Education Teaching Books

Excellent book to help young children learning basic addition skills. We started this book when my son was 4 years, 8 months. The going was slow for a while, but now we are more than halfway through the book, and I no longer have to guide him on every step. Prior to this book, he had not spent a lot of time learning to write his numbers (this was his first numbers workbook), and now he can write his number 1-29 without help.

For the reviewer who mentioned the pages were full of too many math problems for one sitting, I agree. We improvise, and I divide each page in half with a marker. He gets a sticker for each half-page he completes.

Most importantly, my son's confidence has dramatically improved. When we began the book, he was unsure of himself and easily confused by the many numbers, but time and patience has won out--and he races to get his book now.

I received this product in a timely manner,product in good condition.

I just love the Kumon workbooks because they are so well organized, with pages that are simply laid out and they introduce the information incrementally. It appeals to the learning style of my five year old. I was a tiny bit disappointed by how extremely simple this workbook is. It only covers adding 1 and 2 to the numbers 1 through 29. It says it right there on the cover but somehow I missed it. I would say it's definitely pre-school level and not kindergarten as I'd hoped. I'll probably just do a few of the pages with my five year old and order the next book to do this year with her and let my four year old use this when I need her to have busy-work. The information builds very slowly in this workbook and so it might not be ideal of the child who likes variety in their workbook pages or who struggles with being under-challenged or gets bored really quickly. However for my daughter this will be perfect.

I have brought all of the Kumon workbooks. Most of the other workbooks are full of bright colorful pictures with lessons containing just the right amount of sit down work. That is not true with this book. It is just pages full of problems -- too many of them for one sitting. They call it simple, because you are only adding 1 to numbers 1 to 29, but it is a bit much for a child trying to learn this for the first time. The book is fine for speed improvements, but find a different book for first time learners.

This was not all that I had wanted it to be. I have gotten way better books on teaching.

This is a must have for any teacher. I have been teaching for over 10 years and benefitted greatly from the information in this book. Every teacher has students that are described in this book. This book gives information on how to handle even the most difficult students. If you are a new teacher, I would also suggest The First Days Of School: How To Be An Effective TeacherI review both books every August.

First, I must admit that I have not yet read this book, since I only just now discovered it: I will remedy this immediately! I have, however, attended Dr. Jones' wonderful classroom management workshops, and I can't recall how many times I have related the opening exercise.

We, a group of anxious beginning teachers, were asked by the instructor to list all of the behaviors that our students demonstrated that drove us MAD! As we called out these iniquities, the instructor wrote them on the portable board in front of the room: "they talk when they should listen, they eat, drink and chew gum, they get up and walk around without permission, they don't pay attention, they always want to go to the bathroom, they answer without raising their hands, they play around with their friends, they show neither common courtesy, nor appropriate respect for authority...".etc.)

When we had finally begun to run out of crimes, the instructor, turned the board around and asked us to list behaviors we had observed during our last faculty meeting...

Natural human behavior is just that - whether it's observed in a seventh grader or a nearing retirement teacher. It's the context of learning to understand and work with human beings that makes Dr. Jones' methods so powerful. His workshops were the most valuable I ever attended as an educator, and I feel certain this book will also prove to be a gem. I am now an Assistant Principal, and I look forward to sharing his work with my teachers.

This book gets right to work on how to create a successful time-on-task classroom. Very logical and well thought out. Presents a well developed strategy. It does not jump around. Each sections answers some questions and raises others which are them taken up in detail.

Begins with Learning from 'Natural Teachers' who know how to manage and motivate. Teaches how the teacher can work smart and make the students work for speed and accuracy.

Jones answers the difficult "why should I" questions. Students ask, in effect, why should I care, behave, work, hurry, strive. Jones designs a multilayered answer to those questions including how to present material verbally, visually, and physically. How to 'work the crowd' and deal with the helpless and the disruptors. How to motivate. How to invest the time saved on dicipline to raise the quality of work. How to create positive incentives. Finally, how to deal with the most difficult situations.

This book is packed with specifics. Theoretically it applies to Kindergarten through High School. Some methods like preferred activity time would seem to apply more to earlier grades. The discussions of how to deal with disruptive students really speaks to the challenges of teaching high school.

This book is highly prescriptive. This is Fred's approach. You may not decide to handle everything the way he recommends, but you will certainly know his approach in great detail. Highly recommended.

