A Great New Resource to Support Student Learning
928987
Jim Burke has done it again--and perhaps better than ever before! What's the Big Idea? Question-Driven Units to Motivate Reading, Writing, and Thinking not only provides a researched foundation for implementing inquiry-based instruction, but it also provides a clear picture of what goes on in Jim's high school English classes every day. Through this book Jim models how to motivate all students to engage in rich literary experiences that are tied to standards-based instruction. The text is laced with his activity handouts (also available online for classroom use), pictures of how he models specific skills, and student work samples.

Jim's claim is that questions can and should be the core of our instruction--the foundation for delivering our curriculum; the result will be motivated students engaged in high level critical thinking throughout the year. He states, "...education should disturb when possible; it should challenge students' perspectives, inspire curiosity, and pose questions about why things are the way they are." (78)

To demonstrate the role inquiry plays within instructional units, Jim takes us through his teaching of Romeo and Juliet, Of Mice and Men, and Crime and Punishment so we can witness his instruction and student results from beginning to end. Another unit he shares is an end-of-year project focused on independent reading experiences in his senior AP course. At the same time, Jim shows how he differentiates instruction for struggling students by describing how he scaffolds lessons when necessary so that all students are able to master the same skills. He states, "I began the year committed to the idea that my students could do challenging work, wrestle with big questions and complex ideas, if I guided my instruction not by the questions, `How low must I go?' but, instead by, `What must I do to make real success a possibility for all my students without lowering my standards?' In short, I treated them as though they could learn to do everything I taught, and they pretty much did." (77)

Specifically, Jim addresses a number of uses of incorporating essential questions: to build background knowledge, to teach interviewing skills and connect them to note-taking and synthesis of information, to encourage students to generate their own questions, to motivate writing and thinking through blogging, and more. He emphasizes factual, inductive, and analytical questioning while also guiding students to determine which questions are the important ones to ask.

Particularly helpful are his handouts, including a thesis generator, graphic organizers, reading guides that still allow for reading flow, and unit planning sheets which allow us to take Jim's ideas and match them to our own curricula. The appendix also includes "The Big Questions" associated with the McDougal Littell Literature series and a study guide for teacher discussion of the entire book.

For further insight into this text, log on to [...]  and participate in Jim's online book discussion.
1573212
The Buck Institute's PBL Handbook is a great resource for any teacher who wishes to create a more meaningful educational experience for students.  Very few teachers have had any experience or training in implementing content based projects and this guide provides step-by-step instructions in developing PBL units.  The handbook is also full of examples and ideas that come from the classroom.  We use the PBL Handbook extensively in training all of our incoming staff members.

----------------

Paul Curtis

Director of Curriculum

New Technology High School / New Technology Foundation
4291705
As we have seen an increase in online education these past years this is a well timed tool for instructors and administration.  Covering a huge amount of material in a short but decisive book, I discovered a wealth of informative and much needed guidance to help move forward in this age of online teaching and instruction.  As a one time internet student, I struggled with learning in this manner and can see the many benefits of professors using this book as a tool.
3987702
I have read this book in bits and pieces and find it extremely useful. Finally, we got a book that can be used in classroom settings. There are some typos (hence four stars) that will hopefully get fixed in the future editions. The book also has a lot of new insights to offer that can only be gleaned from the vast existing literature on the topic with excruciating labor. Agreed that this book is pricey but for what it has to offer, I think it was money well spent.
905348
The ideas in this book support teachers as they create innovative and engaging lessons for their students.  The book helps take teaching into the digital age in mind blowing ways.  Love the ideas and support in the book.  Great read.
4053074
I started reading Will Richardson's book to educate myself about how teachers and instructors have been utilizing web tools into their curriculum. In October 2007, I attended the Computers in Libraries conference and participated in a workshop called "New Research Tools" where they discussed practical and successful cases of educators using various online tools, like Flickr, Clipmarks, or RSS readers.

As a librarian, a 2nd year educator, and one who personally uses these different tools, I really am interested in incorporating these tools into the curriculum.

During the course of reading this book, I have started reading Will Richardson's blog - Web-logged - as well as other educator and librarian blogs. This book has inspired me to try to incorporate the different tools that I enjoy using personally into the curriculum.

Richardson's enthusiasm for these various web tools is conveyed through each chapter. He devotes chapters to each tool. For example, there is a chapter on Blogs, one on RSS and one on wikis. It is easily explained and whether you use these tools already or not, his writing is easily accessible. I have been promoting this book to my colleagues and have also pointed some of them to his blog.

His chapter on Wikis has caused me to reassess my hesitance towards utilizing Wikipedia as a valid source of information. I am still skeptical but one should be skeptical when approaching print media as well.

The chapters are short and easy to understand. He has an excellent list of resources and great examples of people who are already incorporating the read/write web into their classrooms. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in Web 2.0, education and technology.
2658891
This book is a winner!  I've used it in my special education classroom and am buying it as a retired teacher to use with tutoring.  It has a well thought out sequence to learning phonetically and enough practice to master the skills. The lack of pictures is important to older learners.  The type is large enough for both my student and me to see the words clearly.  It breaks the cycle of impulsively guessing at words and forces the students to decode words in isolation, decode nonsense words, and also includes reading words in context. Students will be encouraged by seeing clear progress. Non-phonetic words are not included and must be taught separately, but resources for that are abundant.  Resources like this book are extremely rare.&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Basic-Angling-Practice-Book-Student-Book-Angling-for-Words-Series/dp/0878795189/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Basic Angling Practice Book - Student Book (Angling for Words Series)</a>
3904025
The Reader's Odyssey is an excellent resource for helping you to create a high school literature course that is specialized and individualized for your student(s).  Ms. Luchsinger is very clear and thorough in her explanations for not only how to build this course, but also the benefits from creating it this way...both for your student and yourself.  Over the Christmas holiday I read (I should say devoured) this book and was sold right away on its benefits.  My husband and I had a date to a used book store to continue our book collecting.  (We already owned quite a lot of books that could be useful in a literature course.)  Our 9th grade daughter has LOVED the switch.  She loves getting to choose the books herself and the order in which she reads them.  I love that while she is choosing, I only place book selections on her bookshelf that I feel would be appropriate for her age and maturity.  I do agree with the author that true choice means there are lots more book choices than the number required to read.  Our daughter also liked the clear cut requirements and expectations laid out in the checklist.  The author recommends several different ways of outlining the few requirements for the course; we chose the checklist style.  We tweaked her ideas to fit our expectations, but it has worked very well.  I also like that the minimal requirements constitute what would be for a "C" grade in the class.  That way the student plainly sees and knows what is required for each grade and can choose where they want to be.  Our daughter has chosen to exceed the expectations and earn an "A" as I expected her to.

After reading this book, I realized the benefit to personal choice and in that spurring on readers to love reading.  While my younger daughter is only in 6th grade, I saw benefit to making her her own literature book shelf as well and placing appropriate books on it for her.  So while this book is geared toward creating literature courses for high schools, one can tweak the ideas to be for middle school as well.

Since reading this book and implementing its ideas, I have bought and read her two other  books as well, "Out of the Holding Tank" which is about language arts for middle school students (Excellent read!!) and "Grading with a Purple Crayon" which is about composition for high school students.  (Another excellent read although I haven't completely finished it and I don't know that I will implement exactly as she outlines but still worthwhile reading for certain.)

Highly recommended!!
1762351
"The World is Open", by Curtis J. Bonk, PhD, is tremendously filled with new ideas and innovations for education.  From the causal, on-demand learner to elementary schools and college students, this book identifies the latest trends and resources in learning.  This book has so much; it took me a long while to finish.  Every few pages I would get on the internet and look at the sites.  Wow!  Something in this book impacts everyone who is reading this review.

If you are reading this, then you have learned how to blog, or a t least how to surf the internet.  Maybe even how to use Twitter or Facebook.  This is an example on on-demand, on-line, blended learning.  For The Flat classroom project has students from Westwood Schools in Camillia, Ga., collaborating with students and schools in Doha, Qatar and Dhaka, Bangladesh for project-oriented activities judged by judges in China, United Kingdom, Australia and Canada.  MIT has the open course project has their class curriculum on-line and free to use.  Since 2006, Michigan requires high school students to complete at least 20 hours of meaningful online learning to graduate and Florida has an on-line high school.

Dr. Bonk's book illustrates current trends and technologies of using Web 2.0 in learning of all types, not just education.  It really brings home the how the world will be taught in the upcoming years.  What is evident from Japan, China, Africa, South America, and Canada, is those countries are investing and using the new technology to educate and train their people, and if the U.S. does not change its educational delivery, then it will fall behind.

Here are just some of the things for learners, students, and educators Bonk lists in his exciting book:  Big Think, Teacher Tube, PLoS, SciVee, MIT, Chinswing, Connexions, Curriki, Wikispecies, MoOM, GNG, Global Kids, WEbook, Scribd, ePal, Chumby and Livemocha (which I am using now to learn Chinese).  Go by his website, google the above items, and get into the future of learning.
1244991
This book is an amazing resource for any educator. It's jam-packed with "icebreakers" or activities that can be used effectively to enhance and support any curriculum.

For example, have you ever considered kicking off your class with a chant? The author suggests that chants can be great motivators and if you think teenagers won't like them, think again. How about a beanbag topic toss or birthday circle where classmates must see how quickly they can form a circle with everybody in chronological order by their birthdays?

What I love about this book is that most of the activities can spark other ideas, can be tweaked and adapted to suit a wide variety of ages and will definitely make learning fun. It's difficult to get students to be mentally present in the classroom and this book is just what a teacher needs to engage students, make them feel welcome and allow them to mingle and interact in a fun environment.
4723019
This teacher resource book combines various resources for teaching single syllable word decoding and spelling under one cover.  It includes the Common Core State Standards for Reading Foundational Skills, six common word "expectancies" (spelling generalizations) with error correction guidance, single syllable decodable word lists to teach those expectancies, the first 200 high frequency words, sentences with both decodable and high frequency words, teaching strategies, and a plethora of book and electronic resources. In this volume, Ms. Spencer draws heavily from the Lindamood-Bell Seeing Stars decoding methodology.  The disclaimers note that she is not associated with this company. The word lists, organized by vowel and consonant "expectancies," include variations within each list. These variations will appropriately engage normally-progressing beginning readers, but may be too wide-ranging for students who struggle with decoding.  For example, the "C-train" list includes vowel y as in cyst; and suffix -s pronounced /z/ as in crabs, but /s/ as in clicks.  I appreciated the separate list for difficult consonants qu, x, and y, which few resources include. (Note: the "two vowels go walking" expectancy is correct only for a limited number of long vowel sounds; it is not reliable for most vowel teams.) In the Common Word Expectancies, the suggested introductions,  error correction dialogues, and attractive illustrations provide a valuable addition to one's tool box. The short sentences will prove very important for both reading and dictating to students to write.  Finally,  Ms. Spencer makes the materials available in pdf form for purchasers of this volume. In sum, elementary teachers will find this a useful compilation of resources to support instruction in beginning reading and spelling skills. I was delighted to receive this book to review; it is a welcome addition to my professional library.
661446
I purchased this book recently since I'd been killing my 7th grade students with worksheets. The book provides a nice table of contents and also an index so you can easily find something related to what you're going to teach. In my state we haven't made the full switch to Common core yet so I'm browsing the book by topics.

So far I have used 2 activities from this book (both slightly modified) and I can't wait to use more. One was on ordering rational numbers and the other on tax and discounts. The kids LOVED the activities we have done. The activities have shown me things about my students that I wouldn't have known otherwise. For example, my students (7th grade) don't know how to read a ruler, they also didn't know words such as "quantity" and "sale price."

The book really seems to promote cooperative learning, kids learning from kids, and also pushing them to higher order thinking skills by making them present their work to the class. My students haven't had much of an opportunity to "explain" any of their thinking in any of their classes so I'm having to coach them through a lot of it. This is a great way to start building those skills because if they can explain the math, then they should be able to retain it better.

So back to the book: while it isn't the "solve all your planning problems" type of book, it gives you some incredible insight as to the kinds of activities that the kids really should be doing to make math fun and show them the relevancy in their own lives.
1429145
Mob rule learning, as described by Michelle Boule in her book by that name, is about creating participatory learning communities around a topic of shared interest. She not only provides a description and rationale for participant-designed learning events, which she refers to as camps or unconferences, but explains how to design such events. Many readers will already be familiar with design options Boule suggests, such as Open Space Technology, Appreciative Inquiry, Nominal Group Technique, PechaKucha, and others. The value Boule provides is in bringing these various methodologies together under the organizing concept of unconferences. The author also provides case studies and design recommendations for using camps in higher education and the workplace. College teachers, corporate trainers, conference planners, and others responsible for organizing learning environments will benefit from this book. Boule provides clear explanations and a directory of helpful resources. There is also an accompanying website to the book that provides additional sources. Boule's book is a timely contribution to the growing movement to redesign how we facilitate learning in colleges and organizations.
4774448
I have ordered and used, with great student response, the other Poetry Friday book.  I was thrilled to find this new book.  As we begin to implement the common core standards and the next generation science, this will be a valuable tool.  I will share it with all of my teachers.  It is nice to have a poem that could easily be used to launch or review a science concept.  The poems would also work well as a shared reading experience for my Third Graders.  I like having K-5 in one book as it allows me to spiral up or down to meet the needs of all my learners.  The Take 5 feature is practical and easy to use.  Having the props ready will truly help to make the poem scome alive!  I know my children's will find this an engaging way to teach science.
1240625
This book is one of few that begin with pedagogy: the "whys" that give context to the learning theories behind the ideas. It is not a book on learning theory, but rather consolidates big ideas that will support the Google infused tools throughout the rest of the book. In addition, the authors chose a small collection of 20 tools to support students in creating, communicating, and sharing what they have learned. It is not a step-by-step how-to of using the tools. It does give a clear explanation of what the tool is, why it is great, how easy or difficult the set up is for a teacher, what it allows for, the type of information you get using the tool, and how the tool can be used. As a director of instructional technology it pulls the instructional methods and tools into a single resource. I will use this as I work with teachers and provide the supports they need to make the ideas work in their classroom. The last section of the book is a guide to getting started with digital portfolios. This section gives teachers ideas to think about whether they choose to have students record the process they used in their learning, a showcase of their learning, or a hybrid of both. It is also a beautifully laid out and designed book as well. I believe I will be referring to this often as I support teachers with the G Suite of applications and extensions.
1735832
Excellent resource for the classroom just chock full with useful ideas/activities to stimulate students!  I highly recommend it!
2908113
This book focuses on strategies to cognitively engage students in lessons, to keep a pulse of how much students are grasping the concepts, and promotes higher level thinking skills.  There are lengthy choices of strategies explained simply and succinctly making it easy to find something to add to your teacher toolbox immediately.  I have been in the classroom for 9 years and I found many new ideas that I can use, along with many that I already use.  If you are a new teacher then this is a must read, as it will put a host of ideas at your fingertips quickly and improve your lessons immeasurably. Veteran teachers also would benefit as the probability is high that there are a variety of strategies or activities that you would be able to add in to your day as well.  The activities cross over nicely for all content areas, and further may be used from elementary through high school easily. It is not a very long book overall, 125 pages, and a super quick read.  This is well worth the price!  I likely would not have bought the book originally- it came as a member benefit from my ASCD membership.  Very glad that it was sent along through the membership, as I will be using many ideas from the book :)