Marketplace : Product Reviews :
Product Reviews August/September 2006
Each month Teaching Pre K-8 reviews outstanding products for the classroom.
This month's products are:
Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.
Key Education Publishing
CORE
The McGraw-Hill Companies
Richard C. Owen Publishers, Inc.
Boyds Mills Press
Little, Brown and Company
The Brain Store
New Editions
Sterling Publishing has issues eight terrific titles in their Sterling Point series. These books had been published earlier by other houses, but have been updated, and have been updated well.
These juvenile biographies are great adventure stories. All your readers will love them, but if you have any reluctant readers, these will be sure-fire hits.
The books cover the lives of Admiral Richard Bird, General George S. Patton, George Washington, Geronimo, John Paul Jones and Lawrence of Arabia. They address Sinking of the Bismarck and The Stout-Hearted Seven (orphans on the Oregon Trail). There is marvelous intimate information in each of the books making them great reads. The content fits well into many areas of the curriculum.
John Paul Jones – The Pirate Patriot is a breathtaking story of seamanship, hard work, passion for the sea and commitment to the cause of freedom. Included is much information we never knew about John Paul Jones. Many of us might have visited the final resting place of the "Father of the American Navy" at the Naval Academy in Annapolis. However, did you know that Jones died alone and penniless in Paris, his grave built over by shopkeepers for 100 years until the US Ambassador (in 1908), located it and had it moved to Annapolis?
The gap in the reading achievement of young boys is again making news, and although we agree with the publisher that these books would be super for boys, girls will love them, too. The books come in both hardbound ($12.95) and paperback ($6.95) versions. You'll want a complete set for your classroom.
Sterling Publishing Co., Inc..
www.sterlingpub.com
Key Education
Specifically designed for students reading below level, these high interest, low readability stories are really well done. The Heroic Herald chronicles real-life heroes whose stories are written as front-page news articles. Comprehension activities are included.
Another plus is the included audio CD, "The Heroic Herald Evening News." A news anchor welcomes the listeners and says, "Tonight's headline story is..." and proceeds to read the headline, title and story content exactly as it is printed on the student's copy of the article.
The reproducible stories are engaging and will work at many levels, although the publisher rates the interest level at ages seven to 12. These stories range from 1.3 reading level (132 words) to 3.4 reading level (400 words). The activities include crossword puzzles, word searches, creative art and writing and practice in drawing conclusions, main idea, inference, cloze activities, descriptive vocabulary and sequencing. $12.99 plus s/h. These are available from your school-supply dealer or from Carson-Dellosa.
Key Education Publishing
www.carsondellosa.com
Vocabulary Handbook
With three major chapters covering "Specific Word Instruction," "Word-Learning Strategies" and "Word Consciousness," this 220-pager is a combination of the best features of a textbook and a practical hands-on teacher's guide. Published by CORE (Consortium on Reading Excellence), each of the chapters examines a component of effective vocabulary instruction.
The What, Why, When and How of using each of the topics of the three chapters provide detailed instruction and sample lessons that make using the book a joy. The context selections are included in the back of the book, and that's a real time-saver.
There are 10 reproducible pages for strategies. These include a Five Senses Simile Web, Word Encounter Forms, Word Map, Word-Part Map, The Vocabulary Strategy, PAVE Procedure and more.
Our recommendation? Buy the book. It's a keeper. $32.75 plus s/h. To order call 888-693-7277.
CORE
www.corelearn.com
The Teacher's Calendar
A day-by-day 300-page almanac of historic events, holidays and famous birthdays provides lots of curriculum connections. You'll really need this sooner rather than later as it starts with August 1, 2006. But no matter your start date for school, you'll get lots of ideas, ready to use.
The content is arranged in the typical almanac format with bold face listings and short descriptions of historical highlights, national holidays and state days, astronomical phenomena, and religious observances arranged alphabetically for each date. Following each day's listings are birthdays of well-known people with the relevant dates and an outstanding achievement of the birthday boy or girl is noted.
This content provides wonderful jumping-off places for teachers and kids looking for themes, people to write about, or history timelines in every era. At $19.95 plus s/h, this book will really spark up your teaching.
The McGraw-Hill Companies
www.books.mcgraw-hill.com
Margaret Mooney
Need we say more? We automatically know we're going to see some terrific teaching strategies when we see Margaret's name. In Caught in the Spell of Writing and Reading, Margaret has teamed up with Terrell Young and five other stars to bring us the very best in strategies and understanding the teacher's role in literacy learning. The emphasis in the book is "that all instruction, practice, application and much of the assessment should begin with and remain centered on the learner." This premise encourages great flexibility not only within an approach, but also among approaches. There's a wonderful chart in the introduction to the book that clarifies our thinking on the child, what he or she needs, and the best ways to help him or her achieve the desired outcome.
There's a section in part one by Terrell Young focusing on the "read to" approach even at upper grades (actually into college) that is a classic. This alone is worth the price of the book ($27.95 plus s/h). But then there's all the other invaluable information: Margaret on writing for and with students, Brenda Parkes and Jerry Miller on shared reading, and on and on.
We're going to buy a desk copy of this for our reference in the office. We suggest you do the same. This is one of the few true bargains in this world.
Richard C. Owen Publishers, Inc.
www.RCOwen.com
Pat Brisson
The author of Sky Memories has given us a picture book, Melissa Parkginton's Beautiful, Beautiful Hair. It has the same powerful type of leading character as Sky Memories in that another young girl, Melissa, is compassionate and sensitive beyond her years.
Melissa wants to be known for something besides her lovely hair; she wants to accomplish something worthwhile on her own. A nice lesson for today's preteens who are inundated with superficial "musts." For ages six to eight. $15.95 at your local bookstore.
Boyds Mills Press
www.boydsmillspress.com
Exploratopia
The incredible Exploratorium museum in San Francisco has produced the mother of all experiment books. Exploratopia is available in October and is a must-have for all schools.
The exciting experiments and explorations for curious minds in this 384-page tome have been put together from exhibits and activities that have been developed by the museum over the last 25 years. The book is for kids eight to 12 and – the wonderful news – they don't need tools for the activities; their minds are their tools. The children are encouraged to explore on their own, figuring how the world works, and looking at everything with new eyes.
The book is really reasonably priced at $29.95, so maybe the budget will stretch for multiple copies. The kids will really love this, and it will hook those kids who are easy to distract. Little Brown is the publisher.
Little, Brown and Company
www.exploratorium.com
The Brain Store
The name of this educational publisher carries the tag line, "Resources for Growing Minds." Most of the material we've seen from this publisher really does stick close to its stated purpose, and Action-Packed Classrooms is no different. This is a book of movement strategies to invigorate K-5 learners.
In six easy-to-read chapters we find Action-Packed Math, Action-Packed Language Arts, Action-Packed Science, Action-Packed Social Studies and Action Packed-Health – a chapter on generating energy and maintaining attention, P.E. for classroom teachers, warm-ups, aerobic tag and chase games, inside and outside games and even water play. There's a chapter on developing an action plan, too.
Bonus material included: A short primer on the brain and a timeline of reseach. We found this background material to be infinitely valuable and up-to-date.
New teachers and those with more experience will love the way this dovetails with curriculum. Whoever thought a hundreds chart could be fun and involve movement? Or that there could be Place-value Taggers? Or Sentence Detectives?
Brain-compatible learning is what The Brain Store is all about. Thank goodness!
This book really is worth $32 (plus s/h), and we don't say that lightly.
The Brain Store
www.thebrainstore.com
