Teaching Books

I looked at many writing books for my child. A school teacher recommended this one to me. After we used it as the primary writing guide, my child's writing took off. It's so effective that his writing has jumped from average to outstanding in his class. Now the book is one of our two MUST-DOs every week (the other is Beestar online ELA and vocabulary exercises, a wonderful web site www.beestar.org). Writing is a life-long skill. We will continue use this guide to improve writing for a long time.

English teachers have it tough -- no matter how hard they try, they cannot avoid a degree of subjectivity when it comes to grading papers. This book, 6+1 TRAITS OF WRITING, will not make the process a totally objective one, but it will provide a definite structure that will be invaluable to both new and experienced teachers alike. In workmanlike fashion, Ruth Culham devotes chapters to the traits (ideas, word choice, sentence fluency, voice, organization, and conventions) PLUS one (presentation) with a series of indicators for teachers to assess each one.

It's a great primer in the technique, and the chapters all follow a similar pattern with definitions of the traits, a list of reasons on why students struggle with that trait, steps on how to assess the trait, and sample papers to practice assessing using the 6 + 1 method. Each sample paper is followed by the scores the author gave it, along with their reasoning. Finally, the chapters are nicely rounded out with a series of practical ideas on how you can TEACH each trait. Teachers trying to get a handle on grading papers will appreciate the practicality and the structure.

The caveats I have with the book are minor. First, the sample papers range from Grades 3 to 9, and it's often difficult to assess sample papers because elementary teachers may not know how far along a secondary student should be and secondary teachers may have no clue about what's expected from third-grade writers. The wide range in ages, in other words, creates a bit of extra confusion for teachers who are well-versed in their own age-group of students. Also, the extra batch of "practice papers" to assess at the back of the book are directly followed by the author's scores, meaning the papers and their scores often share the same page. It would have been more helpful to separate them so as to avoid accidentally seeing a score while trying to finish the paper.

Culham's book is a great start, but a lot more practice assessing will probably be necessary to successfully implement the program. Also, I found that I had many questions about judgment calls while assessing some of the indicators and, in a workshop type setting, could have used further explanation from an experienced hand. Alas, the book cannot provide anything like that, but still, it's a start -- and a good one. Recommended.

I really enjoyed reading this book and I am excited about starting to use this method when school starts again. Teaching writing can be difficult, but how to give constructive feedback is even harder. I am optimistic that the ideas in this book will make it a whole lot easier to help my children.

I originally had to buy this book for a graduate level pedagogy course. I ended up using this book constantly to help teach 4th graders how to write. Ruth Culham explains each trait well and includes a handful of awesome lesson plan ideas for students to practice the trait. I'd recommend it as a resource for any writing teacher (Grades 3-12).

As a classroom teacher and workshop leader, I have found this book very useful. It includes sample student papers that can be used by teachers and students to hone their assessment skills. The ideas for teaching each of the traits are concrete ones that students enjoy. When I've read forty papers and have run out of new responses to give my students, there are even lists of responses for me to use. I recommend this book to both new and experienced teachers of writing.

You could stumble into each class paying as much attention as possible, trying very hard to understand how to become a better teacher, reflecting after class upon what you did well and what you did not do well ... or you could read McKeachie's book and take all of his experience and that of his co-authors into your repertoire of teaching tips.

One could dread reading a book that talks too much about the details and administrative issues that may arise in teaching. One could also dread a book that speaks only about philosophical issues in teaching. One does not need to dread this book because it addresses both practical and philosophical matters but not in excruciating details. It is written by an intelligent group for intelligent readers and yet it is simple prose, not the pretentious academic jargon that I so often encounter.

I loved it and highly recommend it to all PhD students, junior faculty, and faculty teaching others how to teach.

This book contains much information that is essential for a new college
instructor. For those of us who have been in the field, it also offers
an opportunity to reflect on class policies and teaching approaches through the lens of current thinking in cognitive psychology and practice in education.

