Product Description
Systematic, easy-to-implement steps for guiding learners toward positive character are presented in this book aimed at educators, parents, and other key mentors in young people's lives. Focusing on the modeling and teaching of character principles, it offers practical guidelines for creating a results-directed character-development plan for individual classrooms, public and private schools and school systems, and home-school environments. It is also a valuable resource for undergraduate and graduate education professors and for institutions and programs teaching interpersonal skills. The accompanying resource manual provides everything needed for a successful plan and offers comprehensive teaching tools for over 100 specific character traits. ... Read more

Product Description
This book features 99 multi-national and multi-cultural folk tales with familiar character and bullying prevention themes but encapsuled in wonderfully diverse stories. The author, a professional storyteller, provides actual stories plus chapters on how to tell a story, not just read it; activities for students; and bulliten board ideas. She also provides hints and tips for teaching kids the art of storytelling which encourages communication skills and classroom unity. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Excellent text on the subject
We use this book as the central text in our graduate degree class, 'Storytelling and Character Education', at Southern CT State University in New Haven, CT.It is a universally loved book by our students, mostly teachers and librarians getting advanced degree credits.They all report using the stories and activities from the book in their classroom and work situations, and many of them have said they have found it to be the most useful text of their entire graduate program.The stories and activities are all laid out in a clear and easily accessible manner, and all are directly on point to the subject at hand.

Needed this book for my class
I am taking an advanced degree and this book was required for my course.I just started reading it and I like how you can use if for different grade levels.I teach kindergarten and there are many stories that I can use with them. It is never too early to talk about bullying. There are always some young bullies that we have to deal with. ... Read more

Product Description

Research clearly shows that our schools are often unhealthy social environments: 80 percent of middle school students report seeing arguments or fights every day at school. Almost three out of four (70 percent) of surveyed girls ages 8-17 report symptoms of low self-esteem. Even worse, most of these girls reported falling into patterns of dysfunctional behavior, such as bullying, disordered eating, or smoking or drinking when feeling badly.

In this book, author Kevin Strauss has carefully laid out background information, traditional stories, and skill-building activities that will enable teachers to help their students master bullying and drug prevention, self-control, and conflict resolution, as well as establish healthy self-esteem and optimism. The "Story/Activity/Discussion" approach of this text makes the serious task of learning and practicing critical life skills fun for both teachers and students. This story-based approach also increases retention of building-block skills, especially for younger students.

Product Description
Bring new power and purpose to the study of literature with innovative tools and strategies that deepen students' understanding of literary elements and help them apply that understanding to their reading as well as their writing. Rich, original passages illuminate the intricacies of character, setting, point of view, and theme, and engaging activities framed by inquiry enable students to transfer what they learn to new reading situations.- Facilitates active transfer of what students learn from one reading experience to the next- Impacts writing as well as reading- Engages students through inquiry ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Superb assistance for secondary English teachers
Smith and Wilhelm offer brilliant ideas for teaching theme, characterization, Point of View, etc.

I was especially impressed by the various activities the authors suggest to help students seriously engage with the full meaning--not the stock definition--of the various literary elements.

One could easily use their book to design an entire thoroughly engaging year of English Literature study. Bravo.

Fresh Takes Review
Offers a viewpoint different from the accepted for approaching the teaching of literary elements to secondary students, especially today's technology-literate students.Wilhelm is THE BOMB!

Taking the Paralysis Out of Literary Analysis
Literary analysis?The very words fill students with dread.They also send said students diving for the mouse and the monitor to hunt up SparkNotes or some other site designed to do the thinking for them.

Jeffrey Wilhelm and Michael Smith show that there is a better way.Through inquiry, they launch units with essential questions tailored to the literature in question (e.g. "What makes a good father/friend/hero/teacher?") followed by opinionnaires that invite students to share opinions on issues relevant to the text about to be read.From there, they show you how to follow up with activities designed to be used both during and after the book (or short story, poem, play, etc.).

The number one question teachers ask of a professional development book is what its theory-to-practicality ratio is.Here the theory is posited early and briefly.From there, the authors launch into chapters devoted to four areas: character, setting, point of view, and theme.In addition to their own ideas, Wilhelm and Smith share other researchers' ideas and leaven the mix with plenty of reproducible pages that are both high-interest AND rigorous.If you teach and feel like you've beat your head against the wall trying to get students to see beyond the superficial and the surface items in literature, you owe this book a test drive.Don't expect to be returning it to the dealer, either.

... Read more

Product Description
The first 5 years of a child's life are a time of tremendous
physical, emotional, social, and cognitive growth. Noting that research shows that children are more likely to succeed in learning when their families actively support them, this booklet is intended for families and caregivers who want to help their preschool children learn and develop the skills
necessary for success in school-and in life.

The major portion of the booklet contains simple activities for use with children.Activities for infants include developing trust. For toddlers, activities include playing with puppets and using objects as musical instruments. For preschoolers, activities
include getting along, rhymes, and matching sounds and letters. The booklet also offers suggestions for improving the transition to kindergarten, monitoring children's television viewing, and choosing child care. The booklet concludes with a 21-item bibliography and a "ready-for-school" checklist. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Simple and FREE
This book synthesizes the best and most simple ways to support your child's development (emotionally, cognitively, socially, and physically) at home.

No more, more less.

[...] ... Read more

Product Description
A book that gives parents an excellent opportunity to impart family values in a healthy Christian way. The author is a mother of six and has taken 37 scenarios and turned them into what she terms "Teachable Moments"--those times when irritating situations arise and can be utilized as a perfect time for learning. ... Read more