Dr. Jones' Book is well-written and does contain some good advice, but he over-explains simple concepts. While reading his book I found myself alternating between three emotions (after twelve years of public school teaching): (1) "Wow this is great," (2) "O'K, you've made your point, now move on," and (3) "I totally disagree with that philosophy."

Harry Wong's book is much more practical and covers the whole picture of excellent teaching - management and instruction. While certainly not bad to have on your shelf, if your money is tight, skip this purchase.

Recieved item on time, right when we were told it would arrive. Book in very good condition.

Sadly, the students who will make the least progress during the school year are our gifted students. With all the energy that teachers spend trying to help our low-achieving students pass the ever more stressful mandated state tests, our high-achieving students can get left behind.

Winebrenner's wonderful resource can help teachers manage the wide range of ability levels in our classrooms, without spending every waking moment designing different lessons.

This should be in every teacher's classroom library. The strategies work with ALL students.

As a teacher in a regular classroom, I wanted some differentiated materials aimed at my GATE kids. My aim was to look and find out how to differentiate my lesson plans so that these gate kids can utilize their higher level skills. Maybe even take a normal lesson and extend it, fun things, and puzzles. However, the substance in the book was very sparse and I was thoroughly disappointed.

If you are reading this review, I suspect that you are a teacher. If you are a teacher, you need this book! Every classroom has at least ONE gifted child; one child who finishes his or her work first, goes to a center and blasts through the work there, with ease. I found that the best thing to do with a student like this is to let him or her pick a project that he or she would like to do (example projects are listed in this book). The student then creates and agrees to the terms of the project: for example, he or she may want to read a particular book, create a painting regarding one of the characters, and then present this work to the class. The student would have to adhere to the given timeline, and would have to complete all aspects of the project--knowing that this project will be a part of his or her report card grade (in whatever subject the work is related to).

The terrific thing about this book is that it has created a very do-able, curriculum oriented outline of projects and contracts that gifted students can achieve during a marking period. Sample contracts, as well as copies of contracts that can be Xeroxed are provided.

I used this book every year I taught, and my principal was qutie happy with the fact that the projects were so curriculum friendly.

If you teach elementary-grammar school, you need this book!

Full of practical, reproducible material for teachers of gifted kids. Lots of advice and ideas regarding common gifted curriculum strategies like compacting, learning contracts, differentiation, independent study, and cluster grouping. Directly answers questions teachers (and parents) of the gifted ask most. Highly recommended... a great resource!

The author said that this book wass designed for 4th graders with reading problems. My kid had no reading problem and was about to enter 3 grade. I thought this book might be of the right level. But I was wrong. This book may be good for 2nd graders.
But if the level is good for your kid, the book itself is not bad. The articles are interesting. But still, I think "wordly wise 3000" is a better choice. The "wordly wise 3000 book A" is about the same level.

I've been assigning these readings weekly to my fifth graders for a few years now.
The parents and students love them as a quick, manageable, helpful activity they can do together in about 20 minutes.
They just return it, signed, at the end of the week, and I give them credit towards their reading grade.
Some parents don't take time to read with their children until it is assigned; so it's good to give them a reason to do it!

I am surprised other reviewers have not mentioned inaccuracies and errors in this book. For example, in the first story Mary Rose refers to the Arawak Indians as both the Arawak and the Arawaks. I consider this a big error considering the passage is only a few paragraphs long. The second story on the Pilgrims contains inaccuracies and many of the points she chooses do not support her thesis that parents are strict. Requiring children to stand at the dinner table is an example of parental strictness. Other examples were not at all related to strictness but instead to conditions of poverty.

The text is also fraught with typographical errors, some of which could be very confusing to a beginning reader. E.g. :"Then he returned home and happily at his dinner" (p. 32). Obviously this should read "ate" his dinner.

Additionally, many stories are overpunctuated. Some stories even have a double exclamation point in the title (e.g. Bananas!!).

Slang (improperly used at that) is another troubling element... a story on astronauts' water sources warns "Don't gross out!"

There are some inaccurate explanations. Rose's explanation of the use of italics is misleading. She italicizes words of foreign origin the first story. This use is correct, but her explanation of the use of italics does not correspond to the way she uses it.

