Review
“Expert teacher Jim Burke offers readers an important model for understanding student success. Through personal vignettes, letters from former students, and references to some of the best texts on teaching, Burke explores the skills and habits students need to develop to thrive in today's school systems.”–
Denise Clark Pope, Author of "Doing School": How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed Out, Materialistic, and Miseducated Students.“How many people are there in public schools these days who, like Jim Burke, teach as well as Jaime Escalante and write as well as Andy Rooney? There are not enough of them, and parents like me often fight to get our kids into those teachers' classes. Burke's new book, School Smarts, gives us all a chance to step inside his classroom and soak up the insights of a master educator who will not only help our children, but teach even us a thing or two.”–
Jay Mathews, Education Columnist, The Washington Post“School Smarts provides a concrete, engaging, and inspiring guide for teachers and other educators committed to the hard work of facilitating the kinds of shifts in academic identity and competence that are necessary to create life-changing learning for their own students.”–
Ruth Schoenbach, Coauthor of Reading for Understanding: A Guide to Improving Reading in Middle and High School Classrooms“Jim Burke provides a framework for understanding what teachers can do to help transform the academic experience of learners who struggle with the rules and logic of the school game. Eminently useful, deeply moving, and chock full of innovative ideas, this book and Jim Burke are gifts to the profession.”–
Sam Intrator, Assistant Professor of Education and Child Study at Smith College, Author of Tuned In and Fired Up“Jim Burke is already known as a restless visionary in the field of English teaching, but in School Smarts he . . . cuts to the core of basic principles of teaching and learning. . . . At a time when standardization is being confused with excellence, Burke's new book is a bracing reminder of what it really means to think big.”–
Tom Newkirk, Professor of English at the University of New Hampshire, Author of Misreading Masculinity
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.
