English Brainstormers!: Ready-to-Use Games & Activities That Make Language Skills Fun to Learn [Paperback]

Jack Umstatter (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0787965839 | ISBN-13: 978-0787965839 | Publication Date: October 30, 2002 | Edition: 1

For English and language arts teachers in grades 6-12, here's a unique collection of over 180 fun-filled, ready-to-use activities that help build the skills your students need for test-taking and overall academic success. These activities make learning enjoyable and stimulating while covering the entire English curriculum, including grammar, mechanics, vocabulary, creative writing, literature, research, and critical thinking.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

For English and language arts teachers in grades 6-12, here?s a unique collection of over 180 fun-filled, ready-to-use activities that help build the skills your students need for test-taking and overall academic success.? These activities make learning enjoyable and stimulating while covering the entire English curriculum, including grammar, mechanics, vocabulary, creative writing, literature, research, and critical thinking.

You?ll find a variety of exciting games such as crosswords, word searches, scrambled words, magic squares, letter substitutions, cryptograms, and word play ? plus activities on story writing, literary analysis, word origins, and more.? These exercises can be used to introduce new topics, review skills, complete as homework, or just to take a quick break from the routine!?

For easy use, the activities are printed in a big 8-1/4" x 11" spiral-bound format that folds flat for convenient photocopying, and they?re organized into 7 sections:

• This Is Not Your Grandma?s Grammar: The 29 activities in Section 1 review and reinforce grammar concepts and skills, including "Adjective Hunt" (adjectives) ... "Parts-of-Speech Magic Square" (parts of speech) ... and "By the Letters" (sentence construction).
• Playing with Words: Section 2 gives you 29 exercises to improves student? vocabulary and their word choice in writing and speech, such as "Mind Your P?s and Q?s" (vocabulary) ... "Three?s a Charm" (word recognition) ... and "Making a Compound Elementary" (word construction).
• Getting Set for the Standards: The 26 activities in Section 3 give students practice with some of the topics typically found on standardized tests.? Examples include "Jam-packed" (synonyms) ... "Hear Our Eras" (homophones) ... and "He and I or Him and Me?" (pronoun usage).
• Really Writing and Really Discussing: Section 4 provides 24 activities covering literature and writing, such as "Examining Emily" (poetry interpretation) ... "A Purpose to Every Word and Every Sentence" (literary analysis) ... and "Passing It Along" (Story Writing).
• Critical Thinking is Critical: The 25 activities and games in Section 5 help improve students? critical thinking skills, including "Seeing Double" (word play) ... "As the Animals Go" (expressions) ... and "Alliterative Slogans" (imagination & creativity).
• Researching and Remembering: Section 6 features 23 exercises to build research and library skills, such as "And Where Did This One Come From?" (word origins) ... "Look It Up" (research skills competition) ... and "Literary Hunt" (literary research).
• You Are Special:? Section 7 covers creative writing and critical thinking skills with 25 stimulating activities, including "Your Bedroom" (descriptive writing) ... "Start the World?s Next civilization" (critical thinking) ... and "Build the Perfect Person" (literary characters & imagination).

In short, English Brainstomers! gives you a ready store of exciting activities that help your students develop their skills and build proficiency across the English curriculum ? all while they?re having fun!

About the Author

Jack Umstatter, master English teacher with over 25 years' experience, is a multiple winner of the Teacher of the Year Award. He currently teaches in the Cold Cprings Barbor School District of New York. He is the author of numerous teacher resources, including Grammar Grabbers! (2000), Brain Games! (1996), and Writing Skills Curriculum Library (1999) and other practical teachers resources published by The Center for Applied Research in Education.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass; 1 edition (October 30, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787965839
• ISBN-13: 978-0787965839
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #174,748 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Blast for bell ringers, September 16, 2005

By 

Cheryl J. Allen "jchs mamabeta" (TN) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: English Brainstormers!: Ready-to-Use Games & Activities That Make Language Skills Fun to Learn (Paperback)

This book is full of good ideas to reteach items or just use for fun. I like using them to refresh concepts as a bell ringer for when I am checking roll or picking up homework.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Creative Reinforcement of Language Arts Skills, September 5, 2010

By 

Yvonne C - See all my reviews

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This review is from: English Brainstormers!: Ready-to-Use Games & Activities That Make Language Skills Fun to Learn (Paperback)

Practically anything written by Jack Umstatter can be relied upon to reinforce language arts skills while having fun. I own several books by Jack Umstatter, all of which are good.

This particular Umstatter book is divided into six sections of activities: grammar (parts of speech and sentence construction); words (recognition, construction, vocabulary, origins, and spelling); standardized testing practice; writing; critical thinking; researching and remembering (research skills and competition).

I find these activities especially useful after a particularly challenging lesson/project, such as proofreading.

My middle and high school students enjoy the challenging, motivating activities. I sometimes put my students into well-thought-out groups and allow the groups to "compete" using these activities. This can be effective in raising the more challenged students to a higher level, if they are encouraged to carry their own weight in the group.

The Umstatter books are also great sub teacher helps.

Bottom line: If Jack Umstatter wrote it, it's probably an excellent tool.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars EXCELLENT!, May 2, 2010

By 

Claiton P. C. Junior "Lygia Losinski (I bough... (Brazil) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: English Brainstormers!: Ready-to-Use Games & Activities That Make Language Skills Fun to Learn (Paperback)

I am an english teacher and I found English Brainstormers Ready-to-use Games & Activities very useful for me.
I really recommend this amazing book to all the english teachers.