Teaching Books

Once every two or three years I am pressed into service teaching the course "Fundamentals of Arithmetic and Logic." The course is designed to give elementary school teachers the background in mathematics that they need. This book is designed for that course, which is the context in which I examined it.
The coverage is standard for such courses, nearly identical to what we cover in our course. The chapter headings are:

*) Thinking critically
*) Sets and whole numbers
*) Numeration and computation
*) Number theory
*) Integers
*) Fractions and rational numbers
*) Decimals, real numbers and proportional reasoning
*) Algebraic reasoning and representation
*) Statistics: The interpretation of data
*) Probability
*) Geometric figures
*) Measurement: Length, area, and volume
*) Transformations, symmetries, and tilings
*) Congruence, constructions, and similarity

This book has a large number of colored illustrations, which is a big help over the uniform black on white format. I am constantly using multi-colored chalk or whiteboard markers in my presentations for math and computer science. There are a large number of exercises at the ends of the chapters and solutions to many are included at the end.
Unlike some other books, there is not a lot of ink expended in covering technological applications. I never use a calculator when I am teaching the fundamentals class and I consider this a positive characteristic of the book. These students need to understand the theory behind these operations and calculators can often disguise what is really being done
I do not know if and when I will teach our fundamentals class again, our math and computer science departments are in a dramatic state of unpredictability. However, at this time, this book tops my list of potential texts.

I would recommend this book for anyone intrested in teaching younger children mathmatics. It starts on the basics such as addition and goes through geometery. It is very helpful in reminding adults how to do some basic math that we might have forgot. I used this book two semesters in a row at CSU Stainislaus. There isn't a single Liberal Study major who hasn't used this book. This book has "Highlights from History" that tell you about the people that created the different math ideas. "Hands On" gives you fun math activities to try and pieces from the NCTM standards and many more helpful articles throughout the chapters. This book makes teaching math intresting for you and the children you teach it to.

This book isn't so bad when paired with several other study aids. The slant of the text is done from a far more technically linguistic perspective. While I can appreciate (and actually enjoyed it from that point of view), it's far less efficient than, say, using the Genki study system on your own, or the infamous Rosetta Stone program. Either of those two will probably suit you far better. This makes an excellent supplement and reinforcement to either. If you're technically minded it might also be interesting from that viewpoint, as well.

In any case, I find it a useful addition to my Japanese library. It's come in handy for some nice changes in scenery while studying. You may find this as well, if you're collecting books to augment your studies.

This is the best book for learning Japanese on your own, that I have bought. It is as good or better than most textbooks that I have read.
There are lots of examples and vocab as well as grammer. Only complaint is that the book uses different size letters to teach you the correct pitch for each word, but it is nothing you can't get used to.

This book was also a pretty good add to my collection. Although I found some parts of the book to be rather dry and somewhat boring, I feel that this it would prove to be a rather excellent tool for beginners.

This was the first book I bought when I decided to study japanese and I will never regret it. In fact, when I look through some other books on the same subject I almost think that I would never have continued studying if I had not bought this book.

This book starts of with presenting the structure behind simple japanese sentences so that you can say "That building is high" or "I like apples" after the first 1-2 chapters (say 30 minutes of reading).

Come chapter 4, time, place, adverbs and other things are covered and although it is impossible to learn how all the particles are used in different situations the first time you read about them you will always have some of their usages explained as a valuable reference.

Once you progress through chapter 4 you will have a solid foundation on which to build upon. The author then covers bits and pieces that appear again and again in common japanese speech and can really help you improve your japanese through almost no work at all.

I strongly recommend reading about these bits and pieces and then watching a japanese film. You will notice that these expressions appear again and again with different verbs in different situations. And as you hear them, you will remember what they meant and understanding will no longer be a problem.

I hope this review was somewhat coherent. I like this book and I have tried to explain why.

Well, I think that if you are a computer engenier you will learn Japanese in no time with such a book.
I was completely lost with the do-re lullabies in order to get the proper tone when I say bridge or chopsticks in Japanese, and then I find awful to encourage people to use kanji, when the book itself has most of the examples in romaji.
I think the author should anyway have to show the stroke order, but that is superfluos for Ibm professionals, perhaps.
An interesting experience, anyway

I am using this in my Children In Action class at Church to help my children understand other cultures. It has been a great help, and really keeps their attention which is rare for most text books.

