Here is a unique collection of engaging story hour activities to help school and public librarians spark young children's love of books and reading as they learn each letter of the alphabet and letter-sound relationships.

From Alligators for A to Zoo for Z, this resource provides over 100 ready-to-use multisensory activities, games, and patterns based on innovative themes and favorite fiction and nonfiction books for beginning readers.

These story hour activities are ideal for integrating library skills into the early childhood program and include a wide variety of projects to appeal to the multiple learning styles of any group of children. For each letter of the alphabet you'll find:

• a motivating Introductory Activity such as an interactive game, a set of riddles, a drawing story, a message rebus, or a felt-board story, e.g., For A, you use a roll of paper towels to gradually reveal seven intriguing facts about Alligators.
• An extensive Annotated Reading List including at least 10 related recommended story books for read-alouds plus nonfiction sources for extended learning and research, e.g., The Pirate Who Tried to Capture the Moon and Sunken Treasure for Pirates.
• A fun and easy Recipe related to the theme, e.g., "Swamp Juice" for Frogs ... "Graham Cracker Houses" for Home ... and "Sunrise on the Amazon" for Rain Forest
• A Music Activity based on well-known tunes such as "Three Blind Mice" and "Old MacDonald," with music and related fingerplays/movements provided, e.g., "We Took a Walk in the Woods" for Camping ... "The Meatball Counting Song" for Spaghetti ... and "The Turtle Game" for Turtles
• an Art Activity complete with reproducible patterns, e.g.,"Bubble Creature" for Bubbles ... "Dinosaur Finger Puppets" for Dinosaurs ... and "Monster Hat" for Monsters
• a reproducible Research Project to help children build basic library research skills, e.g., using an encyclopedia with color illustrations to answer several questions about Frogs and using a dictionary to find synonyms that rhyme with Love

Plus, you'll find quick proven techniques to generate interest in each new theme, specific skill objectives for each alphabet teaching unit, and creative extension activities ideal for small group collaboration.

And to save you time and work, all materials are printed in a big 8-1/4" x 11" lay-flat binding for easy photocopying of the activity sheets and patterns as many times as you need them for use with individual students, small groups or a whole class.

In short, Library Story Hour From A to Z is packed with exciting multisensory activities to introduce young children to each letter of the alphabet while exploring a wide range of interesting fiction and nonfiction books. These activities not only help you integrate library and classroom instruction but enliven and enrich the entire early childhood curriculum!

For reading and classroom teachers in grades 5-12, here is a complete, step-by-step guide to setting up and running a successful reading workshop where reading is the priority-- all conveniently organized into two parts.

Part I, "Management of the Reading Workshop," shows how to create a reading workshop, offers specific tools and strategies for classroom management, and includes reproducible handouts. Following is a brief description of the three chapters in this section:
* An overview-- Emphasizes that through reading and responding to what is read, students communicate and share ideas while they learn skills. Reproducibles include "Elements of the Reading Workshop" and "The Role of the Teacher in the Reading Workshop."
*Management-- Covers everything from beginning your day to building a positive atmosphere and organizing discussion groups. Reproducibles include "Student Responsibilities in the Reading Workshop" and "Reading Log Guidelines."
*Evaluation-- Provides descriptions of various evaluation methods, such as portfolios, daily logs of student performance, and conferencing. Reproducibles include "Book Summary Sheet" and "Self-Evaluation Questions for Teachers."
Part II, "Using Mini-Lessons in the Reading Workshop," contains 100 different mini-lessons focusing on specific reading topics and skills. Each of the lessons stands alone, can be used in any order you wish, and is accompanied by one and sometimes two reproducibles. The lessons cover:

(1) Types of Reading and Related Topics. 50 mini-lessons feature topics such as Helping Students Select Books for Reading... The Publishing Process... Book Review... Mysteries...Mythology of NativeAmericans...Poetry of African Americans.
(2) Story Elements. 25 mini-lessons focus on story elements like What Makes a Good Lead... Motivation... Style and Tone... Symbolism... First-Person Point of View... Foreshadowing.
(3) Specific Reading Skills. 25 mini-lessons cover a wide array of reading skills, such as Identifying Fact and Opinion... Strategies for Improving Reading Comprehension... Recalling Details... Cause and Effect...Reading Test-Taking Strategies... SQ3R.

