Product Description
Robert McMahon has contributed something genuinely new to the teaching of classic and contemporary literature in high schoola system of teaching English that achieves classroom control through engagement and interest in content. ... Read more

Product Description
Sure-fire lessons and motivating activities-from Paragraph Portraits to Hand Summaries-help every learner master the essential comprehension skills of finding the main idea and summarizing. Each section includes a variety of lessons to reinforce skills, a test-preparation lesson and test-formatted activity page, and a fun wrap-up project with evaluation ideas. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Comprehension Mini-Lessons
I love this book! I just started using it this week with my study skills class and it is wonderful! My junior high students did not have a clue about inferences and this book has easy to follow mini-lessons that are truly planned out for you. There is little preparation involved and the lessons are valuable. If you want your students to stop asking you"where is the answer to ....", or telling you they can't find the answer (because it is not on the lowest level of Bloom's taxonomy) this is the book to start with! ... Read more

Product Description
What art student doesn't groan at the hackneyed problems too often assigned in art classes, such as a still life and chianti bottles, old chairs, and large cloths draped over the whole scene? Here, in the first book ever of its kind, is a collection of interesting and original ideas for drawing projects, contributed by art instructors from all over the United States (and a few from Canada, Great Britain, and Australia) who have invented successful alternatives to humdrum exercises. The accompanying illustrations demonstrate ways in which their students have addressed the assignments and are included to help the reader visualize what might result from the written description. This book will be a welcome resource for art teachers and students in high school, college, graduate programs, and art schools, as well as artists undertaking independent study.



Among the 100 drawing ideas are:



   •  Drawing with a piece of charcoal held between the toes—to explore how limitations often bring out great creativity.
   •  Adopting a mouse's-eye view of a still life—an unusual twist on perspective drawing.
   •  Making a self-portrait that does not show the head but tells something significant about the artist through the depiction of other parts of the body—an original way of investigating "Who am I?"
   •  Constructing a figure from assembled objects and then drawing it—for those times when a live human model is unavailable.
   •  Creating a personal visual representation of the blues musical genre—to discover how one art form engenders another. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

Interesting ideas but most exercises don't build skill
This is a decent reference book for classroom projects. I was somewhat surprised this book was intended for the college level students. I was expecting something that would build skills or even give me some routines, but many of these ideas are somewhat childish to begin with, but I think this book was intended more for the classroom setting ( a few lessons discuss students rotating and drawing on each others drawings, etc).
So, this book would be appropriate for teachers (college level?) who were looking for something for children/adolescents, but not necessarily to build drawing skills.You'll be a little discouraged with lessons such as Animated Exquisite Corpse (group projects where everyone works on same drawing but different portions of it), Fax Project (yes, students will fax over drawings to the professor and then they will pasted together), The Shape of Fear (interpretting scary words), and several others having strictly having to do with emotions and interpreting (not bad ideas, but not what I was looking for).
I would say the best lessons from this book have to do with perspective, because they are practical, useful, and creative! I know art is supposed to emotional and creative, la la la, but I was thinking of something a little more technical.
I liked Experimental Drawing(Kaupelis) a little better, out of personal taste. Similar topics are covered but the author gives plenty of examples from well known artists, and goes a little more in depth about topics in drawing.

Drawing Assignments that are Interesting and Challenging
I bought this book for myself to motivate myself to draw. Would be a great resource for the college level art teacher, as well as high school level.

Very useful
As an art teacher, I was very happy with the ideas and instructions in this "how to teach" book.Although the illustrations and reproductions are only black and white, and of a rather poor quality, the concepts and discussions are very useable and come from actual art teachers.

Great ideas
As a teacher looking for journal bell work, this provided me with some ideas, but more for extended practices. However, there are some really creative ideas, which might be usable for full projects. Also creative for any artist.

