Product Description
This book by two neuropsychology experts examines how the brain functions during learning experiences and how this knowledge can influence teaching strategies. Grades 1-12 ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

social learning
There is more packed in this little book about how we, humans, learn than in hundreds of education manuals.
Should be required reading for teachers and students.

The most helpful book I've ever read
This book changed my life and my teaching. I've applied its principles every day of the 10 years since reading it.

If it had only covered the concept of downshifting, it would have been worth it. Instead, it fit it into a whole web of information, implications, and suggestions.

This is a great book!
This is one of the most important books on education that I have ever read. It has permanently changed how i think about education and is influencing where I send my kids to school.

"Great book for educators interested in the brain"
As a high school English teacher, I enjoyed this book and found it enlightening.It also has an excellent bibliography.The chapter on "Orchestrated Immersion" was particularly interesting.

This book has changed the way I teach!
This book is the basis for my graduate study work.I've applied the brain-based learning principles in my classrooms and enjoyed stunning results. Teaching is easier & more effective. Students are enthusiasticand inspired to learn more.Grades and attitudes improve with BBLtechniques. ... Read more

Product Description
This book introduces music education majors to basic instrumental pedagogy for the instruments and ensembles most commonly found in the elementary and secondary curricula. This text focuses on the core competencies required for teacher certification in instrumental music. The first section of the book focuses on essential issues for a successful instrumental program: objectives, assessment and evaluation, motivation, administrative tasks, and recruiting and scheduling (including block scheduling). The second section devotes a chapter to each wind instrument plus percussion and strings, and includes troubleshooting checklists for each instrument. The third section focuses on rehearsal techniques from the first day through high school. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Great resource
Lots of useful information to help me add to my knowledge of instruments I know about and those I don't know as much about.

Book for those looking to be instrumental teachers
This book is full of information, from teaching methods to information on each instrument and instrument family commonly used in school music programs. It has just about all you need to know about each instrument to teach beginning students, and is a great resource for aspiring and current instrumental music teachers, especially at the secondary level (Jr. High/High School). If you're looking for books containing actual music, look elsewhere, but if you want information on the instruments and on teaching music, this is one of the best comprehensive resources.

The Teaching of Instrumental Music(3rd Edition)
This 450-page book is a music education textbook which covers the basics of teaching instrumental music for would-be or present teachers.It has become known as an essential "core text" for teachers of instrumental music.

The first three chapters of the book discuss general background:Chapter 1 gives a short history of instrumental music, while Chapters 2 & 3 deal with the objectives and evaluation of music.This material is O.K., but wasn't especially useful for me.

The largest section of the text devotes a whole chapter to each of the instruments commonly played in a student band and orchestra.I found this detailed information to be very helpful.The middle section also includes separate chapters on the "Principles of . . . Winds, Brass, Strings, Percussion, etc.," which introduce the chapters about specific instruments in each of these categories.

The most "down-to-earth," practical chapters are Chapters 4 & 5, which discuss how to motivate students and how to work effectively with administrators, and Chapters 24 & 25 at the end of the book about rehearsal routines and how to rehearse concert literature.I read these chapters first because they seem the most essential for a new instrumental music teacher.

comprehensive for methods AND techniques courses
Designed for use in both an instrumental methods course as well as woodwind, percussion & brass techniques courses.Newer edition will include strings and expansion of first 7 chapters. ... Read more

Product Description
Just-in-Time Teaching (JiTT) is a pedagogical approach that requires students to answer questions related to an upcoming class a few hours beforehand, using an online course management system. While the phrase “just in time” may evoke shades of slap-dash work and cut corners, JiTT pedagogy is just the opposite. It helps students to view learning as a process that takes time, introspection, and persistence.

Students who experience JiTT come to class better prepared, and report that it helps to focus and organize their out-of-class studying. Their responses to JiTT questions make gaps in their learning visible to the teacher prior to class, enabling him or her to address learning gaps while the material is still fresh in students’ minds – hence the label “just in time.”

JiTT questions differ from traditional homework problems in being designed not only to build cognitive skills, but also to help students confront misconceptions, make connections to previous knowledge, and develop metacognitive thinking practices. Students consequently spend more time on course concepts and ideas, but also read their textbooks in ways that result in more effective and deeper learning. Starting the class with students’ work also dramatically changes the classroom-learning environment, creating greater student engagement.

