Nonfiction Books

<DIV>Gay Su Pinnell and Irene Fountas understand that a high-quality curriculum is the important first step toward good teaching and successful learning. Good curriculum comes from knowing what students can do, can almost do, and need to learn how to do as readers, writers, and language users. In The Continuum of Literacy Learning, Grades K-8 they combine everything they have learned about literacy development to create a powerful tool that enables curriculum coordinators and literacy specialists to observe teaching and learning, to plan responsive instruction, and to ensure consistency across buildings, grades, or classrooms.<DIV>Across the Grades

The resource math teachers have been waiting for is finally here! Volume Three of the Van de Walle Professional Mathematics Series provides practical guidance along with proven strategies for practicing teachers of grades 5 through 8. In addition to many of the popular topics and features from John Van de Walle's market-leading textbook, Elementary and Middle School Mathematics, this volume offers brand-new material specifically written for the middle grades. The expanded grade-specific coverage and unique page design allow readers to quickly and easily locate information to implement in the classroom. Nearly 200 grade-appropriate activities are included. The student-centered, problem-based approach will help students develop real understanding and confidence in mathematics, making this series indispensable for teachers! *Big Ideas provide clear and succinct explanations of the most critical concepts in 5-8 mathematics. *Problem-based activities in Chapters 2-12 provide numerous engaging tasks to help students develop understanding. *Assessment Notes illustrate how assessment can be an integral part of instruction and suggest practical assessment strategies. *Expanded Lessons elaborate on one activity in each chapter, providing examples for creating step-by-step lesson plans for classroom implementation. *A Companion Website (http://www.ablongman.com/vandewalletscm1e ) provides access to more than 50 reproducible blackline masters to utilize in the classroom. *The NCTM Content Standards are provided in the appendix for teachers' reference. Collect all three volumes in the Van de Walle Professional Mathematics Series! Each volume provides in-depth coverage at specific grade levels. *Teaching Student-Centered Mathematics: Volume One, Grades K-3, ISBN: 0-205-40843-5 *Teaching Student-Centered Mathematics: Volume Two, Grades 3-5, ISBN: 0-205-40844-3 *Teaching Student-Centered Mathematics: Volume Three, Grades 5-8, ISBN: 0-205-41797-3

Differentiated Instruction for the Middle School Math Teacher is a practical and easy-to-use resource for teaching a standards-based math curriculum to all learners. It gives you effective ways to present math concepts, shows how to provide opportunities for guided practice, and offers ideas for modifying the material to provide access to the same content standard for all students in the inclusive classroom. This book also contains key strategies for collaborating with other professionals, suggestions for involving the students' families by tying math concepts to students' everyday lives, and valuable assessment strategies.

The lessons in the book cover middle school math topics correlated to the standards of the National Council of Teachers of Math, ranging from numbers and operations to problem solving and reasoning. Each lesson includes: <ul><LI> Instructions for presenting the lesson to the whole class <LI> Worksheets designed to help review and reinforce theconcepts presented in each lesson

A section on how to adapt the lesson for the inclusive classroom, including descriptions of different stations for different learners

A home-school connection with family-based everyday math activities <LI> Suggestions for how to assess students' grasp of the concepts presented in the lesson

This text for middle school classroom teachers provides a solid core of essential knowledge about middle schools. Balancing the practical and the theoretical, it has a strong research base, as well as a focus on teaching methods, strategies, materials, resources, and technology that are linked to the standards of the National Middle School Association. The author's objectives are to tell readers about middle schools today, describe adolescents and their developmental period, identify essential middle school concepts that have potential for their age group and educational experiences that are developmentally responsive for young adolescents.

