2017 Ellis Faculty Summer Reading
It’s not just students who take part in summer reading at The Ellis School! Each year, Lower, Middle, and Upper School faculty are given reading assignments to deepen their understanding of student life and educational trends.
This year, the Lower School will read The Growth Mindset Coach by Anita Brock and Heather Hundley. The Middle and Upper School will read either: At What Cost?: Defending Adolescent Development in Fiercely Competitive Schools by David Gleason, Psy.D. or Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain; and two suggested diversity readings: Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria: And Other Conversations About Race by Beverly Daniel Tatum, Ph.D. and an article from The Atlantic “How Teachers Learn to Discuss Racism” by Melinda D. Anderson.
Ellis parents are encouraged to read the titles, and are invited to join Upper and Middle School faculty for a book discussion on At What Cost?: Defending Adolescent Development in Fiercely Competitive Schools on November 9 in Alumnae Hall.
The Growth Mindset Coach by Anita Brock and Heather Hundley
Created by teachers for teachers, this is the ultimate guide for unleashing students’
potential through creative lessons, empowering messages and innovative teaching. Studies show that growth mindsets result in higher test scores, improved grades and more in-class involvement. When your students understand that their intelligence is not limited, they succeed like never before. With the tools in this book, you can motivate your students to believe in themselves and achieve anything.
potential through creative lessons, empowering messages and innovative teaching. Studies show that growth mindsets result in higher test scores, improved grades and more in-class involvement. When your students understand that their intelligence is not limited, they succeed like never before. With the tools in this book, you can motivate your students to believe in themselves and achieve anything.
At What Cost?: Defending Adolescent Development in Fiercely Competitive Schools by David Gleason, Psy.D.
Anxiety, depression, and their dangerous manifestations—substance abuse, eating disorders, self-injury and suicide— are increasing student conditions at many competitive high schools. Paradoxically, most of these schools promote themselves as being committed to students’ holistic development in academics, athletics and the arts, and in their personal, social, and emotional growth. So why are so many students struggling?
Dr. Gleason has investigated these concerns in competitive high schools throughout the United States and around the world, and has found almost complete unanimity in how educators and parents have responded to his interviews. In sum, these caring and dedicated adults fully admit to overscheduling, overworking and, at times, overwhelming their students and teenaged children. This conflict – adults wanting to educate and parent adolescents in healthy and balanced ways, but simultaneously, overscheduling, overworking and, at times, overwhelming them – is at the heart of this book.
At least one-third of the people we know are introverts. They are the ones who prefer listening to speaking; who innovate and create but dislike self-promotion; who favor working on their own over working in teams. It is to introverts—Rosa Parks, Chopin, Dr. Seuss, Steve Wozniak—that we owe many of the great contributions to society.
In Quiet, Susan Cain argues that we dramatically undervalue introverts and shows how much we lose in doing so. She charts the rise of the Extrovert Ideal throughout the twentieth century and explores how deeply it has come to permeate our culture. She also introduces us to successful introverts—from a witty, high-octane public speaker who recharges in solitude after his talks, to a record-breaking salesman who quietly taps into the power of questions. Passionately argued, superbly researched, and filled with indelible stories of real people, Quiet has the power to permanently change how we see introverts and, equally important, how they see themselves.
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria: And Other Conversations About Race by Beverly Daniel Tatum, Ph.D.
Walk into any racially mixed high school and you will see Black, White, and Latino youth clustered in their own groups. Is this self-segregation a problem to address or a coping strategy? Beverly Daniel Tatum, a renowned authority on the psychology of racism, argues that straight talk about our racial identities is essential if we are serious about enabling communication across racial and ethnic divides. These topics have only become more urgent as the national conversation about race is increasingly acrimonious. This fully revised edition is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the dynamics of race in America.
“How Teachers Learn to Discuss Racism” by Melinda D. Anderson
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