{"id":14538,"date":"2013-06-04t08:08:26","date_gmt":"2013-06-04t13:08:26","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/?p=14538"},"modified":"2013-06-04t08:08:26","modified_gmt":"2013-06-04t13:08:26","slug":"summer-reading-recommendations-from-cft-staff-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/2013\/06\/summer-reading-recommendations-from-cft-staff-2\/","title":{"rendered":"summer reading recommendations from cft staff"},"content":{"rendered":"

by cft assistant director <\/em>nancy chick<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

for many of us in academia, june brings relatively empty calendars and full\"\"<\/a> reading lists. \u00a0i love hearing what friends and colleagues are planning on reading during the summer and what they\u2019d suggest for others\u2019 lists, so i again asked my 2022年世界杯中国小组赛积分 colleagues for their recommendations.<\/p>\n

last summer<\/a>, i wrote about a memoir by a literature professor who looks back at her own education to see how it informs who she is in the classroom. \u00a0this summer, i’m again drawn to memories, but of a different kind. \u00a0in some of my collaborations this year, i’ve listened with fascination as colleagues have talked about when and why they became interested in their field\u2014sometimes, a concrete memory of a single moment or person.<\/p>\n

i have a series of moments like that, and (perhaps appropriately for my field) most of them revolve around texts. while i don’t remember the first\u2014toni morrison’s sula<\/em> <\/a>or adrienne rich’s “diving into the wreck<\/a>” or walter farley\u2019s the black stallion<\/em><\/a> <\/em>series or milton’s paradise lost<\/em><\/a> <\/em>or e. e. cummings’s “somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond<\/a>“\u2014i do remember that each moment felt something like falling in love. <\/span><\/p>\n

carmela ciuraru\u2019s first loves: poets introduce the essential poems that captivated and inspired them<\/em><\/a> (2000) <\/em>offers such moments by 70 writers, including sherman alexie, margaret atwood, eavan boland, billy collins, louise gl\u0171ck, donald hall, yusef komunyakaa, maxine kumin, ursula k. le guin, joyce carol oates, robert pinsky, and richard wilbur, among others.\u00a0 ciuraru simply wrote to them and asked, \u201cwhat poem has haunted you, provoked you, obsessed you, made you want to speak back to it?\u201d<\/strong> (21) \u00a0the result is 249 delicious pages of the responses, including the poems themselves and the writers\u2019 brief reflections.\u00a0 one recalls a parent reading a nursery rhyme, passing on the playfulness and rhythms of language. another remembers first discovering herself in a poem, after reading so much about white men\u2014people who look nothing like her. another is comforted by a specific poem\u2019s view of death. yet another finally feels understood by a poem that captures the ambivalent experience of loving an alcoholic parent. <\/span><\/p>\n

boland claims that these texts are the writer\u2019s \u201cepicenter\u201d (50). they capture a primal moment of meeting the raw material that connected them to their chosen medium\u2014words, language, poetry.\u00a0 i don\u2019t think such moments are limited to professional writers, though.\u00a0 i hear my biology, history, neuroscience, art history, and german colleagues talk about their fields in much the same way.\u00a0 i can\u2019t help but wonder what it would be like to read first loves: scientists introduce the essential questions that captivated and inspired them<\/em> or historians introduce the essential moments that captivated and inspired them. <\/em>find a copy of ciuraru\u2019s book, read a few selections, recall your first love, and tell us, \u201cwhat idea, figure, theory, or text has haunted you, provoked you, obsessed you, made you want to speak back to it?\u201d then, consider how you\u2019ll share your answer with your students.<\/p>\n

cft assistant director cynthia brame<\/a> is one of those colleagues who loves her field\u2014and i think you can tell from her recommendation:<\/p>\n

i always use summer as time to catch up on my reading and to give me new ideas or new energy for the upcoming year. in that light, i recommend the national academies\u2019 discipline-based education research: understanding and improving learning in undergraduate science and engineering<\/em><\/a>. (yes, i know, i\u2019m a nerd.) this compendium summarizes research on improving students\u2019 conceptual understanding in science and engineering as well as the data on various strategies to do so, clearly characterizing the strength of those findings. the report also identifies emerging research areas, such as understanding how to assess and promote the transfer of knowledge and skills. probably not a book for the beach, but definitely food for thought.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

cft graduate teaching fellow <\/span>adam wilsman<\/a> describes his discovery of what may become an \u201cepicenter\u201d for him as well, reminding us that books on what lee shulman calls \u201c<\/span>pedagogical content knowledge<\/a>\u201d (1987, p. 8) can be equally inspiring to us:<\/span><\/p>\n

this summer, i am reading a number of books on pedagogy in preparation for my new history teaching job, which will begin in the late summer.\u00a0 this past year, i didn\u2019t teach any history courses, but by this time in august, i will be teaching four, and on subjects outside of my discipline. thus, it\u2019s important that i read some great works that might help me to get into the right mindset.\u00a0 for that, sam wineburg\u2019s 2001 work, <\/span>historical thinking and other unnatural acts: charting the future of teaching the past<\/em>,<\/a> has been wonderful.<\/span><\/p>\n

wineburg\u2019s work, while over ten years old, remains a must-read for all history educators, from college teachers to elementary school teachers and everyone in-between.\u00a0 in his work, wineburg grapples with the big issues in history education that transcend frequent debates about what<\/em> historians ought to teach.\u00a0 to wineburg, the important question to answer is why<\/em> we teach history.\u00a0 and what knowledge and skills do historians possess that ought to be shared and promoted in our classrooms? \u00a0throughout historical thinking and other unnatural acts<\/em>, wineburg shares a rich array of fresh and actionable answers to these questions.\u00a0 what results is an excellent and trusted source for any history teacher\u2014and better yet, it\u2019s a book that i wouldn\u2019t be ashamed to bring to the beach.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

thanks, cynthia and adam.\u00a0 what about you?\u00a0 what are you reading?\u00a0 let us know by commenting below.<\/span><\/p>\n

references<\/strong><\/p>\n