Education Teaching Books

This is a very good book to introduce School Law to anyone who may be interested.

This book is very easy to read and is very helpful in understanding school law.

School Law & the Public Schools is at best an introduction to school laws. It is fine for undergrads, but for Master's programs it is lacking any real detail or substance. If you like the basics this one fills the bill. If you need in-depth knowledge go elsewhere.

This is a great book for information about school and the laws that govern them. I recommend this book.

I highly recommend this book for its excellent coverage of law in a clear and concise manner. A superior reference for students in educational administration, practicing school leaders, or for teachers that need clarity on issues that deal with broad legislation. I have no criticism whatsoever. However, if you need specific state laws this may not be the best resource for you. This book belongs in every public school library in the country, in every classroom, and in every administrative office in our educational system. Thanks for such a great book!

This is a great resource to utilize for implementing a balance literacy program in your classroom.

I love how Regie Routman balances passion with dedication and inspires enthusiasm for even the most mundane routines. She understands that a happy teacher is a good teacher, and is one of the few who encourages educators to have a personal life and share important parts of themselves with students. "Reading Essentials" is not just a practical guide to literacy education: it's a call for teachers to fall in love with reading and inspire the same passion in their students. The children I've taught have learned to become authentic, purposeful, and enthusiastic readers in large part because of Regie Routman's ideas and strategies.

This is an awesome resource for beginning or student teachers and helps with the basics. Very clear, simple and direct.

Great!One of the best books on reading instruction ever! Easy to read, and very well organized,full of practical tips,and lots of student examples. Enjoy!

This is unquestionably the best "how-to" book on teaching reading that I have come across. It is written from the standpoint of a classroom teacher, but there are plenty of essential ideas for homeschoolers, too. One way or another it covers every (as far as I can see) important point, and I agree with most of them. The best chapter is #8, Teaching Comprehension, where the first sidebar says "Teach Comprehension Right from the Start." Cool!

Routman moves most of the academic material to the end of the book, where there are many endnotes with references to research articles and a hefty index.

So what's not to like? The text is more of a collection of ideas and tips rather than an evolving education in teaching literacy (which I would love to see Routman take on). The many entry points to the text material (sidebars, bullet points, "Try it, Apply it" tabs, chapter heads, and subheadings) prevented me from finding a continuous, developing thread of instruction. The book is, as it sets out to be, a tune-up guide for trained teachers who are already dealing with classrooms of students. There is too little step-by-step guidance for homeschoolers who are new to teaching literacy. This is especially apparent in dealing with very early readers, where specific training, commercial materials lists, and informal assessments would be welcome (Routman seems to say that such would be infeasible). I missed recommended reading lists that might specifically tie in with coaching in the text, and striking the best balance of phonics to reading is brought out, but left up to the intuition of the teacher.

The thrust of most of the book is about 5th grade difficulties, but it seems to me that a solid K-3 program would head off most of those problems. I found K-3 to be the weakest component of the book.

Routman acknowledges the many demands on classroom teachers for their time and compassion, but I think she is unrealistic about what is achievable in a classroom-based school setting. Interestingly, though she never mentions homeschooling, her prescriptives are precisely what motivates homeschoolers (this one, at least) and homeschooling is a very sensible response to many of the ills she addresses.

Finally, I had the nagging feeling that the book could have benefited from being substantially shorter. Whatever shortcomings Reading Essentials may have for homeschoolers, it's still the best resource available, and it IS essential.

Just out in 2006, Rick Wormeli's FAIR ISN'T ALWAYS EQUAL has the latest research on teaching (especially middle and high school) pulled together nicely in one 200-page package. For me, a lot of it was necessary review and reaffirmation of differentiated instruction, standards-based instruction, and various strategies I've read about but haven't gotten around to using. For beginning teachers or veteran teachers whose schools are converting to the standards-based and/or differentiated instruction mode of instructing, it is a terrific primer and source of discussion.

