Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsAn essential guide for all Canadian educators
Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on May 15, 2018
This book is transformational and should be required reading for every teacher.
The previous two books in this series, "Teaching to Diversity" and "Resource Teachers", are also excellent, but this one takes into account the stress and trauma that Canadian youths face on a daily basis, and more importantly, how to address it in the classroom. It includes recommendations from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and UDL'd lesson plans. It includes concrete steps that teachers can take in order to build and sustain a positive learning community, to encourage compassion for others, and to help students of all ages learn about mental health. Only one fifth of Canadian students with mental health issues receive help. Katz argues, thus, that schools are the ideal place to do so, both reactively and proactively.
This is only a small part of the curriculum for a full school year, but it's a significant part: once students' social and emotional needs have been met, THEN learning can take place. For teachers who are struggling with behaviour issues in their class and wonder why learning isn't taking place, this book (and the three-block model, of UDL, and social-emotional learning) will help. By all means you can google both UDL and SEL, and you can find information on it online, but this book comprehensively teaches teachers how to do it.
My minor quibble is that there are some sections of the book that are a bit confusing: subheadings in the headers would have been helpful. This is more of an issue while flipping through the book to try to find a particular section and less of an issue while reading through the book from start to finish.
That aside, this book is essential reading.
