Classroom Instruction from A to Z: How to Promote Student Learning
Publication Type:
Web ArticleYear of Publication:
2007ISBN:
1-59667-038-XAbstract:
While Classroom Instruction A to Z isn’t groundbreaking, it is well-grounded. It may not inspire master teachers, but it’s got the kind of down-to-earth nitty gritty tools and ideas that developing teachers can put to use immediately.
Full Text:
Classroom Instruction from A to Z: How to Promote Student Learning
By Barbara R. Blackburn
2007 (175 pp/softcover)
Eye on Education
ISBN: 1-59667-038-X
$29.95
Reviewed by Susan Graham, NBCT
MS Family and Consumer Sciences
Fredericksburg, VA
First impressions can be deceiving. I was a little disappointed when I started reading Classroom Instruction from A to Z. In places, the ABC format, rather than the content, seemed to drive the organization of material. At times mnemonic devices seemed awkward and forced as in the case of Chapter D—Data: More Than Numbers
Data helps you
Apply your expertise
To your students’ individual needs to help
All students thrive.
But as I read, I began to realize that I had fallen into the same trap students often make in book selection. Classroom Instruction A to Z and I were not a good match. Blackburn, a teacher educator, has written a book really intended for an audience of teachers who are still developing their pedagogy skills or for a professional learning community that is in its formative stages.
When I changed my perspective and began to look at the book as a tool for developing teachers rather than an information source for teaching and learning theory or policy, I realized that Classroom Instruction A to Z has real potential for supporting teacher growth. It occurs to me that 26 weekly sessions would make a nice “fit” with the standard thirty-six week school year. When re-read as lesson plans for short professional development sessions, the book makes sense.
Blackburn opens each section with a quote and a reflective question. She follows with a scenario from her own teaching or observation of other teachers that establishes why the concepts and strategies that follow matter. The strategies that follow are very specific and provide visual supports, organizational tools, and examples of implementation.
Each section ends with an “If You Would Like to Know More” resource list of publications and websites. Among those are Blackburn’s own website where she offers access to some of the instructional tools and a nice little free Facilitator’s Handbook (in addition to the Study Guide for Classroom Instruction from A to Z that is available for $16.95).
While Classroom Instruction A to Z isn’t groundbreaking, it is well-grounded. It may not inspire master teachers, but it’s got the kind of down-to-earth nitty gritty tools and ideas that developing teachers can put to use immediately.