This book demonstrates that JiTT has broad appeal across the academy. Part I provides a broad overview of JiTT, introducing the pedagogy and exploring various dimensions of its use without regard to discipline. Part II of the book demonstrates JiTT’s remarkable cross-disciplinary impact with examples of applications in physics, biology, the geosciences, economics, history, and the humanities.

Just-in-Time Teaching article from The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education
Reprinted with permission from Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education Magazine.www.hispanicoutlook.com ... Read more

Product Description
Gathering concepts and techniques borrowed from outstanding college professors, The Joy of Teaching provides helpful guidance for new instructors developing and teaching their first college courses.

Award-winning professor Peter Filene proposes that teaching should not be like a baseball game in which the instructor pitches ideas to students to see whether they hit or strike out. Ideally, he says, teaching should resemble a game of Frisbee in which the teacher invites students to catch ideas and pass them on.

Rather than prescribe a single model for success, Filene examines the advantages and disadvantages of various pedagogical strategies, inviting new teachers to make choices based on their own personalities, values, and goals. Filene tackles everything from syllabus writing and lecture planning to class discussions, grading, and teacher-student interactions outside the classroom. The book's down-to-earth, accessible style makes it appropriate for new teachers in all fields. Instructors in the humanities, the social sciences, and the natural sciences will all welcome its invaluable tips for successful teaching and learning. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Focused on disciplines in the humanities
The title and several of the other reviews are misleading.This book is by far most useful as a practical guide for college instructors in the humanities.As a mathematics instructor, I found some useful information in this book, but many of the tips and techniques were irrelevant or inapplicable to my situation.I am not dissing a learning-centered approach; I read and enjoyed Ken Bain's "What the best college teachers do." There, I felt the material was presented with a mix of broad, theoretical ideas and very specific, discipline-grounded examples with examples ranging not just through the humanities, but also through the arts, social sciences, and physical sciences as well as mathematics.Here, while some lip service is paid to other disciplines, a good deal of the suggestions and material, particularly in the second half of the book, are only applicable within a particular range of disciplines (admittedly a broad one).

For example, chapter 7 deals with broadening the learning environment and has a number of suggestions for things to do during class besides lecture or discussion.I love the idea of doing this!Traditional math classes are lecture-driven to an incredible extent and I think this is a big part of why people outside the discipline have such a negative association with them.However, there is not one example presented in the chapter that fits with a low-level math class without a ton of shoehorning.The portion of chapter 8 on grading focuses heavily on grading essays.Only in very particular math classes will you ever have the opportunity to grade an essay.

The feeling of being aimed toward teachers in the humanities permeates the book, not just in the suggestions, but in the tone.For example, in the perfectly general section "Don't be a perfectionist" in chapter 10, Filene says "The lecture that impresses your colleagues will fly over your students' heads."The implication is that if you come up with a wildly original and nuanced idea, it may be too much for undergraduate students.If you are teaching a class on the history of the civil war or constitutional law (two examples Filene repeatedly employs), I can see how this implication makes sense.If I, on the other hand, am teaching a course in remedial algebra or anywhere in a calculus sequence, it is essentially impossible for me to give a lecture whose content impresses my colleagues.I may be able to impress them with the clarity of my exposition, but not with any deep content that will fly over anyone's head.This is one example that stuck with me because it was near the end of the book, but there were many moments like this throughout.

I do not think this is a bad book.On the contrary, every part of it felt well-researched, and the text as a whole was not flabby, which is a particular danger of this kind of book.However, I think it is marketed in a deceptive manner, and I was tricked into buying it when I am, I feel, clearly not the intended reader.

Encouragement in Teaching!
After grading your hundredth paper or reading endless homework assignments, it can be easy to forget the joy and rewards of teaching.This excellent guide renews the spirit of the teacher.Teaching really is a calling and this book affirms the joy that is available for those who share their life and knowledge with others.As well as the joy of learning from others!Teaching is really receiving from the students, watching them grow, and seeing the gifts of learning!Inspiring book for teachers!

A good starting point
I really enjoyed this book because it truly helped me realize "the joy of teaching" that perhaps in my over-frenzied, over-worked state, I had missed out. While the book does have tips and ideas in it, it is primarily to help you become more reflective. It's very short and easy to read and it's a great place to start before moving on to more detailed or practical oriented guides like McKeachie's Teaching Tips. If you are short on time and there is only one book you can read before you start an academic position (or if you need some reenergizing) this is the book for you.