Lots of drawing fun and growth!
The exercises are good ways to experiment with different ways of drawing and thinking of composition, materials, spatial concerns, etc.I try to do one every week. ... Read more

Product Description
NLP is very effective in enabling young people to overcome fears, anxieties and limitations, which, in turn, helps them to achieve more in school, learn more effectively and, in life in general, become more fulfilled and wholesome individualsThis highly practical book provides strategies for teachers to use in the classroom to improve their own NLP skills as well as those of their students. Topics include: * Understanding that we only see what we believe is possible * Realising that we create our own experience * Using embedded commands to aid homework ... Read more

Product Description

Stages is packed with drama exercises and ideas that work, tested on the harshest of critics—high school students. Laid out in a clear, concise manner, they are categorized according to their purpose. Stages is useful to all, from novice or seasoned drama teacher, to theatre professionals leading workshops and master classes. The exercises in this book can be used in isolation to simply fill a spare moment of class time, or to create a drama workshop or entire drama course. Suitable for a wide range of ages and abilities, the ideas can be adapted for young children and teenagers as well as experienced actors.

Customer Reviews (2)

Extremely Practical!!A must for every drama teacher!
I cannot say enough great things about this drama book.I have never written an amazon review before, but because I love this book so much I felt the need to tell others about it.I teach 6th-8th grade drama and I use this book every single day.The descriptions are clear and easy to understand.Each exercise has an objective listed and is extremely practical.If I have extra time in my lesson I just pick up this book and am able to find and explain an exercise in a matter of seconds.I have worn it out so much it might be time for another copy soon.I've tried using other drama books but the exercises and explanations are too complicated to be practical.This book is excellent and I recommend it to anyone who teaches middle or high school drama.

Very Helpful
I used Stages to teach a 7th grade drama class. The variety of stage games got the class ready for each day's assignment. I found it to be very helpful. ... Read more

Product Description
People usually resist change unless there is a problem. You can read and as far as you know your associates can read, so you may doubt that illiteracy in English is a real crisis. This book reveals the following facts.

Seriousness of the problem: Functional illiteracy causes at least thirty-four different types of serious physical, mental, emotional, financial, and medical problems for those who are illiterate Many of the simple tasks needed to thrive in a society are completely beyond the abilities of functional illiterates. As a result of the coping skills functional illiterates have developed you may be unaware of several of your friends, relatives, and associates who are functionally illiterate.

Extent of the problem: According to the most extensive study of functional illiteracy ever commissioned by the U.S. government, a $14 million, five-year study involving lengthy interviews of 26,049 U.S. adults statistically chosen to represent the entire U.S. population, and verified in a follow-up report released in 2006, 48.7 percent of the two least literate of the five literacy groups in the study earned significantly less than poverty-level wages. We do not see that level of poverty because most families have more than one employed adult and because low-income families receive financial and other assistance from the government, family, friends, and charities. Even so, the report showed that 31 percent of the two least literate groups were in poverty.

Results of the problem: (1) Functional illiteracy costs every adult American, reader and non-reader alike, at least $5186 each. The cost of English illiteracy will be similar in other countries, depending upon the percentage of people whose primary language is English and upon the percentage of them who are functionally illiterate in English. (2) Functional illiteracy adversely affects every business, some of them very seriously. (3) Functional illiteracy is a large part of the reason for the outsourcing, offshoring, and all of the other flattening factors in the U.S. economy described in Thomas Friedman's book, The World is Flat, and for the monthly U.S. trade deficit growing steadily worse for several years. (4) Many people are concerned over poverty, but they fail to realize that functional illiteracy among English-speaking people has a very large part in causing that poverty. (5) Many people are concerned about the misunderstandings over English written materials exchanged between English-speaking people and people who speak other languages without realizing that although spoken English is used for communication between people who have different native languages far more often than any other language, far more people can speak English than can fluently read English. (6) Most beginning students require at least two years to learn to read English.

