One of my challenges as an English teacher is finding books that meet the school standards for appropriate content and that appeal to adolescent boys.
I went to the public library and said, "My students want to read about war and sports; what can you recommend?" and not ONE book that the librarian recommended met our school standards -- including Endurance and Hatchet.
I did find a great adventure memoir called In the Land of White Death, by Valerian Albanov, about a failed 1912 expedition in the Arctic.
The collection in the school book closet includes
Tom Sawyer
Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde
Around the World in 80 Days
Animal Farm
Profiles in Courage
Johnny Tremain
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
The Phantom Tollbooth
To these I would add The Twenty-One Balloons, The Golden Goblet, and My Side of the Mountain.
Lord of the Flies is an ugly, violent story about the triumph of evil; but there is no romance in it. (The afterword published in the edition I see everywhere is not up to school standards.)
The Invisible Man is another ugly, violent one with no romance or profanity in it.
I have one student who has been very happy with Moby Dick but I haven't been through it recently to check for content.
A lot of kids are enjoying Sherlock Holmes -- same caveat.
Short stories:
There are a lot of good short stories (and very short stories) by Kafka. I gave the class My Neighbor and we got interested in whether the narrator is paranoid or reasonable -- that was fun.
I also gave out a few chapters of Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities. Much of the book is not appropriate; but each chapter can stand alone. These are slightly dystopian prose poems about imaginary cities: very boy-friendly.
Nabokov's Pnin consists of several chapters, each of which can stand alone as a piece of literature; some of these are appropriate.
There are a few appropriate short stories by Hemingway -- e.g., The Old Man at the Bridge, The Good Lion, A Day's Wait; I have one or two more here but I have to find them.
Showing posts with label book review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label book review. Show all posts
Book Review: Never Work Harder than Your Students
I spotted Never Work Harder than Your Students, by Robyn Jackson, on a friend's bookshelf, but didn't have time to read much of it; took it out of the library; didn't have time to read much of it; and finally ordered a copy, which I am now quickly skating through.
First impressions.
The form of the book is self-helpy. It starts with a quiz; it has its own website; it occasionally breaks out with a term like "Master Teacher" that you sense the author is just waiting to trademark.
But:
The content of the book is great. Some of it is obvious but all of it is getting good ideas crackling.
So, so far, I recommend it.
(The title is misleading -- it's not a book about keeping teachers from working too hard; it's a grab bag of pedagogical insights.)
First impressions.
The form of the book is self-helpy. It starts with a quiz; it has its own website; it occasionally breaks out with a term like "Master Teacher" that you sense the author is just waiting to trademark.
But:
The content of the book is great. Some of it is obvious but all of it is getting good ideas crackling.
So, so far, I recommend it.
(The title is misleading -- it's not a book about keeping teachers from working too hard; it's a grab bag of pedagogical insights.)
The Sewing Books to Take to a Desert Island
I've been wanting to list a couple of how-to-sew books which, between them, cover everything any home dressmaker could possibly want to know: sewing; drafting patterns and draping without patterns; troubleshooting machinery.
It's tricky to make such a list, though: there are a lot of great beginners' "how-to-sew" books out there but most are not comprehensive.
Cal Patch's Design-It-Yourself Clothes, for instance, has beautiful sunlit illustrations, but teaches only how to sew knits. If you want to know how to use anything other than stretchy fabric, this is not your book.
Chinelo Bally's Freehand Fashion is also a friendly introduction to sewing; but she assumes that you want darts in all your clothing. Darts are a modern invention; I want to know how to create a fitted garment without them; ergo, this book also has its limitations for me.
A surprising number of books omit sleeves entirely.
At the end of the day, there are three sewing books in my library. These are the ones that work for me.
1.) I received the Singer Complete Photo Guide to Sewing book as a present. This is the one that explains, in its section on sewing machines and sergers, how to check and correct machine tension; it explains the construction of several types of seams; it's a good all-around reference. There is an extensive section on home decor, as well as instructions for using commercial patterns effectively.
2.) I added to it Elizabeth Stewart Clark's Dressmaking Guide. Yes, this book is self-published and written for Civil War reenactors; yes, it walks you through the creation of a number of garments the average 21st century civilian has no interest in wearing. BUT -- I still recommend it as an exceptional how-to-sew book, because it encompasses basic hand-sewing technique, the number one best way ever to sew on a button (a level of detail most books do not include), and touches on how to drape. The sewing projects in this book, 19th century or no, teach you how to construct fitted garments without ever drafting a pattern, which is unique in sewing books for beginners. This is the book I consult most often.
