Customer Reviews

Spaces & Places: Designing Classrooms for Literacy

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Debbie Diller has outdone herself this time. There are over 300 colored photos to show you how to attain the goals described. I loved the before and after shots. I was a little disappointed in the quality of the book. I like the spiral binding but the actual book had a few problems. The pages are thin and get caught in the top edge of the spiral binding. The front cover is also larger than the back cover making it difficult to hold without bending the cover's edge. Even with these problems this is her best book yet. It is a must have for the beginning teacher or an old veteran like me.

This book is a great resource to help design an effective layout for a classroom. It takes all of the elements of the classroom into account: whole group, word study, readers' workshop areas and more! I also liked the spiral binding because it provided easy access to the desired page. I would recommend it for any elementary ed teacher.

I've been teaching for years and it shows! I have stuff from every elem. grade level. It's time to get organized and forget "my" stuff and do more kids stuff - and it's cheaper than buying at the teacher store. This book is great for a step by step approach. More ideas for low elementary but still helpful for up to 5th!

This book has lots of practical ideas for using the space in your classroom to the best advantage. The pictures are clear and show how to implement these ideas.

What I like about this book, is all the colored pictures of rooms and centers. I found it very thought provoking. I read it with a spiral in hand to jot down notes of things that I wanted to change, delete or add to my classroom this year. Some of the ideas I will not be able to use, as I teach in a PreK classroom. But, there were enough ideas and I enjoyed seeing other teacher's classrooms, that it was worth the price.

I think this book should be used for pre-service teachers. I am in my 12th year of teaching and just used this book to redesign my classroom for next fall. It got me so excited that I am actually sad that summer is here. I can see how my large group teaching areas are better defined and my small group areas are positioned so that I can still supervise the rest of the room. I got rid of extra furniture and the traffic flow is now logical rather than haphazard. The full color pictures not only help me envision how to organize but have given me instructional ideas as well. How many of us see something in another teacher's room and feel like it is ok to copy it? The focus here is instructional as well, rather than just asthetic value. I think this would make a great staff book club book too. Hurray for Debbie Diller! More! More! More!

I am a fan of Debbie Diller. Her books are practical, helpful, and interesting. This book is full of great ideas for your classroom. I really like the before and after pictures. I also like the idea that less is more. It's not just about sticking stuff on your walls, but the purpose and thought behind what you hang up. I do agree with some of the other reviews that the pages are very flimsy and the book seems a little fragile with the thin cover and spiral bound notebook style, however that shouldn't stop you from buying this book. The content is well worth it!

You know when you've been teaching in the same classroom for while it's hard to come up with different ideas for setting up your room.( I'm not complaning I love my room!)I saw this book and decided to give it a go!There are lots of practical and inexpensive ways to set up your room.It helped me see my room in DIFFERENT light.There are also lots of tips about organizing your stuff. Yes,I'm a stacker and collector. But this book inspired me to clean out the clutter and get organized. I'm already planning to hit lots of garage sales and discount places to make our room an inviting and well organized environment.Thanks for the inspiration that I needed!

Spaces & Places: Designing Classrooms for Literacy

As a Literacy Coach, I am always encouraging teachers to make the best use of their spaces, to be organized and have practice opportunities for students that take little or no time to keep updated. Debbie does that with this colorful, well illustrated book. The professional development ideas in the back would be a great full year experience to improve any teacher's room caused through reflection.

I was so happy when I opened this book to see all of the great photographs that went along with the text. I am a very visual person and this book what exactly what I was looking for to help me set up my classroom work station areas. I have had Literacy Collabrative training and this book is a great resource to help merge that with Literacy Work Stations. My copy of this book is now roaming around my school in high demand!