Solution to the Problem: The proposed solution has been proven effective in over 313 languages other than English. It has never been tried in English, even though it has been recommended by numerous Educational and Linguistic scholars for over two centuries and even though all objections to the proposed solution have been thoroughly debunked by several distinguished scholars. The proposed solution is an improvement to previous proposals. The need has become more serious in the last eighty years, and with the use of present-day computer technology the solution is now amazingly easy to implement. Every student other than the most seriously mentally handicapped will be able to learn to read in less than three months, as they do in 98 percent of other alphabetic languages. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

This is clearly the solution we have sought
When I first picked up this book, I skimmed through it and was skeptical about what was apparently being proposed, but I decided the problem of illiteracy is serious enough that I should try to prove to myself that it was or was not a feasible solution. It was not until I read the final chapter of the text that I had seen enough facts to convince me. After all, what it proposes is contrary to "conventional wisdom." The author makes a convincing case of both the many types of serious problems that illiterates must constantly endure (I would feel like I was in crisis if many of the problems described occurred to me) and of the very large percentage of U.S. adults who are functionally illiterate (48 percent!). The book also details the monetary cost to every American of illiteracy, both reader and non-reader. After explaining the advantages of worldwide literacy and the effect of English being the only present global language, there is a long chapter explaining the main cause of English illiteracy -- the fact that learning to read English is more difficult than any other alphabetic language. The last half of the book explains the only solution that has been proven effective in hundreds of alphabetic languages other than English -- it has never been tried in English! There have been many proposed ways to improve the teaching of reading in the last eighty years or so, but all of these proposals have been merely fighting the symptoms of the difficulty of learning to read English rather than SOLVING the problem, as this breakthrough book proposes! As a result, none of the proposed ways of improving the teaching reading has made any overall statistical difference. As one of the Appendixes of the book proves, those who claim that there is improvement in the teaching of reading are using too short a time span in their data.

Excellent
Well researched and well written, "Let's End Our Literacy Crisis" makes a strong argument that something's gotta change.Millions have difficulty reading English. A solution is needed, and this book opens the door. Cleckler offers a shift in thinking, a shift into a world where everyone can live with confidence and joy in all areas of their lives.

Let's End Our Literacy Crisis
I have spent the last 12 years as the Chairman of a Literacy Committee and have not found a
more authorative reference than this one. Mr. Cleckler has made many outstanding observations
and has done a great job in researching his subject. I highly recommend reading his book.
Hal Shipley

`To solve this crisis will take a revolution.'
America, according to this book, is in a literacy crisis.American students, declared George Bush Senior, are placed `dead last amongst the industrial world' in scholastic tests.If this was true (and still true), then why is it so?The Salt Lake Tribune reports that when American children finish their schooling, nearly half of them will `read and write so poorly that it is difficult for them to hold a decent job'.Leaving aside what might be defined as a `decent' job, functional literacy is surely one of the objectives of education?As is pointed out in this book, illiteracy costs the individual, their family and the broader community.
How can this literacy crisis be solved?

In the first part of this book, Mr Cleckler outlines the impacts of illiteracy and talks about the size of the problem as well as some of the reasons why this is not acknowledged.In the second part, Mr Cleckler describes a solution, as well as issuing a challenge to the reader.Bob Cleckler makes a case for spelling reform, which is articulated clearly and documented meticulously in this book.

Many people would agree with Mr Cleckler.Sure, there are those of us who enjoy the challenge of English's idiosyncratic spelling, but most of us prefer modern English to middle English.And few of us would be disadvantaged if the spelling of English underwent further reform.

This book is focused on America, but the problem is far more widespread.I'll be passing my copy of the book on to other Australians with an interest in literacy.This book is well worth considering by anyone with an interest in the causes and consequences of illiteracy.And it is up to those of us who are functionally literate to make a difference.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

A Strategy for Ending the Literacy Crisis in this Generation
Award winning author, Bob C. Cleckler, dedicated this edition of "Let's End Our Literacy Crisis" ...to the hundreds of millions of students around the world who tried - and failed.

Part One discusses the impact of illiteracy on employment, crime, standard of living, consumer rights, citizen's rights, education, lifestyle choices, and health risks. Cleckler talks about the size of the problem and the reasons this is not acknowledged. He provides facts and figures on the monetary cost of illiteracy and its causes worldwide.