3.) I did, however, want to learn how to draft garments with darts and other modern details, so I added Dorothy Moore's Pattern Making and Dressmaking to the collection. There is a comprehensive review of it here. This explains how to draft pretty much anything, including menswear.
The three together do a fine job of covering sewing by hand or machine, draping, and drafting.
I have other books on the shelf - Claire Shaeffer's Couture Sewing Techniques (which will teach you something like the twelve best ways ever to sew on a button instead of the one - did you know Yves Saint Laurent braids its button shanks?), and The American Duchess Guide to 18th Century Dressmaking, which is good for oddments like perfectly ruffled sleeves - but the three that are coming with me to a desert island are the three listed above.
It's tricky to make such a list, though: there are a lot of great beginners' "how-to-sew" books out there but most are not comprehensive.
Cal Patch's Design-It-Yourself Clothes, for instance, has beautiful sunlit illustrations, but teaches only how to sew knits. If you want to know how to use anything other than stretchy fabric, this is not your book.
Chinelo Bally's Freehand Fashion is also a friendly introduction to sewing; but she assumes that you want darts in all your clothing. Darts are a modern invention; I want to know how to create a fitted garment without them; ergo, this book also has its limitations for me.
A surprising number of books omit sleeves entirely.
At the end of the day, there are three sewing books in my library. These are the ones that work for me.
1.) I received the Singer Complete Photo Guide to Sewing book as a present. This is the one that explains, in its section on sewing machines and sergers, how to check and correct machine tension; it explains the construction of several types of seams; it's a good all-around reference. There is an extensive section on home decor, as well as instructions for using commercial patterns effectively.
2.) I added to it Elizabeth Stewart Clark's Dressmaking Guide. Yes, this book is self-published and written for Civil War reenactors; yes, it walks you through the creation of a number of garments the average 21st century civilian has no interest in wearing. BUT -- I still recommend it as an exceptional how-to-sew book, because it encompasses basic hand-sewing technique, the number one best way ever to sew on a button (a level of detail most books do not include), and touches on how to drape. The sewing projects in this book, 19th century or no, teach you how to construct fitted garments without ever drafting a pattern, which is unique in sewing books for beginners. This is the book I consult most often.
3.) I did, however, want to learn how to draft garments with darts and other modern details, so I added Dorothy Moore's Pattern Making and Dressmaking to the collection. There is a comprehensive review of it here. This explains how to draft pretty much anything, including menswear.
The three together do a fine job of covering sewing by hand or machine, draping, and drafting.
I have other books on the shelf - Claire Shaeffer's Couture Sewing Techniques (which will teach you something like the twelve best ways ever to sew on a button instead of the one - did you know Yves Saint Laurent braids its button shanks?), and The American Duchess Guide to 18th Century Dressmaking, which is good for oddments like perfectly ruffled sleeves - but the three that are coming with me to a desert island are the three listed above.
Book review: Good to Great
I like looking outside education-directed sources for insights that may be useful in the classroom; and I've met some nice people recently who are CEOs of things and I was curious about what they do all day (it sounds like fun); so I spent some time this year in the business aisle at the library.
Until this year, I think the only book I'd read on business was Rav Dessler's Kuntres haChesed; and I still think if you're going to read one book on business that should be the one.
Anyway, I found two books that have good practical information -- Your Idea, Inc, which explains how to start a business; and the Nonprofit Kit for Dummies, which explains how to start a nonprofit - and the other interesting item was Good to Great, which is a study of what makes a corporation sustainable.
Most of the other books I found on business say, "Set your goal and pursue it aggressively!" but the Good to Great study found, it says, that the corporations that achieved lasting financial success are the ones that took a couple of years of experimentation to allow their ideas to gel; and then focused closely on what they found they could do well; and I think that rings truer.
Other factors mentioned are personal humility, and starting with having the right people rather than the right business plan ("get the right people on the bus, and then decide where you're going to drive it").
Something to think about.
Until this year, I think the only book I'd read on business was Rav Dessler's Kuntres haChesed; and I still think if you're going to read one book on business that should be the one.
Anyway, I found two books that have good practical information -- Your Idea, Inc, which explains how to start a business; and the Nonprofit Kit for Dummies, which explains how to start a nonprofit - and the other interesting item was Good to Great, which is a study of what makes a corporation sustainable.
Most of the other books I found on business say, "Set your goal and pursue it aggressively!" but the Good to Great study found, it says, that the corporations that achieved lasting financial success are the ones that took a couple of years of experimentation to allow their ideas to gel; and then focused closely on what they found they could do well; and I think that rings truer.
