James Bellanca

New Trier High School close to O’Hare airport in Chicago has been an exemplary school for as many years as I can remember and have had terrific teacher librarians during its history. Bellanca, who is currently the Executive Director of the Partnership for21st Century Learning of which AASL is a partner organization, began a school within a school experiment at New Trier High School many years ago dedicated to teens who wanted to take command of their own learning. In this book, you read numerous essays by the teachers of these kids and these kids, now in many professions, about their recollection of what happened there and how it contributed to their life’s dreams and success. There are not many longitudinal studies of learners out there. This is one. Another is the work done by our Carol Kuhlthau as she has tracked students she taught information literacy to many years ago and has made a contribution to their lives and to librarianship as a whole. So many folks are into direct teaching and data0driven assessment that produces cookie-cutter stamped human robots; but, this book is another of an awakening that is growing and growing. Yes, kids need some direction; but they also need the opportunity to develop their own instructs and passions and be encouraged to think outside the box and well as in the box. Teacher librarians need to recognize and cultivate both main ideas of education and no matter the philosophy of the school, provide the environment within the learning commons that cultivates every kind of learner and learning group. Along with reading The Promise of a Pencil, read this account. You can skip around, sampling short autobiographical essays, and use these as examples as you talk to teens each day. A must read.… (plus d'informations)

A great text book outlining what we are running into with urban students, and to a lesser degree, students in many suburban and even rural school districts. At issue is a disconnect between what is expected in a classroom and what the students deal with on a daily basis that interferes with their ability to learn when they get to school. The Authors offer some real-work ideas about how to get past the problems and try to reach understanding with such students while still working to achieve some learning.… (plus d'informations)

Released late in 2010 This volume in the excellent Learning Edge Series published by Solution Tree, looks at the core of the Partnership for 21st Century movement. The P21 model has been widely circulated and outlines the various skills of learning to be meshed with content knowledge to produce a truly 21st Century Learner. The various essay authors are very well known and should be a part of every teacher librarian’s personal learning network: Ken Kay, Linda Darling-Hammond, Howard Gardner, James Bellanca, Richard and Rebecca DuFour, Robin Fogarty and Brian M. Pete, Bob Perlman, Jay McTighe and Elliot Seif, john Barrell, David W. Johnson and Roger T. Johnson, Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey, Cheryl Lemke, Alan November, Will Richardson, Douglas Reeves, and Andy Hargreaves. These are important voices and they recognize that both content and learning how to learn skills are essentially the way forward to excellence in education. This volume is another one that should be read and discussed by a group of educators of all types. They challenge our thinking to get beyond the concentration on testing. Yet, where is the central message of teacher librarians here. In every essay, we can say, “I stand for that. I teach that. I believe in pushing that agenda.” Yet, we are not mentioned. Silence. As a profession, we have reached out to a few of thiese thinkers such as Alan November and Will Richardson but even our best friends among the big thinkers don’t push our agenda as well as we would like. We have progress to make; more fields to plough. Read this collection. Talk about its issues. Connect directly to its authors. Demonstrate that what we do in the learning commons fits squarely with a 21st Century vision.… (plus d'informations)

Bellanca is an esteemed educator, writer, editor and a strong voice for quality learning experiences. Using the principles of UBD, Bellanca describes in depth how building learning experiences that have depth rather than breadth must be the foundational element of schooling if this country is to produce the kinds of kids ready to compete in a global market. There are lots of ideas for raising the stakes on critical thinking assessment, teaching students to collaborate and build collaborative intelligence. However, lik so many authors in education, Bellanca presumes that teachers can do inquiry all alone. His assumption is that information magically appears, perhaps out of thin air and that the students will then make sense out of whatever happes to cross their path. Libraries? Learning commons? Teacher librarians? Databases? Never discussed or considered. Yes, there are good ideas here in an extensive text that most teachers would tire of reading. Good forms for planning. But from our perspective as teacher librarians, this one ignores such an essential element that our recommendation is to pass this one up. Inquiry by its very nature requires an expedition into the world of information. And, the discovery of quality information is at the heart of any “enriched” learning experience. When will this publisher recognize the existence of teacher librarians? We hope soon.… (plus d'informations)