SHANNON MASTERS PORTFOLIO 1

Annotated Bibliography

Philosophy
Brock, A., & Hundley, H. (2016). The growth mindset coach: A teacher’s month-by-month

handbook for empowering students to achieve. Berkeley, CA: Ulysses Press

Anne Brock and Heather Hundley give a complete layout for teachers to take students from

mediocrity to greatness. This text was created by teachers with hands on lessons and constructive

feedback. The overall process encourages positive talk, positive actions, and whole lot of

encouragement. The identified teacher and peer encouragement support a positive change of

mind, which yields academic success.

College Board. (2018). Springboard english language arts. United States.

The college board created this series of texts to move students into higher level thinking. It was

identified that our students are not working on material that are at grade level, so this text is

intended to give materials for students to bridge the learning gap. The resources, stories, and

assessments in the text, give students multiple opportunities to meet the standards and identify

what they are learning and why. There is a paper format and electronic text so that students have

all the tools to be successful in any learning environment.

Darling-Hammond, L. (2001). The right to learn: A blueprint for creating schools that work. San

Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

This text talks about how the U.S. system of education needs an overhaul and how reforms will

make a learning environment conducive to the learning processes. It talks about “education
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bureaucracy” and how so many policies are in place that hinder the overall objective of our

institutions of learning. Linda Darling-Hammond addresses many issues to consider so we can

take away the politics in the schools and put the focus back on the students and their academic

achievement.

Oakes, J. (2005). Keeping track: How schools structure inequality. New Haven, CT: Yale

University Press.

This book addresses the inequalities when students are grouped according to ability and

identifies that it leaves certain students on the track to failure. It talks about how our methods of

identifying student’s academic prowess does not really change of trajectory of where our

students are headed in the academic arena. It causes educators to reassess their methods of

grouping “tracking” students and move to change the status quo.

Perrone, V. (1991). A letter to teachers: Reflections on schooling and the art of teaching. San

Francisco: Josey Bass Publishing. 

Perrone tells of the tests and trials of teachers and students, and the overall obstacles that are

encountered when in the teaching profession. He brings the real truths to light even detailing the

red tape that educators need to consider when identifying the standardized testing we administer

to our students. Perrone gives scenarios, and the justification for the guidelines that we follow

when planning, preparing, and teaching the curriculum to our students.

Ritchhart, R. (2002). Intellectual character: What it is, why it matters, and how to get it. San

Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
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This book talks about determining intelligence and academic ability through methods other than

the traditional classroom assessment. It questions whether IQ can really identify student ability,

and how teachers can engage students with positive classroom attitudes and model different

ways for students to identify acquired knowledge and understanding.

Child Development

Feldman, R.S. (2014). Development across the life span (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ:

Pearson Education, Inc.

Feldman talks of the development of the child from birth to adulthood, and even to old age. He

identifies theorists that describe the complexities, and different ideas about how humans develop,

learn, grow, and process materials, and ideas. Feldman challenges the reader with diverse

methodology that will cause you to analyze your thinking and justify why you think the way you

do.

Tomlinson, C.A. (2014). The differentiated classroom (2nd ed.): Responding to the needs of all

learners. Alexandra, VA: ASCD.

The differentiated classroom causes the educator to recreate the entire classroom environment. In

the differentiated classroom, several strategies need to be used simultaneously to ensure that

every student is participating. The students have varying abilities, so there needs to be

procedures and scaffolds in place to keep every student engaged and working toward academic

independence and lesson completion in every classroom environment.

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Diversity

Nieto, Sonia (1999). The light in their eyes: Creating multicultural learning communities. New

York: Teachers College Press.

This text addresses our multicultural students and then need for educators to ensure that students

have a voice in the learning environment. Embracing student culture is one way to reach our

students and bring the instruction right where they are for clarity and understanding. Examples

are given in the text of student journals and how the No Child Left Behind Act impacts our

students of color.

Tomlinson, C. A., & McTighe, J. (2006). Integrating differentiated instruction + understanding

by design: Connecting content and kids. Alexandria, Virginia: ASCD

Using the backward design model teachers are encouraged to utilize engaging and diverse

activities to include students in the learning process. It is not only teaching to the students but

allowing the student to indulge in the lesson. The students are given clear expectations for

success, and then create their own learning opportunities using the performance options required

to complete the assignments.

Content – Instructional Design

Daniels, H., & Steineke, N. (2004). Mini-lessons for literature circles. Portsmouth, NH:

Heinemann.