There are positive aspects to this book, however. It clearly states the objectives for each section and has good questions to go with the passages. I also appreciated how the author related the content of the book to standardized assessments.

I bought this book last summer and used it with my 5th grade language arts students this past year. It contains some helpful usage and assessment ideas. The passages are divided into sections, all of them "kid-interesting" content. Each assignment features a particular reading skill and tips to the parent on how to help his/her child with the assignment. There is a place at the bottom of each assignment for both child and parent to sign. Certainly I recommend it to teachers, but I would also recommend it to parents who would like to help their children's reading skills but might be at a loss as to how to help them.

I absolutely love this book for both teachers or parents looking to improve reading skills. My daughter first came home with these stories from her 4th grade teacher and I loved them so much I bought a copy to use with the students I tutor. Now I'm teaching basic skills to fifth graders and do these stories one-on-one. Each story is intelligently written with a touch of humor and jam-packed with interesting facts. Topics include American History ("Thomas Jefferson and the Big Cheese"), fiction, biography, poetry, science (Star Trek!"), and popular culture. There is one reading skill to work on per story such as using context clues, italics, or main idea/supporting details. I've just ordered Mary Rose's other similar books for math and other reading levels. One word of caution: the vocabulary may be too advanced for a struggling third grader--best for grades 4-6 unless the child is already a fluent reader.

As a new middle school teacher myself, I am anxiously awaiting the school year and reading and doing as much as possible to feel prepared. I highly recommend this book for all those new teachers out there. It is filled with great ideas and reads quickly. The tips and scenarios are tremendous and the examples have been a great foundation for my own documents and worksheets. You definitely will not be let down with this purchase!

This is one book that both middle and high school teachers can refer to day to day. A teacher can take charge of the classroom and make it a conducive place for learning, and do it with creativity.
Great book.

This book offers excellent insight into the world of teaching in a middle school. There are wonderful, and practical, strategies for how to approach everything from assigning homework to seating charts to discipline problems. This book is a must have for any new middle school teacher!

I've been the editor and webmaster of a website dedicated to middle grades education for about 10 years. As part of that work, we've developed a strong online community of 600+ professional educators from across the globe who hold daily discussions about teaching adolescents. These "teachers on the frontlines" generally consider Rick Wormeli's "Day One & Beyond" to be a "must have" book for any teacher new to the middle grades. And they're quick to admit that he's got plenty of ideas that will benefit veterans as well! For middle school novices, I'd rank it at or above the level of the classic "First Days of School." Get both!

Had to read this book for my graduate Adult Learner class. Good information, especially if your focus is understanding how to teach adults.

I bought this book for a masters study class because it was half the price they were going to charge me at the book store. This book is well written and easy to read. I have read other books by Merriam and they were not this well put together, but I would recommend this book.

This is one of the most poorly written texts covering adult learning theory. The author has picked a selection of different theories but only gives a short introduction to each - leaving many questions and concerns after reading each chapter.

The information given on educational theorists is horribly fragmented. In many chapters there is no context, history or biography of the theorists given. If you'd like fragmented information on learning theories - this is the book.

If you'd like comprehensive information on learning theories-this is not the right book. The information has to be supplemented with a lot of hard work researching details from the internet or other educational texts.

This was a required text for a graduate level course in adult education and it was a waste of money.

Learning in Adulthood is one of those "classic" text/reference books i.e., the kind that you actually read and return to time and again. I am particularly taken by the way the authors summarize the major thinking in the various content areas. They extract the key thoughts of hundreds of research works, compare and contrast, synthesize. They are careful to present dissenting views. Most of their references are recent. I also like the fact that their own voices are heard and they are strong, experienced voices. This is an ideal source book for graduate students that are writing or will be writing a thesis or dissertation.

Before I give my review, let me state my bias. I am an American through-and-through. I love my country. America feeds the world. America gives billions in aid to countries that openly declare their hostility to our culture. Also, I am almost 70 and am grateful for the opportunities that America has given me. Therefore I become annoyed at books that state as fact that America is somehow responsible for all the world's woes. Although there is much that is scholarly and well-researched in this book, and although it was required reading for a course I am taking, I was annoyed by its constant inferences that Western Society is at fault for all the world's problems. The terms "oppress, oppressive, and oppression" are used more than 40 times when describing the teacher-student relationship. American success is blamed for world terrorism. This is unnecessary in an otherwise scholarly explanation of educational trends for adulthood. In an effort to sound super-scholarly the vocabulary and sentence structure is full of inflated and pretentious statements. Concepts that could be described in five simple words are given in long sentences of 5 syllable words strung together in clauses that practically require the reader to get out the Unabridged.

