Full Description
What's the Best That Could Happen?: New Possibilities for Teachers & Readers
What if...
Every year, beloved teacher and author Debbie Miller commits to trying something new. She asks a "beautiful question" that pushes her to see new possibilities and put children at the center of her teaching. She asks, "What if we did it this way?"
"When we do, we're present in our teaching," she says. "We're strong enough to set aside judgment and discomfort and choose to focus on how to make things better."
New opportunities for teaching and learning
In What's the Best That Could Happen?, Debbie confronts a challenge all teachers face: the feeling of being stuck and the fear of trying something new. She explores how questions help us look beyond the limitations of what we've done and discover powerful new opportunities for teaching and learning.
Each chapter digs into a question about teaching from Debbie's work with teachers and children across the country:
What if each day's teaching focused on children's agency?
What if we made what children make and do our priority?
What if our classroom environment and routines offered choice?
What if we owned the units we're asked to teach?
What if read aloud sustained children's independent thinking?
You'll find practical insights and critical understandings that will benefit you and your children. More importantly, you'll learn to ask your own beautiful questions, grapple with the messiness that surfaces, and find answers that inspire something new and worthy in your teaching.
Contents
Introduction: We Can Do This
Asking Beautiful Questions Paying Attention to What Doesn't Feel Right Asking, "What If?": Creating Space for Possibility Chapter One: What If Each Day's Teaching Focused on Children's Agency?
Finding Our Way to a Beautiful Question: The Disengaged Child What's the Best That Could Happen? Agency Fosters Engagement Imagining New Possibilities for a Child Conferring to Support Access and Choice Paying Attention During Independent Work Time Conferring to Inquire and to Offer Community Postscript Chapter Two: What If We Made What Children Make and Do Our Priority?
Finding Our Way to a Beautiful Question: Workshop Planning What's the Best That Could Happen? Meaningful Work Planning for What Children Will Do First Planning for What Teachers Will Do During Work Time Figuring Out What to Teach Playing with the Sequence Taking Ownership Chapter Three: What If Our Classroom Environment and Routines Offered Choice?
Finding Our Way to a Beautiful Question: Frustration over Supplies What's the Best That Could Happen? Managing Their Own Work Being Intentional in Our Language Cocreating Routines Designing Agentive Environments Chapter Four: What If We Owned the Units We Are Asked to Teach?
Finding Our Way to a Beautiful Question: The Units We're Given Are These the Right Goals? Which Texts Work Best? How Will We Know When We're Done? How Can This Happen Within Daily Workshop? What's the Best That Could Happen? Perfection in Imperfection Chapter Five: What If Read-Aloud Sustained Children's Independent Thinking?
Finding Our Way to a Beautiful Question: The Wisdom in Children's Thinking Expecting Brilliance Finding Time for Read-Aloud Reading Aloud for Joy Teachers and Children Thinking Aloud What's the Best That Could Happen? Being Inspired to Act Conclusion: In Pursuit of Beautiful Questions