Mini-lessons for literature circles addresses the methods to get students engaged in the reading

process and the analysis of literature. It talks about students’ roles within the literature circle. It

identifies marking the text and ways to enhance student comprehension. There is also discussion
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on how to use the literature circles to engage students in discussion, journaling, drama, or

theatrics.

Wiggins, Grant and McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design (2nd ed.). Alexandria, Virginia:

ASCD

Understanding by design addresses creating lessons with the end result in mind. Educators must

think about what they want the outcome to be and work the lesson backwards, using what is

called “backward design.” When educators are thinking about what they want to students to

know, they can create lessons that address the standards and keep students on task with the

learning targets for the lesson.

Assessment

Charles, C.M. (2014). Building classroom discipline (11th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Charles begins the book with the problems surrounding classroom discipline and moves to the

educator taking charge in the classroom. He talks about engaging students and keeping them

willingly engaged in the learning process. The book concludes with personalizing your

classroom discipline, because every educator has a certain style that they bring to the classroom

environment.

Nagel, D. (2015). Effective grading practices for secondary teachers: Practical strategies to

prevent failure, recover credits, and increase standards-based referenced grading.

Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Nagel talks about not putting such a heavy emphasis on homework and allowing students to

learn the expectations of success in the classroom environment. He also addresses different
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strategies assess student work other than the large projects. He encourages teachers to break

assessments up into smaller pieces, and grading students more frequently so students know their

progress as they move forward in their classroom studies.

English Language Arts

Atwell, N. (2015). In the middle: A lifetime of learning about writing, reading, and adolescents,

Heinemann, Portsmouth, NH.

In the middle: a lifetime of learning about writing, reading, and adolescents, Atwell addresses

every possible concept and situation that you might encounter as an educator when teaching

literacy to those who might bring you the greatest challenges, adolescents! She addresses

workshops in reading and writing, making time for your workshops in your busy school day, and

has included plenty of student examples so that you are not without ideas to make your

classroom better. She gives ideas about assessment and covers every genre of writing, so that as

an educator you never run out of ways for improving the literacy processes for your students.

Lukens, R. J., Smith, J. J. & Coffel, C. M. (2013). A critical handbook of children’s literature

(9th ed.), Pearson, Upper Saddle River, NJ.

This book is a godsend for lovers of literature. It talks about picture books, genre, point of view,

elements of literature and figurative language, just to name a few things to look at when

analyzing literature. These concepts are covered while giving literary examples that can help you

embrace these teaching moments with students. The book is wonderfully designed to allow you

to engage students and cause them to love the literary process and the literary works

recommended in this text.

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Strickland, D.S., Ganske, K., Monroe, J. K. (2002). Supporting struggling readers and writers:

Strategies for classroom intervention 3-6, Stenhouse Publishers, Portland, ME.

Strickland’s emphasis when writing this book was to equip educators to motivate students, so

they do not struggle when embarking on a new concept or method, when handling the literary

processes in the classroom. Strickland talks about changing up the status quo of the typical

classroom by inviting guest speakers, and finding literary works that interest the students, so they

are encouraged to read and write.

Social Studies

Harvey, S. & Goudvis, A. (2007). Strategies that work (2nd ed.): Teaching comprehension for

understanding and engagement. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.

This book gave a great overall concept and thrust into ideas to help your students engage in the

lesson. The suggested approaches will help you as an educator to unlock methods to help your

students get the whole idea of what you are trying to teach them. The objectives you are trying to

convey in your classroom instruction, should not be a mystery to your students. Some of the

methods used in the past were intended to teach to a test or teach so that the students met an

assessment need. The problem identified was that the students did not understand the material.

This text gives different tools to utilize in the classroom setting that will take your students from

reading material, and studying to pass a test, to understanding the material being taught, and

applying it to real life circumstances.

Loewen, J. W. (2010). Teaching what really happened: How to avoid the tyranny of textbooks

and get students excited about doing history. New York: Teachers College Press.
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This text urges the reader to push past the textbook, and look at other documents, and items of

historical value. The historical items of the past that might have been minimized based on

prejudiced perceptions of what is the truth. The text takes you on an historical journey

documenting several themes or timelines in history, and the overarching thoughts. I was

impressed with the comment made by the author, “Children are not stupid. They are merely

ignorant – ignorant of many of the things needed to do well in school.” (Loewen) The author

gives you different pieces of information to challenge your assumptions about your previous

perceptions. This book will inspire and motivate you to push past typical boundaries and reach

for “greater expectations” with you and your students.

Art Integration

Moline, S. (2012). I see what you mean (2nd ed.): Visual literacy K-8. Portland, ME: Stenhouse

Publishers.

