In the rush to implement high-stakes testing, narrow standards, and top-down management of public education, the interests of two key stakeholders have been ignored: students and teachers. Not anymore.
In Testing Is Not Teaching, his most political book to date, Don Graves focuses on the education issues of our day-and he doesn't always like what he sees. In 22 new essays that are classic Graves, he shows how testing encroaches on teacher freedom; considers how narrow standards can actually reduce student achievement; asks questions that can help teachers to cope with these new restrictions; discusses practices that support humane teaching in a testing environment; and much more.
Graves packs his thoughts into short but substantial essays-nuggets perfect for teacher meetings, planning sessions, teacher reading groups, or individual teachers pressed for time. Whether you know the ins and outs of standards and testing or whether you want to know more, Graves writing will push you toward a better understanding of our current education climate and how it impacts your curriculum.
After twenty years as your mentor in classics like Writing and A Fresh Look at Writing, Don Graves has become your advocate, speaking out because, like you, he cares about your students, your practice, and your professional dignity. If the arrival of testing and other "accountability" measures compromises your classroom, don't let your interests be ignored. Join your voice with Don Graves' and reclaim your practice.
About the Author: Donald H. Graves was a pioneer in literacy education who ultimately revolutionized the way that writing is taught in the United States and around the world. The research study he began in the 1970s at the Atkins Academy, a rural New Hampshire elementary school, would transform writing instruction and launch a new kind of resource: professional books for educators. His bestselling book, Writing: Teachers and Children at Work, challenged teachers to let children's needs and interests, not mandates, guide instruction. For the first time, young children became engaged as writers - not just students learning to write. As they were guided to make the decisions writers make in an authentic writing process, they raised our beliefs about what young writers were capable of. Don Graves was a teacher, principal, Education Director, and Co-Director of an urban teacher preparation program. He was Professor Emeritus at the University of New Hampshire . Heinemann proudly published Don's many other titles including A Fresh Look at Writing; A Sea of Faces; The Energy to Teach; Teaching Day By Day; and Inside Writing (coauthored with Penny Kittle). Children Want to Write: Don Graves and the Revolution in Children's Writing, edited by Thomas Newkirk and Penny Kittle, pairs Don's most important writings with recovered video from his classrooms, creating a vivid and surprising portrait of the man still referred to as "the Don." NCTE's Donald H. Graves Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Writing is given annually to deserving educators who have shown exemplary understanding and insight on student improvement in writing. For additional information about Don Graves, see: - Where It All Started by Tom Newkirk - A True Friend & a Good Writer by Nancie Atwell - The Teacher as Learner: The Research of Donald Graves by Mary Ellen Giacobbe
