Best Reading Skills Reference
In this resource-rich book, you’ll find: - All the planning and instructional tools you need to teach guided reading well, from pre-A to fluent, organized around Richardson’s proven Assess-Decide-Guide framework. Reading Next Step Forward in Guided Reading is like talking with Jan. You get clear, practical, and actionable suggestions for helping children move along a trajectory of growth toward evermore challenging texts.”. ―Holly Slaughter, Reading and Language Arts Specialist, Pinellas County Schools, FL.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Book!"
"It has helped me stream line my guided reading lessons!"
"My teachers love this book!"
"great book and resource but expensive!"
"super useful for new teacher."
"Best book for guided reading."
"Packed full of useful information you can use on day 1."
"Great book!"
Intended to clearly and systematically demystify what is often considered the most challenging section of the SAT, The Critical Reader: The Complete Guide to SAT® Reading, 3rd Edition , provides a comprehensive review of the reading skills tested on the redesigned exam for students who are serious about raising their scores.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"It's clear and easy to understand with good study tips."
"And she has so many exercises that I usually ask my students to read her lesson and just do five exercises; if they have trouble, we would have many more left over to do together."
"This is the only book that can actually help improve your odds to score high on SAT Critical Reading section."
"Spend some time on this book and then return to the practice tests, and you will see the difference in your view of reading."
"If you struggled with the reading section, buying this book is a no brainer and you are only shooting yourself in the foot if you don't."
"The book is broken down into an overview of the test and test taking skills and then a chapter on each of the types of Reading questions you will encounter. In the back of the book is a break down to the first 4 College Board tests, identifying each of the reading questions type, so that students can identify the questions that give the the most trouble and review those chapters. Just The Facts: Targeted practice for the Reading section only. No full tests, just targeted practice questions. Paper Quality: Excellent."
"She breaks down EVERY type of SAT critical reading question, providing abundant practice for each section, thorough explanation, and loads of strategy."
--What dyslexia is and why some intelligent, gifted people read slowly and painfully. --How to identify dyslexia in preschoolers, schoolchildren, young adults, and adults. --How to find the best school and how to work productively with your child’s teacher. --Exercises to help children use the parts of the brain that control reading. --A 20-minute nightly home program to enhance reading. --The 150 most common problem words–a list that can give your child a head start. --Ways to raise and preserve a child’s self-esteem aqnd reveal his strengths. --Stories of successful men and women who are dyslexic. Yale neuroscientist Shaywitz demystifies the roots of dyslexia (a neurologically based reading difficulty affecting one in five children) and offers parents and educators hope that children with reading problems can be helped.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"This is a great book."
"Dyslexia runs in my family and this book gave me so much information on how to see signs of dyslexia, what to do, as well as hope for a dyslexic child!"
"This is an excellent book and I bought it to use in conjunction with Shaywitz's great movie on dyslexia."
"I found a lot of helpful insights into dyslexia and feel that I can be a much more supportive parent and effective advocate for my daughter."
"An amazing book in terms that are not too scientific for the parent, teacher, or clinician."
"Was not in "good" condition as described - it was in "brand new" condition!"
"This author is very educational."
"Text book needed and delivered quickly, thank you."
Best General Books & Reading
Originally published in 1940, this book is a rare phenomenon, a living classic that introduces and elucidates the various levels of reading and how to achieve them—from elementary reading, through systematic skimming and inspectional reading, to speed reading. Dr. Mortimer J. Adler was Chairman of the Board of the Encyclopedia Britannica, Director of the Institute for Philosophical Research, Honorary Trustee of the Aspen Institute, and authored more than fifty books.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"The second reading involves digging in, an attempt to understand and analyze the author's central argument or thesis, and the third reading is for the purpose of argument, i.e., of reflecting on where we agree with the book and where we disagree, and why... 50 years after that first reading, i still try to follow the advice (above), and find it as helpful and true today as it was back then."
"This level means “skimming systematically” to grasp as much as you can from a book in a limited time-frame (possibly just a few minutes). If “Customer’s Review” sections existed during their time, I am sure they would also have devoted a portion of Chapter 4 to provide insights on how to better profit from them. These note-taking techniques are indispensable to read well and the reader is advised to experiment with them and adapt them to his own style of understanding and to the new types of media now available. The authors present these questions in sequence, but they are quick to explain that in practice (and with experience) we should try to answer them mostly simultaneously. You should then proceed to outline its main parts, each of which should be treated as a subordinate whole and have its unity also expressed. This process could continue ad aeternum, but “the degree of approximation varies with the character of the book and your purpose in reading it”. This means first reconciling the grammatical and the logical aspects of what he writes by matching his chosen words with the terms they express. Part 3 is useful in that it provides some interesting aspects of specific types of reading material, namely practical books, history (including biographies and current events), imaginative literature (including plays and poems), science and mathematics, philosophy and the social sciences. There is, however, a lot of value in this part of the book, specially in the later chapters, and the reader is strongly advised to read it. One thing I should say is that, while they detail interesting aspects of reading imaginative literature, their techniques mostly apply to expository works. You are simply trying to understand the controversy itself, to establish the many voices you hear in a pure exercise of dialectical objectivity. This is a fantastic topic, which the authors have materialised in their greatest contribution to mankind, in my opinion — the Syntopicon, volumes II and III of the Great Books of the Western World. ), but the authors are prompt to address the reader and explain that the list does not have any time frame attached to it. For a much more restrictive (but also magnificent) reading list, the reader is referred to the 10-year-reading plan provided in Adler’s Great Books. Like they state at the beginning of the appendix, the selected texts are "themselves worth reading", so you can’t lose much by doing so. It is a delightful taste of what awaits you in your future exploits of the Great Books — if you do well and accept the challenge, of course. I’ll be forever in debt with two of the greatest absent teachers I’ve had, Dr. Mortimer J. Adler and Dr. Charles Van Doren."