In Part Two Cleckler offers a blueprint for a solution to our illiteracy, the logic, and how to implement the proposal. He challenges the reader to join in a proposal for a grass roots campaign concerned with putting into motion proactive steps to solve the literary crisis.

Cleckler has invested 22 years in a program of phenomenal personal research. The book is filled with helpful charts, graphs, figures, and tables which re-enforce the narrative. He has also devoted over 100 pages to a number of comprehensive appendixes, bibliography, a full index, and other valuable tools such a list of pertinent websites.

"Let's End Our Literacy Crisis" is made up of convincing evidence of the crisis we are facing worldwide with illiteracy. Cleckler's writing is clear, relevant and is a wake up call to educators, anyone in public office, and to all who are impacted directly and indirectly by this alarming crisis.

... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Attention Children's Librarians
As a children's librarian in a public library, I am always looking for fun and interesting flannel board stories.Cooking Up a Story has many wonderful stories with very attractive patterns.The art is much better than most flannel board sources, in my experience. Also included aredetailed instructions for story related puppets and recipes.This book hasbeen so useful, I can't wait to order Super Story Telling by Carol Catronand Barbara Parks also. ... Read more

Product Description
How DO they do it?

If you could ask your favorite artist or crafter only one question, chances are you'd ask about creativity: Where do your ideas come from? How did you get started? What are your tricks for overcoming blocks?

In Living the Creative Life, author Rice Freeman-Zachery has compiled answers to these questions and more from 15 successful artists in a variety of mediums--from assemblage to fiber arts, beading to mixed-media collage. Creativity is different for everyone, and these artists share their insights on the muse (if you believe in her), keeping a sketchbook (or not), and prioritizing your art, whether you aspire to create solely for your own pleasure or to become a full-time artist.

* Try your hand at creative jumpstarts straight from the pros.
* Glimpse the artists' innermost thoughts and works in progress as you peruse pages from their journals and notebooks.
* Share textile artist Sas Colby's triumph over creative block during an exotic art retreat.
* Learn how internationally acclaimed artist James Michael Starr uses experience from his former "day job" to fuel his creation today.
* Explore the work of Michael deMeng, Claudine Hellmuth, Melissa Zink and the other artists right alongside their insights.

No crafter or artist should live the creative life without Living the Creative Life! The inspiration is contagious. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (53)

Inspring Book!
I just discovered this author, and I really like her work! This is a lovely book, with great ideas.Only problem...I cannot read certain pages too well! I am optically-challenged these days,and on the "tips" sections, the areais colored, with very tiny black script, and I can hardly read the words! I do not want to miss one juicy tidbit of this book, so that is my only concern! Other than that, I love this book.I loved her other one, on creativity! Both came along by coincidence, when I was desperately thinking of how I can carve out time for myself!The suggestions are wonderful, practical,and so helpful!We take the time to tend to everyone and everything else, but US!This is just a joy to read, to look at,to treasure! Get your creative "flow" going! Ms. Zachary is so spot-on! Cannot wait until her next book!

jump start your creativity!
I was perusing in the bookstore (not looking for a book on this subject matter or anything in particular) when I came across this book.First, I had to pick it up because it is so beautiful.The artwork and the overall design of the book felt like an inspiration without having even read anything at that point. Second, as a creative person by nature, I was feeling like I needed a little inspiration.

A few things to highlight:
* I love that the author actually discusses the workspace.I feel that most artistic people feel like they need their workspace to draw out a level of creativity before they can even start a project.Giving the reader things to do to better their workspace (even as simple as a coat of paint) is brilliant.
* The journaling section is absolutely fantastic. You can use this to inspire your other art, or actually make the journal a work of art in itself.I found this a great way to jumpstart artistic ideas!
* Photos of other artists' work.Brilliant.I love some of them.Like most of them.Respect all of them.

If you are an artist that is stuck in a rut and needing some inspiration, I highly suggest this book!Or, if you have a creative friend, it would make a thoughtful and well received gift.

