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A review by mahaliahp
The Knowledge Gap: The Hidden Cause of America's Broken Education System--And How to Fix It by Natalie Wexler
3.0
Key takeaways: Explicit vocabulary instruction and progressively teaching background knowledge are the keys to give students access to understanding and writing about complex texts and ideas. Seems obvious, but many popular educational practices and resources do NOT emphasize this (looking at you, Lucy Calkins).
This book made me think deeply about some of my beliefs about education and ways I can improve as a teacher. I loved reading the case study observations about the teachers Wexler worked with. I was convinced by her argument early on in the book, and appreciate how much research went into the history and progression of the American education system. I would love to read something similar from a Canadian perspective.
My main criticism of this book is that it only briefly touches on other factors that may make implementing this type of curriculum (or any new curriculum) challenging: massive class sizes, increasing complexity in classrooms, lack of support and training for teachers, teachers in the US being severely underpaid, lack of parental involvement, etc. I am all for a content-rich curriculum, but I can see major challenges with implementation given the current realities of teaching, especially in the US. On the other hand, current educational practices aren't showing success or serving students well, and a strong curricular change could potentially help mitigate some of these issues.
Also, I am always wary of non-educators writing about education. Wexler even says in the acknowledgements that she knew nothing about the subject of this book five years ago. It's giving "PD led by someone who's been out of the classroom for 10+ years" vibes. I don't know enough about the American education system, how their standardized testing works, or how they do teacher PD to know if all of Wexler's points are solid, or if she just chose examples to fit her narrative. I would be curious to hear what American educators on the ground think about this book.
I am personally excited to try out some of the ideas in this book to help my students build knowledge. Overall, I recommend this book to other teachers and people interested in how education can be reformed to better serve students and society.
This book made me think deeply about some of my beliefs about education and ways I can improve as a teacher. I loved reading the case study observations about the teachers Wexler worked with. I was convinced by her argument early on in the book, and appreciate how much research went into the history and progression of the American education system. I would love to read something similar from a Canadian perspective.
My main criticism of this book is that it only briefly touches on other factors that may make implementing this type of curriculum (or any new curriculum) challenging: massive class sizes, increasing complexity in classrooms, lack of support and training for teachers, teachers in the US being severely underpaid, lack of parental involvement, etc. I am all for a content-rich curriculum, but I can see major challenges with implementation given the current realities of teaching, especially in the US. On the other hand, current educational practices aren't showing success or serving students well, and a strong curricular change could potentially help mitigate some of these issues.
Also, I am always wary of non-educators writing about education. Wexler even says in the acknowledgements that she knew nothing about the subject of this book five years ago. It's giving "PD led by someone who's been out of the classroom for 10+ years" vibes. I don't know enough about the American education system, how their standardized testing works, or how they do teacher PD to know if all of Wexler's points are solid, or if she just chose examples to fit her narrative. I would be curious to hear what American educators on the ground think about this book.
I am personally excited to try out some of the ideas in this book to help my students build knowledge. Overall, I recommend this book to other teachers and people interested in how education can be reformed to better serve students and society.