Schools and Instruction Books

Educational Renewal Review By John Goodlad

Reason the author wrote the book:

1)Packaged 19 postulates for better teacher preparation. 2)Said schools should be and have a center of pedagogy, which includes outside sources-collaboration.

Purpose/theme of the book:

1)To be a proponent of better teacher preparation-thus having better schools 2)Center of pedagogy-school of education, arts and sciences, and local school districts make up this center. 3)Collaboration between K-12 and universities

Application to educational administration:

1)Have better teacher preparation programs 2)Have involvement in different departments-collaboration 3)Communication, collaboration, and common purpose are essential to good leadership, better schools, and teachers 4)Leadership must be shared and spread around

Key thoughts or ideas

1)Good societies have good school not the other way around. 2)Ambiguity is not a dirty word one should embrace it. Closure is a dirty word. 3)A partnership ethic must be encultured. 4)Concept of lifelong learning should be a part of the socialization process from the onset of education. 5)Inquiry and reflection should be habitual.

LL ENGLISH FOR NEW AMERICANS is an excellent resource for a self-study program as well as a great addition to an ESL (or, in my case, EFL) classroom. ESL/EFL students will find its format easy to follow and its content useful for their everyday needs in the States. The accompanying video and audio cassette are motivating and provide ample practice for listening skills. The accompanying workbook provides practice for written skills. The ESL teacher will also appreciate LL ENGLISH FOR NEW AMERICANS as a stimulating supplement in the classroom. Many activities can be expanded into roleplays and many situations can be transferred to students actual needs. Without a doubt the program is recommendable to both students and teachers.

I examined this book for consideration as a possible textbook in the course, "Fundamentals of Arithmetic and Logic" that I will be teaching next semester. When looking at such books, I use the following criteria:

*) Is the writing clear and straightforward? Can the elementary education student understand what is being described?
*) Are the examples ones that the students can relate to? Are they artificial or do they have real meaning to the student?
*) Is the coverage within the bounds of what I want to cover in the course?

The book meets every one of my requirements; I found the explanations very clear and within the bounds of the weaker students. The examples are understandable and I found myself mentally doing a few of them as I looked it over. I have yet to make my final decision regarding the textbook that I will use and have several other books that I need to examine. However, I can say that this is clearly one of the better options available.

A British art historian and critic, Lorne Campbell serves as research curator at the National Gallery in London. His fully illustrated book serves as a catalogue of fifteenth century paintings from the Netherlands (including the Low Countries and northern France) in full color, accompanied by many details, comparative illustrations, and technical photographs. Campbell manages to teach the reader not only a vast amount of information regarding the pictures and their artists, but also an overview of the whole School. By using a broad historical context, Campbell comments on an array of subjects: the painters and their patrons; the ways in which the pictures were used; how the painters' workshops functioned; how their assistants were employed; how the necessary reference material was gathered, used, and circulated; how the pictures were painted; and he takes the results of pictures and makes supported generalizations about materials, working practices, and techniques. The greatest Netherlandish painters were men of astonishing creativity, and immense visual sophistication. The two most renown are Rogier van der Weyden (1399-1463) and Jan van Eyck (1380-1441). Other notable painters discussed by Campbell are Bouts, Campin, David, van der Goes, Marmion, and Memling. Undoubtedly, the strongest feature of this book is Campbell's extensive technical investigation of each painting. His knowledge and expertise in the subject is obvious. It is a superbly produced plethora of facts, and I am certain it is the result of many years of patient research. In fact, I counted a total of 2,241footnotes that correspond to 194 references (luckily, there's a helpful index in the back)! For example, Portrait of Giovanni (?) Arnolfini and his Wife, by Jan van Eyck, runs to thirty-eight pages and 312 footnotes, with eight color reproductions, a photo of the reverse, and a dozen comparisons. On the other hand, the forte of the book could also be its downfall. Campbell states that the book is meant for the interested general reader as well as the specialist. True, an amateur reader, like myself, can read the text and understand most of Campbell's message - granted, with considerable effort. But I assume the detailed art terminology involving x-radiographs, infrared reflectogram photographs, and microscopic paint samples would better serve an art specialist. Also, Campbell ironically states in the preface that he doesn't want to overburden the text with references. Considering the vast amount of references he did in fact use, I am interested to see a book by Campbell that is `overburdened.' Although the book is dense with technical jargon, I suggest it for anyone wanting to learn more about art during the Renaissance. As opposed to Campbell's book Renaissance Portraits, which apparently has weakly supported claims (as presented in class), this book is saturated with solid research and convincing claims. By using scientific and historical evidence, Lorne Campbell analyzes the methods and working practices of the era; moreover, his book adds to the contemporary understanding of the Netherlandish artists' incredible accomplishments.

In many schools the art flexible grouping has gone the way of slide rules. This book presents a compelling argument for integrating flexible grouping into existing reading programs.

The authors offer a variety of methods for group. The methods are well explained. Samples schedules and techniques for grouping facilitate understanding of how to use the methods presented.

This book is certainly not a quick fix. The authors wisely stress the need for careful planning and implementation. Readers will, however, find themselves in possession of a useful tool for integrating flexible grouping into their instructional repertoire.

Mr. Freer's book is unique in that it succeeds in addressing the person behind the student and not just treating them as only a voice to be shaped. Mr. Freer's love for his topic is evident in his writing, and he clearly shows his care in making sure that the instructor takes every opportunity to encourage their students while still addressing the more technical aspects of teaching this level of choir.

This book offers a fairly wide selection of activities for almost any composer project or unit. Each activity is grouped by the type of skill used; i.e. Creative Drawing or Enrichment Activities. The skill level is also included: Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced. The activities are interesting and are fun for the students. Most of the activities however, are geared toward beginner and intermediate levels, and would be best used with elementary students; there are not as many for the upper grades. Other than that this book is well thought out and well put together, a very good resource for teaching composers to students and incorporating some writing/research/drawing skills as well!

I was introduced to the book by The AmericanJunior Golf Association(AJGA)

My 6 year old daughter picked this up at the library and she and I kind of like it. The pictures are interesting and the author approaches the uses of hats from a variety of directions.

She discusses, amongst other things: What makes a hat, the functions of hats, and hat connections. See below for a little explanation.

--What makes a hat - they can be made out of fabric, leaves, flowers, shells, feathers and skins. Be small, huge, etc.
--Functions of hats - they can keep you cool or keep you warm or be relative useless
--"Hat Connections" - how hats can indicate your team, work, place of origins, status and beliefs

From a social studies point of view it's an excellent exercise in diversity. From a more puzzle-solving thinking-child point of view it is interesting to speculate and discuss the how and why of hats. For example, the railroad conductors hat in China is "designed to make the conductor seem a few inches taller, so she will be visible on a crowded train platform."

Four Stars. [B-] An interesting book about hats that covers the world and provides insight in the reasons behind the diversity of styles that are present.

A good text to see what was going on in the early 1900's in music education. It should be supplemented with another, more comprehensive text, however. I recommend Mark's text.