Teaching Books

This is a very interesting book that introduces all the basic concepts of the English language structures. It refers both to the Syntaxis and the Grammar, giving a detailed account and picture of the English language.

A must have! This book has saved me from looking through all the other little books that I have!

I'm an ESL teacher. I have students who ask me all kinds of grammar questions that I don't know the answers to. This is where I go to find them. The book is pretty dry (hey, its grammar) and technical, but that's what makes it such a good resource.

This book was clearly created to be a textbook for pre-service teachers about how to teach English grammar. There is so much information in this book, though, I'm pretty sure that it would be impossible to cram it all in to one course. It's an absolutely indispensable reference. I return to it again and again. Every serious ESL/EFL teacher should have this book.

You don't have to be a teacher of English as a Second or Foreign Language (ESL/EFL) to use this book. You do have to be very interested in how to write and speak correct English, and in exceptions to rules and the patterns behind them. The book is more than a desk reference, but not meant to be read cover-to-cover. The curious reader can open at almost any chapter and learn something new about daily English usage. The authors assume knowledge of some grammatical terms -- look them up in a dictionary as needed (I did). Multiple indexes allow you to find explanations both by topic and by word.

Great book, I needed it for class. It provided a lot of detail on the specific cases that have made the changes in special education through the years.

Excellent source book for both the novice or experienced pracitioner. Very helpful, concise and comprehensive

I bought it for one class and have used it for every class. I use it everyday and would not want to be without it.

This book is a must-have for educators. Since the push for inclusion means many students with disabilities are entering regular schools and classrooms with their peers, it is of great worth that the regular teacher as well as the special education teachers know the background of the laws that pertain to these students with diverse needs. It would be beneficial to both students, teachers, and parents to know and understand how the laws are applied in court, what an IEP is, what is expected of the teachers, and what can be expected of the students. I have the other major law books on disability laws, but this one is more geared toward other participants in the process besides lawyers. It is very readable and very understandable without having to go to law school to get a background in law first. I suggest this or rather recommend this to my friends and students who are interested in working with those with disabilities in regular school settings. Karen Sadler Science Education, University of Pittsburgh, klsst23@pitt.edu

I haven't written a review on amazon before, but want to do one now after reading the negative response above.
For me, this book is an incredibly insightful and inspirational read. It shows tons of different approaches to art, not in a didactic manner or 'how-to'way but simply by showing what different bodies of work are about, and how they function. Questions such as 'for how large an audience should you want to be working' are answered not by giving a figure but by showing various possible relations an artist can have with his or her audiences and how the nature of the relationship they choose to build affects their work.
the essays are short, but long enough to get to the point.Each essay can be seen both as a case study for aspiring artists and as an introduction into contemporary practice for any interested reader. There are a lots of good fullcolor photograps added to the text.
The small interviews printed next to the essays hold a lot of insightful information on the more practical side of being an artist - for instance how important do you perceive your location to be, how is your income built up and so on (these interviews take up a lot less space). Totally recommended, i don't know of any book quite like this. I go through it very often.

This book was reccomended by tutors as one of three books to buy at the start of our Fine Art degree course. I sort of chuckled, slightly bemused when I skipped through it for the first time, but I am now in the middle of my second year and I find it more and more useful as time goes on. I now understand more about what goes on in the world of art and in the mind of the artist and what I am now reading makes more and more sense, the reasoning behind artistic approaches and the thought trains behind individual artist's work I can now follow using this book. I highly reccomend the work even though it takes a while to take it all in, afterall there is not much time to fit in the social life at Uni never mind actual study ! This book will be invaluable in my third year. It is well written and has enabled me to understand other peoples work so valued in art study and now accessable to myself having read it.

This book is meant to be read in bits and pieces or from the first page to the last. You can get inspired and educated by every word and image. The author is very generous with her respectable amount of knowledge. She employs her skills to get YOU going. This is not a self-help book. This is a serious art and art lovers book, whether you are someone who thinks about art or does art.

Buy this book. I am a career educator, writer, and book producer. This book is unparalleled.

Platonic Love to All Who READ, READ, READ!!
KM

Weintraub has done the footwork here--for a lot of people that would read her book. She demonstrates her curious mind and is able to convert that into a series of reviews of what is out there right now--and makes it into a very hip series of essays--one you would think is stodgy at first, but is actually very informative, and demonstrates her knowledge and skill by getting into these artists minds and the what and why that goes into ther work. It's a wonderful text book, but even if I didn't use it as a text, I could seriously put it down and feel satiated--like I had learned something new. I would recommend the book to artist and sudent alike, and if I were teaching a class, I would seriously consider using it. All in all, a very good book.

