"Sounds from the Heart is about girls - their learning, their social dilemmas, their dreams, hopes, and fears - and one teacher's struggle to help them reach their full potential.".

"Maureen Barbieri takes a careful, deliberate, and often disturbing look at the experiences of a group of seventh-grade girls as they are nudged into meaningful literacy. Drawing on the work of Nel Noddings, Carol Gilligan, Myra and David Sadker, as well as the theories of Donald Murray and Donald Graves, she asks tough questions about the role of literacy in girls' lives. Do we know what our girls are thinking? Do we make room for their questions in our classrooms?

How can we support risk taking at a time when the need to feel safe, secure, and accepted seems uppermost in their minds?" "We hear about the obstacles Barbieri faces, times when she stumbles along the way and contributes to the "voice training" that women so often inflict on girls. She describes how her students collaborate with her to become curriculum builders as they explore such loaded issues as duplicity, vengeance, and homophobia in their literature and especially in their writing and talking.".

"Sounds from the Heart is essential reading for any teacher, administrator, or student concerned about the ways girls learn."--BOOK JACKET.