35.13: Detroit: An American Autopsy, by Charlie LeDuff (iBook 2013)

Eddie and I read this book together when driving on trips out of the area. (I read aloud while he drives, our version of an audiobook.) As a native Detroiter, LeDuff's combination memoir and journalistic report provides a gritty, honest, depressing, uplifting, and insightful look into a failing city. You'll likely love or hate LeDuff and/or the book; we leaned toward the first.

24.13: Flip Your Classroom: Reach Every Student in Every Class Every Day, by Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams (2012 paperback)

This past October, three Redwood Writing Project colleagues and I attended the Computer Using Educators (CUE) conference in American Canyon. In addition to picking up some great tech tips and new app recommendations in workshops, I had the opportunity to attend the keynote given by Jonathan Bergmann. I was looking forward to the session, as I had been hearing about the "flipped" classroom for the past year or so but hadn't had the chance to look more deeply into the concept. Bergmann and Sams, while not really inventors of the flipped classoom, are two teachers considered to be leading experts; they've put the name to the practice, have extensive experience using and refining it in their own classrooms, and are actively sharing their knowledge with other teachers in both print and face-to-face venues. Bergmann was engaging, intelligent, and motivating. I bought the book.

During finals week I had a bit of down time, and the book was sitting on my office desk waiting for the right time. I picked it up, started reading, and was immediately attracted to the possibility of using the flipped-classroom approach for a new class I'll be teaching this coming Fall: the first of a new two-semester freshman composition class we'll be offering at HSU. The concept of the flipped classroom is quite simple: rather than lecturing or providing students with content in class and then having them do homework to reinforce it, the content presentation occurs out of class (through video, most frequently) and students do their work in class. Bergmann and Sams are math and science teachers, so for them this means that students watch short lectures and content reviews on videos on their computers, phones, or other media; when they come to class, they begin by getting their questions answered and then work on science experiments or math problems, take tests, hold discussions, and complete the other things they would have usually done on their own. The premise is that it's during this work time that students most need teacher support: to answer questions, explain concepts, etc. When those things are done in the classroom instead of at home, response is immediate and students continue on their work rather than quitting when they hit a wall. Another layer can also be added to the mix if desired: a flipped mastery classroom, in which students have set objectives and work at their own pace to accomplish them.

Even though spring semester is not underway, I'm already thinking forward to fall, so this week I finished reading this book and am considering how flipped teaching would work in the composition classroom. In many ways it seems like returning to a writers workshop model, with technology enhancements for the mini-lesson and resource-topic components. If my students did their reading and watched short videos about research, revision, and writing strategies outside of the classroom, in class we could break into groups for peer response, discussion of reading, student-teacher conferencing, and individual research and drafting sessions. This semester I'm giving some thought as to how this would actually be structured and paced--and I'm giving the book to my colleague Nicolette in hopes she'll be interested in joining me in the project. I figure it would be more interesting for students to have access to videos and materials produced by the two of us instead of one person (Sams and Bergmann collaborated to create their videos), and we could spend time this summer preparing for our fall class offerings.

As far as this book goes, it's a nice, quick read (112 pages, including Q & A and example stories), provides the basic premise and rationale regarding the flipped classroom, and offers guidance as to how to get started. I recommend it for teachers of any discipline interested in technology, student-centered classrooms, and/or project-based education.

38.12: Outliers: The Story of Success, by Malcom Gladwell (2008 hardcover)

This book was published a number of years ago, but it is the 2012 Book of the Year selection at Humboldt State University and College of the Redwoods, our local university and community college. I picked a copy up at Eureka Books in Old Town for five or six dollars, and Eddie and I decided to read it together. It always takes us some time to get through our joint selections, as our read-aloud time is generally restricted to road trips (One of my many talents is that I can read while riding in a car without getting sick) and lazy mornings in bed, of which there have been very few in recent busy months. Our recent Thanksgiving travels to and from Portland allowed us the time needed to conclude the book, though, and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

Gladwell's premise is quite interesting: that success is often partly the result of unrecognized factors such as the month or year of one's birth or country of origin rather than the ones we most give credit to, such as brilliance and hard work. He's not saying that the more traditionally-attributed things aren't also important, but he builds a strong case for the fact that an individual's--or even a group's--success is frequently predicated on circumstances beyond his/her control, and often due to the efforts of others. From Canadian hockey players, to Jewish lawyers in NYC, to Chinese rice farmers, he demonstrates his theory in a compelling manner. It's a thought-provoking take on what it really means to be successful: both effort and luck in combination. 