Now, I've never written a review on Amazon before, but, then again, I've never felt so passionately about a book before.

I'm being forced to read this book for a class and I'm finding it incredibly torturous. Despite that, I'm going to struggle to keep my emotions out of this review.

The Preface of this book begins with questions:

"Why am I an artist? Who is my audience? How can I communicate with this audience? What is art's function in society?"

As a fledgling artist myself I have found myself asking these questions often. I know that there are no answers and I didn't expect this book to provide any. But I thought this book would at least probe and examine these questions. I had my hopes up that this thick text would provide some meaningful insights that would expand my knowledge, change my perspectives, and maybe even tell me how flat-out wrong some of my assumptions are.

Boy, was I disappointed.

Past the introduction, Weintraub, the author, ceases to ask anything. In fact, there is hardly any investigation into any of these questions period.

There is no critical thinking. There are no references to contemporary theorists or philosophers. Instead, the book is composed entirely of articles about contemporary artists who are meant to illustrate various strategies for tackling these problems. For example, to answer the question "who is my audience?" there is an article about Thomas Kinkade as an example of someone who makes "art-for-all."

But once you start reading the articles, the questions fly out the window. Instead, each article reads like an extended press release. The artists' works are written about in superlative, round-about ways. If one were to take away all the fluffy descriptions and half-baked interpretations there might be one or two paragraphs for each artist.

The articles are full of statements like "The artist does this, this, and this" and "The viewer experiences this, this, and this," but there is no critical examination of what the artist is actually doing or what the viewer is actually experiencing. These examinations wouldn't be too difficult to accomplish either. Why not talk with art critics or art historians about what they think about the artists' works or why not interview actual viewers seeing the works what they think about the works? We, the readers aren't provided these options. We are told what to think and experience. The artworks function exactly the way the artist and Weintraub tells us they do.

On top of this, any and all context is removed. Weintraub places each of these artists in their own separate bubbles. No one looks at other art. No one goes to museums. No one has done any reading regarding their chosen subject matter. Weintraub writes as if each artist has miraculously created their ideas out of nothing and are amazingly original even if their concepts are far from new.

For example, Weintraub has write-up on artist Scott Grieger. A major aspect of Grieger's work deals with consumer and advertising culture. Yet apparently neither Weintraub nor Grieger are familiar with Baudrillard's "System of Objects" or Jameson's "Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism" or Naomi Klein's "No Logo" which are all very relevant and very major writings on that very topic.

Additionally, Weintraub writes with a very awkward style that obscures what she is trying to say. This works to her advantage, however, because much of what she is trying to say makes little to no sense. For example, here is a quote from the Grieger article (where she is discussing a work about global warming that incorporates a time/temperature digital display):

"In his determination to make visitors realize that these digital measuring devices actually report instantaneous environmental change with absolute accuracy, and that these changes portend dire circumstances, Grieger used another propagandist tactic: surprise. Exploiting the power of letters and numbers to exceed their role as information-conveyers, he harnessed their ability to captivate attention, and thus to provoke thought. As visitors turn to exit the gallery they confront two painted replicas of LED displays. The stasis of these representations highlights the movement of the functioning devices. The text inscribed on one is 'hELLO.' The other reads '07734.' The perplexing appearance of the lower case 'h' is the clue that helps reveal that the two apparently unrelated signs are actually the same. By turning the sign with the numbers upside down, the viewers realizes that it too spells the word 'hELLO.' As they depart, visitors receive a greeting instead of a farewell."

This long paragraph is mostly nonsense. How does the propagandist tactic of surprise fit into any of these LED displays? How do the "hELLO" signs lead us to think that the other ones "report instantaneous environmental change with absolute accuracy"? Why does Weintraub place so much emphasis on the profundity of the "hELLO" signs when any 3rd grader in math class already knows how to make their own on their calculators?

This review has gotten way too long. And yet I've barely scratched the surface of this book. Each article makes me want to bang my head against the wall. Each paragraph make me want to gouge my eyes out with a spoon. Hopefully I can prevent some of you from experiencing this same torture.

Thank you for reading.

Sorry, I really don't have any good comments on this, because I haven't had any classes to use it with right now. Maybe later in the fall classes I might be able to use it then.

Thank you.
Bessie Roberts

I have used this text for two years in my Foundations class that I teach at a local college. I personally like the broad scope of information that is contained, but considered the 1997 version outdated from the start..i.e., no brain research; In additon, I do not think the work is well written at all. It is confusing and hard to follow. As an example, he mentions Socrates and Plato, but does not say why (Chapter three, page 62). I could site other examples but "brevity is the soul of wit"! Thanks :)

Morrison's FUNDAMENTALS OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION is his other book (third best, in my opinion, behind Jo Ann Brewer's book and Stephanie Feeney's book). This is essentially the same excellent text with a well-done added section on Programs and Services For Children.