Worth reading
I felt I was still unprepared for what stepping into a classroom might be like, even after having taken a short preparatory course for social science teaching in college.I will begin teaching in a matter of weeks, and this author has helped me tremendously by pointing out some my blind spots which have been created by years of graduate school.These include the differences between how graduate students and undergrads learn (less abstract and more examples) and that one must observe the campus and the classroom in order to gauge what are reasonable expectations in terms of reading comprehension and grading.He also presents helpful guides for syllabi construction and discussion groups.

I really felt like the author was speaking to me in terms of the way I think.A wonderful, useful read!

wonderfully practical
this was so helpful, and gave me a lot of confidence about heading into the classroom. ... Read more

Product Description
Written by a past president of Music Educator's National Conference (MENC) and participant in the creation of National Standards, this is the fifth edition of a book that has dominated its specialized market for the past 35 years. It offers practical coverage of all aspects of choral and instrumental music. ... Read more

Product Description
This book is divided into two parts.

Part I presents to the reader three essential components of a complete reading/writing-to-learn classroom. The three components are 1) a three-step lesson framework (MAX Teaching), 2) a three-step skill acquisition model (SAM), and 3) the systematic and formulaic use of cooperative learning (CL). The three of these components combine and are interwoven to provide for and to facilitate student acquisition of both content and skills through daily practice. Each of these will be described, explained, and justified with supporting research based on what we have learned during the 20th century from cognitive psychology, and through the more modern study of the human brain and brain functioning in the learning process.

Part II describes specific classroom strategies that have been developed over the last three decades. Each strategy is introduced, explained, and then presented as a generic lesson plan that could be applied to virtually any given subject area lesson. These lessons have been carefully laid out to include all three components listed above. Each lesson includes step-by-step instructions on what to do and say throughout the lesson to incorporate the use of the MAX teaching framework, a focus on skill development, and important elements of cooperative learning. My work with thousands of teachers over the past 11 years has led me to see the desire for such explicitly outlined lessons. The lessons are by no means the only way to apply a particular strategy. However, each is based on years of experience with students in various subject areas and of various ages. All good teachers know that any given class is alive and changing from minute to minute, and that no formula is guaranteed to work at any given time or with any given set of students. That being said, the way the lessons in part two are presented is meant to be generic enough and flexible enough to be helpful in assisting any teacher to become comfortable with the use of reading and writing to help students acquire both content and skills. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Practical Guide for Content Area Teachers
I have successfully used several of the MAX Teaching strategies in my middle school science classes.The guide is easy to use.For each text book reading strategy there is a brief description of the strategy accompanied by detailed, step-by-step instructions for introducing it to the students.Helpful samples of graphic organizers, teacher created materials, and student responses are also included.

When was the last time your students had a lively debate over the interpretation of dry, factual text?The Anticipation Guide strategy found in this book sparked such an argument in my classes last week.My student teacher found it easy to try this and other MAX teaching strategies.Guess what parting gift he will receive from me!

Great resource
MAX teaching is a wonderful resource packed full of easy to use hands on activities to engage all readers and writers.It's great tool for content area teachers who are interested in trying some different strategies for engaging students with text. There are a lot of cooperative and interactive strategies that draw in even the most reluctant of readers. This book is not to be missed! ... Read more

Product Description
America's two million incarcerated men, women, and youth live in a hidden, isolated world filled with depression, anxiety, hostility, and violence.But the nation's soaring prison population has not been forgotten by a dedicated network of visual artists, writers, poets, dancers, musicians, and actors who teach the arts in correctional settings.

This anthology compiles the narratives of several accomplished arts-in-corrections teachers who share their personal experiences, philosophies, and bittersweet anecdotes, as well as practical advice, survival skills, and program evaluation guidelines.Among the issues discussed are the challenges, rewards, ethical complexities, and emotional toll of working with inmates in adult and juvenile prisons, jails, and rehabilitation centers.

An invaluable tool for artists, program administrators, and corrections professionals, Teaching the Arts behind Bars is also a testament to the power of creative expression in promoting communication, positive social interaction, inner healing, and self-esteem. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Right on target!
Teaching the Arts Behind Bars is a fantastic book because its contributors are people who know what they are talking about because of their personal experience in the field of teaching the arts in prison. I know because I was a prisoner who maintained my humanity because of the encouragement of individuals like these men and women that teach in the gulags of the United States.It is a valuable book for someone who is interested in teaching in a institutional setting or is just plain curious. I may be biased based on the fact that I painted the cover piece for the book, but take that as a tribute to its honesty and value! ... Read more

Product Description

Practical ideas for teaching students the skills they need to really learn

This vital teachers' resource answers such questions as "Can intelligence be developed? Do teacher expectations shape student learning? How can I make learning 'stick' for my students?" Drawing from theory and research in learning, this book offers clear, practical guidance along with inspirational ideas to show how teachers can enable students to gain both the cognitive competence and confidence needed to succeed academically.