This book is for all ages... If you haven't read all 66 books and want to? Then, this is the right book for you. It summarizes the book and chapter well for all ages to comprehend easily.

This is a very nice bible for children as well as adults. It breaks things down into more understandable reading. I use it myself along with my regular bible.

I've just started out in my walk with Christ so Childrens books have been VERY helpfull in my study. Out of the 10 books this is by far THE BEST!

This is one of those books where the kids version is better than the adults version! It breaks down the Bible, into sections and sub-sections. For example, it introduces the 1st 5 books of the Old Testament as the Books of the Law, explains why they are called that, the main points, the main people, an outline of what happens in each chapter- and then it goes a wonderful step further, and links in known historical information, a map of 'Where It All Happened', and other pertinent information about the world at that time. The same format is followed for each Book of the Bible. Within each book there are small illustrations & summaries of the main events in each chapter, which are surprisingly well done- not off-putting to an adult, very accessible to a child. The reference materials at the end- a good dictionary of words that one doesn't often see outside of the Bible!, Bible geography, good time lines of the Old & New Testaments, and an amazing 16 pages of good color pictures tucked away at the end make this book a must!

There are bits that are clearly written for children, and the section on 'Becoming God's Child' may or may not fit exactly with your view of things, but don't be put off by those: this is a great tool for getting to grips with a lot of information.

I am a Christian Education Director and have been looking for some solid material for older youth 5th-8th grade. This book illustrates each book in the Bible within a couple of pages with black and white line drawing charactures. It may sound young, but even my adult committee wanted copies for themselves. I am putting together an entire curriculum using this book for the youth, over a four year period (two years OT & two years NT), along with "What The Bible Is All About Handbook:NIV Edition" for the teachers to get familiar with the Bible in about ten pages per book and the "What The Bible Is All About 101, 102, 201, 202", which are leader guides to teach.

This book was exactly what I wanted. It was in excellent condition and was very reasonable in price and shipping.

I love Amazon!
Brenda

This is a thoughtful book that helps to put you into the mindset of being an excellent teacher by really listening to and valuing the world around you, listening to and valuing your students, and encouraging them to cultivate the wonder in themselves.

Lucy McCormick Calkins' text "The Art of Teaching Writing" is very useful for prospective elementary school teachers or elementary school teachers looking for alternate ways to teach their lessons. Each chapter offers some new information for teachers to take into their own classrooms. Calkins makes sure to address important issues such as incorporating writing workshops into the classroom, and incorporating the importance of mini-lessons.

Calkins starts off chapter three, which is titled "Rehearsal, Living the Writerly Life," by saying that, "My hope is that in our writing workshops all of us - teachers and children alike - will be able to take the small threads and small stones of experience and of thought, declare them significant, and make something of them" (21). Calkins does an exemplary job making her text easy to follow and understand. Anyone could read this text and get a lot of great, useful information from it.

Calkins also states the many various reasons why mini-lessons are extremely helpful to students. Calkins notes that "The mini-lesson can serve as a forum for planning the day's work, as a time to call writers together (like the huddle at the start of a football game), or as a time for demonstrating a new method" (193). I thought it was very insightful that the author started off the chapter which was titled, "Don't Be Afraid to Teach: Tools to Help Us Create Mini-Lessons", by saying that mini-lessons can serve in the three above manners mentioned.

Calkins' text is a great source for prospective elementary school teachers as well as elementary school teachers that are looking for a new / different way to go about their lessons in a more effective manner. Calkins' lessons can also be helpful for middle school and high school teachers. I would highly recommend this text for prospective school teachers wanting to learn great teaching methods.

Lucy McCormick Calkins' "The Art of Teaching Writing" is a very useful text. This book caters to teachers of elementary school students and how they can appropriately teach important lessons to their class. Calkins addresses many important issues such as how to encourage children to write and how to further their writing. Each chapter provides new ideas and is especially helpful for soon-to-be or new teachers.


