Dan Rothstein

I will be trying this out the first week back to school. The book makes a compelling case for the change. It also gives very clear directions on how to implement the practice and provides enough examples to understand it and imagine how to apply the strategy to your own classroom. It could do with a little more close editing. I found a few minor typos/errors. I also think it would help if charts and appendices referenced in the book included the page number where they originally appeared. There is some redundancy/repetition, but I found that aspect helpful for reinforcement and so I could internalize the strategy. I think I can just copy a few charts and make a poster of the rules and I will be able to implement the strategy without having to constantly refer back to the book.… (mehr)

The method to teach students how to ask questions described in this book strikes me as very worthwhile. While the examples are primarily out of the K-12 environment, I have already seen a couple of faculty express interest in learning more about this for their university level classes. Not only do the authors make a compelling case for a relatively simple adjustment in teaching by letting students generate and think through their questions and finish with a reflection on the process but also that this way is a fundamental necessity towards helping students become educated citizens.… (mehr)

We all know the basic questions like: who, what, where, why and how, but if kids and teens are going to be any good at inquiry and self-directed learning, they need a better introduction to question building than this simple guide. Somehow we missed this title from 2011 and should not have. Part of the learning commons program is the building of great learning experiences and experimental projects that may succeed or fail. An essential element is to turn kids from responders into questioners. But how is this done? Teachers who love lecturing may already be good at asking fact questions as they present but they often use their technique to grab and maintain attention. The questions in this book are designed to stimulate thinking, inquiry, imagination, mystery, investigation, wonder, and self-directed learning. It is quite a different world and stimulates quite a different response from learners that is very pleasing to a teacher librarian bent on stimulating great learning experiences in the learning commons. We recommend this book highly. There are other books that help in building questions such as Carol Koechlin’s Q Tasks published in 2007 by Pembroke. In any event, this is a great book to dig into, learn, and then study with teachers as you begin any collaboration. Highly recommended.… (mehr)