Create a flyer for "These 6 Things"

Dave Stuart’s These 6 Things is among the most helpful, passionate, practical, and insightful teaching resources I have ever come across. It is brimming with simple, practical—and exceedingly realistic—suggestions and strategies for immediately improving the quality of schooling and student work—starting tomorrow. These 6 Things is an impressive and arrestingly written book by a working teacher. I hope it gets a wide reading.

Dave Stuart has an important insight: that a skill kids already know how to do, which is argue, also happens to be a central one in the new standards for college readiness. In Stuart’s wonderful book, These 6 Things, he draws extensively on his own classroom experience to show teachers how to help students use their everyday argument skills to energize the classroom, meet these standards, and achieve success. An extra treat is that Stuart himself writes in a down to earth language refreshingly devoid of Educationese.

What I appreciate most about Dave Stuart’s book These 6 Things: How to Focus Your Teaching on What Matters Most is that he is one of us: a classroom teacher sharing with us what works for him in ways that will work for us in our own classrooms with our own students.

If you’re searching for balance as a teacher of literacy, search no further. Dave Stuart Jr.
offers a calming voice for a frenzied profession and provides practical classroom strategies that will help you teach adolescents in the rich and meaningful ways they deserve without becoming overwhelmed. This book is packed with ideas that are research-based, student-centered, and most of all, workable.

In These 6 Things, Dave Stuart provides a framework and road map that is of value to educators at all stages of their careers, from novices to veterans. He reminds us all to focus in on the things that are most important and to do them well. Much of the book creates opportunities for the kinds of reflection and self-analysis in which most teachers do not have the opportunity to engage. A great tool for new teachers and seasoned teachers alike to find their “Everest” and pursue it.

These 6 Things is a joyful shot in the arm for experienced teachers as well as for novices. Is it possible to consolidate the most important aspects of teaching into one book—complete with relevant, engaging examples that have been tried and proven by teachers in various content areas? I wouldn’t have thought so, but Dave has managed to do it, all while affirming, encouraging, and acting as a “guide on the side” for those who may feel unsure about trying out new activities with their students. You’ll want to carve out some reading time for this book.