"The regular human will more than likely need to use the methods in the book to read the book..."
"This is an excellent book for any one who loves reading or wants to better understand any written material."
"definitely a must read if you're having issues comprehending books."
"We will sometimes forget overtime that reading and scholarly analysis of the reading we become immersed in is a learned skill involving multiple levels of discipline, technique, and style."
"As bonuses, it also includes tests to help you understand how to use these techniques on passages from famous books and it has Mortimer Adler's famous bibliography that he developed while creating his famous Great Books program."
Best Education Assessment
Wolfe taught in elementary schools for 10 years and holds a Bachelor's degree in elementary education with an early childhood endorsement. Enter your model number to make sure this fits.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Excellent for homework assignments."
"My son was having trouble in social studies, so his teacher recommended getting one of these to help him improve his reading skills."
"I think its too easy for 3rd graders..but its okay if you just want to give your child something to do over the summer."
"Great refresher."
"My 7 year old uses these for extra reinforcement at home!"
"My daughter is 7 and she's going through this book very quickly."
"This was a very good book, and I look forward to purchasing more to help my kid."
"I bought several learning books on amazon and this was one of the first ones we finished."
Best SAT Test Guides
The 2018 edition of The Official SAT Study Guide doubles the number of official SAT® practice tests to eight – all of them created by the test maker.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"The Official SAT Study Guide, 2018 Edition (currently $16) is the most essential preparation book for the new, revised SAT and PSAT, which began in March 2016 and October 2015, respectively, because it’s the only physical source of official revised SATs—the practice SATs in other third-party books are nothing more than subpar imitations of the real thing. However, the PDFs of all 8 tests in this book, along with moderately helpful answer explanations, can also be downloaded from the College Board / Khan Academy websites for free (google "SAT Practice Tests - The College Board"). In addition, there are no score conversion tables provided: you will have to download the “Daily Practice for the New SAT” mobile app for iOS/Android, which allows you to take a picture of your answer sheet on your cell phone, then have it scored automatically, or to visit the College Board website (google "Scoring your SAT Practice Test #1") in order to manually convert your raw scores (total number correct on each section) into scaled scores (400-1600 scale, with additional sub-scores). On the other hand, the physical book does still have its advantages over a bunch of PDFs—perhaps most importantly, the tests are already printed out for you (for now, the SAT is still a paper and pencil test, and you are allowed to write on the test, so in the interest of practicing the way you play, you should never attempt to take it on a computer screen). Many of the one-star, harshly negative reviews of this book will have nothing to do with the quality of the book and practice tests themselves; it's simply that the reviewers had expected 8 different practice SATs from the ones already released on the College Board / Khan Academy websites, and were thus disappointed when they saw the same tests in this book. In addition to the 8 tests, this book contains many additional pages of SAT prep advice, some of which cannot be found anywhere else, along with the practice tests and answer explanations that can be also found online. Although much of the first part of the book is superfluous, and most of it is also available online through Khan Academy, it does offer some moderately helpful tips in its introduction, including a test structure recap, concept overview, practice questions and explanations, as well as an essay rubric, scoring guidelines, and sample essays. However, I must applaud the College Board for increasing its level of transparency, and for releasing the tests in PDF form to benefit those who cannot afford to buy the book, as well as adding detailed answer explanations (though very often, the explanation provided in the book is not the simplest way to solve the question). Quick tip: when taking practice sections or full tests in this book, don't bother filling in the bubbles--just circle your answers (unless you plan to score your test using the "Daily Practice" app). For some reason there is currently no way to download the Essay Space PDF online (ahem, College Board, please get on this), but if you want to practice filling in the bubbles, then you can google "Answer Sheet - New SAT Practice Test." When it comes time to re-try the questions, I recommend that you either buy a 2nd copy of the book to keep blank, or that you print out a fresh copies using the free PDFs provided by the College Board. Lots of question pairs where the second question in the pair asks for “the choice that provides the best evidence for the answer to the previous question.” For this reason, always glance at the next question for clues as to where the answer might be found. For example, one major reason to consider taking the New SAT instead of (or in addition to) the ACT is that the SAT allows you more time per question than does the ACT. Thus, if time management is a major issue, then the SAT might be a better test for you: SAT Reading = 1.25 minutes per question (75 seconds). ACT Reading = .875 minutes per question (52.5 seconds). SAT Grammar (Writing and Language) = .8 minutes per question (48 seconds). ACT Grammar (English) = .6 minutes per question (36 seconds). SAT Math = 1.4 minutes per question (83 seconds). ACT Math = 1 minute per question (60 seconds). Please keep in mind that this book is not necessarily the best source of SAT strategy. My current favorite authors for serious SAT-prep books are Erica Meltzer for Reading and Writing/Language (The Critical Reader), Nielson Phu (The College Panda) for the Math and Essay sections, Richard Corn for Math, and Mike McClenathan (PWN the SAT) for Math. Real SAT questions are of course always better to practice with, but for the new SAT, they are currently in short supply. So you should also try to get your hands on a copy of the October 2016 PSAT (copies were sent to students who took the test), as well as PSAT practice tests #1 and #2, which you can also download from the College Board website."
"The 8 official practice tests in this book are indispensable (therefore five stars) but they are the same as the ones posted on the College Board and Khan Academy web sites, so it is reasonable to ask, “Why buy this book?”. The main reason is that students should take practice tests using pencil and paper because that is how the SAT is administered."
