Building a Better Teacher: How Teaching Works (and How to Teach It to Everyone) 1st Edition

by Elizabeth Green (Author)

74 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-0393351088

ISBN-10: 0393351084

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A New York Times Notable Book

"A must-read book for every American teacher and taxpayer." ―Amanda Ripley, author of The Smartest Kids in the World

Launched with a hugely popular New York Times Magazine cover story, Building a Better Teacher sparked a national conversation about teacher quality and established Elizabeth Green as a leading voice in education. Green's fascinating and accessible narrative dispels the common myth of the "natural-born teacher" and introduces maverick educators exploring the science behind their art. Her dramatic account reveals that great teaching is not magic, but a skill―a skill that can be taught. Now with a new afterword that offers a guide on how to identify―and support―great teachers, this provocative and hopeful book "should be part of every new teacher’s education" (Washington Post).

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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Couldn't be better timed…exhilarating.”
- Sara Mosle, The Atlantic

“Moments of educational theater enliven and illuminate the history.”
- Kate Tuttle, Boston Globe

“Both a history of the research on effective teaching as well as a consideration of how that research might best be implemented. What emerges is the gaping chasm between what the best teachers do and how we go about evaluating what they’ve done.”
- Sebastian Stockman, New York Times Book Review

“Green has spent years looking at what makes a great teacher―and whether the teachers we remember most fondly were born great or simply learned key skills.”
- Greg Toppo, USA Today

“[S]hould be part of every new teacher's education.”
- Michael S. Roth, The Washington Post

“Elizabeth Green draws upon years of interviews and research as an education writer and CEO of Chalkbeat to make the case for why teaching is a craft and that it can be taught to anyone. Her excellent book should be read for a detailed account of the history of teacher education, an international context, and an entertaining narrative.”
- Jonathan Wai, Psychology Today

“We romanticize teachers, and we vilify them, but we don't do much to help. This beautifully written, defiantly hopeful book points the way to a better future for American teachers and the children they teach.”
- Paul Tough, best-selling author of How Children Succeed

“Elizabeth Green reveals, in cinematic detail, what makes great teaching such a dazzling intellectual challenge―and why it has taken us so unforgivably long to care. A must-read book for every American teacher and taxpayer.”
- Amanda Ripley, author of The Smartest Kids in the World

About the Author

Elizabeth Green is cofounder, CEO, and editor in chief of Chalkbeat, a nonprofit education news organization. A former Spencer Fellow at the Columbia School of Journalism, she has written for New York Times Magazine and other publications.

Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1 edition (July 13, 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0393351084
ISBN-13: 978-0393351088
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1.1 x 8.3 inches
Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 74 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #125,918 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #67 in Books > Textbooks > Education > History & Theory
- #189 in Books > Education & Teaching > Schools & Teaching > Education Theory > History
- #327 in Books > Education & Teaching > Schools & Teaching > Education Theory > Reform & Policy

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TeacherWriter

Compilation of educational research

October 23, 2014

Verified Purchase

I began this book with high hopes. After reading the reviews on Amazon, I thought I was going to be treated to new, cutting edge information related to Common Core teaching. Since we've had a tectonic shift in the way we teach, I expected as much from this book.

It didn't meet my expectations, but that's my own fault. I didn't realize how much research and investigation into teaching I have read over the past few years. Building A+ Better Teacher is a summary of metadata from many different sources about what works and what doesn't.

If you're new to education, or you've just begun reading the research, this book is a concise way to catch up on what has been happening in the education field. If you are up-to-date on your professional reading, this book will be an extra reinforcement of what you already know.

The author, Elizabeth Green covers a good deal of educational history, and focuses a few specific teachers who have made groundbreaking changes, such as Doug Lemov. It's a valuable book, but again, it's a review of the metadata from educational practices and research.

7 people found this helpful8 people found this helpful

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Evin L. Fox

We can fix our schools.

