Book Talk: English Language Learners Day by Day, K-6, Wednesday, 11/18, 4-5:30pm

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.

• Going to Scale with New School Designs: Reinventing High School, Wednesday, 11/11, 4-6pm


Joseph McDonald, Emily Klein, and Meg Riordan will discuss their new publication, Going to Scale with New School Designs: Reinventing High School (Teachers College Press, 2009) which tackles eight specific challenges faced in secondary education: Fidelity, Teaching, Ownership, Communication, Feedback, Resource, Political, and Mindset.

"Americans have been trying to redesign the American high school since it was first invented. One of the latest approaches—funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation —is to find inventive high school designs that work well in one location and can be replicated in others. The authors of this book followed a design team from Big Picture Learning, recording the challenges it faced and the strategies it employed in pursuit of this goal. Their accessible and entertaining account of Big Picture’s work is laced with stories about 'scaling up' by other school design teams and in other enterprises beyond high school, and includes commentary throughout by Greg Farrell, founder of Expeditionary Learning Schools Outward Bound and Howard Wollner, formerly senior vice president of Starbucks. Based on careful research, the book is both a practical guide to a new dimension of school reform and an engaging read for anyone interested in school change." (Teachers College Press).

Joseph P. McDonald is professor of teaching and learning at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. Emily J. Klein is an assistant professor at Montclair State University of New Jersey in the Department of Curriculum and Teaching. Meg Riordan is a school designer for Expeditionary Learning Schools, a national organization that conducts professional development for teachers and other school leaders.

This book talk is co-sponsored by The Gottesman Libraries and Teachers College Press.

Where: 305 Russell


• Book Talk: Creating Classroom Communities of Learning: International Case Studies and Perspectives, Thursday, 11/12, 4-5:30pm


Join us for a warm and engaging discussion with Professor María E. Torres-Guzman, professor in bilingual/multicultural education at Teachers College, Columbia University, as we extend our congratulations. Following her October book talks on language, education, and multilingualism, Maria Torres-Guzman will deliver her third Fall book talk, this time on Creating Classroom Communities of Learning: International Case Studies and Perspectives (Multilingual Matters, 2008, co-edited with Roger Barnard).

Contained with the "New Perspectives on Language and Education" series, Dr. Torres-Guzman's new publication explores nine exceptional case studies of teaching and learning in Japan, Australia, Brunei Darussalam, United States, Taiwan, England, Malaysia, New Zealand, and Canada. Numerous authors show how teachers and their students together build culturally appropriate learning attitudes and behaviors to reveal similarities and differences across diverse linguistic and ethnic backgrounds. Using an innovative approach, the book includes a transcribed conversation between Maria Torres Guzman, Roger Barnard, and John Fanselow (TC Professor Emeriti) on the meaning and importance of communities of learning to encourage continuing dialogue.

Professor María E. Torres-Guzman is a professor in bilingual/multicultural education at Teachers College, Columbia University, New York. She has primarily focused on teacher development and cultural aspects of the education of language minority populations in the United States, Spain and elsewhere.

Roger Barnard is a senior lecturer in applied linguistics at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. He has spent many years working with language teachers of young learners in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

Where: 305 Russell


• Harlem on Our Minds, Monday, 11/16, 4-5:30pm


On Monday, November 16 Valerie Kinloch will read and discuss Harlem on Our Minds: Place, Race, and the Literacies of Urban Youth (Teachers College Press, 2009).

"In her new book, Valerie Kinloch investigates how the lives and literacies of youth in New York City’s historic Harlem are affected by public attempts to gentrify the community. Kinloch draws connections between race, place, and students’ literate identity through collaborative interviews between youth, teachers, longtime black residents, and their new white neighbors. Harlem on Our Minds is a participatory action narrative that makes emerging theories of social ecology real for the high-school English classroom. Vividly drawn lessons show how teachers can engage urban youth in school-based literacy, by linking canonical text, particularly of the Harlem renaissance, to current events. Centered on the literacy stories of two African American youth and their peers, this book for our times showcases the multimodal literacy practices of urban youth through photos, writing samples, student-designed research projects, and more; weaves in multiple voices and perspectives through response pieces by project participants, local teachers, graduate students, and a community activist; and features teaching strategies and reflection points in each chapter." (Teachers College Press).

Dr. Valerie Kinloch is an Associate Professor in Adolescent Literacy and English Education in the College of Education and Human Ecology at The Ohio State University. She earned her B.A. in Honors English at Johnson C. Smith University, her M.A. in English and African American Literature at Wayne State University, and her Ph.D. in English/Composition and Rhetoric at Wayne State University. Prior to joining the faculty in the College of Education at OSU, Valerie Kinloch was on faculty at Teachers College, Columbia University in New York City. She worked with students and teachers at local urban high schools in New York, and was a visiting senior English instructor at a high school in Harlem. She also worked as a Writing Resident in an urban middle school through the Writers-In-The-Schools program in Houston, Texas.

Dr. Kinloch’s previous books include: June Jordan: Her Life and Letters (Praegar, 2006) and Still Seeking an Attitude: Critical Reflections of the Work of June Jordan (Lexington Books, 2004). Her next book-in-progress is tentatively titled, Critical Perspectives on Education in Urban Settings.

This book talk is co-sponsored by the Gottesman Libraries and Teachers College Press.

Where: 305 Russell


• English Language Learners Day by Day, K-6, Wednesday, 11/18, 4-5:30pm


Christina M. Celic, Teachers College graduate in Bilingual-Bicultural Education, will speak on her new publication, English Language Learners Day by Day, K-6: A Complete Guide to Literacy, Content-Area, and Language Instruction (Heinemann, 2009). Including a foreword by Ofelia Garcia, Celic’s foundational guide confronts the challenges of ESL, bilingual, and mainstream teachers who work with English language learners, and responds with realistic and practical solutions. It helps answer the question, "How can I teach the grade-level curriculum in a way that makes my English language learners successful?" Celic shows what best practices look like on a day-to-day basis from day one, integrating literacy and content area instruction; teaching academic language throughout the curriculum; and differentiating instruction to meet individual learning needs.

Coming from a family of educators, Christina Celic has been an ESL and bilingual teacher in New York and Illinois, as well as a staff developer in New York City and Sao Paulo, Brazil. She taught at P.S. 212, a public elementary school in a diverse immigrant community in Queens, New York, and served as a literacy coach at P.S. 165, a dual language school in Manhattan's Upper West Side.

Where: 305 Russell