A Year of Teaching Dangerously

Gallagher, Kelly and Penny Kittle. 180 Days: Two Teachers’ Quest to Engage and Empower Adolescents. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2018.

Baffled by the idea of conducting reading and writing workshops in high school English classes? Authors Gallagher and Kittle draw from their own experiences as current teachers in very different schools to describe how they make it work. Starting with their beliefs about teaching and learning—their Why?—they explain their daily practices, planning, and feedback and evaluation before ending with how they approach teaching essential discourses (narrative, informational, argument, and research projects).

Gallagher and Kittle characterize their work in this book as “A Year of Teaching Dangerously” because they made themselves vulnerable not only to each other as they planned, discussed, and differed, but also to their eventual audience: readers of the book. They admit to “a sense of unease in . . . this level of public scrutiny.” Their candor is appealing, as is their consistent reference to their students’ needs as the basis for their decisions.

Digital learning tools and, therefore, connections with Digital Learning Month are secondary to the authors’ commitment to developing readers and writers rather than merely implementing prescribed curricula. However, they embody thoughtful use of technology tools that promote student learning. Notably, they use many digital sources for text study, including Ted talks, podcasts, and New York Times multimedia feature articles. They also use tech tools for student creation of digital texts, such as blogs, iMovie, and Flipgrid. 180 Days is also punctuated by QR codes for video clips that depict the authors performing the instructional moves they describe in the book.

This book is a good companion to Marilyn Styslinger’s Workshopping the Canon, Carol Jago’s Classics in the Classroom, and Kate Roberts’ A Novel Approach, all of which promote ways to provide choice and individualization within the traditional secondary English curriculum. 

Her book is available in Paperback through Amazon and the Heinemann website.

Review by Annetta Petty, Executive Director of Learning, Educational Services Center