Next Steps Toward Teaching the Reggio Way Accepting the Challenge to Change

Next Steps Toward Teaching the Reggio Wayis, in part, a progress report documenting new steps toward teaching the Reggio way that American and Canadian teachers have taken in the 6 years sinceFirst Steps Toward Teaching the Reggio Waywas published. For the first time, it is possible to include chapters on relationships that range from recognizing the rights of infants and toddlers while using the Reggio Approach to creating respectful adult relationships in a multicultural community and enfolding parents into the learning environment. There are several down-to-earth chapters demonstrating how teachers actually construct curriculum as a joint enterprise between them and the children, and also chapters on documenting the results of that curriculum as well as suggestions for creating appropriate settings for learning. There are even chapters describing an experimental attempt to apply the Reggio principles in a number of elementary schools, and one on detailing ways to advocate for the philosophy. All this new material is supported by a solid explanation of the Reggio Emilia philosophy by Lella Gandini, a leading authority on that subject, and stimulated by a series of challenging questions proposed by the inimitable Lilian Katz. Finally, there is a chapter particularly dear to my heart that recounts a first time visit to Reggio by a group of students majoring in early childhood education. A note of caution:Next Steps Toward Teaching the Reggio Wayis a practical book filled with inspiring, yet practical descriptions of ways various teachers have incorporated different aspects of the Reggio Emilia Approach into their early childhood classrooms. But it is NOT a handbook intended to meet the demands of the person in an audience who recently said to me, "Don't tell me all that stuff about philosophy--just get to the bottom line--tell me how to do Reggio and I'll do it!" The truth is there is no way "to do Reggio." Nor is there any author in this book who would maintain thattheirway istheway, or the ideal way, or perhaps the only way "to do Reggio. " Instead, the following chapters recount individual stories not about "how-to-do-it;" but more about "how-we-do-it:' It is up to the readers to garner for themselves whatever thoughts and ideas resonate within their own hearts and then begin the long and exciting adventure of incorporating these ideas into their own milieus.Hendrick, Joanne is the author of 'Next Steps Toward Teaching the Reggio Way Accepting the Challenge to Change', published 2004 under ISBN 9780130496577 and ISBN 013049657X.