Great addition to our history studies. We tie in missionary needs to each country we study. The kids beg me to read these short entries to them. I'm learning about countries and groups I've never heard of.

This book is life-changing. It is my 8 year old daughters favorite part of the school day, but I am learning as much, if not more, than she is from it. I am learning that the world is much larger than my city, my state, the US and even North America! There is a lot going on out there that I have been horribly blind to until now. This book is opening my eyes to the knowledge that EVERY person is a child of God and He loves and cares about each one. This book is causing me to have a new perspective of thankfulness about how fortunate my family is and daily I am reminded to be thankful for our health, our safety, our comfort and material provision, our food, clean water, all things I have taken for granted until now. We are very spoiled in this country and I think this book is an awesome tool for adults and children to foster a new way of thinking!

My kids are learning about geography through this book, which we read from about 3 time a week. We learn something about the people and the terrain and about Christian missionary efforts world wide. They may not see or read glimpses of specific types of people without this book and I am pretty happy about that. I think the personal stories sound artificial and they are too short to really care much for the character of each singular blurb. Also they mention a movie called "The Jesus Movie" I don't get the emphasis on the showing of that movie. It almost sounds like marketing for the movie and I guess it's going to work because I want to see what it is they are talking about. Great for other home school families that want some geography and anthropological exposure.

Though it says 2007, it's not a revised edition but has exactly the same information as the hardcover version I bought in 2002; no updates on major world events/changes, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. An excellent spiritual resource, as well as useful in teaching geography and cultures.

I was very pleased with my purchase. The book was in excellent condition, and I received it in an appropriate time. I would definitely recommend this seller to future buyers. A+++!

I received my book in perfect condition and I
i erceived it within a ccouple of days.

A great refresher course for any teacher of Language Arts. The book uses the CLOZE technique, so you're learning as your filling in the answers (very active and involved learning). The reviews at the end of each chapter are a double check to see if you know the information presented. The pretest and posttest really assure you that you've learned something - which I did!

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!

The Girl with the Brown Crayon
Vivian Gussin Paley
Review by K. Winick-Ford

I am inspired and amazed- such a treasure to American literature, Paley shares her numerous years as a kindergarten teacher with her unique insight. She is insightful, being mindful of her students, their needs and the changes our society is facing.

Although all her stories are wonderful and easy to read, the girl with the brown crayon connects well-loved stories by a well respected author and how the class connects and adapts and evolves through the days. Too often we read about the short attention span of youngsters and their self-involvement and disconnectedness. Paley revives the soul- she shares authentic stories of her children, seeing the light they bring to our culture.

My favorite quote from the book is this, "apparently I needed classroom after classroom of young children demanding to be heard before I could identify my own voice and imagine my own questions." Pg. 43

This story, with obvious connections to racial identity is an easy read for all adults. The connections between Leo Lionni's books parallel What truly inspires me is how the class, as young as they are, relate to the books and the hidden messages they reveal. The book won several awards and there's no doubt to me, well deserved.

The main character, Reeny is strong and dominate throughout the book, showing signs of great leadership. The author reveals on her birthday why she is at the school she attends rather than a more local one. The issue of race and leadership is unveiled. It reminded me not only of the racial inequalities we face each day, but also how a child will not respond internally to leadership but will react when opportunity presents itself.

The issue of sexual identity is also presented and how children respond to the characters in the stories. The author explains to the children why they were written the way they were and poses an in-depth question as to whether or not they have to be male. Again, the children respond thoughtfully.

Never underestimate children. As the book draws to a close, Paley tells how the children respond to emotional crisis in the classroom and in their lives. She also tells how they mature and develop. Their insightful connections to the stories they have heard and how they connect them to their lives is amazing! From the Polish boy back to Reeny, the story comes full circle. The closing is appropriate. Not only is it the end of Paley's school year and her teaching career, but she leaves us with the tools we may wish to use- a list of Leo Lionni books, which many must be eager to revisit. In short, this is a fantastic book that you will be a better teacher and a better person having read it.

