Product Description

This book explores the powerful idea of "textual intelligence," offers both practical and theoretical information on teaching and reading, and explains how to incorporate the newest ideas and techniques into actual classroom practice.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #501274 in Books
• Published on: 2001-09-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Review
“This is a book from the keyboard of an experienced teacher who knows what works with students.”–Teachers College Record

About the Author
Jim Burke teaches English at Burlingame High School. He is the author of numerous books, including The English Teacher's Companion, Third Edition; The Teacher's Daybook; Letters to a New Teacher; ACCESSing School; School Smarts; Writing Reminders; Tools for Thought; Illuminating Texts; Reading Reminders; and I Hear America Reading, all of which are published by Heinemann. Through firstHand classroom materials, he offers 50 Essential Lessons. He is also a senior consultant for the McDougal Littell Literature program as well as the author of The Reader's Handbook (Great Source) and Academic Workouts (First Choice Publishing). Jim has received numerous awards, including the NCTE Intellectual Freedom Award, the NCTE Conference on English Leadership Award, and the California Reading Association Hall of Fame Award. He served on the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Committee on Adolescence and Young Adulthood English Language Arts Standards and recently worked with ACT on their high school English Language Arts standards. In 2007, he participated in the national Adolescent Literacy Coalition roundtable and worked with the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. Visit his website (www.englishcompanion.com) for more information. Jim Burke is a Heinemann Professional Development provider.

Customer Reviews

Invaluable Book
As a college student interested in becoming a teacher, I have found this book to be extremely valuable. Using clear and concise language, the book addresses the issues of how we can tell that a text can be trusted and how a student can learn to read such a text. Having not yet entered into the educational field, I feel like this book has a valuable wealth of information that I can be taught from before I teach, when I am learning to teach and while I am teaching.

The book is divided up into easy to read chapters with important ideas, terms or, questions accented by bullet points. The different chapters examine how to read important topics such as literature, textbooks and tests. My personal favorite is the chapter "Reading the Internet" which discusses the many facets of this resource. Online searches are a main source of information for students today. The book identifies and defines important aspects of this such as the types of texts and web sites that can be found. In addition, the author suggests questions that a teacher can ask a student to help them determine the quality of the site they are searching.

The author provides an immense amount of very useful information on reading texts. Whether it is about teaching students how to read online texts, learning what questions to ask or making connections to what is read, this book is invaluable. I am confident it will be part of my educational career.