Kylene Beers is an award-winning educator and is the author of When Kids Can't Read: What Teachers Can Do, Notice and Note: Strategies for Close Reading, Adolescent Literacy: Turning Promise into Practice, and Elements of Literature, the literature textbook read by the majority of middle school and high school students across the US. She began her teaching career in 1979 in the Alief School District, outside of Houston. Texas. Since then, she has become an internationally-known and respected authority in literacy education. Beers works tirelessly to help parents, teachers, and national policy makers understand how to best help struggling readers. In 2008-2009, she served as President of the National Council of Teachers of English and in 2011 she received an NCTE Leadership Award. She has served as a consultant to the National Governor's Association Education Committee, was the editor of the national literacy journal Voices from the Middle, taught in the College of Education at the University of Houston, held a reading research position in the Comer School Development Program at Yale University School of Medicine, and has most recently served as the Senior Reading Advisor to the Reading and Writing Project at Teachers College, Columbia University.
Robert Probst, Ed.D., is an author and consultant to schools nationally and internationally. He speaks to administrators and teachers on literacy improvement, particularly issues surrounding struggling readers and meeting standards. Bob is Professor Emeritus of English Education at Georgia State University and has served as a research fellow for Florida International University. He has served as a member on the Conference on English Board of Directors, an NCTE journal columnist, and a member of the NCTE Commission on Reading. In 2004 he was awarded the NCTE Exemplary Leadership Award presented by the Conference on English Leadership.
"Beers and Probst tackle one of teachers' greatest challenges:
student apathy. They show us not only how to "teach struggling
readers but how to teach readers to struggle." And then they go the
next step and show us how to turn the apathetic reader into a
lifetime reader. And for both, we are grateful."
--Danny Brassel, Ph.D., consultant and author. Author of The Lazy
Readers' Book Club
"Disrupting Thinking is one of the best books I've read about the
power of books to disrupt complacency and promote change and the
role teachers play in that disruption. Skillfully, these authors
address the continuum of education K-12, making this book ideal for
colleagues to read and share horizontally and vertically across
grade levels."
--Sarah Mulhern Gross, English teacher at High Technology High
School, contributor to The NY Times Learning Network
"If you haven't read anything by the dynamic duo Bob Probst and
Kylene Beers and you are a teacher, you must! Their collaborative
writing is highly readable, self-deprecating, witty, and on point.
But don't be sidetracked by the entertaining repartee: their ideas
about teaching are powerful, disruptive, and do-able. Don't think
the double entendre of the book's title isn't intentional. While
they propose and illustrate tangible ways in which we can disrupt
the thinking of our students while reading (or prompt students out
of what we thought were nonthinking stupors--Beers and Probst are
passionately clear that we're wrong on that count), the duo is
intentionally disrupting modern groupthink about teaching. If you
only read 3 professional books this summer, make them: 1)
Disrupting Thinking, 2) Notice and Note, and 3) Reading Nonfiction
(in that order). Yes, like Star Wars, the third book in the series
is really where it all begins. Disrupting Thinking outlines the
philosophical underpinnings of their Notice and Note strategies.
Without an understanding and willingness to embrace the philosophy
behind Notice and Note, the signposts will be little more than
another set of isolated reading strategies. Trust me, I taught the
Nonfiction Notice and Note strategies as isolated reading
strategies the first time (I know, I know, the book is clear on not
doing that, but my role was to teach demonstration lessons rather
than a daily core class). Like any isolated strategy, it doesn't
work; kids won't and/or can't transfer their learning. I thought my
flaw was a lack of text complexity. I taught the strategies but
then students never needed to use them because they understood the
texts without them. After reading "Disrupting Thinking," I
understood that the attitude toward reading has to be in place for
the Notice and Note signposts to be useful. In other words,
students have to CARE enough about the text to use the strategies
to figure it out. Disrupting Thinking only has one real strategy,
and it is deceptively simple and powerful to the core. They call
it: BHH (Book * Head * Heart). It can be taught at any level as a
mindset for reading: What does the book say? What am I thinking as
I read? What's in my heart while I read? (my paraphase, not theirs)
The revolutionary idea is that we have to approach reading as
something that changes us. When we teach our students to anticipate
that what they read will change them one page at a time, then
everything about how they read and how we teach reading changes,
too. Simple, right? But how many teachers are out there teaching
reading as anticipating change? Yet how many teachers out there
read to be changed themselves? TONS. So our job is to come at
reading with our students the way we do and make it matter. Somehow
this simple yet powerful idea resonated with me in a way that all
the book love authors have not. It's more tangible and more
realistic than sharing your love of reading. They've pinpointed WHY
we love reading: because it changes us. Now just because you've
read my sad little synopsis, don't assume you can pass up this
book. To circle back, Beers and Probst are incredible authors;
their book comes with video links that I haven't even delved into
yet, and you need to hear it from the two of them for yourself.