August 24, 2017

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I want to change the way we prepare teachers in our teacher preparation programs. I'm using some of these principles at my college.

One person found this helpful2 people found this helpful

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D. Wickham

A must read for educators

September 3, 2016

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This book is making me think in different ways and I have been in education (schools, universities, private educational businesses) for over 25 years. It should be read by all preservice educators.

3 people found this helpful4 people found this helpful

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A history of teaching a misleading title for the book.

March 29, 2015

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Ms. Green is an excellent writer and did a thorough explanation of the history of teaching. Unfortunately, the author did nothing in terms of explaining how teaching works. I would like a refund because of the misrepresentation of the title. Is the title something the publishers suggested in order to increase sales?

If you are interested in reading an intellectual treatise on the history of teaching this book is for you but if you are interested in the craft of teaching and how to teach this book is not the one.

5 people found this helpful6 people found this helpful

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A Misleading Title

September 24, 2014

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If you are an educator reading this book in the hopes of learning how to improve teacher practice (and how to teach it to everyone), look elsewhere.

This book will not help you learn how to build a better teacher. Instead, you are treated to a historical perspective of reform attempts at improving classroom instruction.

Basically, you will learn what many others have tried and may have seemed to work for a brief episodic period and then results ultimately are inconclusive.

It's a bit of a roller coaster in that you learn about initiatives that at first seem successful and all too often succumb to pushback, infighting, logistical barriers or people just moving on to other jobs.

As a practicing educator, the only practical ideas I was able to take away from this book included:

*consider more lesson study in the Japanese model

* study and consider implementation the Deborah Ball High leverage practices.

Read this book if you want a historical perspective regarding attempts to improve instructional practices. This is not the book for you if you're looking for practical classroom strategies for immediate implementation.

45 people found this helpful46 people found this helpful

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Heather Ann Hamilton

Teach how to teach

October 10, 2017

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I can't wait to run my own professional development on this book. It is chalk full of resources and practices!

One person found this helpful

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Vern

Liberal Common-Core Philosophy

March 17, 2018

Verified Purchase

If common-core is OK with you then the book might be also. For myself, I was hoping from the description that I would get a book on being a better teacher. I had to put the book down after the initial narrative was a liberal love-fest with the new liberal common-core educational methods. To have full disclosure on the 2 star rating is is based only on the initial content of the book. I suppose I will pick it back up again someday and see if there is actually any real value added, but I fear it is full of convoluted common-core logic and methodology.

One person found this helpful

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greenhead

A good corrective to the noise and misplaced priorites for education reform.

March 8, 2015

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Building a Better Teacher is a good corrective to all the noise about education reform. Green takes on the reformers who emphasize teacher evaluation and the firing of the lowest performers as the major corrective needed to improve schools, along with hiring more "smart" people into the profession, such as Teach for America types. She makes clear that it takes more than just a smart person with a degree from a top college to make a good teacher.

Green's book is largely about the complexity of pedagogy, and the hard work and skills that can only be developed through coaching and serious study of how children learn. My major concern with the book is that she focuses almost exclusively on the work of two teacher educators: Magdeleine Lampert and Deborah Ball, along with some of the work of the best charter school operators. Lampert and Ball are in fact, worthy of showcasing. Their work as teachers, their published work on the art and science of good teaching, and their efforts to transform teacher education in universities (including a deserved shout-out to Judith Lanier for her pioneering efforts in the field) are well deserving of Green's effort to introduce them to the general public and the public debate on how best to improve instruction in American schools. I wish Green had looked for more examples of the good work that is being done in public schools in poor communities here and there in the US.

Green acknowledges that only a small minority of charter schools consistently out-perform their public school counterparts in improving the academic performance of low income students. A larger minority of charter schools are lower than the average public school in their student performance data. All this is to say that there are some high-performing public schools in poor communities, and these schools must have significant numbers of competent, well -performing teachers. I wish Green had tried to tell some of their stories also.

2 people found this helpful3 people found this helpful

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