• Offers techniques for students to develop their reading, writing, and math abilities
• Provides suggestions for helping students build perseverance and diligent work habits
• Helps cultivate students' reasoning skills for problem solving
• Includes ideas for teachers to improve their students' verbal and written skills

The book applies to any and all learners, including special needs students, and is richly illustrated with stories, activities, and examples from across the curricula. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Practical and inspirational
This book is easy to read, engaging and very practical.With personal insight and experiences from the author to draw you in and practical ways to help students learn more effectively, it is an inspiration for any teacher who wants to do his/her job more effectively.This book should be used for staff development to encourage teachers to take students to higher level thinking through modeling and mediation of learning.I have been inspired to see the propensity of each student and embrace my role in helping him/her to move toward it.

Must read for teachers
Full of practical application, this book is a must read for all teachers. Administrators would be wise to add it to their professional development plans!

Great information for teachers, tutors, educational therapists
This is a terrific, easy to read, practical book that focuses on the process of teaching our students how to become deep thinkers and independent, reflective learners. Dr. Hopkins clearly explains why and how teachers need to move their students beyond memorization of facts to skills such as comparing, reasoning, generalizing, predicting, and questioning.Dr. Hopkins shares her own "up and down" journey as an educator through vignettes at the beginning of each chapter. The vignettes make the reader feel that they are having a personal conversation with the author and can learn from her struggles as well as her successes as an educator. No matter how long you've been teaching, this book will give you new ideas and make you think more critically about the goals you set for your students and yourself.

Risa Graff, MA, BCET
President of The Association of Educational Therapists

great read for teachers
I purchased this book, thinking I'd read it in August, to refresh my attitude before another school year began--but I read it the last few weeks of this school year. I'm glad I did. This book is an easy read, but gives a lot of information to "chew on". I plan to re-read it in August. It has helped me to renew my commitment to teaching, after being close to burning out after 35 years. HIGHLY recommended reading! ... Read more

Product Description
"This book is a sophisticated and insightful conceptualization of outcomes-based learning developed from the concept of constructive alignment. The first author has already made a significant contribution to the scholarship and practice of teaching and learning in universities…Together with the second author, there is now added richness through the practical implementation and practices. The ideas in this book are all tried and shown to contribute to more successful learning experience and outcome for students."
Denise Chalmers, Carrick Institute of Education, Australia

Teaching for Quality Learning at University focuses on implementing a constructively aligned outcomes-based model at both classroom and institutional level. The theory, which is now used worldwide as a framework for good teaching and assessment, is shown to:

• Assist university teachers who wish to improve the quality of their own teaching, their students' learning and their assessment of learning outcomes
• Aid staff developers in providing support for teachers
• Provide a framework for administrators interested in quality assurance and enhancement of teaching across the whole university

Customer Reviews (3)

informative
This book appears on a number of reading lists for teaching courses. Accessibly written and referred to in a number of other books.

A very good book on outcome based teaching
This book is the best resource on outcome based teaching and learning. The new edition is even better!

Teaching For Quality Learning at University
An excellent resource for teachers in territary institutions who have a passion for teaching for quality. It is a good resource for understand and implementing the outcomes based teaching and learning approach, which is helping students engage in deep learning approach. The chapters are well laid out in a simple and systematic manner. ... Read more

Product Description
“There are lives lost in this book, and there are lives saved, too, if salvation means a young man or woman begins to feel deserving of a place on the planet. . . . What could be more soul-satisfying? These are the most influential professionals most of us will ever meet. The effects of their work will last forever.”  –from the foreword by Anna Quindlen

Now depicted in a bestselling book and a feature film, the Freedom Writers phenomenon came about in 1994 when Erin Gruwell stepped into Room 203 and began her first teaching job out of college. Long Beach, California, was still reeling from the deadly violence that erupted during the Rodney King riots, and the kids in Erin’s classroom reflected the anger, resentment, and hopelessness of their community. Undaunted, Erin fostered an educational philosophy that valued and promoted diversity, tolerance, and communication, and in the process, she transformed her students’ lives, as well as her own. Erin Gruwell and the Freedom Writers went on to establish the Freedom Writers Foundation to replicate the success of Room 203 and provide all students with hope and opportunities to realize their academic potential. Since then, the foundation has trained more than 150 teachers in the United States and Canada. Teaching Hope unites the voices of these Freedom Writer teachers, who share uplifting, devastating, and poignant stories from their classrooms, stories that provide insight into the struggles and triumphs of education in all of its forms.