Other factors mentioned are personal humility, and starting with having the right people rather than the right business plan ("get the right people on the bus, and then decide where you're going to drive it").
Something to think about.
Hey, look! Andrea has ANOTHER blog!
I couldn't find Andrea Hernandez's current education blog so I searched for it, and found a different one instead.
This one hasn't been updated as recently, but I really like it.
She even analyzes the publicity about Finland.
All kinds of good plums here:
EdTech Workshop
This one hasn't been updated as recently, but I really like it.
She even analyzes the publicity about Finland.
All kinds of good plums here:
EdTech Workshop
My Quest for the Best Chemistry Book Ever
I have been searching for the world's clearest explanation of chemistry.
I divide the books into two categories.
Books that Align with a Standard Chemistry Curriculum
Actual chemistry textbooks are supposed to be more or less equal. The one we used in high school was Zumdahl's World of Chemistry; I remember I liked it and could rely on it to explain clearly whatever I needed to know. Prentice Hall's is the other widely used chemistry textbook; I haven't read it.
Chemistry for Dummies and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Chemistry, which are written to cover the same material but in a less formal voice and without pretty pictures, are equally clear, though I don't think they offer anything a textbook doesn't. The latter is the more comprehensive of the two.
The author of the Idiot's has a website where he has published his own, humorous, free chemistry textbook, Chemistry: The Awesomest Science. It covers a standard high school curriculum and it's clearer than any other textbook I've seen. The trouble with it is that the language is not appropriate, so I can't give it to my students. The author gave me permission to bowdlerize it, but due to the nature of the course I'm teaching I don't have time, so there's a project up for grabs if someone wants it.
CK-12 Chemistry is another free, complete textbook that looks like a good resource, but since you have to read it on a special app and cannot print it out, I didn't look at it too closely.
The best explanation I've seen of basic chemistry ("an atom is...") is still Everything You Need to Ace Science in One Big Fat Notebook but since it's written for middle school it's only an introduction (e.g., it stops before getting into the difference between ionic and covalent bonds).
Chemistry: Investigate the Matter that Makes up Your World, from Nomad Press, goes further. It doesn't contain everything in the high school curriculum but it comes close to covering the Florida state high school standards. It's the clearest of the books on this list. If I were writing a textbook-based high school chemistry course from scratch I might make this slim volume the textbook (since it covers everything you need to know to be a basically chemistry-educated adult, with no extras) and teach everything else without recourse to a textbook at all.
Another book I have flipped through but haven't looked at too closely is The Joy of Chemistry, by Cobb and Fetterolf. It's not a simple book to look things up in; it's designed to take the reader on a journey. It looks good, though. I imagine there are a lot of homeschoolers who adore it.
Books that Don't Align with a Standard Chemistry Curriculum
There are some wonderful children's introductions to chemistry. My favorites are, as usual, the Victorians (who, fortunately, are free online):
The Wonder Book of Chemistry by Jean Henri Fabre (an excellent children's science writer - he has books on several sciences) and
The Chemical History of a Candle by Michael Faraday.
There is a brief chapter on chemistry in Edward Holden's The Sciences, which is a good book to know about; but Fabre goes deeper.
The genius of these old books (besides the mellifluous writing) is that they start off with the world that surrounds us. The Wonder Book of Chemistry, for instance, doesn't start off with the definition of an atom; it starts off with a chunk of sulphur. Faraday introduces chemistry through looking at a candle. It's (pedagogically) a very elegant approach.
Theodore Gray has a trilogy of books on chemistry. I've read only the first, The Elements. It wouldn't stand in place of a textbook but it's a nice resource. I showed it to a chemistry student who had been plodding through a lab-less course and she exclaimed, "Oh! This makes chemistry look interesting!" - It's very good for that.
The Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments, by Robert Bruce Thompson, explains in tremendous detail how to set up a safe chemistry lab at home, and gives instructions for a number of intriguing-sounding experiments. Companion materials are sold here.
There are other books that lay out a number of suggestions for one-off science fair projects, but Thompson's is the book that assumes the reader wants to get seriously into the subject.
There are some books out there that present entertaining chemistry anecdotes for a general audience (Napoleon's Buttons, The Disappearing Spoon, The Radioactive Boy Scout, Mauve) but it would be a demanding job to extract much chemistry knowledge from them, so they don't make my list.
