Teaching Books

I am very satisfied with the quality of the book and the expedience of the delivery.

The Skin That We Speak, by Lisa Delpit, is a collection of essays written by various authors about the impact of language in the classroom. The author identifies the purpose of the book as the exploration of "the links between language and identity, between language and political hierarchy, and between language and cultural conflict." The book is divided into three sections starting with an individual inward look into languages, a examination of the consequences of language attitudes in the classroom, and finishes with a look at the language of teachers and what they need to know to become effective in the classroom. The author titled the book, The Skin That We Speak, because "just as our skin provides us with a means to negotiate our interactions with the world - our language plays an equally pivotal role in determining who we are." For each of us our language becomes intimately connected to our identity.
Overall, this was a good book. Because it was composed of so many short essays, it made the book easy to divide into sections and read it quickly. The essays were all very well written and easy to understand the authors' purpose and its connection to the book. IT contained a nice mixture of personal stories, research, and even some ideas that could be directly used in the classroom. I think that it would be an excellent book for all teachers, new and old, to read. It opened my eyes to all the different aspects of the English language that I never realized existed and how those aspects can affect all students in my classroom. It has caused me to reflect on how I use language in my classroom on a daily basis. This book has allowed me to realize how all students can struggle with language issues in so many different ways, and how we need to be sensitive to it as classroom teachers.

An interesting look at differences in language -- accent, vocabulary, and dialect. This book explores the judgements that people, even young children, make when they hear a voice. Well-rounded and very pragmatic about solutions. Doesn't just say 'Oh, people shouldn't judge each other.' Because, like it or not, we do.

Very clever - the story, the characters' names - all of it. Perfect for a grade school student! I bought it for my seven year old and it got a big thumbs up from both him and his dad.

Very cute story and a nice way of using word play to describe geometric vocabulary. Great for an introduction to the concept and as a review for older children.

This 32 page children's book tells how Sir Cumference, his wife the Lady Di of Ameter, and their son Radius solve the problems of the king's table. King Arthur and his knights needed to have a council, but there was a problem with the table around which they met. It began as too long; after that was fixed, the table had too few sides, and other tables produced more objections. Geo of Metry makes tables in several shapes before a round table solves all the problems. The illustrations are great, with medieval pageantry and geometric explanations. A few other characters from Camelot appear, such as Sir Lancelot and Sir Gawain.

This is a great book to introduce geometry to the young, making it fun and easy. Shapes and measurements are explained in the quest for the perfect council table for the king and his knights. When the round table is finally found to be the perfect shape, the king names certain measurements after Sir Cumference, Radius, and the Lady Di from Ameter. Very cute!

My kids (9 and 6) , who are homeschooled, loved this story and it resulted in them being able to instantly recall the proper names of geometric elements and classes (e.g., radius, circumference, obtuse, acute). This is probably due to the clever visual and contextual associations provided. We bought another book in the series right afterward with the same results. Plan to get them all.

My daughter has always had a problem learning Math but reading this book (along with the others in this series) has helped her immensely! The books themselves are a bit young for her but the concepts in them (Pi, Geometry, etc) are explained in a way I think she needed.

I would recommend these to anyone who has a child with problems in math concepts.

I use this book as a grammar reference and conversation stimulus in my ESL classes and private tutoring.
It's very well organized although the cd only contains every 4 chapters which is a bit disappointing. However the students like it which is essential.

I love this book. It should not be used as a reference but for practicing your American English. Perhaps the exercises should be a little harder. It is well organized into sections and explains things in a clear way.

Great grammar book for anyone whose grammar is rusty. This would be a great tool for ESL teachers because each 2-page lesson is self-contained with grammar explanations and exercises. I like the format that lets someone do one lesson at a time at his/her own pace.

My children studied the basic version of Grammar in Use. As non-English speaking family, I am happy that our children are enrolled in GT classes or in a Magnet school. They have gotten 'A's in Reading and/or English. Now they are learning this version. Well organized expressions and rich examples are guiding them to the 'fast track'.

Students love this book and so do I as their teacher in English as a Second Language or ESL in the El Paso TX area. This puts the polish on the vocabulary, comprehension, pronunciation, and confidence I attempt to instil in my students...the answers are in the back to aid self study and the CD allows them to hear correct pronunciation prior to coming to class so the class acts as a review for thier homework. Thank you.

This is a very good basic book on how to critically read and critique others works. The process that is established helps you to write your own works along with reviewing others. This is great book for undergrads to get thier best foot forward and should be required for all graduate students.

This book provides some good information on the proper way to write academically. Pretty self explanatory.

As an english instructor at the university level, it is difficult to find a book that addresses all the issues one faces in a freshman english class. This book covers all the basics for grammar and sentence structure, plus it progressively takes a young writer through all the stages of writing from brainstorming to editing. The assignments included in this book help students learn the craft of writing and the language of the lessons reaches all levels and abilities. A truly fantastic addition to any instructor's arsenal!

I tried this summer communicating with Amazon without success; maybe someone will read this. I purchased a copy of "The University in Ruins" last March. The copy is defective! Pages 152-153, 160-161, 168-169, and 176-177 are missing and are replaced by earlier pages (120-121, 128-129, 136-137, and 144-145; "doubled").
What can be done about this?
Thank you.
Dr. John Nichols

I had a basic understanding of grading rubrics before I began, but it wouldn't have mattered, as the authors provide such a clear explanation that I think even someone with no prior knowledge would grasp the concept almost immediately. The book is loaded with examples and a step-by-step walk-through of how to build effective rubrics. Perhaps most importantly, the authors explain why just about everybody can benefit from rubrics and how course design ultimately could be improved by making effective use of feedback from well-constructed rubrics. I highly recommend this to any instructor of college students, especially if they have shied away from using essay type exams because they have been afraid they could not reliably grade them.