Mirroring an academic year, these dispatches from the front lines of education take us from the anticipation of the first day to the disillusionment, challenges, and triumphs of the school year. These are the voices of teachers who persevere in the face of intolerance, rigid administration, and countless other challenges, and continue to reach out and teach those who are deemed unteachable. Their stories inspire everyone to make a difference in the world around them. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (16)

Liberal feel good diatribe...Where is the beef?
The most disturbing part about this book is that a group of English teachers wrote such generally cliched, un-engaging stories.The other disturbing feature, but one that I am used to as a high-standards teacher, is the fact that most of these teachers seem overly consumed with providing these kids with outlets to express themselves culturally rather than with a place to come and learn enough so that they can compete academically.It saddens me immensely that we need exit exams to prove that students have learned enough for them to graduate from high school.However if those exams didn't exist teachers like this would gladly write fluff lesson plans in which students learned next to nothing of value.

Snapshots of Teaching
"Teaching Hope" was a wonderful read and something I hope to be able to share with my students. I had read "Freedom Writers" while in my student teaching and picked up Gruwell's new book as soon as I saw it. Actually, to all it "Gruwell's book" is a misnomer; the book is about teachers and students from all over. Each story has power and each teacher has something worthwhile to say.

The most common reaction I had reading this book was the repeated feeling of "I am not alone." I recongized myself, my wonderful (if trying) students, my administrators, and my challenges. I think this book would be wonderful for a teacher just beginning or one who, like myself, can look back and see him-or-herself reflected in the pages.

A final warning: read with a tissue in hand.

Teaching Hope inspires
As one of the Teaching Hope teachers I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to better understand the minds of teachers. There are lessons to be learned for everyone. You will laugh, you will cry, you be scared and you will be excited by what the teachers have to say about life in their classrooms.

Teaching Hope
This book is a must-read for teachers and anyone considering the teaching profession. It shows what life is really like on the classroom and opens up readers' eyes to the challenges faced by students and teachers across America.

"Teaching Hope"
|"Teaching Hope" is a collection of real life stories about teachers, educators and community leaders. Many of these individuals have overcome hardships in order to be where they are today. This book can be used as part of curricula for a number of topics. This book helps to relate the importance of developing correct character and building lifelong relationships. ... Read more

Product Description
In this study, an experienced classroom teacher takes us into her fifth-grade maths class through the course of a year and shows how classroom dynamics - the complex relationship of teacher, student and content - are critical in improving student performance. Magdalene Lampert offers an original model of teaching practice that casts new light on the ways teachers can successfully deal with teaching problems. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Not a Casual Read - But Very Helpful as a Resource
Teaching Problems and the Problems of Teaching
This book, by Magdalene Lampert, is one of my textbooks from my teaching certification program at the University of Michigan (MA, Educational Studies, 2006).

I had always wanted to go back and re-read it, more carefully, not subject to the pressures of a course syllabus. The book is primarily a set of reflections on teaching math to a classroom of 5th graders. It covers the year, from September to June.

Lampert uses transcripts of actual recordings made while she taught, to drive the content of the book. She covers such things as how to establish a classroom culture, preparing for lessons, working with students independently, leading whole-class discussions, teaching to cover the curriculum, etc.

There is simply no way to read a book like this casually. There is too much in it, that needs to be filed away for easy retrieval. The best use of this type of teaching instructional book is to refer to it constantly in your own group of upper-elementary kids.

This type of teaching resource, however, is not my favorite. The format, where the teachers narrates his or her own moves and behaviors in a live classroom, always struck me as rather self-absorbed. Ms. Lampert is indeed an excellent teacher, that can share much to new teachers. But the "I, me, mine" emphasis throughout becomes a distraction rather than a help.

But she will focus on one specific problem, and address her handling of it, in several chapters, covering various teaching situations and concepts.

She builds her approach on a triangular model, where the teacher, the students, and the content are at the end-points, and the area in the center is the teacher's "practice", that area where the teacher must manage infinite different scenarios of personality, curriculum, social situations, learning needs, etc.

