Languages of Learning: How Children Talk, Write, Draw, Dance, and Sing Their Understanding of the World

Well, I haven't been so struck by a book in a LONG TIME! You really must read this one. It's even better than her other great work, Talking Their Way Into Science, which focused on the role of open-ended "science talks" in her 1-2 classroom. This one ranges throughout the elementary curriculum demonstrating Ms. Gallas' extraordinary gift for insight at the same time as arguing for the efficacy of researching one's own practice as a teacher. There are chapters on the everyday mundane things -- like sharing time, dealing with those frustrating "bad boys" that mess up the class for everyone else, observing a new immigrant student becoming part of the classroom community -- that help us see how they are crucial learning experiences for the teacher and the students. There are chapters on science and arts education, that expand our notions of what these realms of elementary curriculum might mean. And there is throughout a powerful introduction for all of us to Bakhtin and other theorizers on language and learning that makes such literature acessible and applicable to our day-to-day life in the classroom.