Making the Journey: Being and Becoming a Teacher of English Language Arts
Making the Journey is a staple of secondary English methods courses and teacher libraries because it not only provides practical advice on what to do in the classroom and how to act, but also offers a realistic but optimistic sense of what it means to embrace the practice of good teaching. Now, trusted educator, writer, and researcher Leila Christenbury has returned with a remarkable new edition of her classic.\ The third edition of Making the Journey will be both refreshingly new and...
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With the first edition of Making the Journey, Leila Christenbury took an unflinching yet upbeat look at the realities of classroom life, offering specific suggestions for dealing effectively with today's students. Much more than a compendium of activities, the book introduced thousands of preservice and inservice educators to a philosophy of teaching illustrated and implemented by workable, realistic techniques. Now, with this new edition, Christenbury continues to offer the same reliable, intelligent coverage, but has added and expanded the material to address new concerns in the field. The second edition features: expanded chapters on school and its culture, what it takes to be a teacher, models of teaching, and what to do when "it doesn't work" a new chapter on setting up and running a classroom-with suggestions on classroom environment, lesson planning, discipline, improving your teaching, and when to break the rules a new chapter on media literacy, with material on surfing the Web as well as using movies, television, and radio in English language arts more information on students, the teaching of literature (including young adult literature, multicultural literature, contemporary novels, and Shakespeare), language, grammar and usage, and questioning strategies and behaviors additional material on reader response, alternatives to the book report, literature circles, sentence combining, the use of conferencing and writing groups, getting ideas for writing, and ethics. Readers will come away from this book encouraged to make their own journeys as English language arts teachers. Just as important, they'll be equipped with practical advice, strategies, and specific examples with which to do so. VOYA Among the troubles plaguing today's schools is the frequency with which new teachers abandon the profession after only a couple of years in the classroom. Christenbury's book cannot solve this problem completely, but it might help stem the flow of new teachers leaving the field. The first several chapters of the book explore general components of teaching, such as school structure, student attitudes, and classroom environment. Later chapters discuss specific disciplines within English language arts teaching, such as literature, language, writing, and media studies. Christenbury frequently reminds readers that her book is only a beginning point for resolving classroom problems and generating new teaching techniques. Along with the concrete suggestions and strategies she presents, the author suggests journal-writing prompts to help teachers explore and develop their own ideas, recommends her own favorite professional tools, and concludes each chapter with a thoughtful bibliography of resources and references. Christenbury's personal style, practical advice, challenging ideas, thought-provoking exercises, and supportive acknowledgment of the many issues outside an instructor's control combine to make this guide the closest thing to a personal mentor in print that a teacher can hope to find. New teachers who use this volume are sure to find reassurance and inspiration; experienced teachers also will benefit from the book, as Christenbury challenges every reader to examine both traditional practices and the assumptions that underlie them. Making the Journey is a fine text for middle and high school teachers as intent upon challenging themselves as they are upon challenging their students.2000, Heinemann, 322p, Index, Biblio., Further Reading, pb. Ages adult. Reviewer: Megan Isaac VOYA, February 2001 (Vol. 23, No.6)
AcknowledgmentsUsing This Book1The Teacher, the Student, the School12What It Takes to Be a Teacher333Students674Teaching Literature: Theoretical Issues915Teaching Literature: Practical Matters1156Teaching Language1537Teaching Writing1778Questioning2019Teaching Today219
\ VOYAAmong the troubles plaguing today's schools is the frequency with which new teachers abandon the profession after only a couple of years in the classroom. Christenbury's book cannot solve this problem completely, but it might help stem the flow of new teachers leaving the field. The first several chapters of the book explore general components of teaching, such as school structure, student attitudes, and classroom environment. Later chapters discuss specific disciplines within English language arts teaching, such as literature, language, writing, and media studies. Christenbury frequently reminds readers that her book is only a beginning point for resolving classroom problems and generating new teaching techniques. Along with the concrete suggestions and strategies she presents, the author suggests journal-writing prompts to help teachers explore and develop their own ideas, recommends her own favorite professional tools, and concludes each chapter with a thoughtful bibliography of resources and references. Christenbury's personal style, practical advice, challenging ideas, thought-provoking exercises, and supportive acknowledgment of the many issues outside an instructor's control combine to make this guide the closest thing to a personal mentor in print that a teacher can hope to find. New teachers who use this volume are sure to find reassurance and inspiration; experienced teachers also will benefit from the book, as Christenbury challenges every reader to examine both traditional practices and the assumptions that underlie them. Making the Journey is a fine text for middle and high school teachers as intent upon challenging themselves as they are upon challenging their students.2000, Heinemann, 322p, Index, Biblio., Further Reading, pb. Ages adult. Reviewer: Megan Isaac VOYA, February 2001 (Vol. 23, No.6)\ \
