The seldom-recalled Creek War of 1813-1814 and its extension, the First Seminole War of 1818, had significant consequences for the growth of the United States. Beginning as a civil war between Muscogee factions, the struggle escalated into a war between the Moscogees and the United States after insurgent Red Sticks massacred over 250 whites and mixed-bloods at Fort Mims on the Alabama River on August 30, 1813―the worst frontier massacre in U.S. history. After seven months of bloody fighting, U.S. forces inflicted a devastating defeat on the Red Sticks at Horseshoe Bend on the Tallapoosa River on March 27, 1814―the most disastrous defeat ever suffered by Native Americans.
The defeat of the Muscogees (Creeks), the only serious impediments to U.S. westward expansion, opened millions of acres of land to the white settlers and firmly established the Cotton Kingdom and slavery in the Deep South. For southeastern Native Americans, the war resulted in the destruction of their civilization and forced removal west of the Mississippi: The Trail of Tears. O'Brien presents both the American and Native American perspectives of this important chapter of U.S. history. He also examines the roles of the neighboring tribes and African Americans who lived in the Muscogee nation.

The Art of Slow Reading: Six Time-Honored Practices for Engagement

History

Newkirk, Thomas

Americas

Heinemann

Post-Columbine has been a time when the issues of popular culture and the behavior of boys have generated more heat than light. This complex, contested intersection has led to censorship and worse-alarm, irrationality, and a failure to examine our ways of teaching, particularly teaching literacy to boys. In this book Tom Newkirk takes an up-close and personal look at elementary boys and their relationship to sports, movies, video games, and other venues of popular culture. Unlike the alarmists, he sees these media not as enemies of literacy, but as resources for literacy. Through a series of extraordinary interviews, Newkirk listens to young boys, and girls, who describe the pleasure they take in popular culture. They explain the ways in which they use visual narratives in their writing. They even defend their use of violence in their work. Newkirk disproves the simplistic stereotype of boys who are primed to imitate the violence they see. He shows that, rather than mimic, boys most often transform, recombine, and participate in story lines, and resist, mock, and discern the unreality of icons of popular culture. Using a mixture of memoir, research project, cultural analysis, and critique of published findings, Newkirk encourages schools to ask questions about what counts as literacy in boys and what doesn't, to allow in their literacy programs boys' diverse tastes, values, and learning styles. In other words, if we want boys to join "the literacy club," then we have to invite them in with genres of their own choosing.

Misreading Masculinity: Boys, Literacy, and Popular Culture

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Tom's new chapter, Speaking Back to the Common Core, is NOW AVAILABLE! Click here to read. "Holding On to Good Ideas in a Time of Bad Ones is my new favorite book about how to live as a teacher. Finishing it, I experienced what I can only describe as a state of grace-moved, renewed, and grateful that a mind like Tom Newkirk's has been intrigued by classroom matters for almost forty years now." Nancie Atwell Author of In the Middle, Second Edition "Classic Newkirk: direct, incisive, and brimming with wisdom." Harvey "Smokey" Daniels Coauthor of Comprehension &amp; Collaboration This book is one of the best teacher books ever. I'll be giving copies of it to lots of teacher friends as we find our way back to trusting what we know about kids, about learning, and about teaching writing. -Gretchen Bernabei Author of Reviving the Essay Holding On to Good Ideas in a Time of Bad Ones is for every teacher who has struggled under top-down mandates, who ever had to slavishly follow the script of a reading lesson, who ever felt that tests were driving instruction. It is for those whose good, humane, and sensitive ways of teaching literacy are threatened by rigid, mechanical programs. It is for teachers who feel they are losing control of their daily work. Hear a podcast, where Tom Newkirk and Nancie Atwell discuss teaching principles worth fighthing for. In Holding On to Good Ideas in a Time of Bad Ones, Tom Newkirk eloquently defends teaching against the "cult of efficiency" that turns classrooms into assembly lines of knowledge. Newkirk goes beyond diagnosing the problem to present six ideas worth fighting for. These transformative practices gently but firmly return instructional decisions to where they belong: with you, our teachers. Newkirk shows how to: <ul>
<li>increase your instructional emphasis on writing to reflect the reality that producing text is more important than ever </li> <li>help students access deep knowledge and expand their thinking through time to write freely </li> <li>build strong connections between school learning and the real world by teaching with popular culture </li> <li>propel the development of reading skills by helping students discover the pleasure of reading </li> <li>provide the time and space for meaningful, long-lasting teaching and learning by uncluttering the curriculum </li> <li>spark professional growth and avoid stagnation by discussing failure and uncertainty with colleagues. </li> </ul>
Holding On to Good Ideas in a Time of Bad Ones is affirming, not argumentative. It celebrates the humanity and unpredictability of teaching with Newkirk's blend of humor, passion, and warmth. Let it inspire a search for the things in your teaching that are most worth holding on to.

