Book Clubs Bring Teachers Together

Book Clubs Bring Teachers Together Related Resources Five books pertaining to the topic. Each is a separate link to Amazon. Other People’s Children, by Lisa Delpit The Black-White Test Score Gap, edited by Christopher Jencks and Meredith Phillips By the Color of Our Skin: The Illusion of Integration and the Reality of Race by Leonard Steinhorn and Barbara Diggs-Brown Afraid of the Dark: What Whites and Blacks Need to Know About Each Other, by Jim Myers We Can’t Teach What We Don’t Know: White Teachers, Multiracial Schools by Gary R. Howard

The achievement gap is not an easy subject to discuss. Karen Schulte, facilitator for professional development for the Ann Arbor Public Schools (AAPS) and Elaine Bennett, teacher, formed a book club designed to help teachers explore their feelings about the underachievement of African American students. The informal structure of this kind of professional development experience gives teachers an opportunity to examine their beliefs and instructional practices. According to Schulte, “The book club offers a perfect opportunity for professional development to impact personal beliefs, and classroom practice will only change as personal belief structures change. Discussing racism isn’t easy, but this experience allows a forum and also an opportunity to develop a sense of belonging and shared experience with colleagues, which is an important aspect of adult learning. We need to be connected to other professionals and develop relationships for learning to occur.” The same rules that apply to student and teacher relationship building also apply to teacher-to-teacher relationships.

For more information about book clubs as professional development, contact: Karen Schulte, Facilitator of Professional Growth and Development, Ann Arbor Public Schools, 2725 Boardwalk Dr., Ann Arbor, MI 48104, (734) 994-6591, Schulte@aaps.k12.mi.us.