Notable Children's Picture Books of 2021

            In this feature in Language Arts, Jeanne Gilliam Fain, Vera Ahiyya, Elizabeth Bemiss, Janine Schall, Jennifer Summerlin, and Fran Wilson list the books they selected from 538 titles as the best for readers in grades K-8: 

• Above the Rim: How Elgin Baylor Changed Basketball by Jen Bryant, illustrated by Frank Morrison
• All Because You Matter by Tami Charles, illustrated by Bryan Collier
• Exquisite: The Poetry and Life of Gwendolyn Brooks by Suzanne Slade, illustrated by Cozbi Cabrera
• I Am Every Good Thing by Derrick Barnes, illustrated by Gordon James
• I Talk Like a River by Jordan Scott, illustrated by Sydney Smith 
• If Dominican Were a Color by Sili Recio, illustrated by Brianna McCarthy 
• Lift by Minh Le
• On Account of the Gum by Adam Rex 
• Once Upon an Eid: Stories of Hope and Joy by 15 Muslim Voices edited by S.K. Ali and Aisha Saeed 
• Overground Railroad by Lesa Cline-Ransome, illustrated by James Ransome 
• Packs: Strength in Numbers by Hannah Salyer 
• Swashby and the Sea by Beth Ferry, illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal 
• Swish! The Slam-Dunking, Alley-Ooping, High-Flying Harlem Globetrotters by Suzanne Slade, illustrated by Don Tate 
• The Day Saida Arrived by Susana Gomez Redondo, illustrated by Sonja Wimmer 
• The Oldest Student: How Mary Walker Learned to Read by Rita Lorraine Hubbard, illustrated by Oge Mora 
• The Power of Her Pen: The Story of Groundbreaking Journalist Ethel Payne by Lesa Cline-Ransome, illustrated by John Parra 
• We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom, illustrated by Michaela Grade 
• What I Like Most by Mary Murphy, illustrated by Zhu Cheng-Liang 
• Winged Wonders: Solving the Monarch Migration Mystery by Meeg Pincus, illustrated by Yas Imamura 
• Write! Write! Write! by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater, illustrated by Ryan O’Rourke 
• Your Name is a Song by Jamilah Thompson-Bigelow 
• Your Place in the Universe by Jason Chin 

 “The 2021 Notable Children’s Books in the English Language Arts” by Jeanne Gilliam Fain, Vera Ahiyya, Elizabeth Bemiss, Janine Schall, Jennifer Summerlin, and Fran Wilson in Language Arts, March 2022 (Vol. 99, #4, pp. 281-290)

Please Note: This summary is reprinted with permission from issue #931 of The Marshall Memo, an excellent resource for educators.

Shifting Feedback Conversations to Results

 (Originally titled: “What Teachers Really Want When It Comes to Feedback”) 

             In this Educational Leadership article, Thomas Guskey (University of Kentucky) and Laura Link (University of North Dakota) say there’s no shortage of suggestions to teachers from principals, instructional coaches, teammates, and PD providers. But how much of that feedback is helpful? Teachers in a K-12 midwestern school district told Guskey and Link that five types of feedback are truly helpful: 

• Information about student learning – Most teacher evaluations focus on posting lesson objectives, asking higher-order questions, differentiating instruction, and other teacher behaviors. But these don’t resonate with many teachers, and besides, formal observations happen only once or twice a year. “Above all else,” say Guskey and Link, “teachers want to know if they are making a difference for their students” – Are kids “getting it”? Can they solve problems they couldn’t solve before? Do they feel good about themselves as learners? Sharing observations about outcomes like these and what the teacher did to make them happen – that’s solid gold for teachers.
• Local evidence – Most teachers have learned to be skeptical about ideas that supposedly work for other teachers with different students in different contexts. “Eliminating that skepticism,” say Guskey and Link, “requires personal mastery experiences that provide teachers with tangible evidence that the ideas work with their students in their classrooms.”
• Trustworthy assessments – Administrators and school boards use standardized test scores to judge schools’ success, but those results arrive too late to help improve classroom instruction in the here and now. Many teachers look at high-stakes tests with a jaundiced eye, especially if they aren’t aligned with the curriculum they’re asked to teach. What teachers do trust is students’ daily work, their projects and presentations, and data from teacher-made assessments. One of the most powerful improvement dynamics is teachers looking at an error analysis of a common formative assessment and zeroing in on items that need to be retaught using a more-effective strategy.
• Timely feedback – “When it comes to classroom-level strategies or procedures,” say Guskey and Link, “teachers want evidence of improvement quickly, typically within the first few weeks.” Lacking that, teachers often abandon an innovative approach, especially if it comes from outside. That’s not because they’re against change but because they don’t want to waste time on practices that don’t benefit their students. New methods and materials should have built-in assessments that give rapid feedback on what’s working and what isn’t within days or weeks, not months or years.
• Feedback that’s constructive and diplomatic – Guskey and Link say that helpful correctives for teachers parallel what we know about feedback to students: 
• Begin with something positive. 
• Describe non-judgmentally what needs improvement. 
• Offer ideas and practical guidance on an approach that might be more effective. 
• Express belief in the recipient and confidence in success. 

            “Teachers want timely and trustworthy feedback that focuses on their students’ learning and offers practical suggestions for classroom applications,” conclude the authors. “When we offer teachers this type of feedback, they gain meaningful information for improvement and direct evidence that their work makes an important difference.” 

 “What Teachers Really Want When It Comes to Feedback” by Thomas Guskey and Laura Link in Educational Leadership, April 2022 (Vol. 79, #7, pp. 42-48); the authors can be reached at guskey@uky.edu and laura.link@und.edu; a related article by Guskey and Link is summarized in Memo 925.

Please Note: This summary is reprinted with permission from issue #931 of The Marshall Memo, an excellent resource for educators.