As I read through the book, I found myself formulating my own model, a four-square grid like Covey's Priority quadrants - where the quadrants are based on: Student can/can't do the work; and student does/doesn't "get it". Your goal will be to move the kids up to the quadrant where they both can do the work, and "get it." (I was a math student that could do the work, but never got it until I was an undergrad in calculus).

I felt that Lampert quite overdoes the interactions with a student named "Saundra", where she makes a sort-of project out of not letting the class leave for recess until Saundra sees where she made a mistake in a fractions word problem, and will admit it publicly while saving face. There are a lot of layers of concern here, for the teacher, and Lampert handles it well. But I found myself thinking "Let the kids go to recess - Saundra will get it eventually - let it go!"

In the modern push for educational reform, we have ample research-based models to guide the teacher. We know more about human behavior and development than ever before. But somewhere lost in the mix is the idea of just letting kids be kids, letting them relax and find their own pace for learning.

I will refer back to this book again and again, throughout my teacher career. But I will keep in mind that there are no super-human teachers, and that even exceptional teachers like Magdalene Lampert have much to learn.

Best Bookabout Teaching I've Ever Read
This book attempts to lay out the terrain of teaching in all its complexity. The author collected a huge amount of triangulated data about a year of her elementary math teaching, and analyzed it in several dimensions, including establishing a classroom culture in the first week of school, teaching in small groups, large groups, choosing curriculum, and establishing students' identities as persons who do mathematics. The author cogently argues that understanding teaching requires a high degree of sophistication, and that the drop-in observer, armed with checklists of best teaching practices, can almost never understand what is going on in the classroom. One of the goals of this book is to provide teachers with a start on acquiring the intellectual tools and language to be able to talk about teaching so others can comprehend it. Although the topic is ostensibly fifth grade mathematics teaching, the issues it addresses run across disciplines and grade levels. I use it with my secondary science methods students, as it provides a framework for understanding teaching. ... Read more

Product Description
To accommodate the evolution of teacher education programs, this new text has been developed for two groups: 1) those serving as interns or student teachers as they complete traditional teacher education programs and 2) new in-service teachers who are part of an alternative certification program. This team of experienced educators and authors offers users a set of very practical tools, skills, and advice that they can put into immediate use in the field. The authors also aim to provoke a high level of engagement and interaction with the program. Retaining the hallmark reader-friendly style and format of the best-selling Ryan/Cooper texts, Teaching for Student Learning's 3-hole punched and perforated format, with 25 brief, to-the-point chapters ("modules"), makes it easy for busy teachers to quickly find, understand, and use key information related to their most pressing needs. Accompanying CL Video Cases available on the Online Teaching and Study Centers are directly tied to the text and allow students to see the concepts in the text brought to life in real classrooms. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Teaching for Student Learning
I like this book because it gets to the point and is more down to earth than many other text books. Also, the video link is very helpful. It is an easy book to learn from. ... Read more

Product Description
This important new resource shows how a strong sense of online presence contributes to greater student satisfaction and retention. The authors explore the psychological and social aspects of online presence from both the instructor and student perspective and provide an instructional design framework for developing effective online learning.

Based on solid research and extensive experience, the book is filled with suggested methods, illustrative case scenarios, and effective activities for creating, maintaining, and evaluating presence throughout an online course.

"The authors have taken the mystery out of the critical concept of presence by providing the theory that supports its importance and simple techniques to make it happen. Instructors who read this book will be able to develop effective online learning communities and achieve desired learning outcomes."
—Rena M. Palloff and Keith Pratt, program directors and faculty, Teaching in the Virtual Classroom Program, Fielding Graduate University

"Lehman and Conceição blend hands-on experience, research, and a collection of practical tips to provide every online instructor with strategies for 'being there.' If you want to bring the real you into your online classes and take your online teaching to the next level, this is the book to read."
—Chip Donohue, director of distance learning, Erikson Institute

"This book provides a practical and interactive model to help readers reflect on why and how they can guide online and blended learning activities, characterized by a personal 'sense of presence.'"
—Alan B. Knox, professor, School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison ... Read more

Product Description

A lack of vocabulary development affects students' reading comprehension and their writing skills.  This can be particularly damaging as students move through middle and secondary grades, when content area reading requires so much vocabulary learning, influencing future success and career choices.  Vocabulary learning particularly affects the success of English learners; but when vocabulary instruction is done well, it can help close the gap in reading and writing performance. 