I am a junior-faculty member and have tried my hand at creating rubrics in an effort to be fair and consistent in grading. However, I struggled with breaking down each area so I felt my rubrics were weak. Thus, I was looking for a "how-to" book and this book did not disappoint! It was well worth every penny! The book was written by two college faculty members who are seasoned in developing rubrics for college courses (individually, departmentally, and university-wide). I read the book in a day and then began working through the 4-stage process. It took the better part of a full day to create my first rubric, working through the steps methodically and thoughtfully, but I trust the authors that when it comes to grading, I will more than save the time, and most importantly, students will have a clear picture of where their grade comes from. Also, I am confident that the time required in producing rubrics for other assignments will decrease as I gain more experience.
In addition to the 4-stage process, the authors discuss a continuum of 5 models to rubric construction ranging from the instructor creating the rubric with no input from students to a rubric that is created completely by the students (of course, as the faculty member, one always has the opportunity to make adjustments). The point being that there is more than one way to construct a rubric depending on instructor's style and developmental level of the class. The book has a chapter on constructing rubrics with others, such as TA's, colleagues and tutorial staff. Even though my university does not use TA's and I am new faculty member, I liked the idea behind involving colleagues, and especially, tutorial support, like a writing center. Another chapter was designated to show how rubrics could be used in different disciplines. For example, rubrics for laboratory work in the sciences or a portfolio review in art were demonstrated along with rubric examples for assessing classroom participation and assignments that may be submitted in stages, such as a research paper.
I have only two slight criticisms: 1) the book only spends a page and half talking about assigning a grade after completing the rubric. The book used primarily one example throughout the book (although showing how to modify the rubric for a First-Year course versus a graduate course) which was really useful, but then, when it came time for discussing assigning a grade, they used a totally different type of rubric and assignment. I wish they would have shown assigning a grade to the example they had been using. It seems that would have completed the process. And, 2) the publishers have a website on the book where you can download rubric templates. This was good. The complaint is that the authors also have a website which promises discussion boards, more templates, etc. However, it is essentially a shell that was set up when the book was published in 2005 and nothing much has transpired since then. For these two reasons, I give it a 4-star versus a 5-star rating, but the bottom-line is, get this book to learn how to create assessment tools that will help your students and YOU!

At our college I purchased one copy, then 6 more, then 4 more, then 25 more... handed out to various faculty members along with workshops on rubrics. The book is very accessible to get faculty over the hump to actually writing and using rubrics for themselves/their classes.

I would recommend this guide for rubric development. It clear and provides many good examples to get started.

It's a text book. It gives you the basics for your class and you have to purchase it anyway. I've had better bio books, but I've also had worse, way worse. It's not too short. I think it's alright.

The author of this text book repeatedly falls into prose trying to make the subject matter more entertaining. Unfortunately, I found this rather distracting considering it is a text book. I was also shocked to find incorrect information in this 2004 reviewed text book, e.g. it claims that a Herpes Virus is the causative agent of cervical cancer, which is plain out wrong (it is HPV). Lucky me, I already have a degree in the medical field and know this kind of information, but I feel sorry for students who use this as primary source for their education. I was also disappointed that this text book has no contact information listed for improvement suggestions. Every good text book I purchased so far had either e-mail or regular mail contact information where one could address concerns to - this one does not. I sent the publishing company a letter about the faulty content, but have not heard back from them.

Caution: there is not a paperback version of this textbook available!

The Amazon page for the Anatomy and Physiology text shows a link to a paperback version available for about $35 dollars, but it is not a paperback version of the textbook! Instead you'll receive the study guide - this is an error with Amazon's page for this book.

The study guide does appear to be a good one, with practice tests and review points to help prepare for exams. I'll probably keep it now that I have it, but I still had to fork out $100+ for the actual textbook!

This text reads rather like an expanded lecture. Language is precise where it needs to be: I don't see "arm" used where "upper extremity" is intended.

I believe the May 2 reviewer may be dealing with a much older edition or otherwise confused. The connection of HPV to cervical cancer is clearly indicated in this edition, and was present in the second edition as well. In the second edition herpesviruses were also mentioned as "having been implicated as a cause of cervical cancer", and that phrase has been dropped from the third edition. I think the phrasing was probably reasonable at the time the second edition was in preparation.

I would never go so far as to say any text is error-free. However, when I think I've found mistakes in here it's more likely to turn out that the folks at Terminologica Anatomica have changed something underneath me - like moving the macula densa from the distal convoluted tubule to the ascending limb of the loop of Henle.

I have read this book, it is very informative. A lot of "hands on" information that you can use in your classroom or for private lessons!

This book was recommended to me and I love it! You will not find a better book for an art teacher!!

I love this book and believe it would be helpful for all art teachers. I love the approach and recommend it. Theory, application, and projects are all found in this book. Get it.

I am a specialist Art teacher and this book is my bible! It is filled with beautiful photos of student work and plenty of expert advice & knowledge. It doesn't give step-by-step instructions for any of the projects, but anyone with some experience or creativity can break down how to create the amazing pieces of work by studying the photos. It is inspirational and the authors obviously know their stuff. I highly recommend this book.

This book was wanted by our reading coach. She liked it so much that she got PTO to order 12 more. Thanks for the great service.

I highly recommend this to teachers and college students who need a resource guide to follow. It gives you a one stop place to find out the developmental stages for the literacy levels that a child should be at.