This particular piece of writing by Palely is describing her last thoughts she will have as a teacher. Palely is going to retire at the end of the school year and keeps a diary of her last year. She barely mentions math and science or gym and music. Her main focus turns to her language arts sessions. Her class begins to focus of a series of books written by Leo Lonny. Soon, all of their lives are entangled with Leo Lionni and all of his characters.There are several themes to this book that are of importance. The main theme, however, is knowing as adults, we can learn from children. As an example, the children in this book all have their very own personalities, as well as ethnicities in this classroom. Every one of them gets along and learns to understand each other. As adults, we must wonder why is our world so corrupt? These children refuse not talk to another because of skin color or personality difference. Another example is how well the children took off on learning and digesting each piece of literature. They are so excited to read and color and act out each book as if each book touched each individual child in some spectacular way. They are excited about reading! As adults, we need to learn from that. There are many adults who donýt read or canýt read and have no enthusiasm to try. It is sad to think that somewhere along the line the fun of reading is drained from their minds and reading will strictly turn into a task for some of these children.
I support this book, particularly on how the book expresses life long learning and growing (mentally). It really redefines who we are as adults and makes me take a second look at life. There are so many things that I donýt know about myself that I think I know. I am glad I read this book. I recommend this book 150% to anyone who wants to learn more about yourself through a child/children. Buy this book today and rediscover who you really are!

Paley's purpose for writing this book consists of helping to open our minds to the insights of children. She implies in her writing that we, as adults, can learn from children. Paley wrote about events that took place in her classroom during her last year of teaching. This book has many stories within itself. The theme or topic revolves around the children and how they react to literature and each other. This book is good that it opens us up to the world of children and how they think and feel. A good portion of the book is Paley's thought and feelings about what is going on with the children. It is good that we know her thoughts, but I would like to have read more about what the children were doing. I think more details about how the other children reacted and behaved would have been nice, other than concentrating a good deal on Reeny. Also when Paley writes about the stories she read to the class, I think she should have given a little bit more detail about the stories. Some people, including myself, may not have read some or any of Leo Lionni's books. Overall, it is a fun book to read.

The Girl with the Brown Crayon is a book that displays a journey through a kindergarten classroom which can only be described as a unique adventure of self discovery. Vivian Paley is the author as well as the kindergarten teacher of this very classroom. During her last year of teaching, she meets an interesting child named Reeny who leads Paley as well as the rest of the class on an exploration through the books and illustrations of Leo Lionni.
The Girl with the Brown Crayon is a book which covers important topics that cannot be learned in any college course. It discusses issues of identity and acceptance seen and felt through a child. I enjoy Paley's excessive use of dialogue. It aides in capturing the emotions felt by the characters and allows experiences to become more realistic in the readers eyes.
Overall, I recommend this book to future educators. It will teach you to become more open to your students thoughts and ideas rather than constantly focusing on certain curriculum. It will allow you to see the vastness of opportunities education can hold for you and your class!

The Girl with the Brown Crayon is a non-fiction book that is also an autobiography. It does not describe the complete life of the author, but it does explain a year in her life and in her classroom. This book is intended for any one interested in becoming a teacher. I would recommend this particularly a lower elementary teacher, because it would help them to understand the wonderful things children and comprehend and accomplish at such a young age. Ms. Paley has a simple, straightforward writing style that is easy to read.
There is one sentence that sums up Ms. Paley's last year as a teacher. "...I resist the uninvented classroom." (p. 50) Throughout the year, Ms. Paley and her students are books of Leo Lionni. It is through these books that the students and Ms. Paley discover themselves. One student in particular plays a major role in the development of the class. Reeny "sees" things before any one else does. She also brings new interpretations to the class.
I would say that The Girl with the Brown Crayon was an interesting book. At the beginning the author warns us that it might not seem like a true story. She is right, the events to seem incredible. It takes a very special class full of very special students to have a year such as they did. Throughout the book the author is very analytical of herself. She keeps finding traits of herself that the characters in the books also posses. Due the fact that this is her last year of teaching, she is very reflective, and rightfully so. Ms. Paley is also a good teacher in the sense that she is constantly reviewing what she is doing with her class. It has become stereotyped that older teachers follow the same exact curriculum from their first year. Ms. Paley fights that, and is always inventing something new and creative for the class she is teaching that year, not the class she taught the previous year.
There is a common theme of a person versus society. Throughout the book the students discuss the feeling of the characters and whether what they did was appropriate or not. While the students were looking at the books with a very high intellectual level, it should have also been brought down to their level. For example, would they give into the peer pressure of giving up the golden wings? The key words in that sentence are peer pressure. Through out the entire book, this idea was never brought up. The students could think higher, but only when they were talking about wings. What about issues in their lives.
Overall, this was a very good book and I would recommend it to anyone that is looking to teach in the near future. Ms. Paley has wonderful ideas, which she brings into her teaching. Ms. Paley makes her children excited about what they are doing.

