This post originally appeared on Choices.Scholastic.com
Yay, summer! Hopefully, you’ve got all sorts of plans laid out to help you achieve balance, like playing with your friends and family, taking long breaks, and doing something completely unheard of… like reading a book just for fun.
But, if you’re anything like me, summer is also a good time to get caught up on some of the work-related books that you’ve been meaning to get to.
Here are some that have had a great influence on my teaching practice and my understanding of today’s teenager.
- Age of Opportunity: Lessons from the New Science of Adolescence by Laurence Steinberg (2014)
New information and research on the teenage brain is coming out at a rapid pace, and it’s so important that we stay on top of the latest. In his book, Dr. Steinberg states that American teens are miserable because our approach to raising them is a mix of “misunderstanding, uncertainty, and contradiction.”
He presents the latest in brain research and explains how we can use what we now know about adolescence to help us better understand teenagers and guide them along the decision-making process.
It’s an interesting read, filled with facts, personal stories, examples and suggestions for how we can better educate our kids. I highly recommend taking the time to read this book, as it can be used to help justify the need for more comprehensive health education.
- For Goodness Sex: Changing the Way We Talk to Teens About Sexuality, Values, and Health by Al Vernacchio (2014)
Al Vernacchio teaches sexuality education to 12th graders in Philadelphia, and has gotten a lot of attention over the last few years for his positive approach to sex ed.
His class was featured in The New York Times article, Teaching Good Sex in November of 2011, and since then, he’s given a TED talk, and written several articles on how we need to shift the focus on sexuality education to values, relationships, and decision-making.
This is his first book, and while it’s aimed at parents, anyone who teaches sex ed has much to learn from Mr. Vernacchio and the work he’s been doing with his students.
- The Price of Privilege: How Parental Pressure and Material Advantage are Creating a Generation of Disconnected and Unhappy Kids by Madeline Levine (2008)
This book had a huge impact on me and I shared it with our principal and counselors. At a school with a high-pressure environment, there was so much in here that I could connect to my students.
In this book, psychologist Madeline Levine shares personal accounts of her patients and discusses what she calls the “toxic brew” of parents being absent and present at the same time.
“In children of well-educated, affluent parents, two risk factors repeatedly come up as the cause of high emotional difficulties: achievement pressure and isolation from parents.”
She discusses the idea of parents being there at baseball games but not at the dinner table, and with so many parents now absorbed in their screens, the isolation she speaks of can happen even when everyone’s in the same room.
While getting the links for this post, I saw that she’s got a more recent book, Teach Your Children Well: Why Values and Coping Skills Matter More Than Grades, Trophies, or “Fat Envelopes” (2012).
Looks like my summer reading list just got a little bit longer.
- Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (2007) by Carol Dweck
This was our summer reading at school a few years ago, and I really enjoyed it.
It was a quick read, and I was able to use much of what I learned in it for myself, and also for when teaching the kids about goal-setting.
- Dig into some young adult novels
Sometimes we can forget what it’s like to be a teenager, and so much of the teenage experience has changed over the last twenty years. I find that reading contemporary YA fiction helps me get an idea of what’s happening with teens today, while increasing empathy for my students.
We’re in an amazing time right now for young adult fiction, so these books are popular, relevant and realistic. We’re not talking about the Twilight series here.
Recommended reads:
–Anything by John Green – The Fault in Our Stars, Paper Towns, An Abundance of Katherines… They don’t call him “the teenage whisperer” for nothing.
– Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell. This touching tale of first love between an unlikely pair is beautifully written and wildly popular with teenage girls.
– Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews. I haven’t read this one yet, but it came highly recommended by a former student of mine.
It’s supposed to be excellent, but in the spirit of summer vacation, I might just skip ahead and go watch the movie instead.