That's all well and good (and a terrific learning tool for teachers), but what really appeals is how Wormeli wades into some hot-button topics like grading (he calls it the "elephant in the room" we don't want to discuss). In addition to issues of assessment, fairness, and mastery teaching, Wormeli brings up whether or not we should grade participation, effort, behavior, and attendance. My school has been debating this very topic of late, and Wormeli not only provides both points of view, he dives into the debate fearlessly by taking a stand and giving a well-reasoned defense of his view.

In addition, there's loads of practical stuff on how to teach students of various abilities, how to keep a grade book, how to structure report cards, and how to create fair tests.

This would be a great professional reading "book group" choice for teachers to read, annotate, then discuss. As it uses the "See Inside" feature here at amazon, I recommend you check out the Table of Contents for a look at what's inside. It won't disappoint.

This is a good read for all teachers. It will make you think as well as give strategies for differentiating.

Excellent book. This book covers alot of different perspectives on how to "grade" or evaluate student progress. I recommend it.

Wormeli provides guidlelines which should be adopted by all educators and schools as the gold standards for assessment. He is practical with his suggestions and shares wisdom from many educators on a wide variety of assessment topics. This book should be on every educator's desk.

There are 19 different social skills lessons with blackline masters. The skills are taught in a variety of formats including direct teaching, discussion, hands-on activities, role-play, puppet play, games, poems and stories, visual aids, and songs. I love to use literature when I can, and this book referenced many picture books for each social skill! It's a fabulous find-I only wish I'd had it sooner!

I thought this was a good tool for use with ALL kids grades K-1, and the activities seemed fun. I was disappointed that it wasn't more clear that it was for such young classes. This isn't going to solve major problems, but it would certainly work to prevent some!

This is a good resource. I had to modify many of the activies due to the nature of my urban setting. It sparked ideas for other activities that were more suited to my setting.

This book offers direct lessons with worksheets, group activities, games, and book suggestions all to match each skill being taught in the lesson. It is a great component to any social skills class/group. I am using it for 2nd graders, so the preschool focus may be true for general education students, but for students with social needs, this is appropriate for older kids. Enjoy.

This book has worked well with a small group of 8 CC children. If you need to do pre and post tests for acountability, there is a GREAT face scale that can easily be colored for pre-writers. Activities are well laid out and most are kept to a page, so you don't have to flip back and forth. I am very glad to found this book, I can tell already that it is going to get a lot of use. The pre post test alone is worth the cost of the book!

I was looking for something more meaty and this book is written on an 8th grade reading level, which gives me little faith in it's target audience - day care employees. That being said, its a decent overview of the theorists and can be read in one Sunday afternoon. Kind of like a 'Day Care for Dummies.' You'll know roughly when the scholars lived and a very general outline of their ideas. Perfect for a teen or middle-schooler who baby sits and has some intellectual curiosity about what's going on in the mind of her neighbor's rug rats. Great for a new mom that is not a huge reader. But not an academic book.

little of practical value. gives high level overview of concepts but evidence supporting their effectiveness is not substantiated, and methods for applying them are few.

Theories of Childhood: An Introduction to Dewey, Montessori, Erikson, Piaget & Vygotsky
I read this book as part of a class, but I found it very interesting and it held my attention well.

This is basically a pamphlet. Wikipedia probably has longer entries for each of the theorists/practitioners covered here than each chapter of this book. It is an informative introduction, but if you want anything more than a cursory overview, go elsewhere. And even if that is all you want, might as well save your $ and look the people up on Wikipedia instead.

This book is a concise review of the theories of each of the men listed in the title. It is most appropriate for college students. It is too elementary for graduate psychology or psychiatry students, who would like a more in-depth presentation of their ideas.

As a special ed teacher this book has been very helpful. I am able to give other teachers a brief checklist that describes a students difficulties and use those indicators to create classroom accomadations to for each child. Very helpful book.

I am very thankful for this book. It explains sensory processing dysfunction, it provides you with questionairres to determine if your child has a difficulties processing sensoy input, and it provides you with therapeutic activities that will benefit a kiddo w/ SPD. A great resource for parents, teachers, and professionals.

As an occupational therapist, it was a wonderful resource to share with the teachers and directors that I work with in schools. They talked about how they developed a better understanding of "odd" behaviors that they saw in class. They also liked the checklists.

