Gail Boushey
It appeared amidst the flurry of activity and events during winter break. I sat down, grateful for a few moments to flip through the pages before I had to finish dinner preparations. I opened the cover and smiled. She’s back!
She is an author I have known and loved for many years. Her writing is thought-provoking and action-inducing, encouraging and straightforward, with just-in-time words and ideas distilled to the most important information to be addressed at this moment in time, in our classrooms. Her passion for teaching children and teaching educators permeates the writing.
This is Regie Routman. A teacher. And a teacher of teachers.
Listen as she explains her new book, Literacy Essentials:
This book is a call to action, to be our best selves and do all we can to make an excellent education an actuality for every student.
Her words are motivational and informative, and beautiful music to this teacher’s ears.
What she says works, what she says we need to hear, and what she says gives us knowledge and a path to move forward with our teaching.
Don’t get frustrated; get focused.
It takes more than a few moments to read about the important issues Regie addresses in the text. So now that the flurry of activity has calmed, I am reading deeply, taking notes, devouring and writing down quotes, and pondering her words and ideas even when I am not reading. The study guide paces my reading and reflection This is a book that will cause me to look back through my years of teaching and say to myself, “That book changed me as a teacher.” How do I know? She has done it before.
Reading Essentials: The Specifics You Need to Teach Reading Well; Writing Essentials: Raising Expectations and Results While Simplifying Teaching; Read, Write, Lead: Breakthrough Strategies for Schoolwide Literacy Success; and Conversations: Strategies for Teaching, Learning, and Evaluation are all books that have touched me to the core of my teaching. Her words have become my touchstones.
Expert teaching has always demanded not just content knowledge but also courage, compassion, and common sense. Never underestimate that time and patience can pay off, that change is possible and that you—one caring and knowledgeable teacher—can make an enduring difference in a child’s life. We teachers have always been the keepers of the dream, the providers of hope and inspiration for our students. We must remain so.
The year 2018 may have just begun, but it will forever be remembered as the year of Literacy Essentials and the year I went deeper with my learning and teaching.
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