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Working in the Reggio Way: A Beginner's Guide for American Teachers by Julianne Wurm, Redleaf Press, 2005, 240 pp., ISBN 978-1- 929610-64-8
I suspect that most readers of Language Arts have heard of Reggio schools, but many have not come to a solid, deep understanding of their beliefs and practices developed over the past 50 years. You see, it wasn't until Newsweek identified Reggio Emilia early childhood programs as the best in the world in 1991 that they were thrust into the international spotlight. Since then, these amazing schools, which were truly built by families and community members out of the rubble after WWII, have offered a new vision of teaching that honors the "hundred languages of children" and, in so doing, challenges our notions of development and communication. Parents and community members were inspired to create schools that would encourage children to think and act for themselves in an effort to confront fascism. When Loris Malaguzzi learned of these emerging schools, he joined the effort and shaped them in critical ways. Hall and Rudkin argue, "Loris Malaguzzi, key architect of the Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education, observed that young children participate in the world using 'one hundred languages' for exploring, discovering, constructing, representing, and conveying their ideas" (Hall & Rudkin, 2011, p. 1).
Author Julianne Wurm chose to write this book because she understood the need to help American teachers explore, embrace, and eventually implement Reggio-inspired practices. Basically, the intent of this book is to translate the brilliance of the Reggio ways into practices that work in diverse cultures for American teachers. Wurm was in a position to compose this text because she had the privilege of working onsite in several Reggio schools. By apprenticing herself to Italian teachers who lived and learned in the Reggio way, she developed a deep and abiding understanding...