I cannot, however, resist linking to Ruskin's essay on The Work of Iron, on p. 453 of this PDF, as a charming presentation on chemistry.
I asked around for "the clearest book on chemistry ever" and my friend's husband wisely responded, "Bereishis 1:1-31," which is the best answer.
There are several board games out there that are designed to teach chemistry. The two that sound high school student-friendly to me (as opposed to having been designed for gamers) are Elementeo, which is based on Magic: the Gathering and assigns each element a personality; and Science Ninjas: Valence Plus. Elementeo is pretty but I suspect that Valence Plus involves more science in the actual game-play. (There's also a chemistry-themed version of Fluxx. Fluxx is a great game; but it offers less educational content than the other games listed here.)
There is a fabulous collection of labs here: Flinn Scientific: Chemical Demonstrations.
Conclusion
If someone would like to write a chemistry textbook that takes all the material of a standard high school textbook and presents it using the sensible approach and superb writing of The Wonder Book of Chemistry, the clarity of Chemistry: the Awesomest Science, and the attention to detail of Chemistry: Explore the Matter that Makes up Your World, I would buy a copy; and if you pull it all out of Bereishis, I will be your best friend.
I divide the books into two categories.
Books that Align with a Standard Chemistry Curriculum
Actual chemistry textbooks are supposed to be more or less equal. The one we used in high school was Zumdahl's World of Chemistry; I remember I liked it and could rely on it to explain clearly whatever I needed to know. Prentice Hall's is the other widely used chemistry textbook; I haven't read it.
Chemistry for Dummies and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Chemistry, which are written to cover the same material but in a less formal voice and without pretty pictures, are equally clear, though I don't think they offer anything a textbook doesn't. The latter is the more comprehensive of the two.
The author of the Idiot's has a website where he has published his own, humorous, free chemistry textbook, Chemistry: The Awesomest Science. It covers a standard high school curriculum and it's clearer than any other textbook I've seen. The trouble with it is that the language is not appropriate, so I can't give it to my students. The author gave me permission to bowdlerize it, but due to the nature of the course I'm teaching I don't have time, so there's a project up for grabs if someone wants it.
CK-12 Chemistry is another free, complete textbook that looks like a good resource, but since you have to read it on a special app and cannot print it out, I didn't look at it too closely.
The best explanation I've seen of basic chemistry ("an atom is...") is still Everything You Need to Ace Science in One Big Fat Notebook but since it's written for middle school it's only an introduction (e.g., it stops before getting into the difference between ionic and covalent bonds).
Chemistry: Investigate the Matter that Makes up Your World, from Nomad Press, goes further. It doesn't contain everything in the high school curriculum but it comes close to covering the Florida state high school standards. It's the clearest of the books on this list. If I were writing a textbook-based high school chemistry course from scratch I might make this slim volume the textbook (since it covers everything you need to know to be a basically chemistry-educated adult, with no extras) and teach everything else without recourse to a textbook at all.
Another book I have flipped through but haven't looked at too closely is The Joy of Chemistry, by Cobb and Fetterolf. It's not a simple book to look things up in; it's designed to take the reader on a journey. It looks good, though. I imagine there are a lot of homeschoolers who adore it.
Books that Don't Align with a Standard Chemistry Curriculum
There are some wonderful children's introductions to chemistry. My favorites are, as usual, the Victorians (who, fortunately, are free online):
The Wonder Book of Chemistry by Jean Henri Fabre (an excellent children's science writer - he has books on several sciences) and
The Chemical History of a Candle by Michael Faraday.
There is a brief chapter on chemistry in Edward Holden's The Sciences, which is a good book to know about; but Fabre goes deeper.
The genius of these old books (besides the mellifluous writing) is that they start off with the world that surrounds us. The Wonder Book of Chemistry, for instance, doesn't start off with the definition of an atom; it starts off with a chunk of sulphur. Faraday introduces chemistry through looking at a candle. It's (pedagogically) a very elegant approach.
Theodore Gray has a trilogy of books on chemistry. I've read only the first, The Elements. It wouldn't stand in place of a textbook but it's a nice resource. I showed it to a chemistry student who had been plodding through a lab-less course and she exclaimed, "Oh! This makes chemistry look interesting!" - It's very good for that.
The Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments, by Robert Bruce Thompson, explains in tremendous detail how to set up a safe chemistry lab at home, and gives instructions for a number of intriguing-sounding experiments. Companion materials are sold here.
There are other books that lay out a number of suggestions for one-off science fair projects, but Thompson's is the book that assumes the reader wants to get seriously into the subject.