When my sons ages 6 and 5 were diagnosed with sensory integration disorder I had no idea what in the world that was, or what it meant for my boys. Enter this handy book that answered so many of my questions. The lists and tips given are easy to understand-written for "real people" not those with doctorates in educational theory :)I have gone to this book again and again since purchasing it. If your child, or children you know or work with, has been diagnosed with sensory processing problems, this guide is a definitive answer for you! You can quickly and easily identify problem areas. I highly recommend this guide for those asking questions that seemingly have no answers.

A very comprehensive book for those who are interested in using literature circles to boost their students' interest in reading and speaking skills. It can surely help you to gain a very good understanding of what literature circles are and the "tips" provided after the description of every lesson are quite helpful. However, the lessons described in the book are for first language learners and you will need make adaptations if you want to use the ideas with your EFL students.

If you are a teacher like me, or if you are forming a literature group, this book is an excellent resource. It will help you work with students to ensure that they have organized and productive literature cirlce discussions.

Excellent resource. Lots of great ideas, easily adaptable to various grade levels and abilities.

This book is a useful tool if you plan to introduce literature circles into your classroom. It is an easy read, something that one can use as a reference as well as a lesson-planning tool. The way the book is written and organized allows me to use the individual lesson plans with my own literature, whether using novels, short stories or poetry. Having never used literature circles before and being a little skeptical, I am very pleased with this book's ability to explain the benefit and realistic purpose of using them in a high school classroom. The authors have definitely done their research and answer all the questions teachers have regarding the reality of using these circles. I am convinced and am looking forward to implementing them in my own classroom.

The premise behind this book is great. I was hoping to have some instant lessons to use with my fourth grade students. While some of the lessons are adaptable to that age, the activities are really designed for high school classes.

There are lots of fresh ideas for independent reading response, by this time of year most of us have used up most of our good ideas, this supplies a few fresh ones. Can't go wrong with this series, I have a few of them in the series, teacher recommended and created...can't beat that.

This is a great resource for teachers. It has lots of reproducibles to help with reading. Nice format.

I taught a 6 day workshop for K-5 teachers and this is one of the books we used. Great material for immediate use.
SH in FL

I love this book. Its a great tool for visual learners. Its just what the title said it was "INSTANT" independent reading response activities. They were easy for the students to understand, but not too easy, They actually had to think about what they read.

Wonderful complement to your reading program. Enough activities to keep several different levels of readers engaged.

I initially read this book as a study group member. I subsequently bought 5 more copies to share with teachers. The words of wisdom from these students would benefit any first time teacher from Elementary School to High School, and would benefit any teacher who needs a reminder of what to do or not do in order to have a productive mutually respected school year!

This book ROCKS. I wish that all of my teachers would read it. High school kids are sick of being treated like second class citizens or caged animals and finally here we get some respect. Thank you Kathleen Cushman for listening to intelligent teenagers and getting their words into print.

This book was awesome! If I had read this before my first year of teaching, I would have been a much better teacher. I'm really glad I came across it in a bookstore and bought it on a whim as I entered my second year of teaching. It's a book that I know I will read again after a bad day to connected to my students' point of view. It's also a book that I plan to share with many of my colleagues. It really hepled me see things from a kids' perspective. I think it will change my teaching for the better.

If you eat chips in class, the teacher will give you a detention.
If you eat chips while working, your boss will fire you.
Ms. Cushman likes it when kids say what they want. But she forgot that when they graduate and go to work, they can't always get what they want. You have to listen to your boss at work or lose your job.
Following orders at school is good practice for the day you start working for a living.

I was in the bookstore browsing and found this book. I've been teaching college students for over ten years, but only began teaching community college four years ago, and thus feel a bit at sea sometimes with the "high school mentality." This book contains some things that are obvious to those who have been teaching for a long time, but it's almost certain that at least one or two of the views of the kids will be helpful and will translate directly into classroom practice in a way that few books on teaching do.
The insights this book provides into what highschools are like, especially for kids in large city schools, are invaluable. I was surprised to find myself already following a piece of advice I read in the book in the classroom the next day. Definetely worth reading.