 1984).

This book reading, with book signing, is co-sponsored by Teachers College Press and the Gottesman Libraries.

Where: 305 Russell


• Miss Harper Can Do It, Tuesday, 6/16, 4-6pm


Jane Berentson’s debut novel, Miss Harper Can Do It (Viking, 2009) tells the funny and heart-warming story of Annie Harper, a twenty-four year old elementary school teacher from Tacoma, Washington; when her boyfriend, David, is sent to Iraq for a year, Annie tries knitting, writes a novel (a memoir in progress), and nurtures a pet chicken, fancifully named Helen. She finds herself spending more and more time with her friend, Gus, and begins volunteering at a local retirement center, all the while learning what it means to be loyal and what it means to be in love.

Jane Berentson grew up in Burlington, Washington and now lives in Brooklyn, New York where she is a middle school Spanish teacher. The intrigued owner of supernumerary wisdom teeth – a rarity worthy of a super secret club-- Ms. Berentson enjoys reading, writing, cooking, and training in capoeira, among other things. For more information please visit the author’s website: http://www.missharpercandoit.com/site/.

Join us as we warmly welcome Jane, listen to her speak about her novel, and read selections from this wonderfully fresh book, loaded with footnotes and, in the words of Professor Carolyn Riehl, “just the sort of summer reading that many TC students would love to know about!"

Where: 305 Russell