Product Review
Ideal for pre-service and new teachers, this book shows what it’s really like to step before a classroom of grade six to 12 students and make English language arts approachable and real. Presenting a constructivist approach that asks, “How can my students best learn?†and emphasizing reflective practice as the means to make the concepts clear, Teaching English in Middle and Secondary Schools, 5/e is filled with actual sample lessons plus classroom ideas and instructional strategies that give readers opportunities to explore what they are learning and see how theory and research relate to practice.
- NEW! Includes Internet sources at the end of each chapter to make the material relevant and to give students additional resources for reflection.
- NEW! Poses reflective questions when appropriate in each chapter to prompt students to think about, and absorb key content.
- Provides lesson and unit curriculum examples–full lesson plans, classroom organization ideas, and instructional strategies–to manifest current English language arts theory and pedagogy.
- Offers a summative graphic organizer of the material in each chapter that shows readers clearly the differences and similarities between traditional and contemporary classroom classrooms.
- Provides a flexible approach that allows instructors to follow their own course structure and instructional design.
- Internet sources at the end of each chapter make the material relevant and give students additional resources for reflection.
- Reflective questions appear when appropriate in each chapter, prompting students to reflect on, and absorb key content.
- Web sites particularly useful for English teachers are included.
- New chapter on media literacy (Chapter 9).
- The order of the chapters has been revised to ensure a logical flow. For example:o Chapter 1, Becoming a Teacher, is a combination of Chapters 1 and 2 from the previous edition, reorganized to welcome readers to the profession and to ask them to think about themselves and their teaching in specific ways. o Chapter 2, a revision of the previous Chapter 3, examines the curriculum and lesson planning design topics and introduces evaluation and assessment, which is further developed in a later chapter.o The use of both oral and written language is addressed in Chapters 3 and 4. Chapter 3, Language: Teaching About Spelling, Grammar, Mechanics, and Vocabulary is a combination of Chapter 4 and 7 from the fourth edition. It offers techniques for the teaching of grammar, mechanics and vocabulary and is packed with rich examples. Chapter 4, Oral Language, the Forgotten Language Art, builds on the strong presentation of the previous edition, but also examines the use of improvisation.o The new Chapter 5, Teaching Writing, combines Chapters 6 and 7 from the fourth edition and digs deeply into process writing and how novice teachers can create an effective and challenging writing program for their students.o Chapter 6, Writing and Evaluating Research Papers, focuses on appropriate methods for teaching research and research writing.o Chapter 12, Your Starting Role: Student Teaching and Beyond, takes readers through student teaching experiences, complete with actual material from former student teachers–emails, student teaching logs, and more. Included are scenarios and experiences that provide readers opportunities to explore problems they might face in the classroom.o Additions to the literature chapters include strategies for conducting a good class discussion on literature, criteria for selecting “good” books for adolescent readers, student units, Web sites for teachers, and reflection activities. These chapters also emphasize multicultural literature and young adult literature, without neglecting the classics.
