美国Head Start 教育计划是美国政府在1965年创办的一个针对确保低收入家庭有被提供完整早期教育、保健、营养以及家长参与的计划。他们的使命当初是：“Head Start promotes school preparation by enhancing the social and cognitive development of children through the provision of educational, health, nutritional, social and other services”，现在被改为：“Helping people. Changing lives. Building communities”。
 
在本书中，作者描述了在Head Start幼儿园教室里这些3-4岁的儿童如何在第一年的上学时期学会一个重要的技能：表演故事（story acting）。这是Head Start教室里一个核心教学工具，孩子们不但会表演一些经典、高品质的文学故事，同时也会表演他们同学彼此创造的故事。作者透过两位独特的思考家——俄罗斯心理学家Lev Vygotsky以及美国教育作家以及老师Vivian G. Paley——来解释这个教育活动为什么这么成功。她在书中同时解释为什么表演故事可以当作整个幼儿园的教课计划的最中心点，更能够帮助学校——甚至社会——变得更好。
 
表演故事可以培养孩子的口述以及写作能力。老师们可以利用这个活动来帮助孩子学习逻辑以及学会塑造出自己的想法。这个教育活动同时可以培养孩子的创意能力以及文学欣赏能力，帮助孩子学会善于表达、深思熟虑，以及成为更有文学性的学生。
 
关于作者：
Gillian Dowley McNamee是美国芝加哥Erikson Institute的儿童发展教授以及老师教育主任。她合著过Early Literacy, The Fifth Dimension: An After School Program Built on Diversity 以及andBridging: Assessment for Teaching and Learning in Early Childhood Classrooms两本书。


好评：
Joshua Sparrow, Harvard University
“Through her imaginary conversations with Vivian Paley and Lev Vygotsky, two path breakers in the field of education, McNamee illuminates the social nature of learning, some of the pitfalls of recent educational reform, and the pathways to human creativity. The High-Performing Preschool is a must-read not only for every educator, policy maker, and parent ready to change the direction of education in the United States today, but also for anyone who seeks to lay the groundwork in young children for empathy, innovation, and leadership.”
 
Benjamin Mardell, Lesley University
“In the efforts to expand formal educational opportunities for young children, one critical question looms: what kind of experiences should they have in preschool? This question is particularly important for those who need preschool the most: children from low-income families and children whose first language is not English. Compelling and clear, with a rich and lively interplay of theory and practice, The High-Performing Preschool goes a long way toward answering that question.”
 
Luis C. Moll, University of Arizona
“This is a telling book. The participatory pedagogy it offers builds on children’s enactments or dramatizations of their imagined stories and on extended discussions and interpretations of stories found in children’s literature. These activities provide the context for children to develop special ways of using words and narrative forms of discourse, central to future success in school. As McNamee demonstrates in detail, a classroom is never simply a setting: by engaging what is already there—the students’ ideas, imaginations, experiences, stories, relations, and conversations—it becomes a powerful source of development.”