 |
GetTextbooks.com
Compare Prices & Save up to 90% |
|
|
|
| Login | Sign up | Settings | My Wish List |
 | | Working on the Work: An Action Plan for Teachers, Principals, and Superintendents (Jossey Bass Education Series) by Phillip C. Schlechty ISBN-10: 9780787961657 ISBN-10: 0-7879-6165-5 ISBN-13: 9780787961657 ISBN-13: 978-0-7879-6165-7 Paperback 2002-04-29 Jossey-Bass Find Lowest Price |
Editorials | ||
Product Description Is the work you give students engaging--enabling them to learn what they need to learn in order to succeed in the world? Maverick educator Phillip Schlechty believes that the key to improving education is to improve the quality of this student work. He calls this "Working the Work" (WOW), and he's developed a framework that allows educators to put the WOW principles into practice. Beginning with 12 essential components of a WOW school, Schlechty suggests ways to improve the quality of content, organization of knowledge, measurement of achievement, nurturance of creativity, and novelty and variety of tasks. In addition, you'll get: * Practical guidelines for re-designing classroom activity so that more students are highly engaged in schoolwork * Clear and compelling standards for assessing student work You'll also make clear connections between what students are doing and what they are expected to produce as you gain insight into the roles of teachers, principals, and superintendents--and, how they individually and collectively play a part in the WOW process. | ||
Reviews | ||
Theory is good..Practice needs to come from teachers Schlechty's Shaking Up the Schoolhouse is the parent to Working on the Work. Both books make the effort to provide information and put forth a different perspective. It's disheartening to read the reactionary comments from educators who are familiar with Schlechty and the WOW book. When is the blame shifting going to stop? How long will teachers focus on all the things they cannot control instead of on the things they can? Nothing gives a teacher more freedom by administrators than success. By shifting our focus to what we give our students to work on, we do work smarter, which brings more joy to the passion for kids that led us to teaching. Teaching the same way we always have is why we continue to have a 30% drop out rate at the high school level(and rising). The book does not say that no teachers want to be more engaging. It simply gives a framework for improving the tasks that we assign our students. If you don't like your job, get out! Education has to continue to make the paradigm shifts needed if we are to expect a responsible, informed citizenry. Here are the facts: -Research tells us that the engagement precedes learning. Without authentic attention and investment, true and deep learning does not occur. -Research tells us that a variety of tasks and instructional delivery is required to meet the needs of the variety of learners in any given classroom. -Research tells us that the most effective teachers are those who are risk-takers in the classroom and make great effort to connect personally with their students. -Research tells us that last year's lessons won't necessarily work with this year's students. Any job you take will be evaluated, be it education or not. If we, as teachers, do not continue to reflect on the kinds of work we give our students, then we are simply a warm body in the classroom. What's the great harm in looking more closely at our lesson design and thinking outside the box? I say this book is an interesting read that can encourage any educator to take stock of what is happening in their classroom. Open your lessons up for some reflection and criticism. That's the only way we can grow as educators. | ||
Working on the Work After reading the reviews given to this book, it is obvious to me who are the ones who were told to read the book and who are the ones who were asked to read it as well as offered support with the content. It is just like our students. If we just say "read the book", how engaging is that? If we are given the support to utilize the theory, the book makes much more sense. So, I can understand both ways of seeing the book. I, fortunately, am in a district where we were asked to look into this program (which is really what Working on the Work is) and decide if we would like to use it, as a district. We first, though, were given the opportunity to attend a conference where the presenter was from the Schlechty school. This was where the "practicality" came from. The reviewers are correct in that the book does not give those practical, concrete examples and studies we, as teachers, crave for our own learning. But, that is exactly the point of the program. How can we make our tasks as engaging as we are? The standards at the back of the book are going to be the most useful for teachers. Those are how you structure a lesson to be most engaging. So, I highly recommend that if you get this book that you pair it with some kind of support or research, so that the practical part can be understood along with the theory. | ||
Working on the Work The thesis of the author, offer students work that is meaningful and engaging, is a paradigm shift. The usual way of improving students' experience in the classroom is to offer professional development seminars to teachers so that they might become better educators. However, Schlechty shifts the focus away from improving instruction to working on the work that we require students to do. I thought the book was convincing of its proposal and an approach that educators need to work on. My only disappointment with the book is that the author did not offer any examples of what "engaging" work might look like. Educators often are bombarded with "theory" and little "practical" examples - which would have been great to have in an Appendix. It is in the "practical" that the book is lacking. Yet, it is a great read and a revolutionary approach. | ||
Edu-speak This is the sort of book school administrators love and teachers hate. It's long on vague, lofty sounding goals and absolutely no specifics to help teachers get there. What teacher wouldn't want to be more engaging? Who wouldn't want to inspire their students? Simply stating "be more engaging" doesn't get a teacher there any more than the teacher telling their student to "be smarter". But admin types love Schlechty's program. It puts the burden on the teacher to "work smarter, not harder...", "work the work" and "be more engaging and entertaining", and absolves students, parents and administrators from any responsibility for student improvement. I'd like to see specifics. And I'd like to see specific approaches backed up by hard research that will tell me the approach works. I haven't seen that yet, not in this book or any of the other 1,000 wunderkinds that run around the educational establishment spouting the latest miracle makeover. But I'm an optimist. I'm still looking for any information that will help me become a better teacher, information that's backed by experience and hard, objective research showing measurable results. I didn't see it here.... | ||
Wheres the beef? Anyone with educational experience knows that good teachers try to make lessons engaging and meaningful. All this program does (if your district uses it) is create more work for educators with no real support or help, just a lot of demands in time and paper work. If you don't or didn't share and get help from your colleges before this program shame on you! How did you get through your Collage of Education? Anyone with business experience knows this is just a great example of marketing; it plays on the notion of helping and lets administrators look like they have a plan to the public. If your district administrators needed this program they should have resigned their positions. After a few years of experience you should not have to invest the kind of money and resources this program requires. Who is making the money? Who gets the kick backs? Not the classroom teacher who works longer hours than paid for already. Don't fall for the hype; this is just the latest educational reform gimmick. Making someone rich? Mark Twain had it figured out when it came to school boards. Look it up. | ||