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Back to the Books: Creating an Inquiry-Based Culture of Literacy

Teachers everywhere are tired of literacy strategies that seem to inhibit rather than support student engagement in reading, writing, talking, and thinking. They've learned that overly scripted materials fail to prepare students for the challenge of a college option and, what's worse, result in kids turning off to learning. Back to the Books offers innovative ways to think about creating a culture of literacy in your school. Both the book and video follow seasoned teachers and examine the strategies they've used to engage students in the excitement of both making texts meaningful and creating their own texts. The video features extensive classroom footage and interviews that demonstrate ways to create a literacy culture in your school—a culture that encourages adolescents to read, write, and think critically about books.

Reviews of Back to the Books:

“I can’t think of a better model for engaging students in literacy development and learning.”
—Susan B. Neuman, Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Elementary and Secondary Education

"It's just wonderful to listen to a diverse group of kids speaking in their own language about their love for reading and learning. As an author who often gets into schools, I constantly preach the importance of writing and rewriting and was particularly moved to see the very skills I live by being taught with such gusto in these classrooms."
—Michael Winerip, Pulitzer-prize winning journalist and author of the Adam Canfield series

"Back to the Books is another wonderfully informative and inspiring contribution to the Teacher-to-Teacher series. It provides us with a way to see what literacy across the curriculum can be and what challenging and engaging teaching and learning actually looks like. These videos and books are powerful tools for professional development. Thanks for the great work!”
—Tony Wagner, Co-Director, Change Leadership Group, Harvard Graduate School of Education, author of The Global Achievement Gap

Inquiry Teaching in the Sciences

Inquiry Teaching in the Sciences provides an overview of inquiry-based science projects covering data collection, research design, and experiments in physics, chemistry, and horticulture. It features a detailed case study of an inquiry-based semester-long course in animal behavior, including classroom activities.

Talk, Talk, Talk: Discussion-Based Classrooms

This classroom-based resource explores how both teachers and students learn the skills of discussion in content areas across the disciplines. Student reflections and teacher talk provide lively examples of how discussion plays a pivotal role in inquiry-based classrooms, developing students’ basic skills of critical analysis and helping them become lifelong learners, able to confront and research any topic.

Reviews of Talk, Talk, Talk:

Finally, an inside view of what’s possible in school if teenagers are invited into discussions that matter. In both the film and book, Talk, Talk, Talk shows us lively, engaged students, thoughtful educators, and a persuasive argument for the centrality of “talk” in the classroom.
—Deborah Meier, Principal, Mission Hill School, MacArthur Fellow

Talk, Talk, Talk demonstrates how a school that is a professional community can produce intellectual challenge and the powerful learning for all students. Repeatedly we see images of urban high school students passionately engaged in intellectual discussions that are at a level we expect only from private and suburban schools. Clearly when teachers have the freedom to construct rigorous curricula, students can perform to high standards.
—Jacqueline Ancess, Co-Director, National Center for Restructuring Education, Schools and Teaching (NCREST)
Teachers College, Columbia University

Inquiry In Action: Teaching Columbus

This book offers an insightful description of inquiry teaching and shows—through classroom exercises, writing assignments, discussion topics, and thoughtful reading selections—how to apply inquiry to the topic of Columbus in the New World. Rather than providing a “recipe” approach to teaching, Barlowe provokes us to think more deeply about what we teach, why we teach it, and how to engage students in the ever-fascinating study of history, an “argument without end.”

Reviews of Inquiry in Action:

“An extraordinary resource for learning and teaching. It effectively illustrates how historical knowledge and factual evidence drawn from the past can be dramatically brought to life for students in the classroom. Teaching Columbus illustrates practical and thoughtful approaches for effectively presenting the complexity and richness of the American experience.”
—Manning Marable, Director, Center for Contemporary Black History, Columbia University

“An outstanding demonstration of the many advantages of the inquiry approach to learning. Barlowe encourages students to grapple with the hard questions of interpretation, as well as the diversity of perspectives from which history is experienced.”
— Leith Mullings, Presidential Professor, CUNY Graduate School

Looking for an Argument?

Looking for an Argument? Provides examples of how to use inquiry-based learning by engaging students with contemporary issues, while also giving them practice at debate, note taking, highlighting, outlining, and timed essay writing.

Teaching American History: An Inquiry Approach

Applying an inquiry approach to teaching American history, this book demonstrates how to use questions to engage students in history class and introduce multiple perspectives.