Customer Reviews:
Not for a Primary Teacher.......2003-06-25
This book has great info., but as a primary teacher I found the material hard to relate.
"One Source for Survival in the Classroom".......2000-09-24
One teacher that reviewed this book said that this book was the "one source for survival in the classroom." After reading this book, you will see why. The Vaccas have put together a text that is a goldmine of methods and strategies that are immediately applicable in the classroom.
One of my professors made a comment to our Content Literacy class that "one of the salient points about content area literacy and students is that we assume that because a student can read, we automatically take for granted that her interaction with the text will be a fruitful one. But as many of you know, this is frequently not the case. Especially with ESL students,students from other than white, middle class, suburban backgrounds, and students with exceptionalities. This is where content area literacy methodology comes into play, and as a teacher, you play a crucial role in helping students interact with their texts in a way that helps the student make meaning. Interaction with the printed word is at the very heart of literacy."
This text contains a wealth of practical activities and strategies designed to foster content area literacy by assisting the teacher in scaffolding instruction so that all students can become knowledgable and profficient in developing their own learning strategies.
Although the book is a little "pricey," in the end it is well worth the investment, because it is just that, an investment. I have a rich resource that I can utilize many times over, which will be a source of support and instruction for many years to come.
Still the best reading methods book around.......1999-12-15
This book by Vacca is still the best of the content-area reading books on the market. Unlike many of the others out there, this one shows splendid visual representations and step-by-step approaches to a variety of reading strategies for secondary teachers. Save yourself time. Give this one a try.
An Excellent Teaching Methods Text.......1999-12-06
I am using this book as one of the texts in a secondary methods class I am teaching to preservice teachers. While so many of the texts we encounter in these types of classes are rather simplistic, contrived "recipe books," this book is truly a breath of fresh air. It is well organized, and it covers literacy instruction very effectively. Good, practical strategies are provided to assist the teacher as lessons are developed and presented. The theoretical bases upon which the strategies are based are evident, so that the teacher isn't just presented with a handful of activities which don't really lead anywhere. I particularly like the graphic representations which preview the material covered in each chapter. These provide a great overview and a sense of organization.
As I present material on how one goes about selecting a good textbook, I use this book as an example of a text which is well prepared and very user friendly. The organizational structure of the book is excellent, from the front material through the appendices, bibliography and indices.
My only complaint about the book is its price. But the way text prices are going lately, maybe it's not too far out of line. Seventy four dollars just seems like a lot of money for 550 pages.
I highly recommend this text to anyone who needs to incorporate literacy instruction into a content area classroom. It is very practical yet has a solid theoretical base. It will be an excellent resource for the thoughtful practitioner.
Customer Reviews:
It helps to get the book you actually ordered!!.......2005-09-16
I ordered the eigth edition Content Area Reading, but much to my surprise I received a very old edition of this book. Because I received the book so close to the beginning of the semester, I then had to go to the bookstore and purchase the correct edition! So the money I spent with this seller was completely wasted. NOT Someone I would order from again.
Book Description
With the underlying belief that students learn with texts, not necessarily from them, this respected text is designed to be an active learning tool, complete with real-world examples and research-based practices.
Reading, writing, speaking, and listening processes to learn subject matter across the curriculum.
Content Area Reading.
Customer Reviews:
Good book........2007-10-05
This book arrived in a timely manner. When it arrived it looked new, however only after a few days the spine started falling apart and all the pages began to come apart. I had to glue to book to keep it from all falling out of the cover.
Excellent Product & Prompt Delivery.......2007-09-15
This item was exactly as described in the item description. It was in the original packaging and is in excellent condition. I am very satisfied and I highly recommend this seller and product to everyone.
Book Review.......2007-08-23
The book was approrpriate for the class I was taking. It is a very dry read, but it covers the topics that were needed and it was informative.
Solid Teaching Strategies, Somewhat Out of Touch with Real Classrooms.......2007-08-05
As a Middle and High School teacher with ESL students, and a professional developer, I have been on the look-out for texts that would deliver a practical approach and solid strategies for teaching content area literacy. The authors advocate the use of constructivist approaches to teaching as well as in the professional development of the teacher. The target audience is the pre-service teacher (grades 6-12).
I really liked how each chapter of the 9th edition opens with an overview and a map of the concepts. The figures in the books are great illustrations of the strategies and techniques, and one in particular was a particularly apt example of Guess What's in My Head (figure 7:10)that show how unproductive it is as a teaching technique. Each chapter begins with an activity that poses a set of questions that sets the stage for learning about the chapter content. The authors attempt to be thought-provoking but in chapter 6 I wonder if they and their editors were really paying attention. Here they try to show the complexity of reading by citing the adventurer David Livingstone's encounter in Africa with "preliterate natives" (p. 186) who ate a book to literally digest its contents. Its inclusion in this book makes me wonder who they think is teaching "diverse learners" in the school.