There are some books out there that present entertaining chemistry anecdotes for a general audience (Napoleon's Buttons, The Disappearing Spoon, The Radioactive Boy Scout, Mauve) but it would be a demanding job to extract much chemistry knowledge from them, so they don't make my list.
I cannot, however, resist linking to Ruskin's essay on The Work of Iron, on p. 453 of this PDF, as a charming presentation on chemistry.
I asked around for "the clearest book on chemistry ever" and my friend's husband wisely responded, "Bereishis 1:1-31," which is the best answer.
There are several board games out there that are designed to teach chemistry. The two that sound high school student-friendly to me (as opposed to having been designed for gamers) are Elementeo, which is based on Magic: the Gathering and assigns each element a personality; and Science Ninjas: Valence Plus. Elementeo is pretty but I suspect that Valence Plus involves more science in the actual game-play. (There's also a chemistry-themed version of Fluxx. Fluxx is a great game; but it offers less educational content than the other games listed here.)
There is a fabulous collection of labs here: Flinn Scientific: Chemical Demonstrations.
Conclusion
If someone would like to write a chemistry textbook that takes all the material of a standard high school textbook and presents it using the sensible approach and superb writing of The Wonder Book of Chemistry, the clarity of Chemistry: the Awesomest Science, and the attention to detail of Chemistry: Explore the Matter that Makes up Your World, I would buy a copy; and if you pull it all out of Bereishis, I will be your best friend.
Middle school science textbook -- a book review
I once substitute-taught a middle school science class that adhered closely to a textbook.
I was helping students review material before a test, so I brought in a book I happen to have in my house (thanks to the person who gave it to me, if you read this):
The Complete Middle School Study Guide: Everything You Need to Ace Science in One Big Fat Notebook, by Michael Geisen.
The school had just upgraded the science textbooks to a series rumored to be excellent, but as soon as the kids flipped through my book, they loved it, and we had to set up a rotation because they clamored every day to borrow my book instead of using their big, fancy textbook with the natty page design and glossy illustrations.
We all thought this inexpensive little handbook offered clearer explanations.
I suspect part of the appeal is that unlike most middle school textbooks, it doesn't try hard to be cool; it just lays out the facts.
It's part of a series. I haven't read the other Complete Middle School Study Guides but I do think this one does a great job of explaining all the science in the middle school curriculum.
It includes review questions at the end of each chapter. I believe it could easily stand in place of a conventional textbook.
I was helping students review material before a test, so I brought in a book I happen to have in my house (thanks to the person who gave it to me, if you read this):
The Complete Middle School Study Guide: Everything You Need to Ace Science in One Big Fat Notebook, by Michael Geisen.
The school had just upgraded the science textbooks to a series rumored to be excellent, but as soon as the kids flipped through my book, they loved it, and we had to set up a rotation because they clamored every day to borrow my book instead of using their big, fancy textbook with the natty page design and glossy illustrations.
We all thought this inexpensive little handbook offered clearer explanations.
I suspect part of the appeal is that unlike most middle school textbooks, it doesn't try hard to be cool; it just lays out the facts.
It's part of a series. I haven't read the other Complete Middle School Study Guides but I do think this one does a great job of explaining all the science in the middle school curriculum.
It includes review questions at the end of each chapter. I believe it could easily stand in place of a conventional textbook.
Book Review: Ada Byron Lovelace and the Thinking Machine
When I got asked to teach math, I went to the library and scraped off the shelf all the children's picture-book biographies of Ada, Countess of Lovelace. There are quite a few of them.
The best-written of the lot to which I had access is Ada Byron Lovelace and the Thinking Machine, by Laurie Wallmark, because the author succeeds in taking the reader into Ada's experience of falling in love with numbers.
I asked my second-grader, who tested all the books with me, and she agreed that this version tells the best story.
Now you know.
It's a pity there aren't lots of shiny math manipulatives with brass bickerjiggers on them. Most rotary calculators, for instance, are plastic.
Abacuses and Montessori beads are two welcome exceptions.
The best-written of the lot to which I had access is Ada Byron Lovelace and the Thinking Machine, by Laurie Wallmark, because the author succeeds in taking the reader into Ada's experience of falling in love with numbers.
I asked my second-grader, who tested all the books with me, and she agreed that this version tells the best story.
Now you know.
It's a pity there aren't lots of shiny math manipulatives with brass bickerjiggers on them. Most rotary calculators, for instance, are plastic.
Abacuses and Montessori beads are two welcome exceptions.
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