You'll learn much more along the way, such as their take on recent
education and reading debates, authors they look to, sample
conversations to help imagine using the strategy in class, lovely
sample anchor charts, etc. Is this book going to give you 24 lesson
plans like Notice and Note? No. Is this book going to make those 24
lesson plans work? Yes. Get it, read it, and give it to a colleague
to read, too."
--Julie Provided via Amazon Vine
"We need students who can do more than answer questions. Tomorrow's
leaders need to be able to ASK questions. This is an excellent book
for all teachers whether they teach reading, language arts, or
science or history. Whether they teach elementary, middle, high
school or college, or at home - EVERYONE who is around children
needs to read this book. It is short but powerful. I have spent
over 30 years in education, and I have taught every level from
pre-school through university, and this book brought me back to the
WHY and HOW of teaching. It is short and easy to understand for
non-teachers. As an educator it reminded me of the good things we
do in teaching, but stated in their research that all of this has
bee set aside to focus on numbers and passing tests - the bane of a
real educator's life. Children start out loving books and reading,
but by middle school that hate reading because educators are just
having them study vocabulary, answer questions, and nothing more.
Most schools have taken away quiet or silent sustained reading,
when research shows that it works and is needed. At the same time,
many schools still do round-robin reading when research shows that
it does NOT work. What works: students must be given choice in what
to read, we must increase the amount they read, they must be
encouraged to read aloud to a partner or parent, we must teach
questioning strategies and model that process, and we MUST let go
of the silent classroom and encourage students to talk about their
reading with other students. Many teachers believe a quiet
classroom is one that is in control, but our students need to talk
to each other about their reading and their work. Letting go is a
critical skill for educators in this fluid and rapidly changing
world. Reading builds the following: knowledge, improves overall
achievement, increases overall motivation, increases vocabulary,
improves writing, build background knowledge, improves
understanding of text structures, develops empathy, and develops
personal identity.Please get this little book, read it, then apply
the ideas to the children in your life or classroom. Please."
--Texas Rose Provided via Amazon Vine
"We're living in a world of social media and fake news have the
potential to shape who we are and what we believe. Through the
strategies presented in Disrupting Thinking, teachers see clearly
how to help students become active participants in constructing
meaning, as they respond, question, and challenge, so that in the
end they become more responsible citizens in our world."
--Mindy Hoffar, All Write Consortium Director
"I only wish that this book would be as popular in schools as Beers
previous book was. Unfortunately, the education industry does not
put priority on personal meaning in learning, so I think that this
is a book that will have to be pushed out by individual teachers
and leaders in schools, as well as involved parents. Within the
first couple of chapters, Beers sets out why reading even matters-
beyond the basic ability to find answers in text. After all, the
best readers are usually ones that were read to as children, who
saw their own parents or other family members reading for pleasure,
and who read for pleasure themselves. And why do they read for
pleasure? Because reading has meaning beyond their test scores.
Going further, Beers also reminds us that contemporary careers and
careers of the future do not want employees that can just repeat
back information; they want employees that can make meaning out of
what they read, make connections, and create their own ideas from
what they have read.This is an enjoyable read for teachers, school
leaders, and parents alike. I especially like it as motivational
summer reading for teachers that are getting ready to return to
school." --Mom to 2 Boys Provided via Amazon Vine
"This honestly reminds me of things like why children hate reading
and schools killing the love of reading, both the subject and
titles of articles and discussions in education. As an English
teacher who hates to write, but loves to read, this helps me feel
better about the process. I love diving into a new book and sharing
it with my students. I honestly got started writing book reviews
because my students would see me reading something and immediately
ask to read it next. It got to the point where I couldn't remember
who was next and what that particular book was about because I had
moved on to something new. Writing little book reviews on my
classroom webpage and having a wait list made it easier for me to
keep track. Knowing that we read for pleasure far more often than
we read for any particular literary device or testing strategy is
far more important for building lifelong literacy. I love that
Beers addresses this and focuses on talking about the relationship
of book and reader to engage in comprehension. Trying to figure out
motivations and connections to the literature helps me connect and
I have always wanted to share that with my students. I love that
there are books out there that make me feel validated and can
easily be shown to other parents or teachers to stress this
importance." --Jennifer Miller Provided via Amazon Vine
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