"Trust Me! I Can Read"

This innovative guide shows teachers how to transform high school English students into passionate readers with a trust-based approach that honors both student choice and teacher expertise. The authors begin with a series of reflective invitations to help teachers rediscover trust in themselves and in their students. The book offers methods for building confidence and critical skills through thematic book groups, the whole-class novel, and independent reading. As teachers work through each methods chapter, they will begin to create their own trust-based curriculum with the help of “Extend Your Thinking” sections. Classroom examples from urban, rural, and suburban contexts help teachers interweave trust-building methods (small reading communities, critically engaging lessons, student-led seminars, artistic response, drama, and dialogue) to create an English classroom that is once again a place of possibility and power.

"Trust Me! I Can Read" is a practical resource that addresses the real concerns of today’s English educators who are caught between the standards movement and their passion for teaching.

Sally Lamping has taught secondary school English in New York City; Fairfax County, Virginia; and Cincinnati, Ohio, and is an associate professor of English: Integrated Language Arts Education at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. Dean Woodring Blase has taught secondary school English in Cincinnati, Ohio, and is an inaugural cohort member of the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Doctor of Education Leadership program.

"This book presents a low-tech, practical curriculum that celebrates the hard work that goes into the independent reading cycle."
—Dixie Goswami, Bread Loaf Teacher Network

“I invite you to read this book…to make the kinds of changes in your own (classroom) that will honor and respect the amazing students that you teach.”
—From the Foreword by Cathy Fleischer, Eastern Michigan University