In short, the Reading Workshop Survival Kit gives you all the guidelines and tools you need to use the workshop approach effectively, plus 100 ready-to-use mini-lessons and over 120 reproducible worksheets and handouts for teaching and reinforcing specific reading skills and topics in any program.

Public speaking is an integral skill not only in study but in life, yet giving presentations, oral assessments, or even talking in groups is a terrifying prospect for many students. This book is filled with tips and tricks cultivated through Rob Grieve's experience in running public speaking workshops at university. Taking the fear out of public speaking at university, he teaches you how to develop your public speaking skills and build your confidence; so whether you're giving a presentation or just talking with friends you can face the situation without fear. With a unique focus on 'authenticity' over perfection, Stand Up and be Heard: Helps you identify and understanding your fear; what is it that you are most afraid of? How does this fear manifest Provides practical exercises and strategies that will help you manage your fear Teaches you the benefits of 'authentic' speaking and relying on your own voice and personality Offers checklists, step-by-step guidance and student testimonials to support your growth. The Student Success series are essential guides for students of all levels. From how to think critically and write great essays to planning your dream career, the Student Success series helps you study smarter and get the best from your time at university.

Weaving It Together helps learners build reading and writing skills through relevant readings and carefully structured writing exercises. By balancing these two necessary competencies, learners seamlessly develop both language and academic skills.

The Most Comprehensive writing resource a teacher can own! 300 "Quickwrites"; a calendar of 25 topics each month for short, daily practice; 209 story starters and titles for longer, more formal writings; 151 reproducible writing forms. 12 monthly sections.

The Yucatan Peninsula draws many North American and European travelers each year to view the ruins of the pre-Columbian Classical Maya civilization and the abundant native flora and fauna. For these travelers, as well as armchair travelers and students, Gary Bevington has prepared the first general English-language introduction to Yucatec Maya, the native language of the people indigenous to the region.

Written in nontechnical terms for learners who have a basic knowledge of simple Mexican Spanish, the book presents easily understood, practical information for anyone who would like to communicate with the Maya in their native language. In addition to covering the pronunciation and grammar of Maya, Bevington includes invaluable tips on learning indigenous languages "in the field." Most helpful are his discussions of the cultural and material worlds of the Maya, accompanied by essential words and expressions for common objects and experiences. A Maya-English-Spanish glossary with extensive usage examples and an English-Maya glossary conclude the book.

Note: The supplemental audiocasette, Spoken Maya for Travelers and Students, is now available as a free download.

An unmissable collection of eight unconventional and captivating short stories for young and adult learners. "I love Olly's work - and you will too!" - Barbara Oakley, PhD, Author of New York Times bestseller A Mind for Numbers Short Stories in German for Beginners has been written especially for students from beginner to intermediate level, designed to give a sense of achievement, and most importantly - enjoyment! Mapped to A2-B1 on the Common European Framework of Reference, these eight captivating stories will both entertain you, and give you a feeling of progress when reading. What does this book give you? * Eight stories in a variety of exciting genres, from science fiction and crime to history and thriller - making reading fun, while you learn a wide range of new vocabulary * Controlled language at your level, including the 1000 most frequent words, to help you progress confidently * Authentic spoken dialogues, to help you learn conversational expressions and improve your speaking ability * Pleasure! It's much easier to learn a new language when you're having fun, and research shows that if you're enjoying reading in a foreign language, you won't experience the usual feelings of frustration - 'It's too hard!' 'I don't understand!' * Accessible grammar so you learn new structures naturally, in a stress-free way Carefully curated to make learning a new language easy, these stories include key features that will support and consolidate your progress, including * A glossary for bolded words in each text * A bilingual word list * Full plot summary * Comprehension questions after each chapter. As a result, you will be able to focus on enjoying reading, delighting in your improved range of vocabulary and grasp of the language, without ever feeling overwhelmed or frustrated. From science fiction to fantasy, to crime and thrillers, Short Stories in German for Beginners will make learning French easy and enjoyable.