    Teaching Vocabulary:  50 Creative Strategies, Grades 6-12 was developed by middle and secondary master teachers involved n the San Joaquin Valley Writing Project, including literacy expert Dr. Gail Tompkins.  This book shares 50 classroom-tested strategies demonstrated to improve vocabulary skills in 6th through 12th graders in classrooms where 92 percent of the school population are English learners.  Clear-cut steps for implementing each strategy, specifics on how the strategy fits within the curriculum, and information on how students responded to the instruction offer valuable tools for you as you help your students develop their vocabulary skills and their overall competence in literacy. 

Customer Reviews (1)

Teaching Vocabulary: 50 Creative Strategies, Grades 6-12
This book begins each vocabulary activity with research-based background information for the teacher. The activities are based on this research. They are well-constructed lesson activities as well as being activities that will be enjoyed by students. I have several books by these authors and highly recommend anything in the field of literacy written by these women. ... Read more

Product Description

Now in its third edition, the Handbook of Research on Teaching the English Language Arts –sponsored by the International Reading Association and the National Council of Teachers of English – offers an integrated perspective on the teaching of the English language arts and a comprehensive overview of research in the field. Prominent scholars, researchers, and professional leaders

• provide historical and theoretical perspectives about teaching the language arts
• focus on bodies of research that influence decision making within the teaching of the language arts
• explore the environments for language arts teaching
• reflect on the methods and materials for instruction

The Third Edition is restructured, updated, and includes many new contributors. More emphasis is given to the learner, multiple texts, learning, and sharing one’s knowledge. A Companion Website, new for this edition, includes among other features interactive tools, PowerPoint® slides, and several videos.

This Handbook is an essential resource for all professional educators, researchers, curriculum designers, students, and prospective and practicing teachers across the field of the English language arts.

Product Description
Here is a compelling read for every teacher in higher education who wants to refresh or reexamine his or her classroom practice.

Building on the insights offered by recent discoveries about the biological basis of learning, and on his own thought-provoking definitions of teaching, learning and education, the author proceeds to the practical details of instruction that teachers are most interested in--the things that make or break teaching.

Practical and thoughtful, and based on forty years of teaching, wide reading and much reflection, Robert Leamnson provides teachers with a map to develop their own teaching philosophy, and effective nuts-and-bolts advice.

His approach is particularly useful for those facing a cohort of first year students less prepared for college and university. He is concerned to develop in his students habits and skills that will equip them for a lifetime of learning.

He is especially alert to the psychology of students. He also understands, and has experienced, the typical frustration and exasperation teachers feel when students ingeniously elude their teachers’ loftiest goals and strategies. Most important, he has good advice about how to cope with the challenge.

This guide will appeal to college teachers in all disciplines. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Insightful guide to teaching college students
Leamnson delivers on his title for this marvelous book.Having clearly done a great deal of serious thinking about teaching and learning, he has taken the next step and compared his ideas and experiences with "the experts".The result is a deeply insightful masterpiece.

A Wealth of Good Advice in a Small Package
Thinking About Teaching and Learning deserves a place on every professor's bookshelf. This author approaches college teaching from a basis that is usually ignored by other authors of resource books on college teaching, namely the basis of neuroscience and brain-based concepts about learning. Leamnson is particularly well qualified to produce such a book: his disciplinary training and research is as a biologist, and his experience in teaching spans several decades. Many aspects of instruction are covered, including practices and evaluation, but the consistent thread throughout is how the brain functions in learning. This approach is immensely valuable, because it focuses on the practical and leads the reader toward practices that have firm foundations in research.

When one realizes that learning, at the basic level of the brain, involves self-initiated brain changes, it becomes obvious that any teaching practice which fails to emphasize student responsibility is incomplete. When one realizes that new knowledge becomes a part of memory through synapses that are organized then stabilized by use, it reveals that good teaching practices are those that promote and accelerate brain change beyond what a student would likely be able to achieve on his or her own. Based on the concepts given in this book, it becomes obvious why "good practices" such as cooperative learning result in significant increases in learning: time spent in class employing many senses, formulating an understanding and communicating it to be reviewed and discussed by others has the potential to employ more synapses than will taking notes and memorizing words.Effective lessons that promote brain change just don't materialize out of thin air; these require informed planning and an investment of time and hard work by teachers. When "good teaching" is viewed as the practice of creating situations that maximize effective usage of students' brains, it is evident why trendy paradigms which emphasize the value of learning while de-emphasizing the value of teaching should be viewed with healthy suspicion.

