Years ago I met some teacher friends for lunch well into our summer break. I went on a little too long about a professional book I was excited about. After a few minutes, one of my friends slammed her hand down on the table and said, “Damn it, Valinda, it’s summer. Can we please not talk about anything related to school?”
I was more confused than offended. To that point in my teaching career, it had never occurred to me that there were teachers who literally took the whole summer off.
Now to be clear–if that’s you, I salute you! If you’re more like me and you use the summer to catch up on professional reading, then you’ll love this post and the series I’m going to promote this summer. All summer I want to review professional books, old and new, in order to help all of us get a close look at professional books that can grow our self-learning.
Let’s get this party started with Jennifer Serravallo’s book from Heinemann Publishing, A Teacher’s Guide to Reading Conferences K-8.
Can we just all agree that anything Jennifer Serravallo writes for teachers is a goldmine of information? This book is no different. Serravallo’s book is part of a series, Classroom Essentials, that Heinemann is publishing.
My favorite bits:
- The organization of the book and the colorful infographics makes it easy to read and follow the collection of guides provided for quick application.
- Downloadable note-taking forms and specific conference types that can be folded into table top quick guides are perfect for immediate use.
- Videos of Jen conferring with students in K-8 classrooms.
- Mentor spotlights with powerful advice from Richard Allington, Marie Clay, John Hattie, Peter Johnston, Lucy Calkins and Ellin Keene.
If you don’t yet own a copy, this book is a necessary addition to your professional library.
Don’t forget to come back each week for a quick review of another new (or old) professional book and to check out who won the free give-away.
It just might be you!