This book examines the use of tasks in second language instruction in a variety of international contexts, and addresses the need for a better understanding of how tasks are used in teaching and program-level decision-making. The chapters consider the key issues, examples, benefits and challenges that teachers, program designers and researchers face in using tasks in a diverse range of contexts around the world, and aim to understand practitioners' concerns with the relationship between tasks and performance. They provide examples of how tasks are used with learners of different ages and different proficiency levels, in both face-to-face and online contexts. In documenting these uses of tasks, the authors of the various chapters illuminate cultural, educational and institutional factors that can make the effective use of tasks more or less difficult in their particular context.

Academics Writing recounts how academic writing is changing in the contemporary university, transforming what it means to be an academic and how, as a society, we produce academic knowledge. Writing practices are changing as the academic profession itself is reconfigured through new forms of governance and accountability, increasing use of digital resources, and the internationalisation of higher education. Through detailed studies of writing in the daily life of academics in different disciplines and in different institutions, this book explores: the space and time of academic writing; tensions between disciplines and institutions around genres of writing; the diversity of stances adopted towards the tools and technologies of writing, and towards engagement with social media; and the importance of relationships and collaboration with others, in writing and in ongoing learning in a context of constant change. Drawing out implications of the work for academics, university management, professional training, and policy, Academics Writing: The Dynamics of Knowledge Creation is key reading for anyone studying or researching writing, academic support, and development within education and applied linguistics.

The essential guide to the science behind reading and its practical implications for classroom teaching in primary schools. Teaching children to read is one of the most important tasks in primary education and classroom practice needs to be underpinned by a secure foundation of knowledge. Teachers need to know what reading entails, how children learn to read and how it can be taught effectively. This book is an essential guide for primary teachers that explores the key technical and practical aspects of how children read with strong links to theory and how to translate this into the classroom. Bite-size chapters offer accessible research-informed ideas across all major key topics including phonics, comprehension, teaching children with reading difficulties and strategies for the classroom. Key features include: * Discussions of implications for the classroom * Questions for further professional discussions * Retrieval quizzes * Further reading suggestions * Glossary of key terms Christopher Such is a primary school teacher and the author of the education blog Primary Colour. He can be found on Twitter via @Suchmo83.

Turn your rusty French language skills into polished conversation confidence "Tune Up Your French" offers you an entertaining and practical way to hone your French-language conversation skills. This book is structured around numerous key areas for improvement, covering everything from tricky grammatical structures to gestures, slang, and humor. In each area, key phrases are presented in "Top Ten" lists, including everyday expressions for filling pauses, icebreakers, and more. This book is excellent for brushing up on the French you studied in high school or college.

The accompanying MP3 disk contains an engaging 70-minute program for learning key expressions from the book. It includes mp3 recordings of sixty Top 10 lists, organized for each access and reference on your iPod or mp3 player. This disk may not play on older, stand-alone CD players.

Dale Carnegie afirma que cualquier hombre es capaz de hablar cuando se excita. Alega que casi cualquier persona puede hablar en publico pasaderamente si tiene confianza en si misma y una idea de que hablar.

La mejor manera de lograr confianza en si mismo, dice, es hacer lo que tenemos que hacer, y dejar una estela de experiencias felices. Por esto obliga a todos sus alumnos a hablar todos los dias de clase. Los alumnos lo hacen de buena gana. Todos estan en el mismo barco, y por la practica constante nutren su valor, confianza y entusiasmo, del que ya no se desprenderan jamas.

Aunque todos los hombres no tienen precision de ser oradores, ni escritores publicos, o carecen de aptitud o disposicion para estos oficios; sin embargo, tendran muchos de ellos, en diferentes situaciones de la fortuna y destinos de la vida civil, ocasiones de acreditar con el imperio de la palabra su merito, su puesto, su estado, su poder o su talento.