The author conveys immense respect for both teachers and students and reveals a great awareness that faculty time and student opportunity for learning are assets too important to squander with practices that have no firm foundation. In so doing, the author confronts the meaning and utility of a number of progressive concepts such as passive vs. active learning or learning styles. In so doing, he will cause discomfort for those who are used to parroting popular terms or advocating for progressive practices without having them challenged or subjected to demands for evidence. Here the challenge arises from the very basis of how the brain operates.

This is no dry technical book nor is it a prescriptive reference that reduces teaching to employment of a few prescribed pedagogical techniques. Rather, it is an uplifting resource that admonishes the professor to practice in a holistic way: to learn how to communicate, how to appreciate differences among the student clientele, to love students and, above all, to THINK about the practice of teaching and learning. It is a pleasure to confront a book in faculty development which comes from a reflective passion for teaching, and yet remains firmly grounded in substance.

Thinking About Teaching and Learning, in a very concise and effective format, provides a reader with a central unifying framework through which to evaluate concepts and models that are rapidly being added to the literature on practice of higher education. The professor who first reads Dr. Leamnson's book and then examines practices suggested in the extraordinarily useful Tools for Teaching by Barbara Davis will find that the practices that have been proven to be particularly effective are those that are indeed obviated when understanding how learning occurs in the brain. The same end result will occur for those who make use of the extensive primary literature compilation found in Teaching and Learning in the College Classroom by Kenneth Feldman and Michael Paulsen.

Practical, Honest, Thoughtful
Experience counts, and this is someone who has spent time in the classroom. I found it a concise, but not superficial, summary of one person's take on higher education teaching. This is not another person witha theory, but someone who integrates several approaches in an informed andpractical manner. I'm thinking of sharing this book with some InstructionalTechnology professors. It is that good. ... Read more

Product Description
For General Secondary Methods and Introduction to Secondary Schools courses.Preparing secondary school teachers for the realities of teaching in today's classrooms can be daunting. Teaching in the Secondary School: An Introduction, 6th Edition, which takes a reflective approach to learning, prepares teachers for today's classroom through increased emphasis on curriculum, differentiated instruction, assessment, and unit and lesson planning. Teachers enter the classroom prepared with practical skills and lessons to create a successful environment for learning where all students succeed. ... Read more

Product Description
ISBN 0866517405 ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Practical Techniques for Enhancing Student Understanding of Math
This small book is more about teaching with understanding than it is about motivation of students per se. What if there is no one willing to volunteer an answer to a teacher's question? It may be that no one knows the answer, that no one cares, that the question is above the cognitive level of all the students, that the question was unclear, that everyone is afraid of being wrong and embarrassed by volunteering an answer that turns out to be wrong, etc.

Johnson believes that the teacher should emphasize instant written answers by each student at his/her desk. That way, the teacher can circulate around the room and immediately determine who understands the problem and who does not. To facilitate this, Johnson recommends that student seating be in a U-pattern. Moreover, the students should be sat in pairs within the U-pattern. This facilitates cooperative learning, and, by coming up with an answer as a team of two, this reduces the onus of volunteering an incorrect answer.

The author believes that the first few minutes of any class are crucial. They should not be devoted to record-keeping, attendance, etc. Instead, the students should be put immediately on task. Johnson provides a list of higher-level questions that can be used for this purpose.

This book has a section on how to teach mathematics with understanding. An example is included of a graphical solution to the problem wherein if one person can wash a car in (x) hours and another in (y) hours, how long it would take them to do it together.

Motivation Counts, A must have book for any math teacher.
This book is a companion to Every Minute Counts and Making Minutes Count Even More. Mr. Johnson offers practical examples of how to keep students "turned on" to math.
He demonstrates how to motivate students through good questioning techniques and classroom routine.
His techniques can be used on any grade level.
Be sure to read the other two Every Minute Counts books to learn his combination of teaching philosophy and classroom management.

wrong author nameshould be 'David R Johnson'
search : author-'johnson' & Title-'count'-first part of wor ... Read more

Product Description
* Chapters on the four skills with useful games and activities which children will enjoy as they learn these skills * Helpful ideas for ways to organise your lessons , create the right atmosphere and what to do when things go wrong ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Not as titled
I returned this book as it is not as described. It seemed to recommend excluding rather than including students with disabilities.

No Invisible Children
This is the most incredible book. Every teacher, Pastor or individual that works with children with special needs must have a copy. It will help provide you with insight into the world of children with disabilities, and give you a better understanding of the problems that you might encounter while working with them. I read the first page and continued to read through the night. Could not put the book down. This is a book of solutions. The author is to be commended. ... Read more