Education Teaching Books

This book is very helpful at opening up ones mind to alternatives by asking questions. Not just a few questions, but question everything. Questioning leads to knowledge, and knowledge leads to wisdom.

Asking the right questions encourages a curious and open mind, analyzing issues from multiple viewpoints, thinking through questions and answers, doing needed investigation and intuitive and non-intuitive thinking. These key elements are the basis to sound critical thinking.

Asking the Right Questions has been around for many years and is still doing well. This says a lot for how many people have benefited from it. It is currently on the 8th edition. I read the 7th edition which came out in 2004. I liked the comment from the authors at the end of the preface which says they are constantly improving the book using advice and recommendations from students and others to make it better. Practicing what one preaches is an excellent sign of quality.


The Re-Discovery of Common Sense: A Guide to: The Lost Art of Critical Thinking

did not come very quickly--wasn't even sent out until about 5 days after I placed the order. in very good condition though.

This has got to be hands down one of the best books I have ever read. I picked this up for a class I was taking and it really opened my eyes. People see the words "critical thinking" and assume it means something negative. This book teaches you how to use your brain to look at things from all angles and points of view so that you can make more informed choices and decisions!

This book is a must have for every rhetoric class! Easy to read and understand, best tool for a student.

I strongly agree with the author on pg 13, that "by the end of the book, you should know when and how to ask these questions productively (elaborated through individual chapters):-

1. What are the issues and the concclusions?
2. What are the ressons?
3. Which words or phrases are ambiguous?
4. What are the value conflicts and assumptions?
5. What are the descriptive assumptions?
6. Are there any fallacies in the reasoning?
7. How good is the evidence?
8. Are there rival causes?
9. Are the statistics deceptive?
10. What significant information is omitted?
11. What reasonable conclusions are possible?

Of course, a compilation of good questions doesnt qualify it to be a good book. Indeed, the samples and stories well illustrate the principles and concepts behind. The discussions on various fallacies are marvelous, including:-

Ad hominem: An attack, or an insult, on the person, rather than directly addressing the person's reasons.
Slipperly Slope: Making the assumption that a proposed step will set off an uncontrollable chain of undesirable events, when procedures exist to prevent such a chain of events.
Hasty Generalization: A person draws a conclusion about a large group of based on experience with only a few members of the group.
Causal Oversimplification: Explaining an event by relying on causal factors that are insufficient to account for the event or by overemphasizing the role of one or more of these factors.
Confusion of Cause and Effect: Confusing the cause with the effect of an event or failing to recognise that the two events may be influencing each other.
Neglect of a common cause: Failure to recognize that two events may be related because of the effects of a common third factor.
Post hoc: Assuming that a particular event, B, is caused by another event, A, simply because B follows A in time.
............

In short, an excellent food for thought. Highly recommended!

p.s. I like the following story on pg 137 the most.

"After carefully conditioning a flea to jump out of a box following the presentation of a loud noise, the researcher removed the first pair of legs to see what effect this had. Observing that the flea was still able to perform his task, the scientist removed the second pair of legs. Once again noting no difference in performance, the researcher removed the final pair of legs and found that the jumping behaviour no longer occurred. Thus, the investigator wrote in his notebook, "When all the legs of a flea have been removed, it will no longer be able to hear."

This book really helped me do well on the AP Test.I got a 4! It's concise and really amusing. It is a great alternative to reading from long and tedious college level textbooks with like 10 font. (Ugh...cornell notess...).I noticed that a lot of the information my teacher used when he lectured came directly from this book. I can not recommend this product more to any student who is or is going to be enrolled in an APWH course!!!

I goofed, I really wanted cracking the US history exam - we had to get it locally, but will save the World history book for next year.

This is the best review and APWH test preparation that exists!! You will enjoy the style and the voice of the author, and this review will not be dry or boring like your textbook may be ;-)... The sample tests are very similar to the real APWH exam, which is NOT true of any of the other review books. This is not to say that you should substitute this review book for studying your notes and reading your text, because that will not work well for you, but it is a great memory jogger and maybe a great way to help you understand the most important trends and relationships that your textbook covers in more depth. Buy it if you plan to take the AP Exam!!!

Last year I had an online AP World History course during first semester, and by the time May arrived, I had forgotten the small amount of history that I learned in the class. My friend and I skipped school about 5 days during the two weeks before the exam to study from the book, and I looked through it every night to review. We just received our scores from the 2008 exam today and she made a 4 while I made a 5! I simply learned the history in the book and emulated their advised test-taking strategy. This book is a must-have, and is far more interesting than your enormous World History textbook!