31.12: In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination, by Margaret Atwood (iBook edition, original release 2011)

I earned a MA in literature, and my field of interest was primarily contemporary North American feminist authors. I also have what a librarian friend not-so-jokingly refers to as "the largest comic and graphic novel collection in northern California." As you may suspect, it is not too often that these two reading passions intersect, so it was with great joy that I scanned the 2012 Comic Con schedule and found a session entitled "Inside the Shadow Show: Ray Bradbury's Lasting Impact  on Literature, Comics, and Beyond," featuring Margaret Atwood--three of whose novels formed the basis of my thesis.

I wasn't so far astray from my early roots to have missed the Atwood's recent novels and poetry, of course, but I hadn't been keeping up on her nonfiction. The closest I'd come in this regard was following her on Twitter, where she has plenty to say on a wide range of political and social topics. (Note: unlike plenty of other well-known folks, Atwood is responsible for all her own tweets.) Before I saw my idol in person, I searched to see what I had missed. In addition to a few recent digital story releases, I found I had overlooked In Other Worlds, published in 2011. I uploaded the iBook in the Portland airport, happy that Atwood is an important enough author that her non-fiction is available quickly in eFormat.

Without a doubt, this is the fastest I have read a work of non-fiction in memory. I read plenty of fiction, but non-fiction volumes usually end up piled next to the bed, waiting until I decide to pick them up and read a chapter between novels; Non-fiction on my iPad usually faces an even less active fate, but I found myself reading right through Atwood's reflection. That's really what it is, too: Atwood's musings on what she refers to as Speculative Fiction (what others generally categorize as Science Fiction)--a distinction she has been criticized for, but which holds up well in her telling of it. The book is a collection of material, loosely divided into three sections: the first in which Atwood discusses SF by way of Beowulf, Twilight, and everything in between, illustrated with drawings she made as a nine-year old (and not included in the print version of the book); the second in which she republishes reviews and analyses she wrote about SF works from recent centuries--from folks such as Swift, Huxley, Wells, Piercy, LeGuin, and Ishiguro; and the third in which she includes five short SF pieces she authored over the years.

All in all, the book was interesting and thought-provoking, as I was able to tell Atwood myself during the signing session after the panel ended. She smiled kindly in response. Either that, or she was smiling at the fact that I had purchased both the eBook and hardcover editions, recognizing that readers like me who want signatures from authors like her are one reason that print books may not be altogether obsolete in a double-profit future she imagines.

16.12: At Home: A Short History of Private Life, by Bill Bryson (Kindle, Pub. 2011)

Diqui bought this when she borrowed my Kindle for a trip last year, and Eddie and I have been reading it aloud when we travel or in the mornings when we have some time together on weekends. Finished in April at home.

52: Because Digital Writing Matters: Improving Student Writing in Online and Multimedia Environments, by Danielle Nicole DeVoss, Elyse Eidman-Aadahl and Troy Hicks (2010 paperback)

I did a lot of reading during the last month of summer (procrastination does that), but I wasn't half as good at keeping up on my blog posting.  So, I put up entries without descriptions and hope to come back at a later time to comment.  If you're dying to get the scoop on this book, or one of the books in the similarly-blank entries below, drop me an email or comment, and I'll get back to you.

23: God, The Failed Hypothesis: How Science Shows That God Does Not Exist, by Victor J. Stenger (2007 hardcover)

I've read a number of good books about atheism/agnosticism over the past ten years (Dawkins's The God Delusion, Harris's Letter to  Christian Nation, and Katz's The Ways of an Atheist come to mind), and this looked to be a winner for me.  I love science, I agree with the premise, and Richard Dawkins is quoted on the cover of this book.  Ultimately, though, the book just didn't live up to my expectations.  

The premise is compelling: Stenger assert that because people are currently using science to argue in political and intellectual arenas for the existence of god, arguments against his existence should be considered as well.  He then applies the scientific principles used to evaluate extraordinary claims to the hypothesis that god exists.  A god that plays a central role in our world and universe should be detectable by scientific means, he asserts.  Those who don't find this a reasonable assumption likely don't need to read the book--or even the rest of this review.

Stenger leads the reader through a series of discussions applying five key scientific principles to religious belief and the existence of god, also drawing upon philosophy, religious studies, and studies of the power of prayer done by reputable organizations.  His conclusion, of course, if no surprise; it is, after all, stated as the title of the book.  And I agree with him.

For me the failing of the book was not the ideas it presented, but its relative dryness and its overly-detailed description of scientific principles.  My interest in science makes me generally familiar with many of the principles Stenger applies to his hypothesis, making the explanations a bit tedious to read.  A person less versed in scientific principles--and less accepting of Stegner's conclusion--would likely find this book more to his/her liking.  I'd recommend it to someone  beginning to explore the possibilities of agnosticism/atheism and trying to develop a foundation to explain emerging beliefs. 

