Writing Instruction in the Culturally Relevant Classroom (Principles in Practice)

The theoretical framework from which the strategies stem are classic and often connected to Freire. The conversational tone makes this a smooth and understandable read. I gathered ideas for my classroom and also strategies that I am sure I will use to counsel and advise my peers. An excellent read for classroom teachers, content Coates, department chairs and educators in general.

I was very excited to get a desk copy of this book and hoped to teach it to soon-to-be-student-teaching college students, but unfortunately this book does not deliver nearly enough content for me to justify having students purchase it, nor is it particularly engaging. There are very few actual ideas for the teaching of writing, and nearly every writing idea is literature-based, which is disappointing when there is so much else to write about. (Also the literature suggestions seem very "thin"--if you're going to suggest different genres, I'd love to see a much longer and broader list, either in the book or pointed to online.) The book feels more like a research report than a book about teaching actually written for teachers. There are a few valuable lessons pulled from the case studies, but by and large this book doesn't offer nearly what I'd hoped it to. It also feels like not quite a book? The identically priced NCTE book Becoming Writers in the Elementary Classroom is half again as long and chock full of useful ideas for all levels, not just elementary.