This book is loaded with well-designed practice exercises that will keep your child's language skills sharp and expanding. My son and I like its format of five items per day. What a relief that you know you will finish in 10 minutes. It makes the studying easy and even fun! They look so simple, but if you keep on doing them, they make a big difference over time.

Since my son started using this book, he often gets on the honor roll out of many peers in Beestar (a very nice web site at Beestar.org). I think this book had built a fairly solid foundation for him. Highly recommend.

My 7 year old loves to work on the daily problems before school. It has helped him become a better student.

My child is now in the sixth grade. She should be only entering fourth grade but because we do curriculum like this she has been advanced. This book is excellent for homeschooling. They need repetition for writing skills, capitalization and grammar. If you just do one little section a day it really adds up over the year. It's easy and fast.

This book is divided into weeks, with a 5 question review for each day of the week. I use this in my 2nd grade class. We do one a day, it takes about 10 min. for the kids to complete and for me to go over the skills and answers. It is a great way to review different skills, from correcting sentences, to matching vowel sounds in words or finding the correct spelling of a word. My students are finally getting that a complete sentence starts with a capital letter and ends in puncuation. I would recommend this book to any teacher that doesn't have time to teach a full grammar lesson each day.

This book has daily lessons in grammar and other elements of writing. The quick lessons are a great way to spark discussions with your students about the fundamentals of writing. The pages are easy to reproduce and include answer keys.

I didn't buy this to pass any tests. I have been reading David McCullough's book John Adams and watching the DVDs too. And I wanted a way to "move around" within US Revolutionary War history quickly when I had questions about what was happening (or had or was going to happen). So regular history books would be way too detailed. I got what I wanted with this book: Helpful "Timelines" and short essays that cover the main events of each phase and period of the war that can be read quickly and are well-written and hence easy reading too. Also, it's great to have the whole sweep of US history in one book that I can dive into at any point and not only get interested, but invest a little time to get a good understanding of what was happening. So it's useful as a reference book too.

I bought this book in May to prepare for the June SAT II in US History and it was amazing!!! Before opening the book, I took a practice test through the OFFICIAL SAT SUBJECT TEST BOOK published by the College Board. I scored a 650 or 660, or something low like that. I was a little agitated because I bought a book for the AP US History Exam and read through that entire tome. Anyway, after recieving the book 2 weeks before the test, I read it cover to cover and took all of the 3 practice tests. Though the highest I recieved on the practice tests was a 690, I somehow pulled a 750 on the real SAT II. This book definately helped a lot and went into great dept on post-WWI. The main reason to purchase this book definately lies in the chapter reviews. They are great and give you the exact knowledge you will need for the test. Also, with review questions at the end of each chapter, the knowledge stays in your head and you retain all of the information. Two of the chapter review questions were word for word on the actual test! I highly recommend this book to anyone who wishes to recieve a 700+, because with just a small amount of backround knowledge in US History you can learn all that it takes to ace the exam!!! A+, 5 stars, and my highest recommendation!!!

I will make this short and sweet.
I bought both this book as well as the barons sat US history book.
This one dominates in that it makes it 10 times easier to understand. Barron's has a lot of unnecessary info but it is much more thorough in basically all the reading. BUTT it is many times more boring and often very hard to read and understand.
I read this book about 3 times (takes about like 3-4 hours, short read!!), did the tests and skimmed over the barrons and amazingly got a 760!!! it was weird cus on the practice tests in this book, i score no higher than 720. the barrons tests are RIDICULOUSly hard!!!! might be good just for info review. If your like me, where if the reading gets to complex then you tune out, get this one!!! Barrons is unnecessarily cus i did not learn anything from that to be honest..
*make sure you memorize the ammendments,acts,court cases, and important election dates......which leads to (down)

BUY the sparknotes flash cards!! They work pretty. welll i thought soo.
good luck kids!!!

