Reading Reminders: Tools, Tips, and Techniques [Paperback]

Jim Burke (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0867095008 | ISBN-13: 978-0867095005 | Publication Date: October 9, 2000 | Edition: 1

Do you have a minute? That's how quickly this book will help you improve your students' reading skills. Designed to be read on the run and make every minute count in your classroom, Reading Reminders features Jim Burke's one hundred best techniques for teaching reading, complete with tools and tips on how to implement them.

Jim wrote this book to help teachers like himself whose often large and always diverse classrooms contain a wide range of reading abilities and needs. All of the strategies have been tested and tested again with his students, and each one has achieved significant gains in student performance, confidence, and engagement. Together, the reminders will challenge your best students and support struggling ones. This book will help you:

• teach students to read a variety of types of texts, including websites, tests, literature, and textbooks
• use a wide range of teaching and reading strategies based on current reading research
• anchor your teaching in state and national reading standards
• establish and maintain a comprehensive reading program that includes Sustained Silent Reading and direct instruction
• plan your lessons, select your texts, and assess students' learning with tools and techniques specifically designed for those purposes
• improve your students' ability to discuss and understand what they read
• develop a community of reflective readers within your classroom
• increase the amount of writing your students do.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jim Burke is the author of the Heinemann title What's the Big Idea? The question he's always tried to answer is "How can we teach our students better?" He began this search in his own classroom at Burlingame High School in California, where he still teaches. He shares his experiences there in bestselling professional titles with Heinemann such as The English Teacher's Companion; Reading Reminders; and Writing Reminders as well as through Heinemann Professional Development Services. Looking to his peers for still more answers, he founded the English Companion Ning, described by Education Week as "the world's largest English department." Jim continues to find and support best practices in many other ways, including serving on national commissions related to adolescent literacy and standards, such as the Advanced Placement English Literature and Language Course and Exam Review Commission with the College Board, and by being a senior author on the Holt McDougal Harcourt Literature series. Jim has received numerous awards, including the NCTE Intellectual Freedom Award, the NCTE Conference on English Leadership Award, and the California Reading Association Hall of Fame Award. He served on the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Committee on Adolescence and Young Adulthood English Language Arts Standards and recently worked with ACT on their high school English Language Arts standards. In 2007, he participated in the national Adolescent Literacy Coalition roundtable and worked with the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. Visit his website (www.englishcompanion.com) for more information.

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Boynton/Cook; 1 edition (October 9, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0867095008
• ISBN-13: 978-0867095005
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #72,029 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superlative, January 7, 2003

By 

Leslie (IN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Reading Reminders: Tools, Tips, and Techniques (Paperback)

As a 26 year veteran of the high school English classroom, I am thrilled with Jim Burke's latest book, Reading Reminders. It has come at a perfect time as well since, like many schools in our state, we have adopted a reading goal as part of our school improvement plan. Not one of the teachers in my department has a reading endorsement or any idea of how to teach reading. So this book has been incredibly helpful to us all (as well as to colleagues in other departments). It is so practical, so well-researched and thought out! It also reminds me of some of the best practice I engaged in when I started teaching but have somehow forgotten over the years. I also appreciate how easy it is to use - you can start implementing the strategies immediately although I think it is most effective to read it through beforehand to appreciate how beautifully it aligns with what is overall best practice in teaching English. Having done a great deal of research lately on this subject, I have not found any materials to equal this book.

(I also give his English Teacher's Companion to all of our new English teachers. They invariably rave about it.)

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 10 Star home run, August 20, 2002

By 

MotherLodeBeth "MotherLodeBeth" (Sierras of California) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Reading Reminders: Tools, Tips, and Techniques (Paperback)

The books description "Do you have a minute? That's how quickly this book will help you improve your students' reading skills. Designed to be read on the run and make every minute count in your classroom, Reading Reminders features Jim Burke's one hundred best techniques for teaching reading, complete with tools and tips on how to implement them. " is a start.

What this book does is teach the facilitator be they public, private or even homeschooling how to get a students attention as well as how to inspire the student to do more than simply read words. I especially like his recommendation on silent reading and how to orally share what one has read and what the author has attempted to convey. This is really important since many students see reading as a chore and end up buying abbreviated books that skim the book and little else. I believe the book can be a valuable tool for parents as well, and that the student whose teacher has read this book, will become a student who also reads quality books for pleasure.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Want instant results from your students?, September 11, 2002

By 

Michael K. Wheeler (Anaheim, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Reading Reminders: Tools, Tips, and Techniques (Paperback)

Without a doubt, this book (and anything else by Mr. Burke) is a must have for any teacher of Reading or English. How Mr. Burke finds the time to put together such wonderful resources is beyond this mere mortal of an English teacher, but I would be lost without Reading Reminders. I literally put some of the strategies to work the day after I bought the book. Several of my collegues rushed out and bought it after seeing the results I was getting. If you have struggling readers, this book will breathe new life into them--and you!