Holding On to Good Ideas in a Time of Bad Ones: Six Literacy Principles Worth Fighting For

Education & Teaching

Schools & Teaching

"Tom Newkirk's call to appreciate the value of slow reading is both timely and important, especially in an era where skimming and click-and-go reading have become the norm for our students. Newkirk reminds us that our deepest reading pleasures are often found when we slow down and pay close attention, and this book clearly demonstrates how slow reading deepens the thinking of both teachers and students. A must-read for anyone concerned about the state of reading-you will enjoy reading The Art of Slow Reading slowly." Kelly Gallagher, author of Readicide: How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It "This beautiful and hugely important book overflows with advice and wisdom about reading-enjoying it, teaching it. Newkirk reminds us why words matter, that words on page or screen are not there just to be 'processed,' but to savor and enjoy, to help us think and see more clearly, to touch our hearts and help us touch the world." Mike Rose, author of Why School?: Reclaiming Education for All of Us (Read Mike Rose's blog) "If someone were to ask me who to read, what to read, and how to read it, I would say, without hesitating, they should read Tom Newkirk, read The Art of Slow Reading, and read it slowly, again and again. He is to reading and teaching, literacy and learning what Michael Pollan is to food and eating. Tom Newkirk gives us permission to take our time when we read, to remember why we read, and to take from that reading not just the nutrients and knowledge but the pleasure we sought to cultivate in our students-and ourselves-in the past." Jim Burke, author of The English Teacher's Companion and What's the Big Idea? "This book challenges popular notions of reading-the idea that quick, extractive reading is the goal for students. I argue that traditional acts of 'slow reading'-memorization, performance, annotation, and elaboration-are essential for deep, pleasurable, thoughtful reading." Thomas Newkirk This important book rests on a simple but powerful belief-that good readers practice the art of paying attention. Building on memoir, research, and many examples of classroom practice, Thomas Newkirk, recuperates six time-honored practices of reading-performance, memorization, centering, problem-finding, reading like a writer, and elaboration-to help readers engage in thoughtful, attentive reading. The Art of Slow Reading provides preservice and inservice teachers with concrete practices that for millennia have promoted real depth in reading. It will show how these practices enhance the reading of a variety of texts, from Fantastic Mr. Fox to The Great Gatsby to letters from the IRS. Just as slow reading is essential for real comprehension, it is also clearly crucial to the deep pleasure we take in reading-for the way we savor texts-and for the power of reading to change us. Tom's Washington Post article: Reading is not a race: The virtues of the 'slow reading' movement

Reference

Words, Language & Grammar

In this highly readable and provocative book, Thomas Newkirk explodes the long standing habit of opposing abstract argument with telling stories. Newkirk convincingly shows that effective argument is already a kind of narrative and is deeply "entwined with narrative." --Gerald Graff, former MLA President and author of Clueless in Academe Narrative is regularly considered a type of writing-often an "easy" one, appropriate for early grades but giving way to argument and analysis in later grades. This groundbreaking book challenges all that. It invites readers to imagine narrative as something more-as the primary way we understand our world and ourselves. "To deny the centrality of narrative is to deny our own nature," Newkirk explains. "We seek companionship of a narrator who maintains our attention, and perhaps affection. We are not made for objectivity and pure abstraction-for timelessness. We have 'literary minds" that respond to plot, character, and details in all kind of writing. As humans, we must tell stories." When we are engaged readers, we are following a story constructed by the author, regardless of the type of writing. To sustain a reading-in a novel, an opinion essay, or a research article- we need a "plot" that helps us comprehend specific information, or experience the significance of an argument. As Robert Frost reminds us, all good memorable writing is "dramatic." Minds Made for Stories is a needed corrective to the narrow and compartmentalized approaches often imposed on schools-approaches which are at odds with the way writing really works outside school walls.

Minds Made for Stories: How We Really Read and Write Informational and Persuasive Texts

"This book is for teachers who want to honor their students' experiences as writers and readers-and their own." -Maja Wilson In Reimagining Writing Assessment, Maja Wilson shows us that by replacing the scales embedded in rubrics with new tools--an array of interpretive lenses designed to observe and describe growth-we can create healthier readers and writers who are more proficient in the long run and more motivated to read and write. She reminds us that "assess" in its Latin derivation means "sit beside." In this book she models new ways of "sitting beside," listening to student stories of the writing, respecting the writer's intentions, and telling stories of our reading. Taking the form of conversations, Maja's new definition of writing assessment is not an outcome or final evaluation: it is an ongoing process in which writers and readers make meaning from texts and attempts, from intentions and effects. In this process, teachers come to understand how to teach and talk with each student about writing differently. And students learn to understand and take control of their own development as decision-makers.