There's a reason this book has gone through 12 editions over several decades, and that's because Wilbert McKeachie is the most widely respected expert on matters of college teaching. This latest edition is up to date with the latest theory and practice, and McKeachie has certainly not fallen into the pattern that is common with many multiple-edition books, in that he has avoided simply adding quick cosmetic updates. A look at the table of contents will tell you all you need to know about this expansiveness and inclusiveness of McKeachie's tips, and it's hard to imagine any area of the discipline that he hasn't covered. The only real issue with this book is that it is focused on teaching environments in which small class sizes or receptive administrators will allow for more personalized teaching strategies. However, not everyone will have that luxury, and other environments (especially large classes) are typically treated as mere exceptions and receive only cursory coverage. Another issue with the quality of this edition is some of the chapters that have only been edited by McKeachie but have been written by his colleagues, because these outside submissions damage the overall consistency of the book and the authors tend to focus on their own research and theories, as opposed to McKeachie's universal wisdom. [~doomsdayer520~]

This book was only slightly helpful in my classes. The advice in this book sounds good to educators with its trendy terminology and emphasis on some amorphous "deep learning" but many students hate the collaborative exercises in this book and shut off to being taught in this manner. McKeachie is writing to other educators, none of whom understand how students in this generation actually think. Although most of the book was junk, there was the rare teaching strategy I found useful, but none of them were particularly ground-breaking or innovative.

For the 12th edition of this book, McKeachie has added more valuable chapters that will benefit experienced as well as novice college instructors. Each chapter is fairly short -- often no more than 5 or 6 pages -- and edited to eliminate "fluff." Each quickly gets to the point and offers practical suggestions for such things as how to handle problem students in the classroom, how to create good test questions, and how to handle sticky issues that come up in grading. McKeachie has kept up with technology, too, and there is a new chapter on "teaching with technology" and an awareness throughout the book that today's students often prefer electronic media to face-to-face communication. The book is loosely structured and thus chapters can be read in any order. I especially recommend the series of chapters on testing and grading, as they provide great advice even for instructors who think they've heard everything. I use this book in my course on college teaching, along with Joe Lowman's book Mastering the Art of College Teaching and Robert Boice's Advice for New Faculty Members. This trio of books will serve you well, especially if you have never been formally trained in how to organize and run a college course.

I like the book very much.
Tomlinson gives lots of examples and it is written in layman's terms so it is easy to read.
I felt the sender should have checked the book as it had post-its in it and several passages were highlighted.

I cannot review this item because AMAZON SCREWED UP THE ORDER - NEVER RECEIVED THE ITEM, AFTER 15 years of business - Could not get any satisfaction when trying to resolve the issue. The address on my order was correct, the same address that I have received MANY other orders at - Sorry - can see it, can't review it!!

I like the theory and implementation strategies behind this book! It was easy to read and understand, too. I bought it for an education/ teaching methods course and I've used it to write every lesson plan, unit plan since. It relates to the idea that classrooms are made up of so many diverse types of learners that you must try and vary your instruction. (It's a lot like Howard Gardner's "Ways of Knowing".) It gives suggestions on how to add "difference" to your lessons. A lot of school corporations near where I live are adopting "DI" as well. It's catching on along with "Understanding by Design." Differentiated instruction works really well with Special Needs students, too. I recommend that anyone teaching these students at least read a copy of the book if not keep one for their own libraries!

Tomlinson presents the material in an easy to read and use format. The book is easy for the teacher to use immediately, either read one chapter at a time or all the way through. A great resource. Now if we could just get the regular education teachers to give it a try!!

Carol Tomlinson is a master at making sense out of pedagogy, making what is complex, clear, and making the principles inspirational. She is excellent at weaving together all the best practices in education to give 21st century teachers what we've been dying to hear -- that all approaches we've been taught have some merit, somewhere, for some child. The art is in the weaving it all together, which is what differentiated instruction is all about. This book is essential. Read also Understanding By Design Expanded 2nd Edition and then search for any book that differentiates specifically for your content area. Amy Benjamin is wonderful at not only English instruction and Social Studies but sampling other subjects (see Differentiated Instruction: A Guide for Middle and High School Teachersand then there's Tomlinson's and Strickland's Differentiation in Practice: A Resource Guide for Differentiating Curriculum, Grades 9-12. If you have these on your shelf, you have great foundational principles plus great specific models to work from. NCTE has also just released the first book of differentiated lessons that I've found on Shakespeare, Teaching Romeo and Juliet: A Differentiated Approach. We've still got a long way to go as a profession to providing ready-made models that teachers don't have to invent on their own, but we're getting there. If you're in English, Benjamin and the NCTE book should get you started.

I have a master's degree in special education but have been in the business world for over twenty years. This book has given me a new zest for the field of special education. The insights give each side of discussions and leaves the reader to make decisions. The on line labs are excellent. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for wide views of the current challenges and progress in the field of special education.

This is a great book for teachers to learn more about dealing with children who have exceptionalities. If you are a new teacher or an experienced teacher dealing with inclusion, this book will be perfect for you!