I took the 2008 AP World History exam. To study for it, I read Kaplan's, Barron's, and Princeton Review's AP World History review. Of the three, I'd say Princeton Review offers the best history review. Kaplan's was skimpy, and Barron's was more of a textbook than a review. Not only is the Princeton Review book really organized, it also contains numerous compare and contrast essays (e.g. fall of Han empire compared to fall of Roman empire). The review is still lengthy, so this book may not be your best night-before-test cram. The practice tests more accurately reflect the actual test questions than most other prep books. The only downsides to this book are that it doesn't give you review questions at the end of each period and doesn't give you sample essay responses to the essay questions in the practice tests. I felt that the AP World History exam wasn't easy or hard. I just got my grade, a 5.

I am a first year teacher learning the ropes. I am finding the work stations very easy to implement and am enjoying the "freedom" to achieve reading level testing at week three of the school year and am looking forward to guided reading group time soon.

I just started to implement this in my classroom (1st grade) for this week with the start of school. The kids were excited to help set up the stations and they were on task when they went to them for the first time. I am excited to differentiate for each child and to see how the students benefit.

This book as well is a really good book. Debbie Diller is amazing and I recommend all of her books. They have so much good information and have really good pictures from classrooms that I have used to help me with setting up my spaces in my room. Definitely get if you are a teacher.

This book is awesome! I recommend it to any teacher wanting to make centers work! She gives great ideas, many of which I used and adapted to fit my teaching style and students. I highly recommend it!

This book is by far the best that I have seen on the market pertaining to 'Literacy Centers'. It gives alot of ideas on how to set up centers. A valuable resource for teachers.

This is a great book that will help future teachers and parents to teach their children literacy. It has information about how to help children to understand reading and how one can help them to learn. This book has good information for anyone who wants to become a better reader. The only thing that I dislike about the book is that the chapters are long, but it is worth it.

This is a fantastic resource for literacy instruction. The author provides lots of practical tips and techniques for each approach as well as the theory behind each one. It's easy to read, too.

This is a fantastic book. It is intelligently written and engaging. It is far more interesting to read than, for example, Reutzel and Cooter's "Teaching Children to Read: From Basals to Books," which is stultifying by comparison. Gunning does not insult the reader's intelligence. This book is rooted in the research and, apparently, in considerable experience and thought on the author's part. Full of wise, useful, and detailed practical advice. Highly recommended.

This is a very useful, and up to date text. I'm in an education program right now that focuses heavily on literacy. This text book has become my bible! This text even carries complete lists of children's books to use for teaching certain ages and subjects!
I love this book and I'm sure I'll be using it for years to come!

I borrowed this book from a friend who also homeschools and I'm glad I did before purchasing it. I started skimming through it and saw so many (authors)opinions that I didn't even consider wasting my time reading the book thoroughly. When I read that "Nero was the worst emporer in the history of Rome" and that the "Romans HATED Jesus", I was really put off by the opinionated views, as well as the negativity. I want to teach my children how to form their own opinions about the history of the world and other subjects as well, this is exactly why I took them out of school. If your looking for a book that is a factal account of world history this is not the book for you. She should have titled the book "My Opinion of the Story of the World".

This comprehensive history program helps put today's conflicts in perspective. The chapters are short, and have lots of stories, legends, and myths to keep the child interested along with the more "information" parts. Both my 7-year-old and I learned a lot.

While we are not religious, I like that it includes the biblical information in "context," i.e. what was happening in egypt when Moses was born, etc. It gives a kind of cultural literacy in our predominantly Christian society. The book equally treats the birth of leaders/founders from other religions (Confucious, the Budda, etc.)

I recommend the activity book .The Story of the World: Activity Book 1: Ancient Times: From the Earliest Nomads to the Last Roman Emperor, Third Edition and tests The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child: Tests for Volume 1: Ancient Times (Story of the World: History for the Classical Child)as well. I let my daughter take "open book" tests when we're done with everything else in the chapter

I bought this book while homeschooling my two girls. The book was such good story that I began using it for evening reading to the girls before bed (that way I got to read it too!)