This book focuses on practical, research-based approaches middle-grade teachers can use to help their students hone their reading abilities, learn from what they read, and become increasingly motivated to read and competent in responding to the sophisticated narrative and expository texts they encounter in the middle grades and beyond. The authors, one a leading scholar in children's and adolescent literature and the other a leading scholar in reading education, emphasize the relevance of giving equal attention to both cognitive and affective factors. Through a clear and friendly writing style Lee Galda and Mike Graves carefully analyze and describe the unique characteristics of middle-grade students and their learning, give equal attention to the cognitive-constructivist view of reading familiar to reading educators and the transactional theory and reader response theory familiar to literary scholars. This book is unique in that it encompasses learning to read (comprehension), reading to learn (across the curriculum), and adolescent literature and response. While these areas are entirely compatible, they are not often combined. Major topics, each of which is treated in a chapter, include the middle school learner, motivation and engagement, literature for adolescents, scaffolding students' comprehension, teaching comprehension and study strategies, teaching literature, higher-order thinking and deep understanding, vocabulary instruction, assessment, and classroom organization. Glowing Reviews! "I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. My knowledge base was definitely broadened and I found much merit and much to commend. In fact, I made notes in the margins filled with such statements as "easy to read," "terrific idea," and "important insight." ---Maria Ceprano, Buffalo State College "The inclusion of ELL issues in the deliberations about teaching are quite useful and appropriate. This book does an excellent job describing ELL students' instructional needs and offering alternative or modified instructional approaches." --Kurtis S. Meredith-University of Northern Iowa. Meet the Authors Lee Galda is Professor of Children's and Adolescent Literature at the University of Minnesota. Her research and development interests focus on literature and its role in motivation and engagement, and reader response. Her recent books include Literature and the Child (6th edition), with Bernice Cullinan, and Language Arts: Learning and Teaching , with Dorothy Strickland and Bernice Cullinan, both published by Wadsworth/Thomson. Michael F. Graves is Professor of Literacy Education at the University of Minnesota. His research and development efforts focus on comprehension instruction and vocabulary learning and instruction. His recent books include Teaching Reading in the 21st Century (4th edition in press, with Connie Juel and Bonnie Graves, Allyn & Bacon) and The Vocabulary Book (2006, Teachers College Press, IRA, and NCTE).

<DIV><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">A book of cool problems for middle school mathematics classrooms-does it get any better? Yes, it does. Art Hyde and his colleagues go far beyond providing a collection of problems. They address big ideas, make connections, nurture the use of varied representations, and provide vivid accounts of actual classroom implementation.<o:p><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: right" align=right>-Judith Zawojewski<SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: right" align=right><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Board of Directors, NCTM

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<SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Imagine handing students state-by-state data on the number of gallons of soft drinks sold per person in one year. Imagine using it to lead a vibrant problem-solving session in which students energetically pose and answer mathematical questions:

<SPAN><EM>Why does it say sold instead of consumed?

<SPAN><EM>What IS a soft drink? Is it the same as soda?

<SPAN><EM>Who would collect this kind of data? Why would they collect it?<o:p><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">How was gallons per person calculated?<o:p><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">What was the total amount of soda sold in our state? <o:p><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN><EM>How many 12 ounce cans is that? 20 ounce bottles? How many of each per person?

Understanding Middle School Math gathers 50 cool problems like this that lead to deep thinking. Problems such as the Renovation Problem, in which students uncover ideas about how perimeter, area, length, and cost affect a construction project. Or Chocolate Algebra, where they discover linear relationships among the pocket money available to buy two differently priced chocolate candies.

<o:p><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Arthur Hyde combines the latest research and decades of classroom experience to braid language, cognition, and math. His approach can help any student, including underprepared ones, with the rigors of math in middle school and beyond. He has created and adapted problems that strongly connect math to the real world, to students' lives, and to prior knowledge. Problems that scaffold content and processes, and give students multiple entry points into learning. Every problem has been extensively field tested and refined by classroom teachers. And for each cool problem practicing middle school teachers describe how they used it to differentiate over a wide range of students and extend learning.

<SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">For fantastic problems your students won't soon forget and teaching solutions that are exciting, substantial, and transformative, turn to Art Hyde. Read and use Understanding Middle School Math and pass your love of math on as you meet your classroom goals.<o:p><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt">

This innovative book speaks directly to students preparing to teach writing and to practicing teachers who want to improve their ability to teach writing. Using practical explanations of teaching strategies and many examples of assignments and student writing, the book offers novel methods through which to teach the writing process and new techniques to effectively evaluate and respond to student writing. Chapters include: What English Teachers Need to Know about Writing; Teaching the Writing Process; Evaluating and Responding to Student Writing; Designing Writing Assignments; Writing about Literature; Composition Curricula: Four Approaches; and Joining the Profession. <B>For pre-service and in-service teachers of middle and secondary school students.

The second edition of this popular book for grades 4-8 again reflects the author's emphasis on teaching reading and writing from a literature-based perspective and engaging middle-grades learners in integrated literacy experiences. Coverage has been revised to meet the growing need to address early adolescents who still struggle with becoming proficient readers and writers. Taking a holistic, interdisciplinary approach to literacy development, Combs deftly balances ideas for using authentic children's literature with techniques for making the most of the <I>basal approach—providing a rich mix of classroom-tested models and examples that will serve future teachers well in their first classrooms, and every classroom thereafter. For future and practice elementary school reading teachers.

Because today's children seem to grow up so fast, middle school has become the new high school. Concerns about homework, social issues, technology, and emotional health confront parents earlier than they would like or expect. Educator and parent Joe Bruzzese offers practical, empowering help for parents along with guidelines for their children, such as rules for using cell phones and tips for productive parent-teacher relationships. This streamlined guide helps parents and their families move toward the goal of not just surviving, but thriving in the middle school years.