Jane Feber

The common Core standards are influencing the classroom in ways both good and not so good. This book strives to develop reading intervention for older students a positive encounter. It works to develop activities that include the various reading skills that Common Core standards require and talks about differentiated instruction as well as suggestions for reading advancement. There are assessment suggestions also. References are selective, the most important one being what Marzano has to say about academic achievement. If all of the resources are carefully looked at some of what Marzano says may conflict with what the author suggests regarding reading achievement. Be careful!… (mehr)

I received this e-book as part of the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.

Student Engagement is FUNdamental is a collection of activities aimed primarily at student interaction in the classroom. SEF is targeted, I believe, at middle school teachers (grades 6-8 or so), so being a college English instructor I'm not really the target audience. Having taught High School briefly, however, I could easily have adapted several of the exercises for those students, and I'll even modify a select few and use them, at least in part, in my Freshman Comp classes. That's what I like most about this particular collection. There is strong detail in each of the activities, and even though they are aimed at much younger students, the detail makes it easy to see ways to adapt them to fit my own needs.

Perhaps more importantly, while I think that there is an abundance of good information here for teachers, I also believe that parents, especially those who homeschool their children, can use many of the activities outside the classroom. With the exception of the first section, which is devoted to getting to know the students, the exercises focused on reading and analysis specifically would make for outstanding activities at home.… (mehr)

Student engagement is FUNdamental has some top notch trips and tricks. The ideas the author shares can be used in almost any classroom environment. I teach middle school technology. The activities are flexible enough that I can apply many of them to my classroom, which would be considered nontraditional. I think teaching students to work with others and build relationships is just as important a skill as things taught in academic classes. Most of theses activities help students to explore and build connections with others while also being practical to do with students. I have found that many activities sound great but are logistically difficult but not in this book… (mehr)