This is a great text if you are looking for an introductory course text for special education. It is well suited for college and university students or teachers looking to learn more about children as it is easy to read and very informative. With chapters ranging from Planning and Providing Special Education Services to Students with Learning Disabilities to Gifted and Talented Students this text can be of appeal to a wide variety of those who would like to know more about children and how to help children attain their potential. I learned so much - I hope you will too.

I was astonished by both how readable this book is and how much useful information is presented. The book is designed for those entering the field of education and those studying for the Praxis II exam. While the book is targeted to the teaching of exceptional children, regular education teachers, parents and other interested parties would gain a great deal of information from this book. Our assignment was to skim the book - a task I found nearly impossible. I kept getting drawn into the interesting and vivid examples in each chapter. I found the focus questions and review sections to be particularly helpful.

I love this book! I purchased a used copy in 2001 to help prepare for my (then) upcoming Massachusetts State Teacher exam in special education, which I passed on my first try. It is a very useful source of information and contains a ton of facts. It presents special ed topics in a logical fashion and has a nice companion website. I practiced all the online questions since I had to learn a lot of material in a short period of time. The text is geared towards elementary education. However, I read it, even though my field is secondary SPED, because there are many things in it that relate to special education in general that I need to know about. The discussion of historical special ed legislation is especially complete. I just wish I could get my hands on the companion videos that are (or were) offered by the publisher.

I used this book as a supplement to a "Reading Spanish" book I acquired, and found it to be very helpful. It has a large array of questions, and it was very easy to navigate through the book according to what my primary book was covering. Unfortunately, if you were to use this book from front cover to back cover, it teaches language in the same fashion that made it so difficult to learn in secondary school - starting with present tense, imperfect, etc. then on to participles and future tense. Learning the participles first is easier, as I found when using this book as a supplement. Grammar is incredibly well explained, and your mastery of the language will be quicker, and you will feel more confident when using this guide.

I have mixed feelings about this book. I bought it expecting a good and thorough workbook on Spanish grammar, which it is thorough. However, it's frustrating because some of the exercises don't seem to "go with" what the chapter is covering. There's a translation exercise at the end of each chapter and after dutifully translating as I had just studied, I turn to the back and the answers are completely different. There are some glaring errors in the book too. Example: "Mi hermano cumplio treinta..." is translated as "my brother turned twenty". If a beginner such as me can catch this - it's glaring. The frustration was so great that after struggling through 3 chapters, the book now sits on the shelf - a bad place for books. I've since purchased The Ultimate Spanish Review and Practice and am working along quickly with this user-friendly and consistent book.

This has been a great book for me. I have some knowledge of Spanish but I need to learn much more. The book is written at the right level for me. I have some knowledge and a basic vocabulary. The book provides a good review of various points of Spanish Grammar. I find the exercises really help but I have to actually do the exercises for the material to sink in. I like the translation exercises.

I have found a few minor errors in the answer section as a previous reviewer noted but nothing major so far. (e.g. making a word plural when it was singluar in the question.)

While I realize there have to be limits, I do wish the book had more questions and exercises. The more I do the better I become.

I found the order of the book is a little odd. All verb work is in the front. Chapters on nouns, adjectives and pronouns are in the back. While you could jump around, this sesquence means that most readers will understand nouns and adjectives well before they are studied in the book.

This is a good supplement for other text books. The explanations are concise and to the point. This book is a good reference book.

I give this book 3 stars simply because it is a crash course in many of the topics that give learners of Spanish a hard time. It is very little information about a whole lot of subjects, but as with the other books in the series it does do a fantastic job given the crammed feeling of the book. I would recommend this book only after completing the other three titles in the series, or as a refresher course. There is simply too much information in this text and it is not covered as thoroughly as I would have liked for me to give it a higher rating. This text is not for the truly beginner Spanish student.

Practice Makes Perfect is good but being a beginner found it a little difficult to follow and understand all workbook assignment short quizes. The intermediate student would have no problem.

The book was in brand new condition and it arrived withing 4 days.
Great timing and I am really pleased.

This book deals with teaching children English as a second language in public schools from age 5 up to adolescents. I teach primarily adults which this book does not tough upon. For that reason I would only recommend someone buying this book if you only want to teach large classes of children or young adolescents. Not appropriate for adults.

As an ESL teacher, I find this book actually to be useful for my grad school class and my own practice. Pretty happy with the purchase.

