Customer Reviews

Classrooms That Work: They Can All Read and Write

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

I bought this book as a required book for a class. It is very straightforward and easy to read. It gives lots of examples of things to do in a classroom and what those activities accomplish. I will use this book in my practice.

For any experienced teacher, Cunningham's condescending, dogmatic style borders upon the insulting. Carefully read, her "best methods" approach, "research-based" book is neither supported, cited nor properly footnoted within the confines of her book. In spite of that fact, her books are being implented as if they were "Bibles" in numerous districts throughout the USA. In fact, the bureaucrats of the state of Illinois are requiring that we teach her methods!
Most of the material covered in her books is so very basic that most any teacher does a great deal of it already while this author gets rich.
Teaching is an art not a Patricia Cunningham book.
I recommend that you save your money and buy something creative and thought-provoking to make teaching exciting and not (any more) exhausting.

Classrooms That Work has a multitude of ideas that actually work in the classroom to help students become better readers and writers.

This book is written in a reader-friendly format. It provides many useful strategies which are easily adapted to individual classrooms. The authors reference specific books which lend themselves to cited strategies. ( Some books will prove hard to come by as they are out of print, however.) Current reasearch is presented in a clear manner.
Both authors are noted in the field of education and their ability to provide a resource for teachers that is not overly dry and overrun with statistics and obscure studies makes the book a very useful tool in today's classroom.

Now in a revised and updated third edition, Classrooms That Work by Patricia M. Cunningham (Professor of Education, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina) and Richard L. Allington (Irvin and Rose Fien Professor of Education, University of Florida) is a solid, practical no-nonsense guide to creating a positive educational environment in both public and private schools, with emphasis on teaching literacy in first through sixth grades. The authors offer useful strategies and techniques for helping children learn including cross-checking, means of accurately assessing reading skill, multilevel guided reading, and much more. Classrooms That Work is a superb resource for teachers and concerned parents seeking to improve the quality and learning atmosphere of the formal and informal classroom setting.

Pat has done a masterful job of combining the best balanced literacy practices into one easy-to-manage program. Her 4Blocks model is a surefire way to ensure that your students are learning from all angles. My only criticism is that the guided reading block does not quite fit for grades 3 and above. Pat says that your kids should read multiple books over the course of the week - each at different levels. However, beyond second grade, books are much longer, thus making it impossible to expose your students to such a wide range of levels each week.

Classrooms That Work is a great reference for any teacher K-6 to have. It begins by telling the reader what has and hasn't worked in teaching reading in the past, goes over specific teaching strategies, and finally gives the reader a window into three separate classrooms. It really aims to teach all children, and gives you many strategies in reading and writing to allow all of your students to succeed. Although it is mainly outlined for elementary level, it is clearly adaptable for middle school. I can't wait to try some of the strategies and activities when I return to school in September! Try it out-you won't be disappointed!

Classrooms That Work is a great reading and writing resource. It tells what strategies have been tried in the reading field. It tells what has worked and what hasn't worked. After you get through that, it gives you tons of strategies to use in your classroom when teaching reading and writing. The best things about these stratgies are that they are easy to implement and they work. You can also modify them to make them more suitable for you. These strategies allow all students to be successful in your classroom. This book is a great one to keep on hand. Although it is aimed for grades K-5, you could easily adapt or modify the strategies to work in your middle school classroom. I have many new strategies to try with my students this September!

I bought this book for research for my Grad class and I ended up using it even more for my classroom! Wonderful book by two highly respected educators!

This book was an invaluable resource to me as I researched and wrote my exit project for my masters program. Literacy strategies are well written and well researched.