The most extraordinary characteristics of books written by Rafe Esquith is that he writes about using ordinary teaching techniques that generate phenomenal results. His impact is in direct relation to his making the children the center of the teaching versus making the testing requirements the focus.
In his latest book, Lighting Their Fires, (Viking, 2009), he uses a field trip to a baseball game as the backdrop to explain to parents how to “equip” their children for success.
Basic Teaching Tools
Esquith uses the word extraordinary a number of times throughout this book and in his last bestselling book (Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire, Viking, 2007) to describe his students. When reading either book the most striking realization is that he has taken his teaching techniques back to basics, to what teaching should be.
He teaches in an older classroom without all of the fancy, high-tech equipment found in newer classrooms. Esquith also uses books, music, Shakespearean plays and field trips to make his teachings realistic and relevant to his students.
He finds ways to apply what the kids are learning to real-life. And, he gives them ways to keep learning, even on weekends.
Teaching to the Children
He keeps the kids the center and the focus of all of his teaching versus teaching to state testing, state or federal quotas, or other mandatory regulations.
One example, Esquith teaches a topic that is vital to future success for most children but is not necessarily a topic that is on state tests, time management.
Esquith wrote, “Children need to be taught to be on time, but this message is just the beginning. Once a fundamental idea is introduced, its message is forever expanding.”
He listens and responds to his students’ questions and answers and his students respond to him. Esquith mentions numerous students in his book and he mentions one towards the end of this book that is now studying for her doctorate, Joann.
Esquith included feedback from Joann that sums up what she learned from being in Esquith’s class, “She wrote of many fond memories, but summed up what she felt was the most important thing she had learned being in Room 56: I was provoked to think. I was challenged to stay away from the ordinary. And I did.”
Parent’s Tools
Esquith uses the everyday standard backpack as an analogy to teach parents how they can equip their children with more than pencils and paper.
The author wrote, “Most parents help their young children get ready for school. They buy school supplies and, particularly in a child’s early years, help them organize their backpacks.”
In addition to filling a child’s backpack with school supplies and books, parents need to pack “products of knowledge” garnered from music, movies, reading books, in games, and the wisdom of parents and teachers along with the child’s own experiences.
A Handbook for Teaching
In his latest book, Esquith names each chapter after a baseball inning. He builds his story around what is happening at a baseball game that he has taken a group of his students to watch.
In Teach Like your Hair’s on Fire, he wrote about the importance of teaching kids to enjoy writing and reading. In this book, he stresses the importance of playing board games and other non-technology related games.
Esquith has been in the classroom over 25 years and his passion and pride shines through on every page of his books. With this much time and experience, his writings make for a good teaching handbook for teachers and parents alike.
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