Teaching As Leadership: The Highly Effective Teacher's Guide to Closing the Achievement Gap

by Teach For America, Steven Farr, Jason Kamras (Foreword)

A road map for teachers who strive to be highly effective leaders in our nation's classrooms Teach For America has fought the daunting battle of educational equity for the last twenty years. Based on evidence from classrooms across the country, they've discovered much about effective teaching practice, and distilled these findings into the six principles presented in this book. The Teaching As Leadership framework inspires teachers to: Set Big Goals; Invest Students and Their Families; Plan Purposefully; Execute Effectively; Continuously Increase Effectiveness; Work Relentlessly. The results are better educational outcomes for our nation's children, particularly those who live in low-income communities. An accompanying website includes a wealth of tools, videos, sample lessons, discussion boards, and case studies.

Genres: Education, Teaching, Nonfiction, Leadership, Professional Development, School

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Karla · Rating 2 out of 5]

My first non-fiction book of the year was one I had to read as part of a book study at work. At first I was very excited about this book as it proports to teach ways to teach low income or other disadvantaged kids in more effective ways...I would be for this. As I went through each chapter though I became more and more frustrated with the book. It is very idealistic...which is okay except there was no realism to go with it. No explanations of how things could actually be achieved. I also found many instances of poor assumptions made about those very dis-advantaged kids it was supposed to be helping. It made me think about an issue worth considering, so I won't say it was 'bad', but I did not enjoy it nor did I feel it enriched me.

[Bonnie · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you went through a traditional college of education, don't waste your time. This book will not give you any new insights on teaching--just insight into the "teaching as charity" mindset of TFA. This is truly a handbook to prepare those who are considering a two year stint in education to come in and make a big splash, pad resumes, and move on to more lucrative careers.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though in parts it can seem very repetitive, Teaching as Leadership really is a great way to start thinking about the Teach for America approach to leading a classroom. I received the book as part of the Teach for America pre-insitute reading, as I am entered the San Antonio charter corps this summer.

Because it is based on teachers with records of success in the classroom, the six-step program is illustrated throughout with quotations from former teacher corps members. I found that the sections on what not to do were probably more helpful than those about what a good teacher should do. Most of the positive advice seems common sense in hindsight -- but that is part of the charm of the book. Great teachers are not genetic mutants, they use good judgment and set high but achievable goals for their students. Duh?

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall this book is a solid compilation of all the ideas a beginning teacher needs to consider. I remember looking for materials to prepare me better to enter the classroom, and this would have been helpful as a guide since I learned many of the things they discuss on my own with some difficulty. It hits many of the big players (e.g. Tomlinson, Wiggins & McTighe, Nieto). For my current purposes, it helps articulate some ideas about teaching development, but is not overly informative and does drag in parts. If interested, you can simply check out their website which has the framework and rubric that they go into great detail about in the book http://www.teachingasleadership.org/

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

[education book #5] felt mixed about this one. this is basically a TFA teacher training handbook, and the organization itself attracts quite the controversy. i've read and heard scathing opinions but at the same time have had friends who entered the TFA corps and started careers in education. the book itself is probably a little high on itself, and the question of whether learning from TFA's "most successful" teachers is really the best way to learn teaching overall is valid. however, whether it's right or not, my current situation has many similarities to a TFA placement, so i think there is personal value to learning from their training techniques for new and inexperienced teachers, as long as i'm able to read their advice with a critical eye (alternate views coming in later books).

[R C · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this as a technical guide to characteristics and steps taken by effective teachers. As a general read, I found the book dry and difficult to compete, despite the engagement fostered by my investment in teaching.

[Krupakaran · Rating 5 out of 5]

A look at teaching mindsets and practices that makes new sense every time I read. Something, when read from a space of nothingness, no preconceived notions and prejudices gives access to a new world of teaching and being with children. Loved it.

[Kendel Christensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is great. It really is. I read the whole thing before summer institute and it definitely provides a framework for successful principles in teaching: Set big goals, Invest students and their families, Plan purposefully, execute effectively, continuously increase effectiveness and work relentlessly. If there is one thing TFA does and does well, it is create an exhaustive rubric for something they care about (the entire book breaks up these principles and talks about them in-depth).

They include an extensive Rubric to measure where you as a teacher currently are and what the next level of proficiency will look like. Extremely helpful, if daunting. http://teachingasleadership.org/sites...

And the crazy thing is that effective teachers can and do make a difference. The book cites studies showing how exceptional teachers can foster up to 4 or more years of growth in a single year, and how if we could duplicate the top quartile of teachers to be in every classroom, it would effectively close the achievement gap. Truly inspirational!