This book was worth the money. It is appropriate for secondary teachers (and many things out there are geared more toward elementary). It has a brief introduction to the theory behind the text in the beginning and then the rest is pratctical, skill-based lessons/activites for English Language Learners. As a language arts teacher, my only minor disappointment was that some of the lessons are geared more toward general content areas like social studies and science, but there is still plenty of good stuff for me to use.

This book is a step by step technique just as the title states. Great for any student teacher that needs a clear visual explanation on how to help ell's. For already teachers in the field it is a good refence book to help them focus on how other techniques can be applicable to thier lesson planning.

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.

We are using this book as a book study group in our elementary school It serves as a great springboard for conversation about teaching strategies and learning. The book provides insights to new teachers as well as seasoned teachers and can serve as a way to share and reflect as a learning and teaching community.

I purchased this book based on a review I read in a popular teacher magazine put out by Scholastic. I was looking for a book I could read quickly and find information that would help me understand how my language affects my students. This book did give me that information, but I had to search for it, something I did not have the time to do. I wonder who the the targeted audience was for this book? Certainly not an overwelmed 2nd year 4th grade teacher with 26 students.

This is an important work for any teacher to read. It helps the teacher focus on how he or she can actively shape a student's identity by helping the student to develop a firm concept of self. Detailed questions and examples are given. I found this work very helpful to think about, although I don't intend to teach reading or become a reading coach. The work has helped guide me into thinking about how to turn students into powerful, confident, human beings.
Wonderful! Love it!

I couldn't put it down--which is often said of a novel, but maybe not so often about a professional book. I truly read the book for six hours, and only took a few breaks. I started out highlighting what I found provocative, but soon realized that that wasn't enough. I got out my post-its, and began to note bits of wisdom I didn't want to forget. I think I must have added 50 post-its!! It's not that the information is so new, but rather that it is such a reminder and "emphasizer" about how we talk to children, and treat them in our classrooms. I thank Mr. Johnston for his thoughtful approach, and love the organization of the book. I've shared bits and pieces of what I've read with the staff at my school, and plan to continue to do so for the rest of the year. I've ordered two more copies of the book to share with colleagues. Thank you for this inspiring book.

This book really changed my thinking about how to speak to children to promote the best learning, and what to say. Our words are powerful tools in the 'teacher's took kit' and must be used with care.

The book arrived in excellent shape like I expected. I am very pleased with the produce.

Ugh....while this book is extremely accessible, the best parts of it are the cartoons and they're not that great. This book is required for my course and while I'm interested in theory, I'm not interested in the nitty gritty details that this book tends to list.

...for the study of second language acquisition. Brief and concise, easy and quick read.

Lightbrown and Nada's "How Languages are Learned" makes a good introduction to second language acquisition and some of the linguistic theories that are out there regarding it. Without overloading you with details, the book gives you enough to make some more informed choices about the classroom.

They start from a basis set in first language learning and some of the ideas that have come from there, as well as the nature of how children learn their first language. From there, it is pretty much straight into second language acquisition, including 5 approaches to it, learner language, interaction approaches and styles, factors that affect second language acquistion, (such as learner beliefs, motivations and even a detailed discussion on the age of students), and a range of others. The book is wrapped up with the authors' responses to 12 common beliefs about language learning.

For those looking for more inspiration in the classroom, there are better books out there. This one will give you something to think about, and maybe use as a basis for adjusting one's technique, but it really deals more in the theory and how that impacts on our understanding of students. If theory, and a decent introduction to it, is what you are after, then might I recommend this one as a good starting point.

Unlike some, Lightbrown and Nada have avoided throwing in so much jargon that their book is rendered useless by most people. It is very accessible and easily read. There will probably be no headaches after this one. It is an interesting, well-written book.

I have used this book in undergraduate Introduction to Language Learning and Language Teaching courses, as well as in a graduate seminar on language acquistion theory.

As previous reviewers have noted, Lightbown and Spada provide an easy-to-read and accessible text. The third edition expands on the second, and includes more recent variations on several of the language acquisition theories presented in the second edition (I've also used the second edition).

Unfortunately, it is missing some of the current and exciting work that is being done in usage-based theory and discourse analysis, and therefore will become more of a historical review of language acquisition theories as time goes on.

By itself it isn't enough for an entire course, either for language acquisition or teaching methodology. However, L&S deftly connect the dots with regard to how theories drive the thinking behind pedagogy.
I would recommend this book, in addition to other texts and course materials, to anyone teaching in a language teacher training program.