Class Acts: Teachers Reflect on Their Own Classroom Practice

In this remarkable collection of articles, teachers reflect on the complex worlds of their classrooms to gain a better understanding of their students, themselves, and the act of teaching.

"What compels some of us periodically to turn our classrooms inside out, pulling apart the status quo in order to test yet another notion we cannot get off our minds?...The teachers who describe their findings in Class Acts have been overtaken by their own unexpected disclosures; something is going on in their classrooms they must study closely and ponder grandly." --Vivian Gussin Paley, from the Foreword

The contributors to Class Acts represent a diversity of backgrounds, subjects, grade levels, and educational philosophies. But they share a common approach: they all take time to reflect on finding new ways to listen to students, to make sense of their own teaching, and to take risks to transform work and social relations in their classrooms. The visions of classroom teaching in Class Acts are dynamic and inspiring. Read about how a third-grade teacher included the study of his students' urban neighborhood in his curriculum, or how a high school English teacher created a community of readers in her classroom. The teachers in Class Acts offer an engaging model of classroom teaching that stands in stark contrast to the traditional pedagogy found in U.S. schools.