Illuminating Texts: How to Teach Students to Read the World

By Jim Burke

Today's students face such a barrage of competing texts in so many different forms and media that it's almost impossible to know what to trust and where to turn anymore. So it's now up to teachers to help students determine not only what should be read, but how it should be read. Illuminating d104s , Jim Burke's most ambitious book yet, addresses this issue. It explores the powerful idea of "textual intelligence," offers both practical and theoretical information on teaching and reading, and explains how to incorporate the newest ideas and techniques into actual classroom practice. Jim also presents an important argument for teaching what students will need to know, and be able to do, in the future - one of our primary responsibilities as educators. Each chapter has a clear focus - e.g., Reading the Internet, Reading d104books, Reading Literature, Reading Images - and all follow a similar format, including background information and rationale, standards connections, questions to ask, classroom connections, elements of the text, and additional resources. You can turn to the book for a five-minute read and find some questions to use in your next period. Or you can read an entire chapter, to help you clarify your thinking. Illuminating d104s' accompanying website - www.englishcompanion.com/illuminating - continues and complements the book by providing additional resources, all of which are frequently updated.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0867094974
• ISBN13: 9780867094978
• Release Date: September 2001
• Publisher: Heinemann
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.2" x 0.5" x 7.4"
• Grade Range: Grades 6 to 12

Customer Reviews

Invaluable Book

As a college student interested in becoming a teacher, I have found this book to be extremely valuable. Using clear and concise language, the book addresses the issues of how we can tell that a text can be trusted and how a student can learn to read such a text. Having not yet entered into the educational field, I feel like this book has a valuable wealth of information that I can be taught from before I teach, when I am learning to teach and while I am teaching. The book is divided up into easy to read chapters with important ideas, terms or, questions accented by bullet points. The different chapters examine how to read important topics such as literature, textbooks and tests. My personal favorite is the chapter "Reading the Internet" which discusses the many facets of this resource. Online searches are a main source of information for students today. The book identifies and defines important aspects of this such as the types of texts and web sites that can be found. In addition, the author suggests questions that a teacher can ask a student to help them determine the quality of the site they are searching. The author provides an immense amount of very useful information on reading texts. Whether it is about teaching students how to read online texts, learning what questions to ask or making connections to what is read, this book is invaluable. I am confident it will be part of my educational career.