I found that the narrative format (story telling) was much more engaging than a collection of facts (as textbooks tend to do). The author selects information, individuals and nations and so obviously leaves out a lot of information (as noted in other reviews.) HOWEVER, I personally found this style VERY helpful since the story moves very fast this way and this comprehensive style makes it easier for readers and listeners to see the connections between cultures, nations, individuals etc.

There is an unavoidable tradeoff in writing about history: more detail provides greater sense of context, but makes it difficult to develop a comprehensive overview of the relationship between significant events and places. This book errs on the overview instead of detail and does that perspective VERY well. After reading "Story of the World" you can go and investigate the areas that interest you (or that you need to know) in more detail with books that take the "detail" perspective.

By the way, for home schooling, an old (Victorian) writer who does some great historical fiction on specific periods is G. A. Henty. His books are hard to find, but worth reading. His book on Hannibal (the general) called "The Carthagian," was a wonderful adventure which told me what I wanted to learn about that man and his wars.

Make history come alive-read Story of the World and then focus on the people, events and times that make you particularly interested and find books and movies that give you more details!

This is very well written. A great help to helping children understand History. It makes reading about the past fun and enjoyable.

I homeschooled our older daughter for six years back in the Dark Ages (the mid 90's). We switched over to learning about history chronologically, a relatively "new" idea then,after being convinced at a curriculum fair presentation of its sensibleness. It was the best advice we ever had, and that daughter is graduating college next year as a history major, and as president of her history honorary fraternity. (We used GreenLeaf Press' "Famous Men..." series, BTW.)
Now 10 years later we are taking our younger daughter out and will begin homeschooling her in 2nd grade. Enough of the public school "Twaddle"!!
"Famous Men" is too high a reading comprehension level for her, so I have been researching the plethora of chrono-history books out there to find an alternative. I followed the guidelines by Susan Wise Bauer of "The Well-Trained Mind" to use "The Story of the World" series.
However, after thumbing through it and comparing it with others, I do not feel it will hold the interest of my wiggly 7 year-old. The reading level seems minimally for 4th-grade. I wouldn't want to turn her off right from the start.
For me the benchmark is Hillyers' "A Child's History of the World." The writing style is so personal, clever, and engaging. But if you want a curriculum that has an even stronger Christian bent, and that teaches from a Biblical chronology, look into Linda Hobar's "The Mystery of History". This author comes closest to Hillyer's wit and child-friendliness, and yet does not dumb it down. There are age-appropriate activities built right into the book (no second purchase required), plus instructions on making your own timeline and historical figures to add as you read. (a la a famous Unit Study series). Like "History of the World", it is a several-volume series. You will probably have to go outside Amazon to find it. (http://www.themysteryofhistory.com/)
Another very Christian-based chrono-history curriculum is "Tapestry of Grace." Not as "warm and fuzzy" in my view, but lots of great multi-age teaching and activities that suppport a classical education. Appropriate through high school.

The book has many resources, which would be the only reason I rate it two stars. The authors are too emotionally attached and are too personal. As a graduate psychology student, I would like my texts to be informative without any emotion, there are plenty of other reads for emotion.

This book is extremely informative and the information is organized well. My professor specifically picked this book because the content covered alot of the history of special education.

The book is great. Easy to read content about the introducation to teaching special education. The cd/dvd did not work on two bundles that I ordered. In my class 50% of the students also bought this book and the dvd didn't work at all.

This text book was required for a graduate course that I took towards obtaining my special education license. It uses racist sterotypes, unfounded statements, and shows why ignorance continues to permeate American schools. Much of the information is repeated throughout the book and I find it a waste of time. I strongly suggest finding an alternative source of information.

Easy read, very informative, case studies idea for getting a better, overall understanding of subject(s). In depth info on legal issues are a plus. A must read for anyone in or considering a career in the special ed field.

Great tool for anyone taking A&P. Easy pictures to follow and great study questions. A must for passing this class.

This book was necessary for my schooling. Its good.

It's a really useful book, which is neither too complicated or too easy. I'm studying at university to become a paramedic, and it has been a very helpful tool in the specific anatomy and physiology topics they expect us to understand. The pages held colour pencil just fine - I remember reading a review before buying this which said the pages were too "waxy" and didn't hold pencil well. This isn't true. The pages are fine for applying pencil.

The only thing I must say in a sort of negative light is that you must have another anatomy and physiology book as well as this one - this is more of a quiz book on what you know as opposed to something to teach it to you.