Visual prompts are the items that tie everything together. Often the completion of a project or

lesson is a written summation. It could even be some type of item that people can relate to

through using the sense of sight, possibly a picture. Students have different learning styles, and

visual acuity is crucial for those students who can see. Some students have a learn style that is

heightened more utilizing hearing or kinesthetic methods. Again, I say, the visual prompt ties

everything together. This book uses ideas for pictorial stimuli that are from every area of the

curriculum spectrum. The ideas presented will assist you in helping your students, and those

students needing differentiated instruction to understand the ideas your lesson attempts to

convey.
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Taylor, C.S., & Nolen, S.B (2008). Classroom assessment: Supporting teaching and learning in

real classrooms. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Learning Solutions.

Taylor and Nolen are addressing the reality that teachers need assessments to measure student

learning. The method of assessment for students is always changing and ever evolving.

Educators can use art integration as an alternative assessment tool to pencil and paper testing.

This complementary testing method allows students to express their understanding and

comprehension in a way other than words. The first section of the book talks about how

assessments give educators mere glimpses into how the students learn. The second section of the

book addresses methods teachers may use to allow students to use performance measures to

prove their aptitude and ability. The third section of the book talks about the types of testing you

can use in the classroom. The final section of the book refers to the standardized testing the most

students are required to take and what we can do with the data. Taylor and Nolen cover every

area of assessment, considering the writing of this book, if an updated version were available,

they could address digital assessments.

Science

Bass, J.E., Contant, T.L, & Carin, A.A. (2009). Teaching science as inquiry (7th ed.). Boston,

MA: Pearson

This book allows the educator to understand with clarity the concept of “hands-on minds-on”

learning in science. It talks about students working through the experiments as they analyze the

developments and try to come up with a hypothesis. It identifies different science activities that

will keep students engaged and formulating questions to come to a better understanding of the

scientific processes.
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Koechlin, C. & Zwaan, S. (2014). Q tasks (2nd ed.): How to empower students to ask questions

and care about the answers. Ontario, Canada: Pembroke Publishers

Q-Tasks is all about posing questions for understanding. The questions can come from the

students or the educators, but the key is having questions which prompt further research. The

more students question, the more they want to know. The more students know about a topic, the

more they are able to understand other things that might influence the subject matter. Q-Tasks

provides a plethora of guides and visual aids that will allow you as an educator to press the

students to ask for more information. Students are naturally inquisitive and providing the

motivation for them to ask questions for greater understanding is what Q-Tasks is all about.

Math

Heroman, C. (2017). Making and tinkering with stem: Solving design challenges with young

children. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Heroman gives a plethora of topics and assignments for young children to explore, design,

create, and analyze the things they have created. All the projects that the students are to produce

use simple or available materials. The students can create, ask questions, and answer the

questions based on the outcome of their own personal undertaking.

Hess, D. (2011). McKnight’s physical geography: A landscape appreciation. Boston, MA:

Pearson Learning Solutions.

This text absorbs the student into the varied and diverse methods we use on our land masses to

measure, collect data, identify shapes, and work on the physicality of this planet and other
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planets. It takes students to different climates and countries. It talks about temperature and

elevation as students learn to calculate data, measure, and identify the various events that take

place when studying geography.

Classroom Management – Social and Emotional Learning (SEL)

Layne, S. (2017). Acting right: Building a cooperative, collaborative, creative classroom

community through drama. Foresight Book Publishing: Chattanooga, TN.

Layne focuses on using drama and theatrical methods to reach students for effective classroom

management. He uses music and the senses to teach educators how to allow students to learn to

self-manage their behavior. The book includes strategies that teachers can use to help students

learn to problem solve when there is a conflict or difficult situation. The strategies work for

different age groups of students. Students are able to be a part of the bigger picture, and work to

be a contributing part of the classroom community using the strategies identified in this book.

Mackenzie, R.J. & Stanzione, L. (2010). Setting limits in the classroom: A complete guide to

effective classroom management with a school-wide discipline plan (3rd ed.). Three

Rivers Press: New York, NY.

This book is a classroom management guide that is dependent upon administrative support to

make it truly effective. It gives classroom examples and strategies to overcome behavioral

obstacles. There are questions and answers throughout the book as different approaches are

explained and solutions are given. This text also includes scenarios for working with students

that have learning disabilities.

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Redl, F., & Wattenberg, W.W. (1959). Mental hygiene in teaching (2nd ed.). Harcourt, Brace, and

World: New York.

