Tessa Woodward, TTJ, UK

Editorial:
These reviews are published in HLT courtesy of TTTJ editor Tessa Woodward.

Tessa Woodward, teacher trainer, author, editor of the Teacher Trainer Journal.



If you wish to view preview of the book Creative Resources by Bonnie Tsai and Judit Feher please go to HLT section : Book Preview

Creative Resources by Bonnie Tsai and Judit Feher(2004) International Alliance for Learning
www. IALearn.org

I've never had the pleasure of meeting Judit Feher. But Bonnie Tsai I know. Those of you who have also had the pleasure of meeting Bonnie will know that you can tell she's creative just by looking at her! The colour of her clothes, the unusual earrings make me feel positively artistic even before she starts sharing ideas! So I was expecting good things when I opened Judit's and Bonnie's book. I wasn't disappointed.
The spiral bound paperback of 127 pages is divided up into 5 different chapters: the individual, the group, literary works, art and sensory experience as resource. Within each chapter are 15-20 recipes with time, level, material, focus, procedure and comments all spelled out clearly. The authors firmly believe that learner target language firms up most effectively when learners participate in an activity that is meaningful in itself. So the activities in the book are not about 'the past tense' or 'the get passive'. They are, rather, about e.g.'Bridges', 'Toothpick debates', 'Under the sea', 'The magic box' and 'Monet /Manet'.
So there are plenty of activity ideas in the book. These are clearly explained and they don't focus first on language structures. So far, so good. But are the activities actually doable? For, often, I pick up a teacher's resource book full of hope only to find on reading through it that there is very little I can try with my classes (though these are full of students, academics, teachers and other workers from 16-90, mono and multi lingual) . Sometimes I find the topics too dark or dicey. Sometimes the activities too far fetched. Bonnie and Judit's book is now covered in little pencil ticks where I have marked activities I want to try out. Why? Because the topics and steps are varied as to the physical sense they involve and the type of cognitive process they encourage. They are optimistic and uplifting as to subject matter, tending to build self and group esteem. They encourage co-operation rather than competition And they really are strikingly different from ideas in other recipe books. They involve coloured paper, pebbles, envelopes, poems, collages, posters and other creative but inexpensive resources. They have students milling and imagining, looking at art reproductions and brainstorming questions. They have teachers collecting pictures and feathers. And they involve everyone in surprises

**** Recommended

Editorial(2):
The purpose of these notices is to broadly indicate topic and to point out likely points of interest to teacher educators. Print size and book dimensions are noted only if unusual; indexes and bibliographies are noted only if unusual or absent.
Tessa Woodward

How to Improve Your School. J Rudduck and J Flutter (2004) Continuum. ISBN 0-8264-6531-5. xv+189pp. No focus on TESOL. Launches the publisher's Improving Schools series. Argues that effective promotion of constructivist learning and citizenship require that pupils should be more involved in the decision-making that affects their lives in school. Especially useful on account of the extent to which the authors take account of (and often quote) students' views on a range of issues. Not unduly UK referenced.

Teaching without Disruption in the Secondary School: A model for managing student behaviour. R. Chaplain (2003) Routledge Falmer. ISBN 0-415-24834-5. x+203pp. Advocates a multi-level complex of strategies variously centered on teachers themselves, individual students, the classroom, and the (secondary) school as a whole. Not unduly UK referenced and so potentially useful for non-UK teachers. Each chapter ends with suggestions for further reading. A twelve page bibliography (but it omits the instructive Gathercoal, F. 1993. Judicious Discipline. Caddo Gap Press). Very sound and more thorough than Cowley (2001).

Teaching Large Classes: Usable practices from around the world. M Cherian and R Mau, eds. (2003) McGraw Hill. ISBN 0-07-120280-3 (hbk). x+182pp. Twelve chapters (by seventeen contributors) + prologue. No TESOL focus. Describes settings and examples of practices mainly in non-western, less affluent settings, e.g., South Africa, China, and India. Includes chapters on Waldorf schools, inclusion of disabled students, reaching children of high ability, teacher-student relationships, using cooperative learning, and getting to know every student through portfolios. Potentially broadening background reading, especially for teacher trainers/educators but also for teachers, especially in-service. Would be extremely useful reading for anyone whose experience has so far been with classes of, say, 30 or fewer students. Chiefly concerns cultural settings, policies, reshaping organi sations and broad suggestions about pedagogy rather than discrete classroom procedures.

