Book Club: Most Likely to Succeed
Discussion Guide for Week 1 — Introduction through Chapter 3
Hope everyone has had a chance to get a copy of this month’s book club reading — Most Likely to Succeed: Preparing Our Kids for the Innovation Era by Tony Wagner and Ted Dintersmith. This week we’ll be reading the Introduction through chapter 3.
THIS WEEK’S QUESTIONS
We’ve curated a few questions we’d love to discuss as a community. Here they are:
(Q1) QUESTION 1
In the Introduction, Tony and Ted write:
We’d like to encourage you to take a few minutes to reflect on the most transformational aspects of your education — experiences that took place either inside or outside the classroom. (pg. 4)
We’d love for you to share your answers with us!
(Q2) QUESTION 2
In the Lawrenceville School experiment, recounted on page 41, where students were asked to retake the final exam they had completed the previous year, the average score dropped 30 percent into a failing range. This prompted the school to rethink the way courses were taught, and to eliminate almost half of the content. We wonder, where does content coverage rank in your own classroom? In your school? In your district?
(Q3) QUESTION 3
Rachel Wolfe’s documentary, Losing Ourselves, mentioned on pages 46–47, recounts the loss of passion, purpose and curiosity as students move through elementary and high school. Do you agree that the way success is defined and evaluated in the modern academic context hampers rather than nurtures curiosity and passion in students? Do you think the modern apprenticeship model (page 22) helps support those capacities in students?
(Q4) QUESTION 4
What is the purpose of education? Is our teaching approach one that actually helps our students to learn? What does it mean to teach and to learn? How do you define each of those?
PARTICIPATE
Join in the conversation by sharing your insights, favorite quotes, and responses to the discussion questions directly in the comments section below and on Twitter and Facebook using the hashtags #SparkCuriosity and #MLTS
- If you don’t already have one, create a Medium account.
- Post a comment to this discussion guide with your reflections; answers to the questions; your own questions or links to relevant articles videos and resources that relate to this week’s reading. To make it easier for other members to respond to your insights, if you’re answering a specific question from the discussion guide, please mark which ones (i.e. Q1) in the heading of your response.
- Browse other community members’ answers to these questions and respond to the ones that inspire you.
- Host a book club meet up in your area — download our facilitator’s guide for tips on how to organize and promote your event.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Here are some links to the articles and videos mentioned in the chapters we’re reading this week.
{ ARTICLES }
- A Nation At Risk report: The Imperative For Educational Reform (1973)
- Why the Education Economy Is the Next Big Thing for the American Workforce
- Don’t Send Your Kids to an Ivy League College
- Becoming a Real Person
- Harvard’s 2011 Pathways to Prosperity Report
- Rigor on Trial
- Democracy at Risk by Deborah Meier
- National Charter School Study 2013
{ DOCUMENTARIES }
- Losing Ourselves by Rachel Wolfe
- The Finland Phenomenon (watch it on YouTube in four parts: 1, 2, 3, 4)
NEXT WEEK
For next week, we’ll be reading from Millennial Interview: Jaime through Chapter 4 (pages 77–145). Check in next Thursday for our next set of questions.
NEED HELP?
If you have questions or want help getting started, reach out to us on Twitter at @lyokana59, @markcarlucci and @ecf29. We’re the Book Club moderators and we can’t wait to dig in!
If you want to learn more about us, check out our Teachers Guild profiles:
