Better than the classroom
358998
These DVDs are clear, simple and complete -- meant to supplement a textbook, not substitute for it. Watch it on your TV and it becomes an entertaining show. I bought the entire set for my boyfriend and it boosted his grade substantially. The material is quite comprehensive and can also be used as a refresher when going from high school to college chemistry. I HIGHLY recommend the series for any student who needs that extra push towards comprehension.
778682
I am a high school English teacher whose seniors wanted to do some "philosophy" work in the class.  So I found and used this book as our text and did the writing, talking, listening, and reading involved.  It  was great!  The students have certainly grown in their thinking and in the  consideration of others as they've delved into the principles, plus they've  learned a great deal about the man, art, and abilities they themselves  might have.  It's been a terrific tool for kids (although I'm sure in about  5 years it would be more suited to them) who are not school oriented.  Learning has been fun and now they have some more skills on which they may  call when needed.  I also used the mind-mapping tapes and those helped  organize some usually unorganized people--like me for one!
1892373
I bought this book right after I attended Burgess' Teach Like a Pirate workshop.

THE GUY IS HOPPING AROUND THE ROOM, TALKING A HUNDRED MILES AN HOUR, and most importantly, demonstrating what these different methods and hooks look like when a teacher actually does them. It would be easy to skim through the first half of the book if you just bought it online, but after hearing Dave Burgess speak, you can hear the words in his voice telling you how to make immediate changes in your classroom. At his workshops, things are moving so fast and you don't want to miss what he is saying and doing, so you don't have time to write down notes. This book is the notes.

The first half reminding you WHY you became a teacher and what you are TRULY PASSIONATE about (not just history or reading or whatever) is way too important to just skip over or leave out, but I could see how reading it in your own head to yourself would have less impact if you hadn't heard Burgess say them first. That's actually like half the point of his workshop and book: that the way you deliver content or reframe learning can make all the difference to your students.

Yes, $20 might seem pricey for a paperback, BUT IS YOUR HAPPINESS WORTH TWENTY DOLLARS??? I'd like to think my happiness is. I think he self-publishes to avoid being ripped off by publishers, so that's why it is more than a regular paperback.

Bottom line: Beg your administration to have Burgess come do a workshop at your school, and then buy the book afterwards when you are completely excited and in a panic that you didn't have time to take notes and are going to forget important details.
3025836
I think the majority of the raving reviews are from professors that have lost touch with what it is like to be learning the material for the first time. There are a lot of assumptions of knowledge that is taken for granted. This is much better than most text books as it does not needlessly go into several pages of equations to explain a concept, words and the critical parts of the derivations are used. The equations flow nicely without skipping the critical steps for understanding. Examples would be nice. Another reviewer mentioned the MIT Open Courseware and another site for examples and solutions. You definitely need a solid calculus and differential equations understanding to follow along. If you were unfortunate enough to get apathetic graduate student instruction for those courses, you will be in a world of hurt.

The paperback is an illegal copy from India. You can see wrinkles and folds in the pages, yet the pages are smooth. Some pages have smudges while others have debris printed on them. Everything is readable, so it seems that they have improved the scanning/printing quality from earlier reviews. The copy page states that it has been published in India by arrangement with W.W. Norton & Co, which I am assuming is the original publisher, but there is a piece of black tape over the words "Sales area: India only".
I'm not really complaining as the book was under $15, but it would have been nice to know what I was getting beforehand (I didn't read the reviews as it was required for part of a course) and I'm sure this violates Amazon's sales policies.
2885064
I was introduced to this book several months before its release through a pair of webinars the author (a colleague) hosted. In the months that I was waiting for its release, I read many of the works of the major scholars in the area of composition. This book definitely adds to that body of work. It spends more time on the many deliberate choices a professor can make over an entire course to improve students' final products. It is easy to read for someone who is not a composition/rhetoric scholar. While implementing all of his suggestions at once would be overwhelming, many can be implemented a little at a time.

I am teaching a public speaking course this semester, which is not a writing course but many of the suggestions from this book still apply. I am offering students a lot more low-stakes opportunities to practice in front of the class before their high-stakes speeches and more reflective writing where thought and content matter over grammar. I am getting better speeches and more thoughtful reflections than the last time I taught this class. The improvement in reflective writing means I receive much better insights into the otherwise invisible thought processes that lead up to the high-stakes speeches, which I have then been able to address in class as needed. It is definitely a book that I plan to refer back to as I grow as an educator as well as use for my own scholarship.
4374697
This is part of an adult series that focuses on teaching competencies through performance.  Corresponding audio tapes, grammar workbooks, a lesson planning guide (with an audio CD and a CD with worksheets) for teachers, and tests are available.  It would be most effectively used as part of a class, or at least a tutoring program, in which there is teacher support for the student. I think this would be better used in a class because the book has many opportunities for group work, in which the students can practice their newly-learned English.  There are no grammar explanations, which can be unwieldy for a beginning language learner.  Target grammar, vocabulary, functions, communication strategies, phonemes, and even mathematical components are listed for the teacher, though.  The chapters are about relevant adult topics: general talking with others, shopping, food, housing, community, health, jobs, and future education.  Each chapter has a self-assessment log for the students!  The language learners in the book are pictured as members of society rather than tourists and are physically varied, having diversified facial expressions, races, weights, and capabilities.  This book helps take the uncertainty out of lesson planning for the teacher while encouraging active learning from the students.  It is based on the US national CASAS test, which is required for public adult ed. programs to get federal funding.  This book is being used for this reason more and more in adult ed. programs, but also because it is an effective book.  If you are a teacher who is going to use this, I would recommend the supplementary Lesson Planner, which comes with an audio CD for the listening components of the student book and suggests supplementary activities for students.  However, I would strongly recommend against the grammar workbooks, which are very, very confusing!  The most useful teaching situations don't always easily lend themselves to target language components, but Jenkins and Sabbagh have made teaching grammar through context easy for the teacher.  I used this book, and my students effectively learned life skills such as writing checks, looking for apartments on the Internet, and following cooking recipes.
868354
I am currently using this program with seventh grade students, and I can tell you it has given them a confidence they were sorely lacking.  It's pointless to simply tell students to write better, or to vary their sentence structures, for if they knew how to do that they would have done it in the first place.  In order to combat this, Halupa has given a name to a variety of techniques you can in turn teach students, giving them a menu of items of which to choose when they sit down to write.  Like following a formula, students are able to solve the difficult equation that is writing. In using these tools, students are more proficient at writing, generating work that is deeper and more meaningful.  Try this.  It's worth it.
3993279
I used this with a small group of learners and found it to be accessible, well-structured, and pedagogically sound. (Also...this isn't some huge test prep book. There's real content here, but it is bite-sized...just over 100 pages.
4446559
I have had a couple of teens in my youth group read certain chapters and complete the exercises. I think this is a good method of teaching without lecturing. There are some very valuable lessons in this book.
2006916
The lessons are clear and in English rather than techno babbel.  The illustrations are extremely helpful.  The lesson organization is a little different from other books, but works.
4688935
The subject of English grammar tends to conjure up vision of stern gray-haired teachers who look like they suck on lemons between classes.  This book breaks the stereotype while achieving the almost impossible:  making the acquisition of a firm grasp of grammatical conventions enjoyable.

Starting with the basic of the sentence and progressing through parts of speech, and the nuances of verbs and pronouns, the illustrations attract the reader's attentions and the offbeat and tongue-in-cheek examples keep it.  Progressing through more complicated structures and finishing off with sentence construction, this is the most fun I have ever had while reviewing sound grammatical style.

The somewhat risqu nature of some of the pictures and content keep this book from being a staple in the average classroom, but its judicious use can pique the interest of even the most grammar-adverse student.

Personally, I would not allow any high school student to unrestricted access to this book because it would destroy the no-fun, sourpuss, and asexual image that English teachers have worked so hard and so long to create.  Students actually wanting to read a grammar book would bring absolute chaos the mundane universe of language.
3441677
I used this book in high school, and having gone to college, I must admit that I learned a lot more out of it than my college books. That may be attributed more to my teacher as opposed to the book itself, but I can at least say the book was there.
468655
The product has made Maths interesting by relating it back to real life scenarios. As such I think it's more accessible to students to learn and for teachers t teach these concepts.
4938740
Having taught middle school language arts for over thirty years, I am very selective about using pre-made materials, especially for a novel as unique as Graveyard. I found the literature response, discussion, and writing prompts as good as if I had written them myself to promote critical and creative thinking about the book. Yet, they aren't too advanced or abstract for middle schoolers as so many dry, canned novel units can be. So many units seem like they are really designed for elementary or high school; not so with this one. Many of my students are bright, insightful, and outspoken, and they all jumped at the chance to respond in discussion and writing prompts provided in this unit. The vocabulary and additional supplementary activities are right on target as well. Thank you, to the teacher who created this unit and to Amazon for making it available easily!
Dee Hammons, Jefferson Community School, Port Townsend, WA
1574016
I just returned from reading this to a classroom of 2nd graders (basically, 7 and 8 year-olds).

This book seemed to be at just the right level for these kids.  Most of them understood how Strega Nona and Bambolona tricked Big Anthony, but a couple didn't seem to.  This, to me, is an example of how one book can provide opportunities to test a child's power of perception or provide him or her a new way to look at things.  Nice.

As a read-aloud, the book is just about the right length (maybe a tiny bit long), and there are several opportunities to use character voices, making it a lot of fun and captivating.  Many of the pages contain small-ish pictures, so it is not ideal for holding up and showing to a class unless you can sit very close to them.  This book would be even better for a child in your lap or as a bedtime story, where a child can look at (for example) the dichotomy between the results of Bambolona's use of magic and Big Anthony's sad attempts, even while you're still reading the words (a great example here where the pictures contain more story than the words).

Something that places this book above many shorter or "younger" picture books is that the storyline include a minor subplot (Big Anthony, feeling slighted by Strega Nona, goes to work for the baker, who, since Bambolona has left, needs an assistant).  It works without taking up too much space and detracting from the main storyline.  Plus, the book contains a small amount of Italian (always translated immediately).

So... creative, funny, and provides learning opportunities (did I mention that Big Anthony learns a lesson in it as well?).  How can you go wrong?
4801798
Once I started, I didn't want to put it down. The language and writing are so beautiful, I don't think I can do justice in a review. If I was a 5th-7th grade classroom teacher, I'd read aloud "Warm-Up" which is the first several pages of the book, book talk the rest and then leave it in the classroom library where surely it will be snatched up quickly and passed on from kid to kid. This would be a good book for a literature circle to read and discuss. Lots of content and questions for critical thinking. Might be interesting for students who've read this to do some additional nonfiction reading on European professional basketball and also the chronic medical condition called hypertension; this information might serve to deepen or expand the student's understanding of the story.
3290795
In a middle school classroom, where this gets a ton of use. The kids even remarked that it was so much better than the one I had previously.