by So, if I were asked to design a program for pre-service teachers, these books would be my starting place.
The Book of Learning and Forgetting by Frank Smith
Making Learning Whole by David Perkins
The Children’s Machine by Seymour Papert
A Schoolmaster of the Great City by Angelo Patri
She Would Not Be Moved: How We Tell the Story of Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott by Herb Kohl
And What Do YOU Mean by Learning by Seymour Sarason?
The Long Haul by Myles Horton
The Hundred Languages of Children: The Reggio Emilia Experience in Transformation by Lella Gandini, George Forman, and Carolyn Edwards
In Schools We Trust: Creating Communities of Learning in an Era of Testing and Standardization by Deborah Meier
What to Look for in a Classroom by Alfie Kohn
A Fresh Look at Writing by Donald Graves
Ordinary Resurrections: Children in the Years of Hope by Jonathan Kozol
The Big Picture: Education is Everybody’s Business by Dennis Littky and Samantha Grabelle
A reluctant choice between these books to make sure “math” is covered.
- Math: Facing an American Phobia by Marilyn Burns
- The Elephant in the Classroom: Helping Children Learn and Love Maths by Jo Boaler (I really dislike her recent work)
- The Math(s) Fix: An Education Blueprint for the AI Age by Conrad Wolfram (forthcoming – may be a better choice than Burns or Boaler)
- How Big is the Moon?: Whole Maths in Action by Dave Baker & Cheryl Semple is a quirky out-of-print classroom classic that I love
Veteran educator Gary Stager, Ph.D. is the author of Twenty Things to Do with a Computer – Forward 50, co-author of Invent To Learn — Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom, publisher at Constructing Modern Knowledge Press, and the founder of the Constructing Modern Knowledge summer institute. He led professional development in the world’s first 1:1 laptop schools thirty years ago and designed one of the oldest online graduate school programs. Gary is also the curator of The Seymour Papert archives at DailyPapert.com. Learn more about Gary here.