Teaching English by Design: How to Create and Carry Out Instructional Units

by Peter Smagorinsky, Leila Christenbury (Foreword)

The Teaching English by Design Instructor's Guide presents a flexible framework for an English Methods course. Its week-by-week suggestions for in- and out-of-class activities support students as they learn to design units for use in their first classrooms. Peter Smagorinsky, the leading scholar and researcher of his generation in the field of English education, shows English teachers how to turn every hour of classroom instruction into an authentic and powerful learning experience in his inspiring new book, Teaching English by Design. It's a wonderful book and represents a challenge to all of us to teach better than we usually do.
Sheridan Blau
Author of The Literature Workshop Peter Smagorinsky, a highly respected figure in English Education, here offers new teachers principled and practical ways of authoring curriculum, even in traditional settings.
Randy Bomer
Author of Time for Meaning Many books on English/language arts instruction describe the teaching of units, but how many of them actually show how to create the units, make them meaningful to students, and use them to support your curriculum from September to June? Teaching English by Design does it all. It helps avoid a fragmentary curriculum by providing the rationale and the process for not only teaching well but also for producing integrated units that encourage students to deepen their thinking across the school year. Teaching English by Design is two books in a primer for teaching secondary English and a comprehensive guide to creating and using four to six-week instructional units. Peter Smagorinsky shares important insight about students, how they learn, and what kinds of classrooms support their achievement in reading and writing. Then he uses those findings to open up the key ideas of unit design to every teacher. Smagorinsky's units are organized around key concepts in English, such From original idea to construction, to implementation and beyond, Smagorinsky's practical advice supports teachers in extending, connecting, and integrating their units to increase the cohesion and power of the curriculum. Incorporating curricular theory, educational psychology, and fourteen years of high school teaching experience, Peter Smagorinsky's advice is both theoretically sound and grounded in the daily realities of today's teacher. Complemented by a wealth of web-based illustrations, Teaching English by Design is the ideal resource for preservice teachers as well as those in the classroom who want to take charge of their curriculum and find new energy in it.

Genres: Education, Teaching, Professional Development, Nonfiction, Read For School, Textbooks, Research

240 pages, Paperback

First published November 7, 2007

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Smagorinsky’s book is the “ne plus ultra” of methods texts for preservice English Language Arts teachers. He advocates a constructivist approach to teaching language arts, and he deftly employs numerous illustrative examples to support and illustrate his ideas. Most importantly, this text is well written and accessible to teacher candidates. Smagorinsky uses pedagogical discourse fluently, and his conversational—yet always professional—tone helps readers to understand his ideas clearly. A staunch and unapologetic advocate of social justice education, Smagorinsky informs his teaching philosophy with empathy and equity. As my students have claimed, this text is their “bible”—they plan to keep this book dog-eared, highlighted, and annotated as they develop their teaching repertoires. They’ve let me know that they plan to rely heavily on the theory and strategies in this text throughout their student teaching experience and well into the remainder of their careers. What stronger endorsement could there be?

[Carla Sofia Sofia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helpful for backwards design (designing final assessments and building up towards them with formative assessments.) It's a solid book with plenty of helpful advice and examples on how to create a well-organized unit plan.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Smagorinsky preaches a "constructivist" approach to teaching, which fits nicely in with the current "Charlotte Danielsen" philosophy on trend. He offers a website with additional ideas which I am sure I will eventually have reason to reference.

I do have a problem with an author of a book for teaching English who regularly ignores formal grammar rules and concludes his sentences with participles. Then again, this book was for a class wherein the PhD Professor of Literacy routinely uses the non-word "irregardless."

[Kerry · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of great ideas in here that I intend to implement in my own teachings. Also, the idea of a “constructivist” philosophy spoke to me and put words to a concept I struggled to explain. I intend to update my teaching philosophy to include this some of his ideas. A great book for first year teachers or anyone sick of teaching traditional education.

[Lauren Stephens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a fantastic explanation of developing solid instructional units. I wish I had read this in my undergrad!

[Jason Parker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Teaching English by Design is a good book about designing units from back to front with the end results, i.e. the instructional goals for the students in mind. In this book, Smagorinsky advocates taking this type of planning even farther, extending it through the semesters and the whole school year, advocating the use of overarcing themes and concepts that will guide the curriculum. He strongly advocates a constructivist learning approach, one in which learning is social and collaborative. The learning approach is an ideology that not every teacher will find palatable or perhaps even practical for their classroom and yet Smagorinsky uses research and personal experience to back up his arguments and his tactics of teaching units by design is a valuable strategy. The types of strategies Smagorinsky advocates are largely in use and taught in my teacher education program so his ideas were familiar and comfortable to me. This is a good book for preservice teachers or teachers looking for new strategies to bring to their classrooms.