Like Morrison's other text, it's full of alot of stuff in just a little over 530 pages, but it's a one-stop reference.

The only problem is the price: $95. You can get the other three books for less money with essentially the same information.

In general, though, it's a fine, fine book.

I've used this book as a reference because of the tremendous amount of information it holds. The information is up to date and presented in a clear way. Early Childhood Education Today is easy to read, comprehend, and utilize as a college student.

I am majoring in Birth through kindergarten Education, and I feel that this book is well worth the money. With its many colorful charts and their detailed descriptions, it is an easy way to get the sometimes complicated information understood. This, along with the helpful websites and each chapters' focus questions, this book is a "must have!"

I was pleased with the purchase I made. The book I ordered came in the time specified and in the condition promised.

This Book should be on-hand for every literacy teacher. It provides scaffolded instruction for the teacher, who would like to be proficient in his and/or her classroom with their students.

A must have!

V.

This is an excellent go-to book for literacy strategies. I love how you can flip the page to the strategy you need, and it outlines, step-by-step exactly how to teach it. One of the top books I use regularly in my classroom!

This book has great literacy ideas to use in the classroom. The ideas are clearly explained and some examples are even shown. Great for ideas for strategies.

This book is a great resource for learning strategies. It includes how to successfully complete each strategy. This is a great resource to have.

This is a college level textbook. I did not find it condusive to individual learning but can see where it could be a decent book with a teachers guidance.

When I began using this textbook as part of an elementary German college course, I had absoluely no prior experience in German grammar or communication (I couldn't even say eins, zwei, drei :) ). I find that the book is, for the most part, very straightfoward in explaining grammatical concepts and is consistent in the way it progresses from chapter to chapter (with example dialogues vocabulary, explanations of grammar and grammar pratice exercises). The book also includes colloquial expressions in vocabulary lists, which can help non-native speakers sound more natural, and each chapter includes some cultural tidbits about Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

I've had no problem using this book daily or understanding the concepts. It also corresponds pretty well to the Deutsch Heute workbook, for extra pratice. The book should, of course, be used with supplementary classroom instruction and not as a self-study material, because some things simply need extra explanation (for example, the different kinds of cases, adjective endings, prepositions, etc.).

Some criticisms that I have is that the book is sometimes inconsistent: i.e. in one chapter a certain preposition is used in an expression, and in another chapter the preposition is different even though the expression is supposed to be the same. There are also some spelling errors, but neither they nor the slight inconsistencies get in the way of learning German, in my opinion. I also wish that it would provide more real-life situations to which certain grammatical rules should be applied, and it would be useful if it contained a back-of-the-book answer section for pratice exercises when studying at home.

Overall, I think most beginner students will find this book easy to use and understand. Viel Glück!(Good luck!)

This book doesn't make sense. It gives you german phrases before showing how to say them. even at that, it doesn't tell you what each phrase translates to in the dialogs. There is no context for, oh, beginners. Seriously, an introductory book for beginners that doesn't put things in a logical order is just a sign of stupidity. I took latin for years and the Wheelock's Latin book made more sense than this. An intro should not presume prior involvement with the language like this book does. Do not buy this unless you really have to.

I only got this book for the class I was taking. I have no opinion on this book.

As my school district has been learning how to conduct functional behavior assessments, this is the book we keep passing around and referring to. It is practical, useful and the information is research based.

This book is a fabulous resource for anyone working with children or adults who display inappropriate behaviors. Special Education teachers, administrators, Behavior Specialists, Counselors, Psychologists and people providing direct care will benefit from the hands-on tool. The book gives sample Behavioral Support Plans (Behavior Management Plans) derived from an excellent Functional Assessment Interview (FAI) tool. Readers will learn how to target the problem behavior and provide measurable objectives to address the behavior. A "must have" for anyone providing support to students or adults with behaviors and/or MR/DD.

I use this text in my college course on "Behavioral Assessment and Positive Behavior Support" for beginning special education teachers. It breaks down the process of completing a Functional Assessment and Functional Analysis in an easy-to-understand manner. The examples and the forms included are extremely helpful for all levels of behavioral intervention.

This is a great tool for new and student teachers. Provides invaluable information regarding teaching reading to all elementary grade levels. A must have for any teachers library of resources.

Great book to have if you are going to into administration.