"I’ve recognized quite a few problems I’ve learned in school but mostly forgot the solutions over time, and when I see the explanation provided in the book, I know it’s not the simple way I learned at school, but rather an odd, more difficult way to do it."
Best Elementary Education
develop goals for every reader give students step-by-step strategies for skilled reading guide readers with prompts aligned to the strategies adjust instruction to meet individual needs with Jen's Teaching Tips craft demonstrations and explanations with her Lesson Language learn more with Hat Tips to the work of influential teacher-authors. Whether you use readers workshop, Daily 5/CAFE, guided reading, balanced reading, a core reading program, whole-class novels, or any other approach, The Reading Strategies Book will complement and extend your teaching. Jennifer Serravallo is the author of New York Times bestseller The Reading Strategies Book as well as other popular Heinemann titles, including Teaching Reading in Small Groups; Conferring with Readers; and The Literacy Teacher's Playbook, Grades K - 2 and Grades 3 - 6.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Most books about teaching reading require plowing through lots of pages about the author's philosophy and practices before getting to the good stuff...the stuff you can use in the classroom tomorrow. Every teacher, from classroom teachers to reading specialists to literacy coaches to tutors to home-school teachers, from pre serviice teachers to veteran teachers, will quickly and easily be able to find the strategies they need to teach the students in front of them."
"- Jennifer Serravallo, The Reading Strategies Book: Your EVERYTHING Guide to Developing Skilled Readers. Jennifer Serravallo created the ultimate book of reading strategies. - Classroom Teacher: This is truly a comprehensive book to help you develop individual reading goals or goals for reading strategy groups. The book is organized around the following goals (chapters) for developing skilled readers: - Supporting Pre-Emergent and Emergent Readers. - Teaching Reading Engagement: Focus, Stamina, and Building a Reading Life. - Supporting Print Work: Increasing Accuracy and Integrating Sources of Information. - Teaching Fluency: Reading with Paraphrasing, Intonation, and Automaticity. - Supporting Comprehension in Fiction: Understanding Plot and Setting. - Supporting Comprehension in Fiction: Thinking About Characters. - Supporting Comprehension in Fiction: Understanding Themes and Ideas. - Supporting Comprehension in Nonfiction: Determining Maint Topic(s) and Idea(s). - Supporting Comprehension in Nonfiction: Determining Key Details. - Supporting Comprehension in Nonfiction: Getting the Most from Text Features. - Improving Comprehension in Fiction and Nonfiction: Understanding Vocabulary and Figurative Language. - Supporting Students' Conversations: Speaking, Listening, and Deepening Comprehension. - Improving Writing About Reading. Each chapter starts with a research-based explanation of WHY the goal is important to developing skilled readers."
"I am a literacy coach and am so excited to use this book next year with teachers at my school. Here's why: I love how Jennifer compares The Reading Strategies Book to a cookbook, It's a great analogy for the lessons in the book. Jennifer walks you through navigating the book, choosing goals for students, how the book might fit into your current literacy instruction, and supporting strategies with visuals. I think this book should be a required text for college literacy courses and should be a welcome gift to new teachers when hired."
"In the short introduction, Jennifer Serravallo explains how to identify reading goals for students based on a hierarchy of reading needs."
Best Handwriting Reference
Today, in our computer age, a fine, beautiful, and legible handwriting brings a warm personal touch to our correspondence.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"If you want to purchase this, I say go for it, but try to keep in mind what you are signing up for: The Spencerian method depends on a decent-sized writing desk or table with ample room to "sit properly" as the theory book will explain in detail. Good penmanship will only come if you commit to holding and wielding the pen in a way that is very counterintuitive for people of this day and age, and it will take a lot of effort and a little discomfort to do it correctly while still being able to relax the muscles you are using and not get cramped up. The paper in these bindings is truly subpar for the kinds of pens and inks they were originally intended for, but don't let that discourage you unless you are genuinely purist and don't have the time to make your own practice sheets. There is no instruction for indenting paragraphs, handling flourishes, drawing birds or any of the other skills that tend to fall into either the practical or the more calligraphic side of the Spencerian method. It is easier to feel the push and pull of the strokes and develop a good technique using any other kind of tip than with ballpoint (yes, even with pencil). The method that this book is pushing is industrial, to say the least, and embraces this kind of mechanized teaching philosophy. What this product has to offer is a simplified, comprehensive guide to breaking into Spencerian without having to read a lot of text and organizing lessons for yourself. This product is a great resource, not only for dedicated calligraphers and other hobbyists, but also for everyday folks who are willing to invest a little extra time into a skill in order to reap its practical benefits."
"Platt Rogers Spencer, the developer of the Spencerian method of penmanship in 1840, published this short book about the "theory of proper penmanship" in 1870, along with five Copybooks, making his teaching method the gold standard for handwriting instruction in the late 19th Century. The theory book describes how writing classes for boys and young men should be implemented (women couldn't work as bank clerks or secretaries yet). ", and had to be able to be able to identify multiple points and angles of a circular diagram, with a special emphasis on "What is the slant of 52 degrees in the Spencerian writing called? It required too much manual dexterity for young children, though, so in the 1950s children began learning to use manuscript (block) letters in first grade and to write connected letters using the Zaner-Bloser method in third and fourth grade (usually just referred to as "print" and "cursive"). Now, many schools no longer teach handwriting beyond the manuscript-style printing kids learn in first grade and from Sesame Street-- why bother, when no one writes by hand anymore?"
"The complementary book 'Spencerian Handwriting' 978-1-61243-528-2 contains the above theory but also includes a copy book section to practice the individual letter forms."
