4 out of 4 stars
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Highly Effective Teaching Strategies: Winning in the Classroom is an informative and inspiring guidebook for teachers written by Marc Hoberman.
In addition to the Foreword, the book has eleven interesting and very helpful chapters and a list of websites for lesson plans. The first three chapters deal with the act of teaching including attendance taking, record keeping, lesson planning, classroom management and classroom observation by the chairperson or principal; the next five are all about interactions such as working with parents, dealing with the administration and working with colleagues; and the last three feature the important factors in the education and learning process which are the students and the teachers.
This is a great book about teaching and teachers. With only 74 pages, it is a very short but very concise book. I am a teacher myself and I have read several books about principles and strategies of teaching but I still learned a lot from this book. It is organized, comprehensive and sincere. Apparently, the author wrote this book out of his love and passion for the noblest profession in the world.
The book emphasizes the importance of taking attendance, keeping records and assigning learning targets. The author even includes a model lesson plan in this book and discusses the value of data, audio and video in the classroom, interactive teaching and note taking. Moreover, the book offers very important tips on how to manage student behavior and gives advice on how to handle classroom observations.
Admittedly, I love this book from cover to cover. It is unlike other books on strategies of teaching which are usually written in academic style with formal tone. It is an easy-to-use guidebook for new and old teachers alike. It offers practical and practicable advice such as taking advantage of modern technology to impart knowledge and helpful suggestions like the use of Socratic Seminar as a method of teaching and Check System to manage student behavior. Furthermore, the book openly recognizes the various types of learners (audio, visual, kinesthetic and tactile), something that some traditional educators fail to do. In addition, the author generously shares his experiences giving this book a kind of personal feel.
While the most important part of this book, for me, is that which features great master teachers who willingly share words of wisdom, helpful advice and valuable tips on how to be an effective and respected teacher, what I like most in this book is the passion of the author not just in writing this book but to the teaching profession.
Except for errors (like also knows as and should be able to given the student) which are thankfully very few, I like everything about this book.
I, therefore, rate it 4 out of 4 stars. It is informative, helpful, inspiring, encouraging, easy to read and easy to follow. I recommend it to all teachers regardless of nationality, gender, political affiliation, religious orientation and years of service. I sincerely hope that they take some time to read this book and other books on teaching strategies.
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Highly Effective Teaching Strategies
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