Walking Trees

Summary

Walking Trees: Teaching Teachers in New York City Schools is the story of Ralph Fletcher's introduction to the New York City school system as a teacher trainer in a writing staff development program.

Reception

Brenda Miller Power in her review for Educational Leadership said "Walking Trees is a wonder", she believes that Fletcher has "done a superb job of cataloging in specific ways the difference between a burned-out teacher and a bad teacher" and that "its greatest contribution to our field may be that it helps us begin to ask more of the right kinds of difficult questions". Nancy E. Zuwiyya in her review for Library Journal said that "Fletcher's early encounters often prove frustrating, and his description of a typical uncooperative teacher as a "snarling lump of inertia" will make educators uncomfortable. At the end, Fletcher reveals that not only have the students and teachers learned but he two has acquired a wisdom that he lacked in the beginning." Curriculum Review said that this book was "a funny, hopeful, angry, but most importantly, beautifully written book chronicling one teacher's first year instructing New York City teachers how to teach writing."

Notes

References

1. Power, Brenda Miller. (March 1991). "Walking Trees: Teaching Teachers In The New York City Schools (Book)". Educational Leadership.
2. Zuwiyya, Nancy E.. (November 15, 1990). "Walking Trees: Teaching Teachers in the New York City Schools (Book)". Library Journal.
3. (March 1991). "HOPEFUL, ANGRY, BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN BOOK DESCRIBES A YEAR SPENT TEACHING TEACHERS IN NEW YORK CITY". Curriculum Review.