[Priscilla Riggle · Rating 4 out of 5]

My background is in higher ed instruction, so like most of my English-teaching colleagues, I never had any formal training in literature pedagogy per se. Having been teaching lit for twenty years, I like to think I've learned some things in the saddle. One thing I did NOT know how to do, however, is design an actual lesson plan. When I started working with students planning to go into secondary-level English teaching, I thought I should get a better feel for how they might approach syllabus design, and the units of instruction that grow out of the learning outcomes. Smagorinsky's book was a revelation to me. I'm almost embarrassed to admit it, partly because I think I should've already known a lot of what he covers in English by Design and partly because some of my fellow professorial types pooh-pooh the idea of a formal lesson plan. Whatever. If you are a committed teacher of any level of student and like me didn't have all the professional development you might've liked in the basics of course, unit, and lesson design, add this one to your summer reading shelf.

[Carlie Hamilton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really good book that had concrete examples of creating a curriculum. So this is great for people who like everything broken down for them. It did feel repetitious however I read the book cover to cover. The effect is you can read just a chapter and have all the information you may need.
I'll be reading this one again for sure.

[Johanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is by far the most important and awesome professional development book that I have read. It is easy to follow and pretty much answers all questions that I have had about teaching language arts. Smagorinsky has a voice, and in my head sounds like Yoda (but with proper diction and sentence structure). I know that I am going to wear out my copy as it will no doubt become an invaluable resource.

[Ronni · Rating 5 out of 5]

We were talking about whether we should have been started on this book in English Ed instead of wrapping up with it. This is because we agree that it's the best book we've been assigned. My last standing point was that the foundations are what allowed us to recognize its brilliance. So while starting with it sounds nice now, I don't know if we would have appreciated it nearly as much.

[Michael Wolf · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has fundamentally shifted my thinking about teaching through a more multidimensional lens. There is something laid back and yet tried and true about his approach. Currently reading this for the third time.

[Robert Hultman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is very good overall. The text is easy to read and is organized well. Some of the background and anecdotal material is a bit lomger than need be and some of the chapters are written for more novice unit-planners - but the ideas and the tools are solid.

[Rikki · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this will really help me plan my units...thanks

[Tjerria · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is always helpful. I still get ideas regarding thematic unit planning from this resource.

[India Williams-Rakestraw · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing was a little dry, but there are some good nuggets of information and ideas in these pages. I'm particularly excited about conceptual units and I loved the ideas for student-centered projects.

[Briana Wall · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really excited about this book after stumbling upon his students' units... unfortunately, it didn't live up to my expectations.

The Good:
This text helped me clarified my idea of conceptual units, and through exploring his library of grad student units, I've honed my own skills at designing units.
He provides many practical suggestions for activities, projects, and unit planning.
He gives examples of prompts that could be used for a unit assessment or activity.
He lays out the process (important stuff) you need in a unit plan.

The Bad:
It's pretty boring. I felt a bit like I was holding my breath trying to take notes down and get through most of this book. I think a lot of the explanations/theory could be easily cut without taking away from the effectiveness/information. It's a rehash of credential program theory, but doesn't bring anything new to the table. I feel that the audience who is reading this book (middle/high school English teachers) has been there/done that.

The Ugly:
I don't feel that this is super well-organized in terms of building from one topic to the next... I feel like it could have been a lot simpler. I will most likely continue to revisit my notes, but I don't believe I will want to open this book again and search through the chapters for what I need. I'm not necessarily just looking for a list of pre-made units or a bullet point list of practical applications in a PD book, but I still think this could have been a lot more user-friendly.

[GNOWP]

Excellent resource for middle and high school English teachers. Peter Smagorinsky offers suggestions for creating flexible units for classroom use, as well as activities to engage students. This has become one of my favorite tools to use when making curriculum decisions.

[Kendall Yoder · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this book was really good. He has a lot of good approaches and ideas that seem to be backed by a lot of experience. He really goes step by step through creating a unit from the big idea on down to the daily lesson plans. Seems like a good thing to have your first couple years teaching.

[Elaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you choose to teach in conceptual units, this book is a necessity, but I am not sure how useful it would be in a typical curriculum setting. We shall see...

[Kaitlin Bevis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good resource. Smagorinsky walks you through his entire thought process and provides several ideas.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was very insightful and it had great examples.

[William Lawrence · Rating 1 out of 5]

I guess I got a bad version, but at least it's open ended.

[Tim Pollock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid. Some sections were insanely good, but a few were some snooze-masters.

Overall, though, a really good read and helpful resource. I definitely stole some ideas.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid. Some sections were insanely good, but a few were some snooze-masters.

Overall, though, a really good read and helpful resource. I definitely stole some ideas.

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is such a great resource! It has tons of very usable ideas and activities.

[Rhonda Hartman · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are some really great ideas in this book.

[Alena Reid · Rating 5 out of 5]

Smagorinsky offers such practical insight and ideas. I love this book. It is one I will read again!

[Jawwad]

na thnk

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing too new. Would be great for a beginner teacher interested in design.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid resource for English teachers.