Redl and Wattenberg wrote this book to give teachers theory-based suggestions to help teachers

understand and manage classroom behavior. The theorists addressed motivation, conflict, and

control in the classroom, and behavior mechanisms to utilize so that you can identify and address

appropriately behaviors among students in your classroom. They wrote about how different

influences shape children’s lives, and as educators we have a significant influence on the

students we touch every day.

Sousa, D.A. & Tomlinson, C.A. (2011). Differentiation and the brain: How neuroscience

supports the learner-friendly classroom. Solution Tree Press: Bloomington, IN.

This book identifies that differentiation in the classroom setting provides a greater understanding

of content and material for students. It speaks to meeting the social-emotional needs of students

to reach them academically and addresses how positive environments for learning provide

greater opportunities for students to be successful in the classroom. It talks about testing and

finding various ways to assess students to quell stress, and to provide a greater prospect for

student achievement.

Parents and Community

Hammond, Z. (2015). Culturally responsive teaching and the brain: Promoting authentic

engagement and rigor among culturally and linguistically diverse students. Thousand

Oaks, CA: Corwin.

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Zaretta Hammond tells about how culture and linguistics affect the way students receive and

process information. She identifies how students need to develop partnerships with teachers and

allow those relationships to make them feel secure and comfortable in the learning environment.

She talks about how teaching and embracing the culture of students when teaching lessons will

help them. It will decrease the academic learning deficit that so many of our students of color

experience.

Kuykendall, C. (2004). From rage to hope: Strategies for reclaiming Black & Hispanic students.

[2nd ed.]. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press

From “Rage to Hope” talks about the disparities some students face based on socioeconomic

situations in their communities. She addresses stimuli needed to reach our students and

encourage them to be their absolute best. Crystal Kuykendall begins with the initial reaction that

the teacher exhibits, and the students receive when in the classroom environment. She speaks to

the engagement that we have with students of diverse backgrounds and how to find ways and

methods to engage them. Crystal Kuykendall talks about how different influencers in every part

of a child’s environment can either create despair, or hope for a brighter future. She addresses

strategies you can utilize to bring students to academic success.

Professionalism

Burnaford, G., Fischer, J. & Hobson, D. (2001). Teachers doing research: The power of action

through inquiry (2nd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.

Gail Burnaford, Joseph Fischer, and David Hobson give educators all the resources they need to

complete a research project in the classroom. This text provides specifics on data collection, and

the method to determine if your research has the specifics to be credible. It talks about the
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collaboration that you share with colleagues and how you can receive concrete feedback. There

are strategies identifying how to document your research to bring it to a conclusion, and make

your classroom challenge a problem that is solved.

Hubbard, R., & Power, B. (2003). The art of classroom inquiry: A handbook for teacher-

researchers (rev. ed.). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Ruth Hubbard and Brenda Power begin with the basics for teachers to start their research. It talks

about what to research and designing your research to fit the area you want to investigate. It

addresses getting a network of teachers who can help you to think through your topic and narrow

it down to something that can be handled conveniently. It offers practical tips, strategies, and

resources that make your research project manageable and ready for publication.

O’Leary, Z. (2017). The essential guide to doing your research project (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks,

CA: Sage Publications Inc.

This text is a thorough outline for completing your research project. Each chapter has a summary

and the text has digital supports for further research and exploration. O’Leary answers questions

that students might be afraid to ask and provides a glossary to enhance your understanding. This

comprehensive text gives examples and graphics that make the text easier to understand.

Educational Technology

Hicks, T. (2009). The digital writing workshop. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann

The Digital Writing Workshop, by Troy Hicks, addresses writing, but brings the readers on with

a modern twist, adding technology to the writing process. People tend to think that writing is

simplified if you have a computer to check your spelling and grammar. Hicks gives the educator
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another perspective on incorporating Digital Writing to the writing process. He talks about

setting up portfolio pages, photo sharing, and using software like Wiki and Google Docs.

Helping the educator and students work through choice and inquiry, conferring, author craft,

publishing and assessment all in an electronic format is what this book accomplishes for the

reader.

Loomis, K. (2017). Think outside the box: The CIA of blended learning and 10+ designs for

secondary schools. Las Vegas, NV: i3DigitalPD, LLC.

Think outside the box covers the different aspect of the blended learning model. It addresses

various methods educators must use to ensure that we are meeting the learning needs of all our

students. The blended learning model also allows students to move at their own pace without

having to wait for other students in the classroom if they have already completed their

coursework. It gives the educator strategies so that all students are engaged and able to complete

course work regardless of the learning environment or setting.