The beginning of Calkins' book gives background information along with her personal experience in the classroom. As the book continues, however, Calkins thoroughly explains the importance of writing and how to get students to write. In chapter three Calkins talks about the importance of students writing often, and to help this process she suggests students have writer's notebooks. These notebooks will include students' thoughts, and will help them jumpstart their writing. She explains that hopefully these notebooks will form "small threads and small stones" which the students can "declare them significant, and make something of them" which will really help the students as well as the teachers (21). By using Calkins' idea of a writer's notebook, students will have ideas in front of them before they start to write. This is also very helpful for teachers because they can look at what their students have been writing, and help them to come up with ideas and stories.


Throughout Calkins' book she stresses the importance of students writing constantly, revising their work, and piecing words and thoughts together to form a finished product. One of the chapters that I found the most helpful was chapter eleven, entitled "Establish a Predictable Workshop Environment." This chapter discusses how important it is for students to have a predictable schedule, because their work is "unpredictable and complex," which I agree with (183). Calkins further explains the importance of this by saying, if students have a set time to write then they can "anticipate and plan for their own writing" (185). I think this is a very important idea because if students know when they will be writing, then they will be more productive and produce better work.


In addition I found chapter 22, called "Genre Studies," to be very interesting. This chapter discusses the importance of having students write in several genres. This was not something I would have immediately thought of as being necessary. After reading the chapter, however, I really agree with Calkins and I think it would help students quite a bit to write in many genres. This way students can learn which genres they like the best and explore all different sides of their personality.


Overall, Calkins' "The Art of Teaching Writing" is a great instructional tool. This book gives great ideas for new teachers, as well as examples of how to present these concepts to the class. This is definitely a book that I will use in my future of teaching elementary school, and a great book for everyone interested in education.

Lucy McCormick Calkins', The Art of Teaching Writing is an essential read to teachers of writing in any grade, but especially for the primary and middle levels. This book is also helpful for new teachers as well as veterans. Teaching writing to the primary and middle school grades can be a challenge, but the instruction she gives and the creativity of her ideas create an exciting guide for any teacher. As someone who plans to teach at the middle school level, I found many of Calkins' suggestions to be very useful.

Throughout the book, Calkins shows the need for meaning in writing and living our lives as writers, and demonstrating this to our students. Her ideas for the Writer's Notebook will allow the students a creative way of noticing the world around them as only a writer can. By giving the students an outlet to get out everything they want to say, they will begin to live the lives of writers.

Calkins stresses that students need to feel like authors to truly take ownership and be excited about their writing; she emphasizes the need for specific writing environments made to inspire and evoke emotion in the writer. These environments consist of cardboard desk separators decorated to each writer's own unique taste. Personal items and quotations may be used to cure any student of the dreaded writer's block.

Allowing the students to become the teachers is just another inventive way Calkins explains in order to allow them to flourish and grow as writers. She puts great importance on seeing and respecting every idea a students have. She realizes that teachers are students as well, and any idea, whether it comes from the teacher or the pupil, can be immensely inspiring.

These are just a few of her techniques, though she offers many more throughout the book. Genre studies, poetry, creative nonfiction, Mini-Lessons and conferences are just a few more ideas she touches upon in great depth.

By instructing teachers on how we can improve the writing environment for our young, impressionable students and explaining various methods in which to do so, Calkins' book is truly ground-breaking for anyone who wants to truly inspire their students to love writing. Any new or seasoned teacher of writing needs to read this book and even veteran teachers can take something away from the fresh look she gives us on the topic. It will open your eyes to all the possibilities there are in teaching writing!

I teach drama to children ages 9-12. It was nice to find something that did not play down to them and was simple to memorize and stage.

Any type of plays/readers theater are a great way to involve all students in reading. My students enjoy these stories very much. This is a great way to make reading fun for students and can be used in the classroom with reading groups/whole group or at home with different family members reading different parts, a great way to practice reading and spend time together. Readers of all ages will get a kick out of reading these very adorable plays.

humorous fairy tales for elementary age students - a colleague and I were laughing so hard ourselves at the humor in the plays!

I took this book to the beach for the kids to have something to do if the weather turned bad, it did, and the whole family loved it. The kids got to be creative and work together to put on a play for the rest of the family. Even my [...] year old got to play a part (with my help) and because they are familiar kid fairy tales, they already knew how they wanted to act out their character.