"I didn't think I would need to do all the book work, but having done all of these, now I know why muscle memory is crucial."
"One of the most beloved of script styles, useful in calligraphy, often known to us moderns as "Coca-Cola lettering.""
Best Public Speaking Reference
NOTE: This is a Standalone book and does not include Access card/ Code. His major articles include "The Schism in Rhetorical Scholarship" (1981), "The Renaissance of American Public Address: Text and Context in Rhetorical Criticism" (1988), "The Stylistic Artistry of the Declaration of Independence” (1990), and “The Rhetorical Ancestry of the Declaration of Independence” (1998), for which he received the Golden Anniversary Monograph Award of the National Communication Association. Professor Lucas has received a number of teaching awards, including the Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching at the University of Wisconsin and the National Communication Association’s Donald Ecroyd Award for Outstanding Teaching in Higher Education. In addition to participating in public speaking workshops and colloquia at schools throughout the United States, he has served as a judge for the major national English-language public speaking competitions in China, has lectured at numerous Chinese universities, and has conducted workshops for Chinese instructors on teaching public speaking.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I rented this and only opened it 2-3 times the whole semester and the cover fell off the book."
"It helps break down public speaking into easy to understand steps."
"Used it for class, pretty good overall."
"A useful book to support your public speaking endeavor for absolute beginner."
"Best price and some good tips."
Best Study & Teaching Reference
Originally published in 1940, this book is a rare phenomenon, a living classic that introduces and elucidates the various levels of reading and how to achieve them—from elementary reading, through systematic skimming and inspectional reading, to speed reading. Dr. Mortimer J. Adler was Chairman of the Board of the Encyclopedia Britannica, Director of the Institute for Philosophical Research, Honorary Trustee of the Aspen Institute, and authored more than fifty books.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"The second reading involves digging in, an attempt to understand and analyze the author's central argument or thesis, and the third reading is for the purpose of argument, i.e., of reflecting on where we agree with the book and where we disagree, and why... 50 years after that first reading, i still try to follow the advice (above), and find it as helpful and true today as it was back then."
"This level means “skimming systematically” to grasp as much as you can from a book in a limited time-frame (possibly just a few minutes). If “Customer’s Review” sections existed during their time, I am sure they would also have devoted a portion of Chapter 4 to provide insights on how to better profit from them. These note-taking techniques are indispensable to read well and the reader is advised to experiment with them and adapt them to his own style of understanding and to the new types of media now available. The authors present these questions in sequence, but they are quick to explain that in practice (and with experience) we should try to answer them mostly simultaneously. You should then proceed to outline its main parts, each of which should be treated as a subordinate whole and have its unity also expressed. This process could continue ad aeternum, but “the degree of approximation varies with the character of the book and your purpose in reading it”. This means first reconciling the grammatical and the logical aspects of what he writes by matching his chosen words with the terms they express. Part 3 is useful in that it provides some interesting aspects of specific types of reading material, namely practical books, history (including biographies and current events), imaginative literature (including plays and poems), science and mathematics, philosophy and the social sciences. There is, however, a lot of value in this part of the book, specially in the later chapters, and the reader is strongly advised to read it. One thing I should say is that, while they detail interesting aspects of reading imaginative literature, their techniques mostly apply to expository works. You are simply trying to understand the controversy itself, to establish the many voices you hear in a pure exercise of dialectical objectivity. This is a fantastic topic, which the authors have materialised in their greatest contribution to mankind, in my opinion — the Syntopicon, volumes II and III of the Great Books of the Western World. ), but the authors are prompt to address the reader and explain that the list does not have any time frame attached to it. For a much more restrictive (but also magnificent) reading list, the reader is referred to the 10-year-reading plan provided in Adler’s Great Books. Like they state at the beginning of the appendix, the selected texts are "themselves worth reading", so you can’t lose much by doing so. It is a delightful taste of what awaits you in your future exploits of the Great Books — if you do well and accept the challenge, of course. I’ll be forever in debt with two of the greatest absent teachers I’ve had, Dr. Mortimer J. Adler and Dr. Charles Van Doren."
"Now after reading a book, I have a little notebook that contains my interpretation of the topics and this gives me a whole new insight and intellect to what was discussed. Every schools and colleges should first teach this to students before recommending papers for sememsters."
"The author explains his outlook on four levels of reading: elementary reading, inspectional reading, analytical reading and syntopical reading. The vast majority of people read at an elementary level, if they read at all."
Best Alphabet Reference
At first a brand-new toy, now a threadbare and discarded nursery relic, the velveteen rabbit is saved from peril by a magic fairy who whisks him away to the idyllic world of Rabbitland. This special edition, complete with the original story and artwork as they appeared in 1922, remains a timeless classic in children's literature with over 1.5 million copies in print.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Very good book to read to your children."
"Such a beautiful copy, the company stickers came off with no residue on the wonderful cover."
"The rabbit of the story in question, despite his drawbacks and the taunts issued him by the other woodland creatures has high importance to someone."
"I listened to the Audio supplied on one of the Amazon pages for the book."
"Even though I did not have this book as child, I had heard of it and wanted to know the story."
"I highly recommend this book to anyone who has a child, or knows a child, or who was a child, and that pretty much includes everyone."
"They've taken the lovely color illustrations and made them black and white, then they have reduced them to about half size."
"I love the story, but I was not expecting the book to have glossy yellow pages."