As a synoptic text, the writers try too hard to cover all the bases of content area teaching at the expense of some in-depth analysis of the effectiveness of the techniques and strategies they recommend. Many texts on teaching reading at upper K-12 levels tend to concentrate on comprehension techniques, which is fine for somewhat-proficient readers, but neglects the weaker readers and the ESL students in the heterogeneous classroom whose comprehension difficulties are compounded with de-coding challenges.
As an ESL teacher, I would have liked to know how all of these strategies for teaching in the content areas could be adapted to my students. Instead, there is a separate chapter on "Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Learners" who, as practicing ESL teachers know, do not cease to be "diverse" after they have been mainstreamed. Having tried some of these strategies with my students, I can say for sure that QARs is far too challenging for ESL novice and intermediate learners when they are asked to think beyond the text. To participate in classroom discussion they need scaffolding for the language functions and vocabulary. In my opinion, the weakest chapter of all was Assessing Students and Texts (Chapter 4). The authors have completely missed the basic point about rubrics: to make assessment more consistent. There are better books on assessment with rubrics than this chapter.
Reading in the Content Standard.......2007-06-28
Vacca & Vacca's book has long been a standard in graduate education classes for good reason. Now in its ninth edition, the book defines and expands on the idea of content literacy-- "the ability to use reading, writing, talking, listening, and viewing processes to learn subject matter across the curriculum" (xx). Educators will find the numerous best practices spread throughout the chapter, and the authors have addressed many of the issues of the modern classroom, including culturally/linguistically diverse learners, the use of trade books and electronic texts, and the influence of high-stakes and standardized testing. New and experienced educators alike will be interested in chapters 9 and 10, which deal with the writing exercises and reading strategies needed to improve student literacy. A useful and thought-provoking book for teachers of any content area.
Book Description
With the underlying belief that students learn with texts, not necessarily from them, this respected text is designed to be an active learning tool, complete with real-world examples and research-based practices. Reading, writing, speaking, and listening processes to learn subject matter across the curriculum. Content Area Reading.
Customer Reviews:
Not a favorite!.......2007-05-07
This book offers many nice strategies and ideas, however, the organization bothers me a great deal. I can never apply common logic to find what I'm looking for. Also, there are too many alternate sub-texts throughout the book which I believe are usually superfluous --by being in a sub-text box, I am left to infer that the information is probably not all that important and therefore not worth reading.
Great textbook!.......2007-03-08
This is a great book for a beginning teacher and experienced teacher. It offers great strategies and up to date research on current trends in literacy. It is very helpful for thematic teaching and intergrating content area subjects. It is also an easy read where you can pick it up and continue.......
Great book!
Great Resource.......2006-08-11
Content Area Reading was a required text for one of my courses. I sold it back at the end of a semester and have been kicking myself ever since. I've needed it on numerous occasions. This is one to keep around and will prove useful for future reference!
Content Area Reading : Literacy and Learning Across the Curriculum (8th Edition).......2006-07-03
My husband had to have this book as a textbook for a Summer School course at ECU.
content area reading review.......2006-02-25
I am happy with my purchase. The price was the best one I found and the book condition was very good.
Book Description
The myth of Shangri-la originates in Tibetan Buddhist beliefs in beyul, or hidden lands, sacred sanctuaries that reveal themselves to devout pilgrims and in times of crisis. The more remote and inaccessible the beyul, the vaster its reputed qualities. Ancient Tibetan prophecies declare that the greatest of all hidden lands lies at the heart of the forbidding Tsangpo Gorge, deep in the Himalayas and veiled by a colossal waterfall. Nineteenth-century accounts of this fabled waterfall inspired a series of ill-fated European expeditions that ended prematurely in 1925 when the intrepid British plant collector Frank Kingdon-Ward penetrated all but a five-mile section of the Tsangpo's innermost gorge and declared that the falls were no more than a "religious myth" and a "romance of geography." The heart of the Tsangpo Gorge remained a blank spot on the map of world exploration until world-class climber and Buddhist scholar Ian Baker delved into the legends. Whatever cryptic Tibetan scrolls or past explorers had said about the Tsangpo's innermost gorge, Baker determined, could be verified only by exploring the uncharted five-mile gap. After several years of encountering sheer cliffs, maelstroms of impassable white water, and dense leech-infested jungles, on the last of a series of extraordinary expeditions, Baker and his National Geographic-sponsored team reached the depths of the Tsangpo Gorge. They made news worldwide by finding there a 108-foot-high waterfall, the legendary grail of Western explorers and Tibetan seekers alike.
