4 minute read
Book Review: The Minimalist Teacher
Book Review
Review by Amie Reed
The Minimalist Teacher
by Tamera MusiowskyBorneman and C. Y. Arnold
Click the cover to view on ASCD.
Teachers’ plates are full, and it can feel like items continue to pile on. Whether it’s new curriculum materials, different district initiatives, or increasingly complex student needs, teachers experience frequent additions to their loads. Without thoughtful revision of existing materials, systems, curriculum, and initiatives a teacher’s “plate” fills up and overflows. Enter The Minimalist Teacher by Tamera Musiowsky-Boreman and C.Y. Arnold. This book thoughtfully helps teachers examine what they need and what they do not. Eliminating what is no longer serving us leaves space for growth and creativity. The book is written with the classroom teacher in mind, but any educator can benefit from the numerous reflective prompts throughout. The book’s core is the Triple P Framework introduced on pages 12-16. The Framework includes the Triple P questions, the Triple P funnel, and the Triple P cycle. Triple P Questions - What is our purpose? What are our priorities? How can we pare down resources? Using these questions can help educators get to the heart of a situation and find manageable solutions.
Triple P Funnel - This applies the Triple P questions to a funnel graphic to help readers visualize minimizing to the essential elements. Throughout the book, the funnel includes reflective prompts to help teachers think critically about each component. Triple P Cycle - Moving through the Triple P framework will take educators through a process in which they will ideate, inquire, investigate, act, and advocate. Each chapter helps readers take a critical look at the what and how of your teaching practice? Chapter 4 - “Decluttering the Curriculum” and Chapter 5 - “Decluttering Instructional and Assessment Strategies” are here for you. The final chapter, “Advocating for Minimalism in Your Teaching Environment,” will help you think about how to reach out to others. I found the step-by-step process in the “Decluttering the Physical Environment” chapter very helpful. It breaks your
see where they may be in the cycle with specific points for reflection. The first chapter serves as an introduction to orient the reader to a culture of minimalism, and the remaining chapters can be read in any order based on the reader’s needs and interests. For example, are you feeling overwhelmed by your physical items? Perhaps you want to start with Chapter 2 - “Decluttering the Physical Environment.” Does it seem like every year brings a new initiative, but nothing stops? Check out Chapter 3 - “Decluttering Initiatives.” Want to classroom into individual spaces and prompts teachers through the Triple P questions for each area. Going through the questions about each section of the room helped me see what is important and essential to my work and what is not. There are many helpful checklists and reflection questions throughout the book, but I thought the Middle Funnel Priorities list on page 75 from the “Decluttering the Curriculum” chapter was quite beneficial. It helped me think about specific areas I may need to prioritize in our curriculum, such as
student needs or student interests. For each of the suggested areas, the authors include next steps to consider. I would highly recommend this book not only to classroom teachers, but also to all educators. At a time when teachers are increasingly expressing being overloaded and overwhelmed, the steps outlined in this book create a clear pathway forward. As the authors state on page 115, “Teaching will always be an overly busy job. But we encourage you to strive to ensure all those elements of ‘busyness’ are ones in which there is meaning to you, that in fact do meet with your purpose and priorities. Let us take control in order to pare down what makes you busy without adding meaning or depth.” An individual educator could get a lot out of this book, but I think there would be a lot of power in reading this book with a group. In the book’s introduction, the authors include suggested processes and actions for reading on your own, reading with a PLC, or reading with a book club. In Appendix C, the authors also include study guide discussion questions for each chapter in the book, making it easy to use. Working together, we can help each other to clearly see our purpose, what priorities support this purpose, and what is most essential. Collaborating to eliminate what is not aligned creates more time and space to think, learn, and grow. This is not just a book about less. It is about seeing what is important and aligning our materials and time accordingly. At a time that seems to be about doing more, using these strategies over those, or picking one curriculum over the other, the strategies in this book can help us stay focused on what matters. Amie Reed has worked in O’Fallon District 90 since 2005, starting as an English Language Arts Teacher and later serving as a middle school academic interventionist and science teacher. Currently, she is the district’s literacy coach. Amie is an ASCD Emerging Leader, a Google for Education Certified Trainer and Coach, a Teach Plus Illinois Policy Fellow Alum, and an NCTE Conference on English Leadership Emerging Leaders Fellow.
