Click Here To Purchase Getting School-Wise  

Author: Carol A. Josel

ISBN: 0-8108-4194-0

Publisher: ScarecrowEducation

School Sense Helper for the Student

Practical and well-organized, Getting School-Wise is an excellent investment for parents of children working their way through middle school. Armed with this guidebook, the parent has an arsenal of ideas and techniques for enhancing the school experience.

The book begins with “Teacher Notes and Additional Activities” which is organized to correspond to each chapter in the body of the book. This section provides background information about the purpose of the activity and suggestions on how to help the student get the most out of each activity. I liked having this information up front and formatted for quick reference. Author Josel gets to the point quickly and thoughtfully arranges the material so it is easy to find the notes that correspond to a student chapter. 

The remainder of the book is written for the student to use. It is in workbook format, reminiscent of the old “Think and Do” books from my childhood classrooms. The chapters are referred to as “parts” and Part 2, “Organization and Homework Activities” serves as a good example of what to expect from this book.

It begins with a self-assessment quiz that helps a student determine where he is at the moment with his homework skills. “Tips on getting organized” follows this baseline with a convenient checkbox in front of each suggestion for noting which tips will be tried. There is a space to write a short plan for the student to summarize his plan for organizing his homework after the tips are listed.  

Seven more workbook-style pages come next, addressing space, supplies, how to hold yourself accountable for your conduct in school, and expectations of getting homework done right. Good planning and good use of outside resources such as a phone buddy for keeping track of assignments during an absence have dedicated pages. Homework helper sites are noted next and the part concludes with a page devoted to articulating visions and goals as they relate to your responsibilities as a student.

I think the page on abbreviations in the part on Note-Taking Activities will resonate well with students accustomed to text messing. The exercise for this activity includes directions on how to create a code to assist in translating the abbreviations back to full text. 

Examples of common graphic organizations are found in the Appendix and a thorough Bibliography carry through the theme of having resources readily available.

The author’s extensive classroom experience combines very well with her experience in raising her own daughter, resulting in an excellent resource that speaks directly to the student in need of establishing effective learning habits. 

I highly recommend this book to students and parents who take education

seriously.

The above review was contributed by: Paula Buermele: Paula is the author of The Dream Catcher Tour and has extensive experience in corporate writing, process documentation, and writing training materials.