Best Translation Reference
At the core of Complete Spanish is the Living Language Method™, based on linguistic science, proven techniques, and over 65 years of experience. • 3 Books: 46 lessons, additional review exercises, culture notes, an extensive glossary, and a grammar summary—plus a bonus notebook. • 9 Audio CDs: Vocabulary, dialogues, audio exercises, and more—listen while using the books or use for review on the go. • Free Online Learning: Flashcards, games, and interactive quizzes for each lesson at www.livinglanguage.com/languagelab. Living Language has been a proven and effective language learning instruction for over 65 years.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"To get 9 CDs and 3+ books for $28 is just an unbelievable bargain especially compared to big-name systems which, ironically, consistently get poor reviews and cost much, much more. The main advantage of the Duolingo course is that it is interactive -- you have to type in answers and if you get too many wrong, you have to repeat the lesson. Another thing is that listening to spoken Spanish and reading it at the same doubles your learning capacity as aural and visual input are stored in different parts of the brain and subsequently reinforce each other."
"In contrast to my high school German, I was clearly at my own pace with this study, and I proceeded at one lesson each week, regardless of how easy some seemed (with the exception of numbers, which went more quickly). That being said, if you are not keen on the subjunctive mood, indirect object pronouns and similar grammatical elements as such, the books provide brief descriptions of each as they are encountered."
"I had previously purchased Rosetta Stone which provides no workbooks and the online access costs $14 per month or $89 per year....this after you pay a premium price for something that is no better than this product."
"However, I decided to leave this feedback since Living Language really has to be appreciated for their great method of teaching, their great service and their great price that is very affordable."
Best Grammar Reference
Use the fourth edition of "the little book" to make a big impact with writing. "No book in shorter space, with fewer words, will help any writer more than this persistent little volume." "The book remains a nonpareil: direct, correct, and delightful." "It's hard to imagine an engineer or a manager who doesn't need to express himself in English prose as part of his job. It's also hard to imagine a writer who will not be improved by a liberal application of The Elements of Style ."
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"edition (the one with the blue cover that is expanded) and I own the 3rd edition (which is not expanded). I've always struggled with being concise in my writing, and this book is THE book to help you maximize your writing."
"Classic book, I don't know one better."
"I bought this for a family member who is writing a book."
"It is by-far the best book book for conveying a message with concision and clarity."
"If you are a writer and need some quick referencing for your style and answered questions about how to use elements of structure in the literary world, this book is perfect."
"William Strunk's original guide, before the modern updates by E. B."
"A beginner or novice needs another book on writing that includes those aspects of the written english language."
"Anyone who even thinks about wanting to write should have this book on the nighttable, or within easy reach of brief periodic readings. The underlying point, like all good English books, is that there really is no new way to say, "it is," although overuse of "be" is a detriment to vivid writing."
Best Communication Reference
Taking the reader on a journey from Dale Carnegie’s birthplace to Harvard Business School, from a Tony Robbins seminar to an evangelical megachurch, Susan Cain charts the rise of the Extrovert Ideal in the twentieth century and explores its far-reaching effects. Perhaps most inspiring, she introduces us to successful introverts--from a witty, high-octane public speaker who recharges in solitude after his talks, to a record-breaking salesman who quietly taps into the power of questions. In our culture, which emphasizes group work from elementary school through the business world, everything seems geared toward extroverts. With Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking , Cain explores introversion through psychological research old and new, personal experiences, and even brain chemistry, in an engaging and highly-readable fashion. Introverts are to extroverts what women were to men at that time--second-class citizens with gigantic amounts of untapped talent. The bias against introversion leads to a colossal waste of talent, energy, and, ultimately, happiness. At first I thought I was taking on an enormous challenge, because in my mind, the successful lawyer was comfortable in the spotlight, whereas I was introverted and occasionally shy. But I soon realized that my nature had a lot of advantages: I was good at building loyal alliances, one-on-one, behind the scenes; I could close my door, concentrate, and get the work done well; and like many introverts, I tended to ask a lot of questions and listen intently to the answers, which is an invaluable tool in negotiation. Abraham Lincoln was revered as a man who did not “offend by superiority,” as Emerson put it. Here are two to consider: (1) Introverts perform best in quiet, private workspaces—but unfortunately we’re trending in precisely the opposite direction, toward open-plan offices. (2) If you want to get the best of all your employees’ brains, don’t simply throw them into a meeting and assume you’re hearing everyone’s ideas. Ask people to put their ideas in writing before the meeting, and make sure you give everyone time to speak. A: The best thing parents and teachers can do for introverted kids is to treasure them for who they are, and encourage their passions. (3) Not calling them “shy”--they’ll believe the label and experience their nervousness as a fixed trait rather than an emotion they can learn to control. Studies suggest that many of the most creative people are introverts, and this is partly because of their capacity for quiet. A Reader’s Guide for Quiet:The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking By Susan Cain. They are the ones who prefer listening to speaking, reading to partying; who innovate and create but dislike self-promotion; who favor working on their own over brainstorming in teams. Although they are often labeled "quiet," it is to introverts that we owe many of the great contributions to society-from van Gogh’s sunflowers to the invention of the personal computer. Passionately argued, impressively researched, and filled with indelible stories of real people, Quiet shows how dramatically we undervalue introverts, and how much we lose in doing so. QUIET talks about the New Groupthink, the value system holding that creativity and productivity emerge from group work rather than individual thought. QUIET talks about “restorative niches,” the places introverts go or the things they do to recharge their batteries.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"My entire life has been on hold since this started, I get home from work too exhausted to do anything except veg out for a couple hours and go to bed, and even weekends aren't much better. I learned that the job situation I'm currently in - the non-stop deadline demands, interruptions, never being able to work quietly or alone no matter how difficult a project was, phones ringing incessantly, people in my face all day long, etc. And as enlightening as it was to learn how many of the traits I've beat myself up for over the years are just a product of my introverted temperament (being highly sensitive, shutting down when subjected to stimulation overload, preferring to think a thing through before I speak - something I never get to do at work, as if it takes me more than 5 seconds to say something, I get interrupted and cut off), the most important thing I got from this book is that it's okay to be myself, it's okay to feel the way I do. I am not weak or a failure because I don't feel or behave like my extremely extroverted boss (who thrives in high-energy crisis mode, and is bored unless he's doing 10 things at once - and expects the rest of us to keep up). I also found the information on the history of the "rise of the Culture of Personality" completely fascinating, it really gave me a new insight as to just exactly how we 'grew' this tendency to value extroversion over introversion. I know I will meet resistance from my boss (I'd love for him to read this book, but unfortunately I know he won't), and I know I won't instantly fix everything in one day, and that I'll probably always need to be able to stretch myself a bit to do things that are not ideal for me ... but this book taught me that there are ways to make that work, too, if you understand and honor the need for recharging around such tasks, instead of trying to force yourself to do them 8 hours a day with no break. The wealth of information and insights in this book cannot be overstated - especially if you are an introverted type of person who has always felt there was something not quite right about you, or that you somehow needed to change to fit in or succeed. Thank you, Susan Cain, from the bottom of my heart (which is finally beating at a more normal speed because I'm not panicked about going to work for the first time in months)."
