Book Reviews

Book cover titled 'The Disengaged Teen' by Jenny Anderson and Rebecca Winthrop. Features a cartoon illustration of a person in a yellow shirt looking at a smartphone with a magazine or book on a table.

These books challenge the practice of authoritarian teaching and other controlling teaching practices that are engrained in our culture with research and evidence-based practices that support people in developing their intrinsic motivation.

Motivation isn’t something that people either have or don’t; it is the product of their environment and to what extent that environment supports autonomy, belonging, and competence. These books show, tell, and help us reflect on how we can create these environments.

Book cover titled "Learning to Trust: Attachment Theory and Classroom Management" showing a diverse group of children holding hands and forming a circle.
Book cover titled 'Assessing Multilingual Learners: Bridges to Empowerment' by Margo Gottlieb, featuring an orange rock formation with a natural arch against a bright blue sky, with a label indicating it is the third edition and a bestseller.
A book cover titled 'Handbook of Classroom Management, Third Edition' edited by Edward J. Sabornie and Dorothy L. Espelage, with a colorful LEGO brick pattern background.
Book cover titled 'The Student Motivation Handbook' by Larry Ferlazzo, featuring a large blue pencil pointing upward with a red background.
Cover of a book titled "7 Steps to a Language-Rich, Interactive Classroom" by John Seidlitz and Bill Perryman, featuring a group of diverse children smiling and engaging in a classroom activity.
Book cover titled "What Great Teachers Do Differently: Nineteen Things That Matter Most" by Todd Whitaker, featuring a background of many blue butterflies and one pink butterfly.
Book cover titled 'The Translanguaging Classroom: Leveraging Student Bilingualism for Learning' by Ofelia García, Susana Ibarra Johnson, and Kate Seltzer, with a background image of a body of water reflecting a pink-and-purple sky at sunset, and trees silhouetted along the horizon.
Book cover titled 'Boosting Achievement, Second Edition' by Carol Salva with Anna Matis, featuring two smiling girls in headscarves and a boy with a cap, promoting literacy and education.
Cover of the book titled 'Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to Do Instead)', edited by Susan D. Blum, with a foreword by Alfie Kohn. The cover features rows of colorful dots in a gradient pattern.
Book cover of "The Courage to Teach" by Parker J. Palmer, featuring a scenic landscape with mountains and a lake.
Book cover titled 'Pedagogy of the Oppressed' by Paulo Freire, with an introduction by Donaldo Macedo. The background is red, with the title in black and white text.