Puzzled by past tenses? Confused be comparatives? The English for Everyone Grammar Practice Book is packed with practice questions and activities to help you learn essential English grammar through visual and engaging content. The Grammar Practice Book helps you to develop your practical English through a variety of exercises and examples that will expand your understanding of grammar and punctuation in use. When used alongside our Grammar Guide, which introduces essential grammar rules through visual teaching methods, this grammar book is ideal for English test preparations or ESL lesson plans. About English For Everyone English for Everyone is a series of guides and practice books that support English learning for teenagers and adults from a beginner level, to intermediate, and advanced practical English. Offering an easy-to-follow format that offers guidance for both teaching English as a foreign language, and a self-study approach with resources available to improve English speaking, reading and writing. Whether you are looking for ESL teaching resources, or a structured programme for adults to learn English as a second language, the English for Everyone Series provides: - Sample language examples: New language topics are introduced in context using clear, illustrated, and colour-coded explanations - Supporting audio: Extensive English-speaking audio materials integrated into every unit, giving vital oral and listening practice. (All supplementary audio is available on the DK English for Everyone website and IOS/Android App). - Quick referencing: Easy-to-follow units, mirrored in both the Course and Practice Books for easy referencing and teaching - Sentence formation guides: Visual break downs of essential English grammar for beginners, showing learners how to recreate even complex English sentences - Visual English vocabulary cues: Lists of useful English words and common phrases with visual aids are available throughout the book - Personalised learning: Write-on lines encourage ESL learners to write their prompts and translations The English for Everyone Series covers the skills and topics required for all major global English-language exams and reference frameworks including: - CEFR - TOEFL - IELTS - TOEIC

This is a comprehensive introduction to English text-linguistics. It deals with those areas of text-linguistics that have enjoyed widespread attention in English linguistics, notably aspects of cohesion and coherence. Further topics are corpus-based studies in lexical patterns and in text classifications, psycho-linguistic and cognitive studies in text constitution and decoder-orientation. One special feature of this book is that it not only covers abstract lexical and grammatical structures but also medium-dependent written and spoken presentation.

A Pulitzer Prize-winning author's revelatory celebration of the novel - at once an anatomy of the art of fiction, a guide for readers and writers and a memoir of literary life. Over her 20 year career, Jane Smiley has written many kinds of novels - mystery, comedy, historical fiction, epic. But when her impulse to write faltered after 9/11, she decided to approach novels from a different angle: she read 100 of them, from the 1000-year-old Tale of Genji to the recent bestseller White Teeth by Zadie Smith, from classics to little-known gems. With these books and her experience of reading them as her reference, Smiley discusses the pleasure of reading; why a novel succeeds - or doesn't; and how the form has changed over time. She delves into the character of the novelist and reveals how (and which) novels have affected her own life. Smiley takes us deep into the process of novel-writing, sharing the secrets of her own habits and theories of creativity. She offers priceless practical advice to aspiring writers, and even walks us through the publication of her most recent novel, Good Faith. And in an appendix - one of the most compelling and intelligent reading lists ever compiled - Smiley considers individually the 100 novels she read, giving us a brief but cogent description of each, along with her own opinions and interpretations. Engaging, wise, decidedly unacademic - and bound to be one of Smiley's most widely read and beloved books.

"Reading Skills for Success" is a guide to advanced reading skills that can be used in conjunction with any freshman-level text. It is an excellent sequel to "Reader's Choice, 4th edition."
Students using this book will develop their text-based processing skills by developing better understanding of word-level clues and recognizing different types of text structures. The appendixes include two sample textbook chapters -- the first on ecosystems and the second on the diffusion of languages -- so students may practice what they have learned.
Activities are designed to improve:
analytical reading of academic prose
the ability to apply one's knowledge to what is read by identifying textual relationships and structural organization of the paragraphs and the text
reading of complex academic texts with in-depth and long-term understanding using reading, test preparation, and note taking strategies.
An answer key is included.