"This book is written by an introvert, and while it discusses extroversion, it focuses on the benefits of introversion. I like myself, but reading this book made me feel like there are many other people who face the same feelings and worries that I do. Somewhere while reading this book, I stopped feeling like I was a good teacher despite my introverstion but that I am a good teacher largely because of my introversion."
"As somebody who has been called at some point or another the gamut of terms associated with introversion, from "shy" (which I don't object) to "anti-social" (which I most certainly consider unfair), I found in Susan Cain's "Quiet," the validation and appreciation many introverts have been searching for. In "Quiet," Ms. Cain explains the rise of the Extrovert Ideal in the 1920s and how it is that today we associate talkative, risk-taking, and action-oriented people with intelligence, beauty, power and success. She interviews scientists who have conducted hundreds of studies to test different theories in an effort to determine how much of our temperament is a result of genetics and/or of our free will. For those still deciding on a career, the author reminds readers that research shows that introverts are not reward-seeking like extroverts, but rather motivated by the enjoyment they find in pursuing an activity; in other words, by being in what psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls the "flow"."
Best Phonetics & Phonics Reference
Explode The Code provides a sequential, systematic approach to phonics in which students blend sounds to build vocabulary and read words, phrases, sentences, and stories.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"At best, they begin teaching phonics in first grade after teaching high frequency words with flashcards in kindergarten... which simply teaches young children that the way to read is to memorize what a "word picture" looks like. From everything I've read, getting a kid who has learned to read this way to put in the effort to learn phonics is like pulling teeth so I was determined to teach my daughter proper reading with phonics. She could pick out the letters in simple words that she heard and read simple C-V-C words like 'cat'. I checked out several books from the library, including "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons", "Phonics Pathways", and "The Reading Lesson". (2) Can your child blend letters together to read simple C-V-C words like "cat"? If not, play word games to get her hearing those letter sounds, play "spot the letter ___" in stores where each of you try to find things that start with a specific letter. (3) Once your child knows those letter sounds and understands the concept of sounding out words, you are ready for these books."
"I love this series of books for homeschooling!"
"I bought this for my daughter who I homeschool for Kindergarten."
"This book started my daughter reading !!"
"These books are wonderful."
"boy likes it and learning to read and write quickly."
"I am homeschooling my kindergartner and he has been doing so well with this book!"
Best Words, Language & Grammar Reference
Use the fourth edition of "the little book" to make a big impact with writing. "No book in shorter space, with fewer words, will help any writer more than this persistent little volume." "The book remains a nonpareil: direct, correct, and delightful." "It's hard to imagine an engineer or a manager who doesn't need to express himself in English prose as part of his job. It's also hard to imagine a writer who will not be improved by a liberal application of The Elements of Style ."
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"edition (the one with the blue cover that is expanded) and I own the 3rd edition (which is not expanded). I've always struggled with being concise in my writing, and this book is THE book to help you maximize your writing."
"Classic book, I don't know one better."
"I bought this for a family member who is writing a book."
"It is by-far the best book book for conveying a message with concision and clarity."
"If you are a writer and need some quick referencing for your style and answered questions about how to use elements of structure in the literary world, this book is perfect."
"William Strunk's original guide, before the modern updates by E. B."
"A beginner or novice needs another book on writing that includes those aspects of the written english language."
"Anyone who even thinks about wanting to write should have this book on the nighttable, or within easy reach of brief periodic readings. The underlying point, like all good English books, is that there really is no new way to say, "it is," although overuse of "be" is a detriment to vivid writing."
Best Spelling
MATH GAMES & PUZZLES Code Breaker After solving problems with addition and subtraction, multiplication, fractions, temperature, time, or money, students use the answers to solve a fun riddle. MATH IN ACTION Going Green Estimating the number of discarded plastic bottles or the fraction of trash that can be recycled in different types of bins are a few practical ways students use math to learn how to improve the environment. Sylvan Learning is the premier provider of tutoring services for grades pre-K to 12 in North America.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"My 7 year old loves math, so we got him this book to work on over the summer. The lessons in the first two books seem to go with each other and the third is more like a standalone book."
"Granddaughter loves the purchase made, thanks :-)."
"Very good book."
"for my granddaughter who loves math."
"Although we haven't finished it I like the way it transitions slowly from easy to more challenging material."