Reimagining Writing Assessment: From Scales to Stories

Wilson, Maja

"I don't know." Is there a more frustrating answer when we ask students what they think about the texts they're reading? More often than not, they DO know; or at least, they have something to say but are afraid to say it. Marilyn Pryle argues that we can help students find their voices and deeply understand texts when we invite them to write and share short reading responses. "If you've read something, you must have a thought," she explains. "The idea behind reading responses is simple: Read, and have a concrete idea about the text to bring to the discussion. You don't have to be 'right.' But you do have to have a thought from your own mind that is specific about the reading." This kind of engagement with texts is what Marilyn calls "reading with presence." Writing and sharing reading responses helps students look more closely at texts and their own thinking, while boosting engagement and self-confidence in their own voices. Marilyn provides a clear framework for helping students embark on a year long journey of literary criticism and intellectual growth, filling notebooks with responses that are both personal and scholarly. Her suggested categories for reading responses allow for plenty of student choice, and the writing examples she shares throughout the book illustrate students' deep thinking about a rich variety of texts both old and new, in a range of genres, from both whole-class and independent reading. "Reading responses put students on a road that leads to evidence-based interpretation rooted in personal experience, prior knowledge, and engagement," Marilyn writes. "The road, perhaps, of personal growth. And isn't that why we all teach in the first place?"

Reading with Presence: Crafting Meaningful, Evidenced-Based Reading Responses

Pryle, Marilyn

"Why has no one written about this subject before? Every teacher should read this book." Michael G. Thompson, coauthor of Raising Cain Embarrassment. None of us escape it. Especially as kids, in school. How might our fear of failure, of not living up to expectations, be holding us back? How can our fear of embarrassment affect how we learn, how we teach, and how we live? Tom Newkirk argues that this "emotional underlife," this subterranean domain of emotion, failure, and embarrassment, keeps too many students and teachers silent, hesitant, and afraid. "I am absolutely convinced," Tom writes, "that embarrassment is not only the true enemy of learning, but of so many other actions we could take to better ourselves." In this groundbreaking exploration, Newkirk offers practices and strategies that help kids and teachers alike develop a more resilient approach to embarrassment. "I contend that if we can take on a topic like embarrassment and shame, we can come to a richer, more honest, more enabling sense of who we are and what we can do," he explains. "So let's do battle. Let's name and identify the enemy that can haunt our days, disturb our sleep, put barriers up to learning, and drain joy from our lives-and maybe we can also learn how to rearrange some things in our own head so that we can be more generous toward ourselves."

Embarrassment: And the Emotional Underlife of Learning

In Writing Unbound,Tom Newkirk argues that as a teaching profession, we shoot ourselves in the foot when it comes to writing. We fail to take advantage of a huge opportunity that is before us. That opportunity is fiction writing. Consider this: Our deepest wish is for students to develop a love of books- particularly a love of fiction. To discover the power of stories to transport us into worlds we never knew existed. At the same time, we want them to build a love of writing. To really love it; not just endure it. So if these are our two primary goals, how did they become so disparate? Why is the writing we're asking our students to do so completely opposite from the fiction they enjoy reading? "My worry," Tom Newkirk writes, "is that we have been asked to buy a lie-or rather a series of them. That analytic writing is somehow a higher form of thinking than story, that "creativity" is for the talented few, and that fiction writing is unteachable... If we accept these lies, we lose our birthright as English teachers." Through 40 in-depth interviews with student writers as well as teachers of writing, Newkirk builds an argument for bringing fiction back into our writing curriculum as a way to strengthen all writing. He addresses the common obstacles and resistance to fiction and illustrates, through students and teachers' insights, why keeping fiction writing on the outside of school walls is a missed opportunity. "If reading fiction is humanizing and valuable," Tom writes, "the same, perhaps even stronger, case can be made for writing fiction."

Writing Unbound: How Fiction Transforms Student Writers

Literacy's Democratic Roots: A Personal Tour Through Eight Big Ideas

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Newkirk, Thomas. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Newkirk, Thomas

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Newkirk, Thomas. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Art of Slow Reading: Six Time-Honored Practices for Engagement

Misreading Masculinity: Boys, Literacy, and Popular Culture

Holding On to Good Ideas in a Time of Bad Ones: Six Literacy Principles Worth Fighting For

The Art of Slow Reading: Six Time-Honored Practices for Engagement

Minds Made for Stories: How We Really Read and Write Informational and Persuasive Texts

Reimagining Writing Assessment: From Scales to Stories

Reading with Presence: Crafting Meaningful, Evidenced-Based Reading Responses

Embarrassment: And the Emotional Underlife of Learning

Writing Unbound: How Fiction Transforms Student Writers

Literacy's Democratic Roots: A Personal Tour Through Eight Big Ideas