I used this book to guide a book study with elementary teachers in a school where I was the principal. All teachers in the study were reading Marzano's Classroom Instruction that works and a couple of us had a copy of this book to bring in additional information and activities to enhance our study. Both books present the "cut to the chase" version of research that many teachers appreciate because of their busy schedules. The books present strategies that have been proven repeatedly to be effective and professionals who have looked carefully at Marzano's work know that it is scholarly work. He has, however, tried to present it in a very down to earth fashion. No high brow research jargon here. Teachers appreciated and learned from the study and the structure and additional information this guide brought to our work together was an significant factor.

I think one of the reasons why most of the reviews for this book are poor is because many school districts around the country have pushed these strategies down teachers throats. When this book was first distributed through our district, I was impressed because I was a fairly new teacher. The book includes many different strategies and even master copies of handouts and graphic organizers for use in the classroom. As a newer teacher, this is one of the things that makes a book of educational strategies appealing.

That being said, I can understand the frustration of veteran teachers when their school districts forced these strategies onto them, some making them mandatory. Marzano and his team of education-experts have not presented the education world with anything new. They have simply researched and pointed out the strategies used by thousands of teachers world wide that seem to work best with all types of students from all types of backgrounds.

Personally, I think the book is good reference material, though not groundbreaking in any way. If our district had not provided teachers with free copies, I'm not sure I would have purchased it. If you are a new teacher and looking for some strategy books for your collection, cross your fingers and hope your district gives you this one for free because you can find better use of your teacher funds.

Do you like magazine surveys about how effective your marriage is, or if you exercise frequently enough? This book has one for each chapter (rate yourself 1-4), AND has worksheets like the ones you did in grade school as you work to explore "novel" techniques in education! There have to be more thought provoking monographs about the application of research in the classroom. Sanitized statistics, silly stories, a frighteningly short list of references and text that probably does not read beyond the 6th grade level disturbs me. Does Mr. Marzano think that all educators are semi-literate morons? His ideas are not new in the science classroom, and most ideas he covers are reiterations of something old for me. I was required to use this book and its sister textbook for a GRADUATE LEVEL education course. I would recommend NEITHER.

I had to buy this book for a class on Teaching for Academic Literacy. The class, like the book, was a waste of time and money. Basically, the book consists of modules, and each module is designed to teach you how to conduct a particular activity with your students, such as how to teach your students to classify things. Then each module ends with a rubric for assessing your understanding, and pages of space to allow you to reflect on your enjoyment of classifying. So basically, you only have to read the first couple of pages of any module. So go to the library, check out the book and read those pages, and don't waste your money.

Don't waste your time on this book - there is very little material of any use here.
The book is divided into chapters which claim to discuss how to address concepts such as working in groups, comparison and contrast and homework. In each chapter the authors give a page-long short answer test in which the reader evaluates how she feels about her use and awareness of the chapter topic. This could be quite useful if there was any information presented between the tests. Also, the test is reprinted in each chapter, usually almost verbatim. This lacks imagination and and seems wasteful to me.
In each chapter, the authors give several one-paragraph-long passages that tell what you might do in that teaching/learning area. These are almost always unimaginative and unsupported; little is not intuitively obvious, and there is seldom any explanation or exploration of the technique. It is true that what is obvious to one is not alwas so to everyone else, and there are doubtless a couple ideas that you may not have thought about or have forgotten. Still, a five minute talk with another teacher would accomplish just as much if not more.
Again, don't waste your money on this book if you can help it.

This book is fantastic! It is easy reading with ideas that are applicable the moment you start reading. I teach kindergarten and some of the ideas had to be watered down to meet my needs, but for grades 1-8th it is perfect.
I ususally get rid of a book after I've read it, but not this one. It is a great reference book for any teacher. I highly recommend this book.

This book is a wonderful resource the the reading teacher from k-8th grades. I have been a kinder teacher for 16 years and I found it helpful not only for my grade level but it helped me feel that I would be effective in other grade levels as well, something I had not previously felt. It reads very easily, gives many strategies, and contains resources to implement the strategies. I would make this required reading for every teacher.

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

Tim Rasinski has successfully married theory and practice with this easy read, and included forms, resources and practical ideas that can be integrated into the classroom immediately. We purchased them for several teachers in the district so that they can get the strategies to students without delay. Strongly recommend this resource to others!

I ordered two copies. They arrived quickly and in great shape. Thank you.