"Best book we have found for summer review."
"excellent book to support math for 3rd grader."
Best Rhetoric
Colorfully illustrated with photographs, portraits, and relevant artworks, this handsome hardcover is a visual treat too, making Letters of Note an utterly distinctive gift, and an instant classic. "While some might argue that the art of correspondence died with the advent of the internet, it was Letters of Note-a popular website sharing correspondence across history and spheres-that paved the way for the exceptional hardcover of the same name. The book's introduction aptly describes itself as "a museum of letters" that are as addictive as they are enlightening; featuring letters from Ernest Hemingway, Fidel Castro, Nick Cave, Elvis and more than a few world leaders. London-based author Shaun Usher compiled the collection of over 125 letters over the course of four years and the subjects span both private and public theatrics. In Letters of Note: An Eclectic Collection of Correspondence Deserving of a Wider Audience (brought to you by the creator of the blog by the same name) you'll read letters spanning across centuries, from influential political leaders, authors, actors, murderers, and more. "This new book beautifully highlights fascinating letters ...The hardcover demands prime space on the coffee table." "Someone should write a love letter to a new book called Letters of Note . It's a splendid collection of all kinds of correspondence through the ages: Elvis Presley fans writing to the president, children making suggestions to famous cartoonists, a scientist's poignant love letter to his late wife."
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"There could have been a thousand letters here and I still would not have tired of reading. In the meantime, I will peruse his website, Letters of Note, to see if I can find more wonderful letters from personalities famous and obscure."
"Letters of Note by Shaun Usher. NOVEMBER 7, 2017 ~ LEAVE A COMMENT ~ EDIT. Letters of Note: An Eclectic Collection of Correspondence Deserving of a Wider AudienceLetters of Note: An Eclectic Collection of Correspondence Deserving of a Wider Audience by Shaun Usher. My rating: 5 of 5 stars. It was from “A Way with Words” a public radio show about the English language, including the origins of words, the usages, and good books that I came to know this lovely book. Of all the letters in the book, the following three letters resonate in my mind: (1) E. B. White’s letter to his gentleman acquaintance regarding the importance of having hope for humanity; (2) Anaïs Nin’s rebuking letter to a faceless collector of her co-authored “Erotica” for his demand of more prevalent racy contents; and (3) a nameless German’s woman’s letter to her husband asking him to take her back home from a dreadful mental hospital she was in."
"True to its title, this master piece contained missives that communicated a myriad of emotions, raised pertinent questions and advised the ones in need. The typography lends a rich grandeur which these letters of note truly deserve and needless to say, it evoke the emotions that come with holding a hard cover. Upon reading this work, one cannot help but think even though we as humanity have progressed in leaps and bounds in terms of technology and life style, have lost out a lot in the art of truly communicating and asking questions that makes us think long, hard, deep and all other attributes alike."
"This is a wonderful book that I will re-read many times."
Best Semantics
The classic book on the development of human language by the world’s leading expert on language and the mind. In this classic, the world's expert on language and mind lucidly explains everything you always wanted to know about language: how it works, how children learn it, how it changes, how the brain computes it, and how it evolved.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"(“a sad and urgent note.”). • A1 Galaburda (“Al Galaburda” [letter L, not number 1]). • and would not into nothing (“and would rot into nothing”). • something in he world (“something in the world”). • analyze the verb to broadcasts (“analyze the verb to broadcast as”). • No one would say give In break (“No one would say give I a break” [with the words after "say" in italics]). • person off gender (“person of gender”). • trout is a kind offish and (“trout is a kind of fish and”). • about twelves times as large (“about twelve times as large”). In a book with many playful and unusual examples of language, one can’t tell, since the e-book can’t be trusted, whether expressions like “isa” or “American Slurvian” are what Pinker intended, or simply more examples of poor editing. Given Amazon’s ability to reach into my Kindle and swap files, I am hoping to find a corrected version of Pinker’s book there soon."
"Lots of thought went into it."
"And these are errors that routinely distract from the content of the book, as the errors will sometime spell a different word altogether, giving a sentence a completely different meaning that you will only realize is nonsensical after reading an entire paragraph."
"After 40 years as an interpreter, translator, and cryptographer I thought I understood language."
"Arrived pretty quickly with that fresh book smell for a pretty low price."
"Fascinating."
"- universal characteristics of all human cultures and all human grammars - animals who have been trained to "talk". Pinker may or may not be 100% right, but his thinking is clear-headed and his view of humanity is refreshing, in that it is both broad enough to cover every speaking (human) culture, and specific enough to rely on individually observed and experimental evidence in describing the ways we learn."
"This book was very interesting, changed the way I think about language, and was used during my college courses."
Best Speech
We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Readers will be reminded of the energizing books of writer Natalie Goldberg and will be seduced by Lamott's witty take on the reality of a writer's life, which has little to do with literary parties and a lot to do with jealousy, writer's block and going for broke with each paragraph.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Just take it bird by bird.”. The book is peppered with such sage advice while Lamott remains the quintessential social commenter and odd man out, full of more than a few stories of her life gone wrong. Lamott shares some of her writing techniques such as sitting at her desk and staring at a small one-inch empty picture frame when she’s out of ideas. To be a writer, she tells her students, you have to sit your butt in a chair and not get up until you’ve written something no matter how long it takes or how terrible it is, and then you have to do that again the next day and the one after that. In Lamott’s world, writing is therapy and since she’s taken some of the heaviest stuff of her life and exposed it, often with hilarity, to the sun and wind and elements where it can be alchemized, she’s become her own therapist. Once you’ve mined your childhood for all the despondency and suffering you can recall along with all the nasty characters that have wreaked havoc upon you, stick them between fictional pages for everyone to see, while being careful to obscure them so ingeniously through changes of place or time or hair color that no one will recognize themselves."
