BOOK REVIEW

Classrooms of wonder and wisdom: Reading, writing,and critical thinking for the 21st century

By Kurtis S. Meredith and Jeannie L. Steele (eds). SAGE Publications Ltd.,London, 2010, 192 pp. ISBN 978-1-4129-1815-2 (pbk)

Michael McVey

Published online: 28 February 2012

� Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012

In any book of professional development activities directed at an unknown and

unseen audience, one of the most difficult things to do is to apply general ideas

brought to the session that will transcend the curriculum and speak broadly to the

act of teaching. With that in mind, I was delighted to see that right from the first

lines this book challenged the analogy of the mind as an empty vessel to be filled.

The authors, Kurtis Meredith and Jeannie Steele, accomplish this transcendence

by situating the readers in their own milieu and asking them to determine their own

content expectations from the book. They then invite the reader to participate in a

few contemplative writing activities in an attempt to strip down to the conceptual

basics.

Just so we know where the authors stand on broader literacy issues, in the first

chapter there is a slight nod to the pressures of the standardised curriculum and a

wink at the inherent weaknesses of high-stakes testing. More importantly, they

suggest that inside the swirl of politics and pressure there is a common and quiet

centre we can find as teachers and then use that as a point from which we can grow.

Once they have situated the reader, their professional development sequence (PDS,

as they call it) begins.

The model for their professional development is based upon a refined model the

authors presented first in 1997 in which learners: (1) contextualise their knowledge,

(2) actively engage in new learning, and (3) reflect on how this new learning

changed their understanding. The authors admit this learning cycle concept is not a

new one but they breathe new life into it.

As a former special education teacher, I was delighted to see their use of an

interactive notation system, INSERT,1 for approaching new ideas in texts. The

M. McVey (&)

Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, MI, USA

e-mail: mmcvey@emich.edu

1 Interactive Notation System to Effective Reading and Thinking.

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Int Rev Educ (2012) 58:145–146

DOI 10.1007/s11159-012-9268-6

authors engaged the reader by having us approach a text, use this notation method

with it, and contemplate the way we build bridges from the ‘‘known’’ to the ‘‘new’’.

The resulting experience is what they call the ‘‘ERR Framework’’ – Evocation (E),

Realisation of Meaning (R), and Reflection (R).

The authors guide the reader through another reading exercise, but this time with

a work of riveting fiction with twists that clearly help to illustrate the shifting

experiences of realising new meaning. The exercise allayed concerns that this book

might be too general to be applicable.

They then demonstrate how their model builds on the Cognitive Domain of

Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning Domains2 toward structural critical inquiry, taking

the learner from the literal level through to synthesis. Combined with students’

active engagement in learning, the strategies laid out in the book expose a powerful

toolkit for teachers at all levels. For example, the authors also discuss the idea of

clustering, sometimes called concept-mapping, and they revive an interesting

strategy called cubing which teachers can employ during the evocation stage when

dealing with a new topic. These steps are: (1) describe it, (2) compare it, (3)

associate it, (4) analyse it, (5) apply it, and (6) argue for or against it. Each can be

introduced as a side of a physical cube if desired.

The rest of the book contains excellent examples of methods for engaging

students. Positioned against the backdrop of their ERR framework these make

absolute sense. From mathematics to literature, their framework of contextualising

new learning works very well and their host of mnemonic devices help the reader

remember strategies. This text will provide excellent guidance to both the new

teacher in need of starting points and the veteran teacher needing to re-examine

strategies.

2 Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning Domains suggests, particularly in the Cognitive Domain, that as we

engage with new knowledge we work from the concrete to the abstract in overlapping levels beginning

with the most concrete, simple recall of information, then move through levels of increasing difficulty

namely comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and finally evaluation.

146 M. McVey

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