Simply...Beautiful
In my possession is a stamp set that has two phrases: "I am an artist" and "I am not an artist". The former sits clean in the box, the latter is black with use. I am not an artist and will never be an artist...and I'm okay with that. I DO, however, enjoy the creative process--whichever form should happen to emerge at any given time. Taking a path of creativity is taking a journey inward...to the soul and back again.

This lovely book with gorgeous pictures and illustrations is a journey in itself, filled with enticements, wonder and inspiration. Ms. Freeman-Zachary presents 15 very different artists who work with a variety of mediums. Their work is showcased with utmost care and every example glistens with originality and deliciousness.

I especially enjoyed the "try this" prompts throughout the book...nudges to allow my own creative process to sprout wings and soar. The message I received from this lovely book is that I do not have to declare myself an artist in order to live a more creative life. The pressure is off and I can fly ever higher. I have the author to thank for that.

Now I understand
I have always felt as though I didn't fit in, needing to hide what I was doing, or justify it in some way.After reading this book I can say "If you want to understand me, read this!".Everything just fell into place, and all my quirkiness made sense. The artists in the book verbalized many of my thoughts and answered so many questions.I am so glad I bought it.

One of the best creativity boosting books out there....
I have been a professional artist, designer and writer since 1981. Over the past 27(!) years I have amassed shelves of books claiming to encourage and develop creativity. I've been to a Julia Cameron (The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity) workshop, read books and magazine articles, tried journal keeping, sketching, and dozens of other techniques purported to enhance creativity.
Where did all this get me? Wanting. Wanting to talk to other artists about how they actually worked. I wanted to talk about workspaces, priorities, making time for art, how they dealt with creative block, and a whole lot more.

So what comes along to answer these questions? Living the Creative Life: Ideas and Inspiration from Working Artists by Rice Freeman-Zachery.

In Living the Creative Life: Ideas and Inspiration from Working Artists, Rice Freeman-Zachery interviewed 15 successful artists in a variety of mediums--from assemblage to fiber arts, beading to mixed-media collage. Since creativity is a different kettle of fish for everyone, having input from 15 artists is invaluable.

Beginning with the first chapter, I can guarantee you will want to put this book down and try out some of the suggestions and exercises that fill the book.

These exercises range from giving up tv, movies, magazines and newspapers and instead reading, sitting quietly and letting the ideas flow in to developing rituals when it is time to work. Beautifully designed, this book will help you find your own way in the art world by listening and learning from those have gone before you.

I recommend this book without reservation. No crafter or artist should live the creative life without Living the Creative Life! The inspiration is contagious. ... Read more

Product Description
How can we meet the increasing demands on American education for more content, greater complexity, and much higher levels of student success?How can we make every student a more effective learner?How can we help every teacher support learning more productively?How can we create schools that enable each and every child to achieve the education to which he or she aspires? We can with a new technology of education - a technology focused on student practice and conceptual visualization.Fortunately, this new technology is now at hand, and it can enable us to revolutionize education.Please join me in an exploration of these new physical ideas that are here, so desperately, needed. Art Bardige ... Read more

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A "must" for every music classroom, this innovative teaching resource combines song repertoire from the popular Get America Singing...Again! collections with teaching strategies to meet the National Standards! Ready-to-use ideas and activities incorporate "fun" with melody, scales, ostinatos, partner songs, music appreciation, harmony, and composing, while integrating essential repertoire into your everyday teaching. This handy all-in-one format also includes a variety of reproducible student activity pages for an extra bonus! Highlighted songs from volume 1 of Get America Singing...Again! include: Battle Hymn of the Republic, Do-Re-Mi, Frere Jacques, I've Been Working on the Railroad, Dona Nobis Pacem, Music Alone Shall Live, Take Me Out to the Ball Game, The Star Spangled Banner, Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah, This Little Light of Mine. For Gr. 1-8. ... Read more

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AD COPY GOES HERE ... Read more