"I am swept away by the cozy sincerity of the author, her voice true and experienced, a James Earle Jones reassurance in a petite package. When I was a child growing up in Massachusetts, I sat with my grandfather in his screen porch while he ate peanuts and listened to the Red Sox. I remember the one where Annie had to rework her second novel, she describes the tribulations of rejection from her editor, each story scene in page piles, laid out on a huge open floor in front of her, shuffling and mending, rewriting and discarding. A dash of Eudora Welty's On Writing, more eloquently written and equally helpful as Jill Dearman's Bang The Keys, Lamott's Bird By Bird is a safe haven to share--and by book's end, to shed--your innermost writing demons."
"This is my second reading and I will read it again."
"I have laughed out loud and then proceeded to attempt to stifle my uncontrollable and I might say slightly embarrassing laughter while sitting in a 1 by 1 chair high in the atmosphere with my legs curled up in a snarl, trying not to get kicked off the plane for loosing my mind and being considered a danger to others. Her subtle humorous sarcasm is icing on the cake in this serious book about writing."
"She can turn a phrase and paint a picture which simply but profoundly expresses feeling and reality."
Best Sign Language
Full-color photos on flash cards present close-ups of a model demonstrating 500 American Sign Language (ASL) signs. Geoffrey S. Poor is Professor of ASL at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Flash cards are handy and can be taken on the go."
"This has been a great tool for learning ASL for our family!"
"I love everything virtual.. wish these were online and not actual physical cards."
"My granddaughter is teaching herself how to sign."
"The flash cards for sign language have been a big factor in my daughter. Learning sign language."
"Very useful, but sometimes signs are different than what we do in my area of the United States."
"I'm happy with this purchase."
"Much better than the animated or draw sign language note cards."
Best Vocabulary, Slang & Word Lists
From Jim Carrey to Sister Carrie, Homer Simpson to Homer’s Iliad, the wide-ranging entries include 500,000+ synonyms, 3,000+ literary works, 3,000+ films, 20,000+ famous people from all fields, and more than 50,000 fill-in-the-blank clues so popular in today’s crosswords. “The largest, most up-to-date, and most useful crossword dictionary available.” (from the Introduction by Will Shortz, New York Times Crossword Editor). A must for the crossword aficionado.” (Rich Norris, Los Angeles Times crossword editor). “...this remarkable book is destined to be not just another crossword dictionary, but the crossword dictionary.” (Wayne Robert Williams, Chicago Tribune crossword editor).
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Frequent usage demands a durable binding and the paperback just does not fit the bill and quickly wears out."
"When I first downloaded this book and tried to use it on the Samsung Kindle app I got very frustrated. However I wanted to install it on my Kindle Paperwhite so I purchased it again. This time I find that I can use it on the Samsung Kindle app. I haven't managed to download this to my Kindle, but for the moment, I am well pleased with the tablet app performance."
"I have personally laminated the covers to give it some body and have added a jacket for the book, but as the pages are folded and bent as one works with the new edition it will not hold up."
"The version now shipping has about 1500 entries updated to 2016 at the end, after the XYZ section, which includes sports, movies, politicians (i.e. foreign leaders)."
"Was in great condition for used book and good price with quick shipping."
"I will re-order this 2nd edition because it is so helpful, but it does need an update on content and a hard cover for those of us who work crossword puzzles daily and Saturday and Sunday."
"It contains everything from every kind of Oscar winner, scads of foreign country info, first and last name entries, phrases with missing words, singers with lists of their hits, movies with complete cast listings and foreign words."
"I've bought it for others as a gift, and the recipients are thrilled with the book. January 2010 update: Having purchased a Kindle, I was excited to get this dictionary on the Kindle, so I wouldn't have to lug out that huge book all the time."
Best Etymology
A revised and updated new edition of the bestselling workbook and grammar guide The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation is a concise, entertaining workbook and guide to English grammar, punctuation, and usage. From the very basics—parts of speech and subject-verb agreement—to more advanced topics like the subjunctive mood, The Blue Book covers it all. You’ll also learn to differentiate between the most commonly confused words like infer and imply, its and it's, affect and effect ...and hundreds more. Filled with clear examples and self-assessment quizzes, the book allows you to test your knowledge and practice what you learn.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"In order to receive real quizzes and content, the authors of this book demand that you pay a substantial fee ($30.00 for a limited number of logins - one year or $129.00 unlimited logins - one year) in order to access their subscription area of the website that goes along with this book. You are able to go to GrammarBook.com and view this book in its entirety on the website and even take the menial quizzes online if you choose. This might be beneficial if you do not want to purchase the entire subscription package but want more practice in certain areas that need more work. The authors often keep you up to date with things such as the differences in the acceptable use of the word "none" in the SAT vs. the Merriam-Webster Dictionary of English Usage. The note section will have current information in relation to the English language as well as other things that may enhance the lesson itself. There is also an answer key provided at the back of the book, but it is not user friendly nor page numbered. You may purchase a subscription for more workable content and quizzes (which are desperately lacking in the book) if you choose, but it is fairly pricey."
"You need a grammar book that will allow you to reference something quickly, such as using the correct form of ‘effective’ or how you should avoid using the word ‘literally’ when what you really mean is ‘virtually’. If that’s what you’re after, then this is the book for you."
"Good simple reference book."
"Very useful and concise."
"Beginning with the parts of speech, with an idea that stands behind the rules."
"This book will be a great help."
"short and to the point."