Disrupting Thinking

This book both spoke to and challenged my heart as a reading teacher.  Kylene Beers and Robert E. Probst titled the book Disrupting Thinking because they want you to disrupt your thinking, so you can in turn disrupt your students thinking.  I feel like this book helped me solidify all the rambly thinking thinking I have about literacy to a more solid understanding of what's important to give my students and what I want for them while they're in my classroom.

This post contains affiliate links which means Amazon tosses me some change whenever someone makes a purchase through one of these links and allows me feed my book habit!

Why?

Two reasons-I was hearing a ton of positive feedback about Disrupting Thinking on social media from other literacy professionals that I respect.  The quotes and text they were sharing spoke right to my heart-quotes about real reading instruction, choice, and the dangers of teaching to a test.  Also, everything I've read or listened to Kylene Beers is nonsense free straight talk with no fluff.  She is hardcore.

Aha Moment

The differences between extracting and transacting information in text was a moment for me.  Most of the work we have students do with text is extracting information-summarizing, timelines, citing evidence, defining words, plot structure, cause/effect, etc.  The authors go on to say, "We need students who can do more than answer questions; today's complex world requires that our next generation of leaders be able to raise questions."  I also love the simplicity of cutting to what matters in our reading with the 3 big questions.  Nope! Not telling.  You'll need to read the book. ;)

I Wish

I wish there was a clear cut path on how to blaze on with these ideas in our classrooms.  That's an unfair wish because while many of us have similar concerns in our classrooms, the path to change will vary widely depending on grade taught, school/parent support, and where we are in our own understanding of literacy instruction.

Surprise

There was some really good actionable information to use in your classroom.  This had the feel of a thinking book (and those are important, too!), but I don't love books that leaving me wanting to make a change with no idea how to do that.  I love the simplicity of the 3 questions, and I'm ready to jump into Notice and Note for more instructional support.

Good For . . . .

Everybody.  Seriously, no matter where you are in your thinking:
•My classroom instruction is just fine, thank you very much.
•I'm doing everything I can, but it still feels like something is missing
•I have strong beliefs about literacy instruction, but they are feel vague and difficult to articulate

If you read this book and don't rethink assumptions that are consciously or subconsciously rooted in your teaching, you might want to rethink your career choice.  We should always be questioning what we're doing.  You don't have to embrace the authors ideas 100%, but there's no way you can read this and not at the very least have your thinking disrupted.

Wise Words

I hope you'll make time to read Disrupting Thinking.  With instructional minutes more precious than gold, we need to be questioning all of our practices to make sure we're making the most of every minute.