Illuminating Texts: How to Teach Students to Read the World

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 Texts, 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 Textbooks, 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 Texts' accompanying website - www.englishcompanion.com/illuminating - continues and complements the book by providing additional resources, all of which are frequently updated.

JIM BURKE teaches English at Burlingame High School in California. He is the author of numerous best-selling books, including The English Teachers Companion, Second Edition, Tools for Thought, Reading Reminders, and Writing Reminders, all published by Heinemann, as well as The Readers Handbook, published by Great Source. He also offers online courses with HeinemannU. Jim is the recipient of NCTEs 2000 Exemplary English Leadership Award. Inducted into the California Reading Associations Hall of Fame in 2001, he currently serves on the Adolescence and Young Adulthood/English Language Arts Standards Committee of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Email Jim Burke at jburke@englishcompanion.com