The Heart of the World is one of the most captivating stories of exploration and discovery in recent memory-an extraordinary journey to one of the wildest and most inaccessible places on earth and a pilgrimage to the heart of the Tibetan Buddhist faith.
Customer Reviews:
Good Lord, how did this book get so many glowing reviews.......2007-10-10
...coz when you strip out all the mystical nonsense about sages and esoteric texts and the like, it's just another bush bash into an admitteddly remote part of Tibet that's hard to travel through. But not worth the tedious descriptions of every rock and puddle and leech that the author encounters. There's nothing mystical about the Tsangpo Gorge, it's just remote, tough to get to, tough to travel through, sparsely inhabited and it has a few Tibetan monastries and villages. Whoop-de-doo. What's different to the rest of Tibet. I suspect this guy toked up a bit to much in Kathmandu. Which is admittedly a good place to do it...
Anyhow, if you like crystals, mystical navel gazing and Lopsang Rampa, this book is for you. If you're an outdoors kind of a person who enjoys travelling the wilder parts of the world in person rather than vicariously (as it appears all reviewers to date do...), then give this book a miss. The guys a poser making a big song and dance out of a fairly routine kind of a trek into a remote and admittedly hard to travel destination.
Haven't tried getting into the Tsangpo myself yet but it's on my list of places to go and having done quite a bit of trekking in the Himalaya's (and not on guided treks with porters I might add), I know something about the area and what its like. Mystical my a**. More like poor, dirty, leech-infested and physically demanding. And as for esoteric texts and sages in the mountains back of Kathmandu - I've trekked in back of Kathmandu for a couple of months - way way back of Kathmandu - and sages there ain't - poor mountain villages there are, yaks there are, illiterate villages there are in plenty, the sages may be there but it sounds to me more like this guys spinning a line....a good one mind you, but nevertheless....
Anyhow, you have been warned, If you like this kind of made-up mystical nonsense, you'll love this book. If you're into hard trekking, forget it. Although the trip down the Tsangpo is interesting if you can ignore the nonsense this guy spouts.
High Adventure and Impeccable Scholarship.......2007-09-30
Ian Baker, explorer and Buddhist scholar, narrates a sequence of incredible journeys to the Tsango Gorge in Tibet, the hidden and inaccessible Beyul Pemako.
The book can be read on many levels: as an engrossing adventure; the depiction of a man's passion, determination and endurance to achieve a goal in the face of incredible hardships; rarely described Tibetan customs; and the contrast between the spirituality of the Tibetans and the materialism of the Chinese who were penetrating the area at the same time as the author.
The thread that weaves the narrative together is the inner journey that unfolds as Baker traverses the sacred geography of the area as revealed by Buddhist texts, Tibetan lamas and the experiences of the author and his team. Backed by historical textural references and oral traditions, the author encounters the living, pulsing presence of this landscape in the form of the body of the dakini goddess Dorje Pagmo and her energy centers or chakras. He and his team successfully access the throat of the goddess, the hidden gorge with its long-sought waterfall.
After his arrival at the waterfall, his journey culminates in a visit to the sacred site of Gompe Ne on the banks of the Tsampo River where he enacted, as countless pilgrims before him have, a birth-death-resurrection using the sacred geography of the site.
I was constantly reminded of experiences in the Andes, especially Peru and the Andean Path, where the exchange of energies between man and the natural world and its sacred landscapes create spiritual alchemy and inner spiritual transformation.
The non-fiction and Eastern version of the da Vinci Code.......2007-07-02
A fantastic book for readers who are interested in learning about Tibetan Buddhism, the Tibetan culture and the Tibetan way of living, and readers who enjoy visiting and / or reading about exotic places on earth.
I picked up this book right after a trip to Tibet with my 4-year old son and truly enjoyed reading it. It took me deeper into the land that I had just visited by illuminating a bit about its history, its incredible natural beauty, its people's belief system and, most importantly, the interconnectedness of all. It is a well written book and Ian Baker has done an outstanding job of getting the reader very close to the actual experience.
Connecting with nature is certainly a powerful way to get connected in life and, once connected, the ultimate discoveries are often of the hidden secrets in one's soul.
