Top-down accountability labels the poorest children and their teachers as failures rather than building them up in response to their actual needs. Jon Kuhn’s view on replacing real educational opportunity with a focus on accountability is shared.

This summer at a retreat at Center For Teaching Quality, I was asked about one of my greatest accomplishments as an educator so far.  Of course I thought of the Whole Novels program, a method for working with novels in the ELA classroom that I’ve been developing with Madeleine Ray, my mentor from Bank Street and fellow Bank Street alum, Nancy Toes Tangel.  I’ve written about it in a few blog posts: A Room Full of Thinkers and Journey Story in Five Chapters.

In this video I discuss the effects of the program in very general terms:

Stay tuned for news on the manuscript I’m finally working on that’s all about the Whole Novels program!

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Ariel Sacks

Ariel Sacks began her 13-year teaching career in New York City public schools after earning her master’s degree at Bank Street College and has taught and coached in grades 7-9. She is the author of Whole Novels for the Whole Class: A Student Centered Approach (Jossey-Bass, 2014) and writes a teaching column for Education Week Teacher.

Ariel’s work as a teacher leader with the Center for Teaching Quality involved her in co-authoring Teaching 2030: What We Must Do For Our Public Schools – Now and in the Future. She was also featured in the CTQ book Teacherpreneurs: Innovative Teachers Who Lead Without Leaving.

She is currently working on a book about the role of creative writing in equitable, 21st century schools, and she speaks and leads workshops on the whole novels approach.

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