Observing Children: A practical guide. C Sharman, W Cross and D Vennis (2004, 3rd ed.) Continuum. ISBN 0-8264-7238-9. ix+157pp. 19x25cm. Concerns children from birth to age eight. For primary teachers and participants in child care courses. From the blurb: 'based on real observations, describes aims and objectives, illustrates methods of recording observations, provides guidance on observing children with 'special needs', suggests activities for promoting progress linked to early learning goals, offers a detailed breakdown of developmental milestones'. Some specific reference to the UK educational system and to English as the medium of communication, but in parts useful as background reading for pre- or in-service course for teachers of an additional language.

New Perspectives on Bullying. K Rigby (2002) Jessica Kingsley Publishers. ISBN 1-85302-872-X. 320pp. No TESOL focus; a fair amount of the data comes from Australia. Considers a number of settings (e.g., kindergartens and schools, workplaces, the home, prisons, and sporting areas) in different countries. The twelve chapters include: Towards a definition of bullying, Bullying and health, What bullies and victims are like, Attitudes and beliefs, What is to be done about bullying? Eleven tabular appendices. Extremely useful background reading for pre- and in-service teachers especially, but not only, of pre-adults.

Boys and Girls in the Primary Classroom. C Skelton and B Francis, eds. (2003) Open University Press. ISBN 0-335-21154-2. ix+189pp. Ten chapters (sixteen contributors); chapters one and two being introductory, chapters three to ten coming under the heading 'Researching gender in the primary classroom'. No TESOL focus. Quite UK referenced but likely to be accessible to non-UK readers, or at least ones from European-type situations. The book is about 'how gender equity (and inequality) occurs in primary classrooms'. Aimed at pre- and in-service primary teachers of all subjects. A few of the contributions are distinctly activist in attitude and peppered with post-modern terms-e.g., the contributor on science teaching (Michael Reiss) believes 'science education should aim for social justice' and advocates 'critical science education' (p. 84) while Bronwyn Davies, writing on deconstruction of gender, asserts that 'patterns of power and powerlessness must be made visible' in the classroom (p. 149). Among the other contributions are ones more pragmatic in tone and descriptive in purpose. Potentially very useful as background reading for primary teacher trainers and pre- and in-service primary teachers.

Learning in Later Life: An introduction for educators and carers. P Jarvis. (2001) Kogan Page. ISBN 0-7494-3398-1. viii+162pp. Concerns learners in their 'third' and 'fourth' ages (50-74 and over 75); based on research in the UK and USA. Not focused on language learning. Includes discussion of such recent constructs as multiple intelligences and fluid vs crystalised intelligence. Presents old age as a time with strong potential for greater personal autonomy and authenticity, existential states which learning in later life can both build on and enhance. Among the book's other topical nodes are learning, how it occurs, learning as a means of integration; and the notion of the learning therapist. Informative, despite the author's premise, greatly in need of qualification, that humans have no instincts.

English for Primary Teachers: A handbook of activities and classroom language. M Slattery and J Willis (2001) Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-437563-3. 148 A4 pages. Available only as pack with 'Classroom extracts' CD. About TESOL; age range 4 to 12. Intended to help teachers with classroom English and to increase their repertoires of teaching techniques and activities. Can be used as a course book on a training course or as home study resource. The chapters cover: introduction to teaching young learners, listening and doing/making, speaking, reading, writing, telling and using stories, and effective use of English in the classroom. The CD holds 62 extracts (for emulation) recorded during English lessons in about a dozen schools in Italy, Japan, Spain, and Turkey. Very useful for teacher trainers and for primary teachers engaged in TD.

Researching and Applying Metaphor. L. Cameron and G Low, eds. (1999) Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-64964-1. xv+295pp. A volume of twelve thematically very diverse conference papers grouped under the headings: 'Key issues in metaphor research, From theory to data, Analysing metaphor in occurring data, Analysing metaphor in elicited data'. Anyone already knowledgeable about the cognitive linguistics take on metaphor as so ringingly set out in Metaphors We Live By (G Lakoff and M Johnson. 1980/2003. University of Chicago) may find something here that meshes with a particular interest of theirs. Of most obvious relevance to teacher education is 'Bridges to learning: Metaphors of teaching, learning and language' by M Cortazzi and L Jin, pp.149-176.