If you are not convinced about reading this book, I highly recommend viewing the related photos on hollot's site (find the site by doing a search on "hollot + sardar" since amazon does not allow posting URL's).
Great reading >The Heart of the World: A Journey to Tibet's Lost Paradise.......2007-03-31
The Heart of the World: A Journey to Tibet's Lost Paradise takes you on a journey into canyons when no one as recorded before...breath taking..
stumbling among leeches, logs, bogs and Tibetan hermitages.......2007-03-27
The Tsangpo river cuts the eastern Himalayas to join Brahmaputra in the jungles of Assam. Intrepid British explorers have chartered most of its course during the glorious days of the Raj - leaving unexplored ~10 mile stretch of an inaccessible 'Tsangpo gorge'. Because the altitude difference between Tibet and India cannot be accounted for by the known flow of Tsangpo, the Brits hypothesized that this stretch of the river contains a large waterfall (or a series of them). This book describes several expeditions undertaken 1990-2000 by Baker and his colleague Hamid Sardar to solve this geogrpahical enigma.
Both adventurers speak Tibetan and have a working knowledge of Tibetan tantra, both completed silent meditation retreats in isolated caves and both practiced with 'tantric consorts', Tibetan & Indian women placed on special diets (consisting of rose leaves and gold) trained to help men achieve a 'union of male and female principles in order to recognize the ultimate Emptiness of all phenomena." While Baker tittilates the reader here, he never delivers real information.
Baler obtained a number of esoteric texts from lamas familiar with the Tsangpo territory - the texts detailed magical places throughout the gorge, incantation 'keys' necessary to 'open' those places, the nature of 'deities' residing in them and the value of their help to realization of the fact that 'nothing inherently exists on its own'. Heh. These texts, as well as subsequent Baker's narrative, reveal that the valley has ALWAYS been known to and lived in by Tibetans and local Monpa & Lopa tribes; it was never unknown, never had to be discovered and the rivalries driving American and Chinese expeditions to chart the river portrayed in the book seem pointless and even slightly comical. As well as poignant: expeditions (including Baker's own) were quite content leaving ailing and weak members behind to fend for themselves. Personally, I found the obsession with 'discovering' and 'exploring' a bit disconcerting. Why do we have to document, photograph, chart etc. every nook and cranny on this planet? Why can't we let it be? let local people be? What is the confusticated point?
Baker insists on describing every single leech-infested forest and swamp on their way, every impassable boulder, pass, rivulet, stone or log which, with 500 pages, merge into a general picture of hardship, malaise, effort, hunger, leaking tents and, above all, sheer survival luck. There were so many cases where the 'pilgrims' appeared to wander aimlessly, in the dark or fog, having lost their native guides only to find them at the end of the day, against all odds huddling around a fire, that one is forced to contemplate the possibility of divine guidance.
I would mention the fascinating account of 'poison cults' in local villages, and of small Tibetan monasteries and hermitages, scattered throughout the most inaccesible parts of the valley..., the gift of psychedelic mushrooms to a Tibetan hermit monk, and the touching relationship that developed between the Chinese liason officer, 'Mr. Gunn', and Occidental adventurers. Between the lines we can also read about havoc that local Monpas wreak upon local fauna (with mass-killing of rare animals such as the takin buffalo and tigers) and the much more serious Chinese depredation consisting of systematic mechanized exploitation of Tibetan natural resources and destruction of the environment (not to mention cutural genocide). Perhaps understandably, Baker wants to preserve his future access to Tibet.
The greatest weakness of the book is that we learn little about Baker's own practices and realizations. We learn a lot about leeches and orchids, but what was going on with the lama's daughter mentioned early in the book? what about the tantric consorts? what (if any) spiritual realizations and benefits did Baker and Sardar derive from obsessive backpacking along the Tsangpo...? We also don't learn who financed these expensive yearly expeditions. Why are there no photo's of the supposedly discovered waterfall? Why can't the waterfall be seen from sallites or googleEarth? The apparent fear of personal disclosure detracts from the value of the book.
Nevertheless, the book is well written and I enjoyed reading it. One cannot escape the notion that Baker and Sardar exemplify some of the best traits of 'man' - courage, resourcefulnes, commitment to spiritual growth and to having a good time.
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Literacy
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Literacy Difficulties: Diagnosis and Instruction for Reading Specialists and Classroom Teachers (2nd Edition)
Secondary School Teaching: A Guide to Methods and Resources (3rd Edition)
I Read It, but I Don't Get It: Comprehension Strategies for Adolescent Readers
Classroom Strategies for Interactive Learning
Tools for Teaching Content Literacy