It could be used on its own, as the answers are avaliable at the back of the book, but having a seperate textbook would probably be preferable. It is easier to learn things in context rather than simple question and answer form, in my opinion.

All in all, I would highly reccommend this book to anyone who is a more visual learner and studies anatomy and physiology.

This is an excellent review for anatomy class. However, it is not really a coloring book, it is a study guide/workbook. There is another study guide that has the alot of the same material... Human Anatomy & Physiology (Study Guide)7th edition Marieb. So if you buy one, you don't need the other. My teacher had both listed as recommened and since I ordered them both through Amazon merchants over a month ago, I can not return one. There are some slight differences, so I will just use both for extra extra review.

This book was really useful - the coloring parts are especially good if you are a visual learner. There's also more to it than just coloring in pictures - there are lots of fill-in-the-blanks sections to test your knowledge and review major ideas. This is where the only criticism lies....if you don't have the textbook (or a good knowledge of the material) then some sections will be hard to complete. Answers are provided, however, so overall, it is a really useful book and offers more than you might first assume.

We ordered the book on July 25th, and to date (August 27th) have not received the book. I have written 4 emails, and the fourth email finally got a response. How do you contact someone to help you find your book if the method you have is not working!!!!!

This is the most quickly referenced guide for MLA, APA, CBE, Chicago and CGOS documentation! A must have for all college students!

This manual is great for any piece of writing. It is very helpful even when editing or proofreading. You won't regret having bought this book.

My daughter used the 4th edition in high school English class and loved it so much that she wanted the next version for college. It seems easy to use and a good reference.

I purchased this book for an English course three years ago. Unfortunately, sometime in the last year or so, I lost it. I actually had to buy it again because I keep going to the bookshelf to reference it, and then remember it's not there. This book is just as useful in my everyday life as it once was in college. You probably need it too.

This is a helpful informative book, especially helpful for new teachers.
However, I would also recommend it for experienced teachers for some new ideas.

This book is simple and clear in focus and structure. It has great strategies and suggestions for implementation in classrooms of various grade levels. This is a great resource if you are looking to improve your classroom community and overall communication skills of your students.

Wonderful, applicable strategies to build community in every classroom! In every school building! Great resource full of ideas.

I am a 6th grade teacher moving to 2nd grade this year. This book was a HUGE help in preparing me to organize my morning meeting. It is an easy read and has lots of helpful tips. I can't wait to start school this year and start my morning meetings!
If you are an elementary teacher, buy this book! You won't regret it!The Morning Meeting Book (Strategies for Teachers, 1)

This resource is an excellent buy. After cutting morning meeting out of my classroom routines, I realized that it's not what I should have done. I wish that I had this book in the beginning of the year to help me with the morning meeting. There are so many wonderful ideas and activities in this book. If you get this book, I would also highly recommend Morning Meeting, Afternoon Wrap-up by Donna Whyte. That is also an excellent resource. The two together will give you what you need for your morning meeting.

I really enjoy learning more about autism. It help me understand what my child is going through. Finally out of darkness into the marvelous light. I highly recommend this book for families that are experiencing autism.
Buy as soon as possible.

The book was in good shape as the seller advertised. It was shipped out and I recieved the book sooner then expected. I would definitly buy from this seller again!!!

10 Things is an awesome start to help parents and the professionals working with children in the autism spectrum understand the individual behind the symptoms and behaviors. As these children have grown up and begun to talk about their childhoods with the misconceptions and at times emotional abuse they had to endure in order to be "helped" we learn more and more about our biases and errors in interpretation of what we see and hear. This book should be a must read for all parents of newly diagnosed children in the spectrum so that the same mistakes are not made with their children. I am sure the author could have actually come up with 50 or more things, but 10 allows the reader to feel like it is not insurmountable and she does a great job of capturing the essential needs in those 10 "things".

Anyone who comes in contact with a person on the autism spectrum should read this book. It is a quick and easy read with the ten characteristics clearly stated and easily understood. The suggestions are concise and to the point. Every teacher should have this as a resource and it should be a mandatory read. Having taught children with autism has been a privilege and reading a parent's perspective has reminded me of that once again.

Absolutely a must-read for any parent, teacher or relative of a child with autism (including Asperger's Syndrome). Helps you get out of the emotional and mental storm that can accompany dealing with your child, and instead make order in your thoughts, priorities and actions. Empowers you to replace irrelevent cliches with effective intervention.