Books about Skill based from Amazon.com

What works in education? How do we know? How can teachers find out? How can educational research find its way into the classroom? How can we apply it to help our individual students? Questions like these arise in most schools, and busy educators often don't have time to find the answers Robert J. Marzano, Debra J. Pickering, and Jane E. Pollock have examined decades of research findings to distill the results into nine broad teaching strategies that have positive effects on student learning:

* Identifying similarities and differences.
* Summarizing and note taking.
* Reinforcing effort and providing recognition.
* Homework and practice.
* Nonlinguistic representations.
* Cooperative learning.
* Setting objectives and providing feedback.
* Generating and testing hypotheses.
* Questions, cues, and advance organizers.

This list is not new. But what is surprising is finding out what a big difference it makes, for example, when students learn how to take good notes, work in groups, and use graphic organizers. The authors provide statistical effect sizes and show how these translate into percentile gains for students, for each strategy. And each chapter presents extended classroom examples of teachers and students in action; models of successful instruction; and many "frames," rubrics, organizers, and charts to help teachers plan and implement the strategies..
Price: $12.45 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The sixth edition of Effective Teaching Methods: Research-Based Practice is a practical yet theoretically substantive book that aims to provide teachers with research-based, effective teaching practices. To help prepare new teachers, the book includes significant discussion of standardized tests, and exercises for Praxis test preparation. New to this edition are field experience activities, portfolio-building activities, and classroom observation activities. This book covers the qualities of the effective teacher, understanding students, goals and objectives, unit- and lesson-planning, classroom management, direct instruction strategies, indirect instruction strategies, self-directed learning, cooperative learning, and assessing learners. General K-12 teachers.

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Price: $88.20 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Creative Resource for the Early Childhood Classroom 5th edition is a theme based curriculum planner containing 70 different themes ranging from Ants to Zoo Animals. Each theme contains: Curriculum Web, Theme Goals, Concepts for the Children to Learn, Vocabulary, Bulletin Board, Parent Letter, Music, Fingerplay, Science, Math, Dramatic Play, Arts and Crafts, Sensory, Large Muscle, Small Muscle, Field Trips, Social Studies, Group Time, Cooking, Transitions, Books, Multimedia, Recordings and Song Titles. The book sections at the end of each theme have been revised with older ones deleted and hundreds added. In addition, an accompanying CD-Rom will contain important assessment tools, lesson plan forms, evaluation forms for documentation boards and many more..
Price: $44.25 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Team Challenges promotes effective communication skills and teamwork Designed to offer teachers, facilitators, and parents a wide variety of activities to cultivate children's problem-solving skills while fostering cooperation between group members, the activities in the book utilize common household items and recycled materials, and require no more than 10 minutes, start to finish. Presented with a challenge from this book, kids work cooperatively to solve open ended problems which can incorporate structure building, improvisation skills and physical tasks. The challenges will teach children to experiment with building methods, discover new uses for everyday items, try on new personas, and express themselves as they work together toward a successful solution. Team members are required to think outside the box, communicate clearly, and cooperate with each other in order to complete each task.

Activities include building structures from materials such as index cards, drinking straws, paper clips and sticky dots; moving items from one location to another without directly touching them; or presenting a skit portraying their solution to a hypothetical dilemma. Children will learn not only from each other, but also from observing how other teams navigate each task.

Pass some creative problem solving skills on to the kids (and adults!) in your life with the fun activities you'll find in Team Challenges. Adults who work with children will find this to be a great addition to their repertoire.

Ever found yourself with five extra minutes to spare, but nothing to discuss in that short amount of time? Turn to Chapter Five, and you'll find questions such as these:

*Name things that you carry on your back (a backpack, a baby, a monkey)
*Name things that you take out (garbage, Chinese food, an opponent)
*List things that are printed (newspapers, the alphabet, T-shirts)

Need a simple activity to occupy the kids and encourage them to work cooperatively? Challenge them to one of the Tiny Tasks, found in Chapter Four:

*Build a structure as tall as possible using 5 marshmallows and 10 drinking straws
*Create a bridge that will span 18" using 3 sticky notes and 10 cotton balls
*Create a continuous line as long as possible using 1 envelope and 5 recycled bottle caps

More detailed challenges are found in subsequent chapters..
Price: $12.22 [Notify me when price goes down.]

A new edition designed to prepare students for the TOEFL® iBT test, administered online. Cambridge Preparation for the TOEFL� test, Fourth Edition helps students master the language skills they need to succeed on the TOEFL� iBT Test and communicate effectively in an academic setting. Using an integrated skills approach that mirrors the structure of the TOEFL� iBT, this fully revised text is ideal for classroom use and self-study. The book contains hundreds of skill-building exercises covering all of the question types in the exam and four practice tests. A supporting skills section is provided to improve grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and study skills. The CD-ROM presents the book tests and three additional practice tests in an electronic format that simulates the online TOEFL� iBT test. The audio program available on audio CD or audio cassette contains conversations and lectures for all listening exercises and test questions..
Price: $15.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]