by Richard Allington and Patricia Cunningham.
Schools That Work is a practical text for people wanting to create elementary schools where all children become readers and writers. The book describes critical features of school educational plans (e.g., professional roles, organization of time, curriculum, student assessment, professional development, parental involvement) that support or even impede the development of more effective educational settings. This work gives suggestions on how schools must change if they are to meet all the needs of children. Schools differ substantially, so no single strategy will work in every location. .
"We provide information and examples on hope that you will develop your own vision of what your school might become" (Preface).
The beginning of Schools That Work is quite interesting. The book begins with detailing what won't work and why not. The thought in this is that by beginning the book in the negative of what won't work in schools, the focus then is answering all the important questions of what will work. The authors use researched studies of schools, which is interesting because they are some of the same issues that we've discussed in class. The problem is that it has taken a very long time to develop the school traditions of today. It is quite obvious that these traditions cannot be unraveled easily or quickly. The authors feel that creating schools that better respond to the difficulties of some children when learning to read and write will require substantial institutional and individual learning. Progress must come from recognizing the mistakes we have made. We all learn from our mistakes. As a classroom teacher, I change strategies from year to year as I learn what works with the group of children I have. Reflecting on the previous school year is a great place to start for the new school year. Change can happen in a school, but in order to accomplish that the classroom change is most important.
