What's the Best That Could Happen? New Possibilities for Teachers and Readers, 0th edition

Published by Pearson (October 11, 2018) © 2018

  • Debbie Miller

Paperback

ISBN-13: 9780325093116
What's the Best That Could Happen? New Possibilities for Teachers and Readers
Published 2018

Title overview

What's the Best That Could Happen?: New Possibilities for Teachers & Readers

What if…

Every year, beloved teacher and author Debbie Miller commits to trying something new. She asks a “beautiful question” that pushes her to see new possibilities and put children at the center of her teaching. She asks, “What if we did it this way?”

“When we do, we're present in our teaching,” she says. “We're strong enough to set aside judgment and discomfort and choose to focus on how to make things better.” 

New opportunities for teaching and learning

In What's the Best That Could Happen?, Debbie confronts a challenge all teachers face: the feeling of being stuck and the fear of trying something new. She explores how questions help us look beyond the limitations of what we've done and discover powerful new opportunities for teaching and learning.

Each chapter digs into a question about teaching from Debbie's work with teachers and children across the country:
  • What if each day's teaching focused on children's agency?
  • What if we made what children make and do our priority?
  • What if our classroom environment and routines offered choice?
  • What if we owned the units we're asked to teach?
  • What if read aloud sustained children's independent thinking?
You'll find practical insights and critical understandings that will benefit you and your children. More importantly, you'll learn to ask your own beautiful questions, grapple with the messiness that surfaces, and find answers that inspire something new and worthy in your teaching.

Table of contents

Introduction: We Can Do This

Asking Beautiful Questions
Paying Attention to What Doesn't Feel Right
Asking, "What If?": Creating Space for Possibility
Chapter One: What If Each Day's Teaching Focused on Children's Agency?

Finding Our Way to a Beautiful Question: The Disengaged Child
What's the Best That Could Happen? Agency Fosters Engagement
Imagining New Possibilities for a Child
Conferring to Support Access and Choice
Paying Attention During Independent Work Time
Conferring to Inquire and to Offer Community
Postscript
Chapter Two: What If We Made What Children Make and Do Our Priority?

Finding Our Way to a Beautiful Question: Workshop Planning
What's the Best That Could Happen? Meaningful Work
Planning for What Children Will Do First
Planning for What Teachers Will Do During Work Time
Figuring Out What to Teach
Playing with the Sequence
Taking Ownership
Chapter Three: What If Our Classroom Environment and Routines Offered Choice?

Finding Our Way to a Beautiful Question: Frustration over Supplies
What's the Best That Could Happen? Managing Their Own Work
Being Intentional in Our Language
Cocreating Routines
Designing Agentive Environments
 Chapter Four: What If We Owned the Units We Are Asked to Teach?

Finding Our Way to a Beautiful Question: The Units We're Given
Are These the Right Goals?
Which Texts Work Best?
How Will We Know When We're Done?
How Can This Happen Within Daily Workshop?
What's the Best That Could Happen? Perfection in Imperfection
Chapter Five: What If Read-Aloud Sustained Children's Independent Thinking?

Finding Our Way to a Beautiful Question: The Wisdom in Children's Thinking
Expecting Brilliance
Finding Time for Read-Aloud
Reading Aloud for Joy
Teachers and Children Thinking Aloud
What's the Best That Could Happen? Being Inspired to Act
Conclusion: In Pursuit of Beautiful Questions

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