13: Enlightened Sexism: The Seductive Message that Feminism's Work is Done, by Susan J. Douglas (2010 hardcover)

As an undergraduate and graduate student, I became aware of the uneven playing field that exists for men and women in American society.  I studied the feminist movement; read Simone de Beavoir, Susan Faludi, Camille Paglia, and dozens of other key authors in feminist thought; and became actively involved in supporting abortion and reproductive health rights for women.  Over the years, these principles have held their importance in my personal beliefs, but while I've read an occasional new text and I donate regularly to Planned Parenthood and NOW, I haven't been actively engaged in the movement. 

My declining action and involvement isn't uncommon, I know, as age and adulthood often moderate earlier passions.  Over the past five years or so, though, anti-feminist sentiment and behavior have increasingly caught my attention.  There are plenty of major public examples, like Limbaugh's feminazi label and Beck calling Hillary Clinton a bitch, but more subtle things are beginning to bug me: Sarah Palin labeling herself a feminist, my female students mentioning how back in the day, "before men and women were equal...," and the increased frequency with which 30ish-year-old women with advanced degrees are taking their husbands' names upon marrying--something that declined with my generation.  And, while it's not yet enough to make me hoist my protest sign or act in the angry manner of my youthful days, I do spend a lot of time thinking about it and what it will mean for my 3-year-old niece when she reaches college.

Fortunately, Susan Douglas has been not only thinking about current trends in feminism, but she has been studying and quantifying them.  In Enlightened Sexism, she explores the impact that a media-dominated culture is having on women and equality, concluding that even when seemingly empowering women, many TV, music, and movie products do quite the opposite.  At the heart of her exploration is what she calls enlightened feminism, "a response, deliberate or not, to the perceived threat of a new gender regime. It insists that women have made plenty of progress--indeed, full equality has allegedly been achieved--so now it's okay, even amusing to resurrect sexist stereotypes of girls and women."  Enter The Bachelor and The Man Show, The Spice Girls, and Victoria's Secret ads.

There were a lot of concepts introduced in Douglas's book, along with a ton of information about popular music and shows with which I've had no contact, and I'm still chewing it over.  One thing I keep coming back to, however, is a point she makes about the role that strong female leads on TV have contributed to enlightened sexism. I have to admit that one of my guilty pleasures is crime shows of all sorts.  So, when Douglas discussed the fact that these shows--The Closer, Law & Order, the CSIs--all have a large number of highly successful women in positions of power, my first reaction was, "That's good, right?"  And, to an extent, it is good to have shows that provide girls and women with strong, positive role models.  (In fact, I'm convinced I'd be a forensic scientist if I was a girl growing up today.)  However, these same shows--as well as West Wing, Rizzolli and Isles, and a slew of others--have also contributed to enlightened sexism by making it seem as if women have, indeed, made it in the world--in numbers equal to men.  In these shows, we're police chiefs, head investigators and lab supervisors, and even the President of the United States.  In reality, women today still hold such positions in much lower numbers--and some not at all--than do their male counterparts.  However, because they see these women in powerful roles in our media lives, Americans begin to believe women are equal to men in the workplace, creating the basis needed for enlightened sexism: the belief that feminism has done its job.  It's a fascinating concept and one that has me thinking anew about my DVR list.

At the end of the book, Douglas says. "I think that, in our heart of hearts, we do miss feminism: its zeal, its audacity, its righteous justice.  So let's have some fun, and get to work."  I'm beginning to think more about where my job within this work will be, and I'm grateful to the boost that Douglas's book provided.

12: To Teach: The Journey, In Comics, by William Ayers and Ryan Alexander-Tanner (2010 paperback)

This memoir-style graphic novel offers a nice combination of teaching anecdote and theory, throughout which Ayers shares a humorous view of the challenges involved with high-stakes testing, administrative oversight, and class management. Ayers, now a professor at University of Illinois at Chicago, tells his early experiences as a kindergarten teacher, as well as drawing on the stories of colleagues in the teaching profession.  With the assistance of comic artist and art teacher Alexander-Tanner, he thoughtfully explores the tension that exists between good classroom teaching and following administrative mandates, he advocates for children and allowing them to learn at their own pace, and he reminds educators to maintain their humor in the face of absurd legislation and current fads.  While the message tilts a little close to the inspirational-movie-teacher-who sacrifices-all-to-serve-the-children theme at times, Ayers manages to stay this side of realistic.  Experienced teachers will recognize themselves, their colleagues, and their administration in these pages, and new teachers will gain valuable practical and philosophical advice.  For those working outside of the teaching world, the book may also provide insight into the day-to-day realities of the profession.