Intermediate Written Chinese is tailored to your personal Chinese language-learning goals and abilities so that you can become fluent as smoothly as possible! Part of the widely-used and highly acclaimed Kubler series, the Basic Chinese and Intermediate Chinese books provide separate but integrated tracks to help you learn to read, write and speak Chinese efficiently, at your own pace. Some students and teachers wish to emphasize speaking ability first, whereas others want to focus on learning to read and write Chinese at the same time. These Chinese language study books allow you the flexibility to learn the spoken language and the written language with the method that best fits your needs. This carefully designed book and CD-ROM duo will: Teach you to use 288 high-frequency Chinese characters, and over 700 standard words written with them Have you quickly reading and writing related Chinese sentences Offer you the choice of learning both Simplified and Traditional Chinese characters; both are used throughout Feature a variety of fonts in both typeset and handwritten styles, to prepare you to use the Chinese language in many different contexts from reading signs and newspapers, to computers and mobile phone texts Come with hours of native-speaker recordings and practice sheets, plus printable flash cards, on the enclosed CD-ROM. Intermediate Written Chinese stands out among Chinese books and textbooks for its dynamic study system and practical exercises, which will assist you in learning Chinese quickly and comfortably.

This book presents a comprehensive approach to issues related to researching and teaching second language (L2) writing in digital environments. In the digital age, new technologies have revolutionized the ways we communicate and construct knowledge, and have also reshaped the traditional notions of writing and literacy, posing new challenges and opportunities for L2 teachers and students. This book provides up-to-date coverage of the main areas of L2 writing and technology, including digital multimodal composing, computer-mediated collaborative writing, online teacher and peer feedback, automated writing evaluation, and corpus-based writing instruction. It synthesizes the relevant literature, analyzes theoretical perspectives, compiles relevant resources, and offers research and pedagogical recommendations to guide scholars in undertaking new L2 writing research and instructional practice in technologically-supported educational contexts. This book will be of relevance and interest to researchers, language teachers, and graduate students in applied linguistics and education.

A powerful guide for every woman looking to find—or amplify—her voice

Most books about public speaking don’t tell you what to do when you open your mouth and nothing comes out. And they don’t tell you how to get over the performance anxiety that most people naturally have. They don’t tell you what to do in the moments when you are made, as a woman, to feel small. They don’t tell you how to own the room. This book does.

From the way Michelle Obama projects “happy high status,” and the power of J.K.Rowling’s understated speaking style, to Virginia Woolf’s leisurely pacing and Oprah Winfrey’s mastery of inner conviction, what is it that our heroines do to make us sit up and listen - really listen - to their every word? And how can you achieve that impact in your own life? How to Own the Room will show you exactly how.

Welcome to the world's most efficient method of learning Mandarin Chinese, whether you are striving to learn Chinese on your own, or studying in a classroom setting. Part of the widely-used and highly acclaimed Kubler series, Intermediate Spoken Chinese provides separate but integrated tracks to help you learn to read, write and speak Chinese efficiently, at your own pace. Intermediate Spoken Chinese allows you to experience real-life situations in different Mandarin-speaking locales. (It also exposes you to the authentic range of Chinese accents; you're not limited only to learning an imaginary textbook Beijing accent as in other books.) You can choose to use this book with its corresponding Intermediate Chinese Practice Essentials Workbook, available separately, that offers you a wide range of one-of-a-kind activities to help you practice the language skills you learn here. Key features of Intermediate Spoken Chinese: Clear and detailed explanations of natural, colloquial Chinese grammar, pronunciation and usage Recommended strategies to help you learn to speak Chinese more efficiently Experience the actual speaking styles of Chinese people in various parts of mainland China as well as Taiwan, Macao, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia Notes on Chinese culture and society allow you to understand situational etiquette Discussions of challenges faced specifically by English speakers who are learning Chinese and how to overcome them Audio recordings by native speakers of all the vocabulary, dialogues, and other vital items A separate Teacher's Guide and a full character transcript (Simplified and Traditional) are both available electronically An accompanying software program contains 56 videos shot on location which allows you to view conversations involving Chinese speakers from different parts of China. With this language learning set that includes a textbook, CD-ROM, and DVD, you will be speaking Chinese gracefully and fluidly and feel confident traveling in the Mandarin-speaking world.