Something old/Something new: Gravity Goldberg talks about two of her many professional books- An interview conducted by Dr. Sam Bommarito

This week it was my pleasure to talk to Gravity Goldberg about two of her professional books (hint- there are many of them to pick from). Picking just two was a formidable task. Here is how we proceeded.

Something Old: One of the books we picked was one we thought had great advice for teachers of any grade. The book’s name is Teach Like Yourself. Like many of Gravity’s books, it contains tons of useful activities and ideas that teachers can use in almost any grade. That is a handy thing to have as we get closer to the beginning of the school year.

Something New: Gravity has a brand-new book focusing on ideas for Middle School/High School teachers. The book is Active Learning:40 Teaching Methods to Engage Students in Every Class and Every Subject, Grades 6-12. Let me explain why this book was chosen as the second one to talk about.

As some of you know, I have presented at the Write to Learn conference for a number of years. I also run the Twitter account for that site. Here is a  LINK. The site is not yet updated for 2024. However, we expect to set a save-the-date announcement right after the school year begins. If you want to know about speakers and when registration will begin, a link on the current site lets you sign up for our mailing list. Because of my experience with the WTL conference, I know many teachers of older children are very interested in activities that enhance literacy instruction for the older child. That is why I thought asking Gravity to talk about her new book would be a good idea. BTW,  I also think any teacher of kids in grades K to 5 would be able to adapt some of the things she says about kids in the upper grades to their own students. Again, the book has many useful activities and teaching ideas teachers can use in the fall.

Here is some information about Gravity:

Here is a link to the YouTube interview:

Here are the Talking Points and Questions from the interview:

Books:

Teach Like Yourself https://us.corwin.com/books/teach-like-yourself-262868 (It is also available as an audiobook https://www.audible.com/pd/Teach-Like-Yourself-Audiobook-Audiobook/B0B7QJHMQP

Active Learning https://us.corwin.com/books/methods-for-active-learning-268316

Link to Gravity’s website LINK

Link to Gravity’s Facebook page LINK

Follow Gravity on Twitter @drgravityg, @drgravitygLLC

Final Thoughts About This Interview.

In the past few weeks, I’ve been involved in several discussions about literacy on Twitter and my blog, LINK, LINK. The guest blog I posted from Jan Richardson had over 7,000 hits LINK. People are interested in the whole topic of Balanced Literacy vs SOR. Part of what I have concluded about all this is looking at literacy issues using dichotomies like that is counterproductive. Some researchers have come to similar conclusions LINK. I think a more useful use of our time would be to explore ideas from all sides and to find practical research-based ideas that all teachers can use regardless of whose “side” it comes from. It is in that spirit that I present these two books from Gravity. They contain things that have worked, things that are supported by research. I invite readers to look them over and find the ones they think are research-based and fit your kids best.

In the next few weeks, I will continue to do interviews. One of them will be with some folks from England (they live near London). Their project is called the KS2 Reading Fluency Project. Another interview will be with a former colleague (we taught together for almost two decades). She’s written some interesting children’s books. She loves science, and her books reflect that. I continue to prepare for my talk with P.D. Pearson. All in all, it’s going to be a very busy and productive rest of the summer. So until next week:

Happy Reading and Writing.

Dr. Sam Bommarito (aka, the guy in the middle taking flak from all sides)

Copyright 2023 by Dr. Sam Bommarito. Views/interpretations expressed here are solely this author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views of any other person or organization.