Other Qualities and Abilities of Effective teachers:
-An ability to suspend judgment
-Asset-based thinking
-A strong locus of control and growth mindset
-Interpersonal awareness

Quotes/other gems:
"This is a consistent pattern among highly effective teachers: they put their goalposts in the ground before they create the gameplan, not after. They hold themselves and their students accountable to their vision of success, not to whatever material they happened to have covered." Pg. 112

Like a good interview, a good lesson goes much more smoothly if you have practiced *out loud* beforehand. p.147

Instead of ready, aim, fire, adopt "do it, fix it, try it"--an approach that values the learning that comes from trying acn action over the learning that comes from merely thinking about performing an action" P.150

More info can be found at http://teachingasleadership.org/

Now, if only I can see those gains in my classroom... I guess I should give myself more than 4 months to see the type of gains this book shows...

[Nathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading this was like reading a book on entrepreneurship or improve your business book. It was great to see the similarities between good teaching and a well managed business. This similarity makes it somewhat sad how little teaching is valued in America from a compensation perspective. The book has numerous examples and case studies to support the various viewpoints and tips it brings up. I would definitely recommend it to any teacher, regardless of the grade they teach (I'm at a University and even though there were never examples from that setting in the book, I still found it extremely useful).

I don't know if it was me or the book though, but it was felt extremely dense to read, like walking through a swamp that I was knee thigh deep in. Which is odd, because of the other similar readings I've done, I would have thought this book would have passed by faster. One theory is the numerous number of examples which ask the mind to reorient itself just a little bit for each story, rather than go through the entire book as a single piece. It is not to say that the book is disjointed, the chapters build well upon each other, and information is very clear. It was just dense, and took some time to process while reading. This isn't a weekend book.

[Sarah Hanawald · Rating 3 out of 5]

Parts of this book were excellent, other parts dragged a bit. I most enjoyed the descriptions of how the excellent teachers "planned purposefully" to help students succeed. However, there wasn't anything particularly new in the chapter if the reader is familiar with the principles of backwards design and planning learning vs. planning activities. What the authors do successfully is describe what those who implement such planning actually do. They discuss having a vision for the classroom at the end of the year, then breaking that vision down into steps that are achievable. One young teacher said that once she learned the value of having a vision for learning, she no longer "was picking activities that I hoped would interest my students and that somehow through that interest, they would learn." Making sure students themselves see that vision is key as well.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I encountered the ideas now collected in this book as a Teach For America corps member in 2004. These concepts shaped--and continue to shape--my teaching practice. If I could pick one book to give to a new teacher eager to effect change in the classroom, this would be it. It helped me to set aside excuses and work strategically every day to solve problems creating barriers to my students' learning.

Caution: the philosophy proposed here may change the way you think about teaching forever.

[Sherwin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was more of a TFA textbook with a lot of celebration of TFA. THERE ARE REALLY FOOD TEACHERS THAT CONE OUT OF TFA. But 5 out of the 7 that have come through schools that I have interacted with were not prepared, trained, or supported for success. A second note is I felt they did not respect education and the classroom experience. The ones that stuck around through were a 1 teachers.

[Britt Jerlinga · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of those books that you may not be able to connect to if you don't already have experience, but may not be necessary if you have a couple of years under your belt. I agreed with just about everything that was written, and it was good to get some insight into TFA's philosophy, however. Overall, a decent read, well-organized, and I liked the rubrics in back. :)

[Beth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm sure a new teacher would enjoy reading this book, but as someone who has been teaching a while, there isn't anything new in here. The anecdotes drag on and on. This book is especially slow if you have been a TFA corps member and heard all of this before.

[Karina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book as part of my pre-institute work for Teach For America, and found it to be useful, even inspiring at times, though had the authors tempered their enthusiasm and worked harder at copy editing, I would have given it more stars.

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a future teacher with a strong interest in addressing the achievement gap, I read this with the hope of learning to be a better teacher. It lacks a certain amount of specificity that would be more helpful in understanding exactly what they were talking about.

[Heather Wall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent, very readable book. Every teacher should read this. Outlines the researched behaviors of highly effective teachers. Some of it is basic common sense, but several sections were forehead-smacking revelations that make me wish I were back in the classroom.

[Julie Stremel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspiring

[nicolle jennelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

Teach for America owns me...

...Teach for America owns me

[John]

I am deeply enjoying and devouring this book. A must read for teachers in urban schools at any grade level.

[Ted Heitz · Rating 1 out of 5]

Social justice apparently trumps equal justice. Preaches bringing the top down and bottom up while turning it all inside out.

[Yinxue Zhang · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summer Institute will begin in one week, excited and fidgeted about new colleagues and new life.

[Karl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like so many US text books, this is far to long in relation to the ideas it contains.