Life in a Crowded Place: Making a Learning Community / Edition 1

by Ralph Peterson

Overview

No one will deny that life in classrooms is an intense social experience. Crowded together with students for six or more hours a day in a space no bigger than a large living room, the immediate response of most teachers is to maintain control and enforce obedience. But creating a community - bringing students together and keeping them together - is the most vital aspect of a teacher's work. Without it, real learning cannot take place, as even the soundest philosophies and techniques amount to little without a community to bring them to life. The concept of community in the classroom is certainly not new, but little has been said about what makes up a community, how it is created, and what functions it fulfills.

In Life in a Crowded Place, Ralph Peterson helps teachers see what it is they do when they bring students together to make a community. The hope here is to show teachers what is going on - to identify and name - so that they can exercise greater control over their work and understand the kind of learning community they are making (or need to make) and how that community functions to influence the quality of learning and life in elementary and middle school.

Readers of this book will:

• acquire language for identifying and understanding the community-making aspect of their work
• identify ways they can work with their students to make a learning community
• initiate teaching and learning that is centered in critique and dialogue
• gain an understanding of the importance of the social in learning and the benefit of community.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780435087364
Publisher:	Heinemann
Publication date:	08/17/1992
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	7.40(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.35(d)
Age Range:	5 - 10 Years

Table of Contents

Making a Caring Place
Ceremony, Ritual, and Rite
Celebration
Conversation
Play
Routines and Jobs
Residency
Making Sense of Experience
Putting Language to Work
Parading: Leading and Following
Critique: Discriminating Among Values
Dialogue: Uniting Critique and Inquiry
Making Learning Communities
Authority: Empowering Students
Life Activities

Editorial Reviews

This book is not only for classroom teachers, but for school staffs to read and discuss together so as to build whole, caring schools.”–Whole Language Teachers Association

From the Publisher