New books
Nolan, M. 2007. Mentor Coaching and Leadership in Early Care and Education. Clifton Park, NY: Thomson/ Delmar Learning. 228 pp. ISBN 1-4180-0584-3. $24.95.
Drawing from a wide range of psychological and educational sources on mentoring, this comprehensive text provides the background information and practical steps necessary for early childhood programs to plan and implement an effective mentor coaching process. Different mentor models show how an experienced person helps a less-experienced person—the protégé—grow both professionally and personally through a structured, individualized process. The author discusses topics such as the differences between traditional early childhood leadership and a new transformative style of leadership and how stages of change in adult development affect coaching.
The author demonstrates how effective mentor coaching can strengthen an early childhood organization by helping staff cope effectively with inevitable challenges, work together, and gain competence in thinking unconventionally and reaching out to children and families in new ways. Strategies are introduced to help mentors assess personal communication and learning styles and engage in the kind of dialogue that helps protégés find their voices. Tools like mentor-protégé interaction exercises and activities for protégés can be used for on-site mentoring or when training people to become mentors.
Diffily, D., & C. Sassman. 2006. Positive Teacher Talk for Better Classroom Management: Grades K–2. New York: Scholastic. 160 pp. ISBN-13: 978-0-439-69496-4. $18.99.
This guidebook helps teachers reflect on the ways they (often unknowingly) support or hinder their goals for children through their own talk and nonverbal gestures. The authors provide specific examples of classroom conversations with the whole class and individual interactions and suggest phrases teachers can use for different situations during the school day, beginning with the first interactions with children that establish the basis for the teacher-child relationships and set the tone for the year. Anecdotes from parents, teachers, and children convey how the teacher’s language in particular situations had a positive or negative impact on their thinking and behavior. Authors show how to teach children the language they need to handle situations like making friends and resolving conflicts. Teachers will learn how to draw children into a topic, respond to children’s work, and support children who experience difficulty being part of the class.
Chen, L., & E. Mora-Flores. 2006. Balanced Literacy for English Language Learners, K–2. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. 228. pp. ISBN 0-325-00880-9. $25.
This book is designed for English-speaking teachers who have English learners in their classrooms and for bilingual teachers during times of the day when children are being taught in English. The first chapters cover the acquisition of first and second languages and literacy development as well as techniques for organizing a busy day to include all the elements of balanced literacy. The remaining chapters address each literacy component—shared and guided reading, read-alouds and word study, and reading and writing workshops—and feature strategies and activities for English learners at different stages of learning to read. The teaching suggestions are illustrated with classroom transcripts that capture the children’s and teachers’ actions and reflections and are accompanied by practical teaching aids such as sample activity charts and minilessons.
Singer, D.G., R. Michnick Golinkoff, & K. Hirsh-Pasek, eds. 2006. Play = Learning: How Play Motivates and Enhances Children’s Cognitive and Social-Emotional Growth. New York: Oxford University Press. 272 pp. ISBN 0-19-530438-1. $45.
Is there a place for play in education today in light of demands for early academic performance in literacy and math? Researchers and scholars review the theoretical and empirical evidence to show how the current attack on play contradicts sound developmental theory. They offer a realistic appraisal of what play can contribute to early learning, such as the links between play and early literacy and language competence and the importance of recess in the primary grades. Topics include the long-term effects of reducing playtime for children in Head Start and the key role of make-believe play in helping children learn to regulate their own behavior and cope with trauma. Contributors discuss the implications of infant and toddler television and video viewing and computer use by young children. They argue that the research on media intervention points to a new vision of the way these materials can be used for creative expression and skill development. The policy recommendations include improved teacher education and the need for early childhood educators and play researchers to be more vigorous advocates in countering the pervasive attitude that play is not educational.
Matteson, D.M., & D.K. Freeman. 2006. Assessing and Teaching Beginning Readers: A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words. Katonah, NY: Richard C. Owen. 160 pp. ISBN 1-57274-862-1. $18.95.
The authors present a vivid portrait of beginning reading behavior and a teaching approach that focuses on children’s oral language skills, ability to attend to picture details, and book-handling skills. The authors contend that comprehension is the reason we read, and it forms the basis for a beginning reading program—not letters, sounds, words, or sentences. This premise is clarified through vignettes of young children reading with their teachers. Running commentary alongside each vignette and detailed photographs explain the reading process in action and illustrate topics like the role of teacher demonstrations and reading informational texts. Authors present their assessment tool for monitoring children’s progress through five levels of reading. Vignettes allow the reader to visit a teacher who uses the assessment with one four-year-old and to see how teachers use assessment results to inform their teaching and how school districts use data from the assessment tool to set student achievement goals and plan professional development.
Titles are selected from the many new books received by NAEYC. Educator Gail Perry writes the annotations. The books are available from the publishers listed, your local bookstore, or online retailers
Copyright © 2006 by the National Association for the Education
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