Get ready for book club!
Everything you need for next week's first meeting
Got tips or ideas? Want to work with me? Get in touch! holly@hollykorbey.com
Happy summer Friday, Bell Ringers—The Summer of Knowledge is off to a great start! Read or watch our first installment, about how Irish student teachers build their knowledge compared to teachers in the U.S.
Today we launch the Bell Ringer Book Club. We are reading Developing Curriculum for Deep Thinking: The Knowledge Revival, a book by the global group of scholars Tim Surma, Claudio Vanhees, Michiel Wils, Jasper Nijlunsing, Nuno Crato, John Hattie, Daniel Muijs, Elizabeth Rata, Dylan Wiliam and Paul A. Kirschner.
You can get started with the book today by downloading it here, for free. Once you get the book, you can:
Read the first half, “How Knowledge Matters,” from pages 1—30.
Mark your calendar for the discussion of the first half, which will take place on Thursday, June 12 at 4 pm Eastern Standard Time, on Zoom. (Link below.)
Get your questions on helping build students’ knowledge ready for co-author Paul Kirschner.
I’d love for you to join us, so become a paying subscriber today:
The book’s introduction is aptly written by the knowledge movement’s godfather, E.D. Hirsch, author of Why Knowledge Matters, Cultural Literacy, and How to Educate a Citizen, among others. Trying to capture the importance of a shared body of knowledge, Hirsch quotes a Norwegian education resolution from 1994:
“Those who do not share the background information taken for granted in public discourse will often overlook the point or miss the meaning…Common background knowledge is thus at the core of a national network of communication between members of a democratic community.”
Knowledge doesn’t only improve reading comprehension, or compose the building blocks of a deep education, this 30-year-old call to action suggests; it’s the very foundation for democratic citizenship. If citizens cannot talk to one another in a common language, and understand new ideas or challenges—how can a society function?
That’s a big reason why I wanted this book, written by a large group of international scholars and scientists, to be the first Bell Ringer book club book. In my reporting over the last decade, I have focused mainly on the scientific evidence behind effective teaching and learning, attempting to bring greater public awareness to what kids learn all day and how they learn it.
But the day-to-day of what happens inside a classroom often misses the bigger picture: that an effective education lays the groundwork for equality, justice and democracy, not just better reading comprehension. And a strong body of gold-standard evidence points to students acquiring knowledge as a key piece of that democratic education.
I hope you to see you at our first session next week, which is also going to be recorded and shared if you can’t make it. I’ve got some questions ready to go, I think it’s going to be an exciting discussion! Here are all the key details—where to sign up, how to get on the Zoom, and more: