“It was about this stage in my journey that I began to understand the significance of the difference between the teacher’s perception of the classroom and the students’ perceptions. In order to take responsibility for a class of 25 to 35 students who have different knowledge, skills, interests, and motivations, teachers have to develop ways of managing the class as a whole. It is impossible to focus on the individual learning of any one student for more than very brief periods.

“The ritualized routines of teacher-student interaction appear to have evolved to solve this problem. Teachers follow patterned action sequences (Bohannan, 1995) that work because both teachers and students have learned exactly what to expect of each other (Quantz & Magolda, 1997). Within these ritualized patterns, students learn how to manage their own private and social agendas. They learn how and when the teacher will notice them and how to give the appearance of active involvement. They get upset and anxious if the teacher is keeping more than a passing eye on them, as the teacher will get upset if the students do not respond in culturally expected ways (Hughes, 1973).

“I began to think of the class as an orchestra following a cultural musical score. So long as everyone knows his part, the whole works together effectively. Furthermore, when everyone is following her own score, the coherent sound of the whole orchestra makes it very difficult to separate out the sounds of individual instruments. In a classroom, we have found that even a trained observer finds it extraordinarily hard to focus on the continuous experience of an individual student without getting absorbed back into the performance of the class as a whole (Alton-Lee et al., 1993).”

Nuthall, Graham “The cultural myths and realities of classroom teaching and learning: A personal journey”, The Teachers College Record, Vol. 107, No. 5, May 2005, pp. 895-934(40)

If you are not able to acces this article then read the following which contains substantially the same material, although in an earlier and shorter form:

Nuthall, G. (2001, December). The cultural myths and the realities of teaching and learning. Unpublished Jean Herbison Lecture, 2001. Accessed online at Lead Space on 22nd January, 2008.

Or go straight to the book available promptly from the New Zealand Council for Educational Research.

What is your favourite book? There are too many but The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles is one of the few books I’ve reread.

What are you reading right now? Don’t Call Me Ishmael by Michael Gerard Bauer. It is very funny.

What’s the book you wish someone would write? It would be called “How to Achieve Everything and Stay Calm”

What book would you like to write? I’d like to write the book of my future travels.

by Tara June Winch

Tara June Winch is a talented young indigenous writer who won the David Unaipon Award with this story of a young girl on a journey of self discovery. May gradually works out where she really needs to go, only to discover different, harder truths than she had imagined. The triumph of this story is that May does make the journey and eventually comes home.

Not a children’s story, nor suited to the fainthearted reader for its sometimes confronting content, this book is a poetic piece which demands something of the reader and displays the talent of this promising author.

Find out more about Swallow the Air and Tara June Winch.

by Michael Parker

This is an exciting time slip thriller, set in Sydney. Partly it is in our Sydney and partly in a quite different Sydney which is a scary place and one which is strange and nightmarish yet proves to be dangerously real. Andrew thought he had a few problems, but nothing he couldn’t handle. Never quite sure that supporting his bullying mate Josh is the right right thing to do, but too weak to do anything else, he suddenly finds himself lost in a world out of his control and faced with a seemingly twin Josh. But this version is even more worrying. Can Andrew take control and survive as well? Find out in this gripping read. There is also a website which gives lots of background to the ideas in the book, suggests a soundtrack and lists other books which inspired the author to write Doppelganger, like Heart of Darkness and Lord of the Flies.

by J. C. Burke

2006 Winner CBCA Award – Older readers

Tom Brennan is 17 and was the hero of the rugby team at his school before the accident. Now he is repeating Year 11 in a new town, having to face his old team on the field, and coping badly with visiting his brother in gaol and his cousin in hospital.

In a small community the waves that reverberate from a fatal crash caused by one of their own seem to go on forever. What of the family of the drunken driver? In this story they find that leaving town is the only way out. Even then each must come to terms in their own way.

This is a powerfully told story with all the more impact because any one of us might one day be in the situation that faces the Brennans. You can’t go back and as Tom finds, you can’t just forget. The only way is forward.

The relationship between Tom and his brother Daniel is very important in Burke’s book. Their cousin, Fin, was also like a brother to them, and their mother’s brother was close to Daniel and helped Tom come to terms with circumstances.

Other excellent books about brothers include:
Flash Jack by Maureen McCarthy
Fighting Ruben Wolf, The Underdog and When Dogs Cry, all by Markus Zusak
Lost Property by James Moloney

…and don’t forget sisters:
The Red Shoe by Ursula Dubosarsky
Dead Girls Don’t Write Letters by Gail Giles
Missing You, Love Sara by Jackie French

Have you read any of these books? Well why not? We would love to publish your review of any of these titles, or one of your own choice. Send to the address above or just add to “comments” below.

by Ursula DubosarskyAustralian Readers’ Challenge listed title.This is a sequel to The First Book of Samuel but it is not necessary to read both books to enjoy either one. Both feature a loving but chaotic family focusing on Samuel aged 13 and Theodora, 14, who live with their father and his second wife Hannah (Samuel’s mother). At the heart of this family is their German Jewish heritage and their grandfather Elias, a holocaust survivor who is approaching death.Theodora and Samuel are both disturbed when their father sees frightening visions and suddenly moves to the country with Pearl – his first wife and Theodora’s mother. Both children take action in their own way to bring their father home. The story is set in September 2001 – it seems for a while that it is not just this unusual family which has become somewhat more chaotic than usual.

A gentle and absorbing story with a cast of unusual characters.

by Ursula Dubosarsky

The Red Shoe is a story with the child’s point of view at its centre. Set around Easter 1954 and looking back to a significant event of the previous Boxing Day, we see a family in a time of crisis. There are three daughters aged 6, 11 and 15, a mother, a father who is often absent on his ship, and Uncle Paul.

Around them are contemporary events involving Russian spies, children dying of polio, and various Sydney murders and misadventures, captured in newspaper clippings placed between many of the chapters. But there is also the possibility of going to the Royal Easter Show, family picnics, trips to the beach and school parades.

In spite of the child’s point of view, this story deals with some serious issues. The father is suffering from the after-effects of trauma so his depression and the shocking possibility of suicide create a fearful backdrop to the story.

Looking back on The Red Shoe is like viewing a tapestry that reveals greater depths as you move from capturing the big picture to looking into each detailed corner. There is much to discover here.

Read how the author came to write The Red Shoe here. For links to background information about a variety of things mentioned in the book, like the Petrov Affair, polio epedemics of the 50s, the Argonauts Club and the Palm Beach Ferry look here.

by Alan Gibbons

We hear this story in turn about from two sources – the diary of John, who we know from the start has died, and the recollections of school mate Annie. Although never a friend of John’s, they happened to meet some months before on holidays a long way from home. John is not someone she has paid any attention to – in fact she rather fancied one of the boys who turns out to have been tormenting John for years. But she learns from him something of the bullying he has suffered and sees first hand how harshly John’s father treats him.

Who is responsible for John’s death? Annie thinks she knows and returns to England bent on exposing the bullies. But could she be implicated? Her friendship with John stirred up feelings in him that were more than she wanted. Has she done the right thing? Can she accept that others have learned from this hard experience? Why didn’t John do more to expose the classmates who terrorised him? And did he really intend to kill himself?

Alan Gibbons stirs up emotions and asks us to put ourselves in the places of the major characters of this drama. Many of us will identify with the friends and teachers in the story who are very wary of causing a fuss, but also played their part. A gripping read.

This author seems to make every story he writes a thriller. Other excellent books by Gibbons held by the library include The Legendeer Trilogy – Shadow of the Minotaur, Vampyr Legion and Warriors of the Raven. Even his humorous books tell stories at a mile a minute – like Julie and Me and Michael Owen Makes Three, which is about a boy who can never quite decide if he is more obsessed with soccer or girls (at least, a certain girl).

Compiled and edited by Leonard S. Marcus

If you are a fantasy fan (and I am not particularly) then you will love this book. I went straight to the interview with Garth Nix and found it immediately absorbing. Nix answers questions about his childhood reading, how he came to be a writer, how he organises his work, about research and advice for young writers. My favourite answer is to the question What is the best part of being a writer?:
“Making up stories. Finishing a book. Receiving the first copies hot off the press. Having my work sit on the same shelves as books by authors whose work I have admired all my reading life.”

The illustrations include a copy of handwritten notes for Drowned Wednesday. Great stuff! Other authors featured include Brian Jacques (Redwall), Ursula K. Le Guin (Earthsea), Tamora Pierce (Song of the Lioness), Philip Pullman (Northern Lights) and half a dozen more. Would love to hear some reviews of the other interviews in this book from some of the many fans of these authors.

Meanwhile, there seem to be a dozen Garth Nix websites out there but his own fairly plain one is my favourite. It has his own humorous comments and has lots of interesting stuff, plus links to all the sites which are produced by his publishers. Garth Nix