Volume 24, No.4

Summer 2010

The U.S. poet Robert Frost said, “A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a love sickness. It finds the thought and the thought finds the words.” Our cover section focuses on three teachers who guide students to find their voice through poetry, to take the lump in their throat and transform it into poetry that gives them a sense of their own power. At the same time, Tom McKenna, Renée Watson, and Elizabeth Schlessman show us how to use poetry to help students think critically about their personal experience and connect it to a larger social reality.

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Pain and Poetry – Facing Our Fears

By Tom McKenna

Poetry becomes the vehicle for students to strengthen the classroom community, think critically about their collective experience, and push their teacher to push them.
Five Years After the Levees Broke – Bearing Witness Through Poetry

By Renée Watson

A poet in the schools leads students to compare three natural disasters-Hurricane Katrina, the San Diego wildfires, and the recent earthquake in Haiti-and turn their grief and anger into poetry.
Aquí y Allá

By Elizabeth Schlessman

An elementary teacher uses the poetry of Jorge Argueta to help students express their feelings about leaving one country for another.
Steady Work

By Linda Darling-Hammond

An insightful look at a country that decided to invest in teachers and social support instead of standardized testing.
Wise, Wiser, Teacher

By Therese Quinn

A U.S. educator reflects on her experiences in Finland.
A Librarian in Every School, Books in Every Home

A Modest Proposal

By Bob Peterson

Elementary school students join a campaign to save school librarians.
Coming Soon to Your Favorite Credential Program

National Exit Exams

By Ann Berlak

A California teacher educator analyzes the impact of Arne Duncan’s pet standardized test for credential candidates.
Those Awful Texas Social Studies Standards

And What About Yours?

By Bill Bigelow

The new Texas standards deserve the bad press they’ve received, but Oregon’s aren’t that much better. How about the standards in your state?
‘Greco-Roman Knowledge Only’ in Arizona Schools

Indigenous Wisdom Outlawed Once Again

By Roberto Cintli Rodriguez

The Arizona legislature attacks ethnic studies, and it’s the tip of the iceberg.
Fighting for Electives

Lessons in Change

By Melissa Bollow Tempel

A middle school teacher tries to reclaim electives for students assigned to READ 180 instead.
To Teach

By William Ayers

A peek at the new graphic novel that brings to life a best-selling memoir.
What’s Up with All the Teacher Bashing?

By the Editors of Rethinking Schools

It’s hard not to take it personally: A few months ago, the cover of Newsweek consisted of 11 sentences in chalk on a blackboard. They all said the same thing: “We must […]
Letters to the Editors 24.4

TFA Ignores Hard QuestionsI was a 2007 Teach for America corps member in New Mexico, where I taught social studies at Shiprock High School. I read Barbara Miner’s article (“Looking […]
Short Stuff 24.4

March 4 Protests to Defend Public Education Students and teachers in at least 32 states and as far away as South Africa participated in a March 4 Day of Action […]
New Looks at Old Problems

By Herbert Kohl

The History of White PeopleBy Nell Irvin Painter(WW Norton, 2010)496 pp. $27.95 Making an Extraordinary School: The Work of Ordinary PeopleBy Len Solo(Publish America, 2010)200 pp. $24.95 For years I […]
Resources 24.4

Check out these valuable resources, reviewed by Rethinking Schools editors and Teaching for Change colleagues.

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