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manda2491's review against another edition
3.0
PWF posits a framework to follow for preservice/early career teachers to develop their own pedagogical practices for English Language Arts instruction. The authors outline six ‘poses’ to take on – culturally proactive teacher, teacher as hacker, literacy for civic engagement, teacher as writer, teacher as curator, and teacher as designer. In each of the poses, the authors remind the reader that they will experience ‘wobble,’ which may present as uncertainty or vulnerability. In this wobble, teachers are asked to reflect on their practice and their positionality to eventually reach a state of ‘flow,’ or state of confidence/effectiveness in their approach. The book asserts that all teaching is political, so teachers should embrace their position to question social inequities and to teach for positive social change.
rose_peterson's review against another edition
4.0
I'm struggling with how to read this book. On an information level, I wholeheartedly agree with everything the authors wrote. Their approaches to teaching are very similar to my own. However, I didn't necessarily see this as a cohesive book. I could see the pose-wobble-flow framework as being useful as an article, but the rest of the book didn't feel like it fit. The authors do ask a ton of great questions, but I would almost rather explore those in a training with the authors instead of in a book. I feel like the content better lends itself to active learning and exploration rather than reporting after the fact. Also, it still felt fairly theoretical though they explicitly stated their aim as marrying theory and practice.
Even after finishing the book, I still wanted to know things like:
- What poses are common?
- What widely accepted poses are actually problematic?
- What poses do you hope to adopt but feel insurmountable?
- What does it actually look like to wobble?
- Can we hear testimony from teachers who have wobbled?
- How long does the wobble last?
- What does it look like?
- How do you work through the wobble and get to flow?
I imagine this could be a useful short volume for new ELA teachers, but I didn't really learn anything new other than the framework introduced in the first chapter which I'll carry forward with me in my teaching career.
Even after finishing the book, I still wanted to know things like:
- What poses are common?
- What widely accepted poses are actually problematic?
- What poses do you hope to adopt but feel insurmountable?
- What does it actually look like to wobble?
- Can we hear testimony from teachers who have wobbled?
- How long does the wobble last?
- What does it look like?
- How do you work through the wobble and get to flow?
I imagine this could be a useful short volume for new ELA teachers, but I didn't really learn anything new other than the framework introduced in the first chapter which I'll carry forward with me in my teaching career.
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