Book Report # 2

Deborah Farley-Opsal

OWP Summer '01

Book Review: The Best of Livewire: Practical Classroom Activities for Elementary and Middle School Students

By Julie M. Jensen

I choose this small book because of its title; Practical Activities. It is practicality that I need in my classroom. I looked mostly at the section in the Primary- Discovering Language and Literature section, because I teach at the elementary level.

The book is divided into three sections; the first is the primary section with thirteen writing activities, the second is the intermediate section, with twenty-seven writing activities, and the third section with nineteen activities is from the Advanced Intermediate Section.

I was intrigued by the first activity, Learning from a Feely Box. In this activity, students compare and contrast familiar and unfamiliar textures. Special education students benefit greatly, by being allowed to be tactily involved. This leaped frogged into the next activity, This activity encourages students to get involved in critical reading to prepare questions and phrase answers, careful listening to record information (again a must for sped kids, to listen and remember), and speaking and writing to share with others the facts that impressed them.

A couple of the activities that I liked the focus of were Helping Children Become More Responsible for Their Own Writing, and Painting the Months. Both of these activities tie together many of the skills that I work on with students regularly.

It appears that this is an easy and practical manual to use. The author also uses many little pictures to illustrate her thoughts.