Fisher, D., Frey, N., Hattie, J., & Thayre, M. (2017). Teaching Literacy in the Visible Learning
Classroom, Grades 6-12. Corwin.
by Elsa Berry
The text I am selecting to review today is IMPACT: Teaching Literacy in the Visible Learning Classroom by Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, John Hattie, and Marisol Thayre. Let me preface this review by explaining my motive to select this book. Literacy has been a sort of educational buzzword that has been on my mind for the past two months. This was sparked by my placement in a Title 1 school in the Oklahoma City area, where their reading and literacy proficiency rates are at the bottom percentile. The class I specifically observed and worked with was eighth graders, most of whom read between a third and fifth-grade reading level. Therefore, the title of this book struck me as being an issue and topic I am more aware of and interested in. The cover of this book is reminiscent of most educational and teacher-learning books I have seen; not the most interesting artwork or fonts I have ever seen but good enough. I do, however, enjoy the comprehensive overview that is included on the back cover. There is a photograph of each of the authors–I always appreciate putting a face to a name– and a brief overview of their credentials and education. The quote on the back that reads “How do I influence students’ learning– what’s going to generate that lightbulb “aha” moment of understanding” was another factor that pulled me into this book, as I have found “aha” moments are crucial to student success but can be difficult to curate.
As far as the content of the book itself, in the chapters I read and looked over, I found there to be some good pointers and ideas as well as some concepts I disagreed with. One of the first times I ran into something I wasn’t a big fan of was on page 1. This page takes notes from the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard and makes some bullet points from his words. There is a push for teachers to be more knowledgeable than their students, which I understand teachers must know and understand content in order to effectively teach it. Where I disagree is when there is such a heavy push for teachers to know everything and that is the only way they can be a good teacher or help a student learn. I have found the more open and honest you are with students the more open and honest they will be with you. If a teacher makes it seem as though they know absolutely everything, that might turn some students away from feeling like they can ask questions or ask for help. I always appreciated when my teachers and professors admitted to mistakes, or that they were unsure of something and would look into it, or even that they were unprepared. Being human is key to being a teacher and connecting with students, and I found this book to lack discussing that side of teaching within the content area.
Aside from that, I did enjoy the theories and ideas that the chapters offer. I appreciate when theories and ideas are research-backed, and they are in this book. It is noted that this book includes “over 70,000 studies and 300 million students” (2). While I didn’t find anything groundbreaking about the ideas for literacy such as close reading, student-led discussion, and independent reading, I did like seeing statistics and rates that correlated with each theme. It also includes examples of lesson plans and the correlating standards which I enjoy as a pre-service teacher. Sometimes these large and very important concepts can leave me feeling lost at where to start, but this book provided me with some jumping-off points and example activities. This book is also paired with sets of videos that can be accessed online, which is nice to see authors and publishers using both printed text and technology, as I like the choice.
As a whole, I would recommend this book to a teacher who is struggling with literacy in the classroom and wants to see research-backed activities and laid-out examples to use in the classroom. This book is specifically for grades six through twelve, which helps to direct how the content should be taught and shows a better application of it as opposed to a K-12 setting. I see this book as being better for a newer teacher who might want specific ideas and themes to draw upon. It is not the most creative in terms of what students would actually be doing, but the techniques and lessons described are useful and applicable to an English language arts class.