Americans are not reading enough, they say, or reading the right books, in the right way. In this book, Alan Jacobs argues that, contrary to the doomsayers, reading is alive and well in America. There are millions of devoted readers supporting hundreds of enormous bookstores and online booksellers. Oprah's Book Club is hugely influential, and a recent NEA survey reveals an actual uptick in the reading of literary fiction. Jacobs's interactions with his students and the readers of his own books, however, suggest that many readers lack confidence; they wonder whether they are reading well, with proper focus and attentiveness, with due discretion and discernment. Many have absorbed the puritanical message that reading is, first and foremost, good for you--the intellectual equivalent of eating your Brussels sprouts. For such people, indeed for all readers, Jacobs offers some simple, powerful, and much needed advice: read at whim, read what gives you delight, and do so without shame, whether it be Stephen King or the King James Version of the Bible. In contrast to the more methodical approach of Mortimer Adler's classic How to Read a Book (1940), Jacobs offers an insightful, accessible, and playfully irreverent guide for aspiring readers. Each chapter focuses on one aspect of approaching literary fiction, poetry, or nonfiction, and the book explores everything from the invention of silent reading, reading responsively, rereading, and reading on electronic devices. Invitingly written, with equal measures of wit and erudition, The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction will appeal to all readers, whether they be novices looking for direction or old hands seeking to recapture the pleasures of reading they first experienced as children.

    In the highly litigated area of Special Education, it is imperative that professionals in the field understand the legal requirements of providing a free appropriate public education to students with disabilities. This text presents the necessary information for educators to understand the history and development of special education laws and the requirements of these laws. It provides the reader with the necessary skills to locate pertinent information in law libraries, on the Internet, and other sources to keep abreast of the constant changes and developments in the field. The second edition of The Law and Special Education, one of the top special education law books in the field, includes new information on the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004 and the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. It has been updated with the latest information on the statutes, regulations, policy guidance, and cases on special education law.

    Turn on a single lamp and read it while you're alone in an otherwise dark room or while someone sleeps next to you. Say it over to yourself in a place where silence reigns and the din of culture-the constant buzzing noise that surrounds you-has momentarily stopped. This poem has come from a great distance to find you." So begins this astonishing book by one of our leading poets and critics. In an unprecedented exploration of the genre, Hirsch writes about what poetry is, why it matters, and how we can open up our imaginations so that its message-which is of vital importance in day-to-day life-can reach us and make a difference. For Hirsch, poetry is not just a part of life, it is life, and expresses like no other art our most sublime emotions. In a marvelous reading of world poetry, including verse by such poets as Wallace Stevens, Elizabeth Bishop, Pablo Neruda, William Wordsworth, Sylvia Plath, Charles Baudelaire, and many more, Hirsch discovers the meaning of their words and ideas and brings their sublime message home into our hearts. A masterful work by a master poet, this brilliant summation of poetry and human nature will speak to all readers who long to place poetry in their lives but don't know how to read it.

    This long-awaited revision contains changes throughout the text. There are new implementations of most of the major programming systems in the book, including the interpreters and compilers, and the authors have incorporated many small changes that reflect their experience teaching the course at MIT since the first edition was published. A new theme has been introduced that emphasizes the central role played by different approaches to dealing with time in computational models: objects with state, concurrent programming, functional programming and lazy evaluation, and nondeterministic programming. There are new example sections on higher-order procedures in graphics and on applications of stream processing in numerical programming, and many new exercises. In addition, all the programs have been reworked to run in any Scheme implementation that adheres to the IEEE standard.

    The Sixth Edition of Creating Literacy Instruction for All Students continues to be one of the most comprehensive, practical texts on the market, and includes a new focus on higher-level literacy practices. Written by distinguished author Tom Gunning, Creating Literacy Instruction for All Students provides readers with step-by-step guidance for teaching reading and writing, including sample lessons for virtually every major literacy skill/strategy. Reflecting the author's ongoing extensive hands-on work with schools coping with the demands of No Child Left Behind, the Sixth edition includes teaching tips and materials that are more practical, more realistic, more effective, and more extensive than ever. With its careful balance between the theory and the practice, the book always gives readers the theories behind the methods, encouraging them to choose, adapt, and construct their own approaches as they create a balanced program of literacy instruction. learners, struggling readers and writers, and special needs students, Creating Literacy for All Students, Sixth Edition, looks at developing higher-level literacy requirements for reading and writing, including those stemming from No Child Left Behind regulations and high-stakes tests. The new edition stresses effective steps for closing the gap between the reading, writing, discussion, and thinking skills as mandated by No Child Left Behind and Reading First

    The latest edition offers greatly expanded coverage of directed mutagenesis and protein engineering, therapeutic agents, and genetic engineering of plants. Updated chapters reflect recent developments in biotechnology and the societal issues related to it, such as cloning, gene therapy, and patenting and releasing genetically engineered organisms. Over 480 figures, including 200 that are new in this edition, illustrate all key concepts. "Milestones" summarize important research papers in the history of biotechnology and their effects on the field. As in previous editions, the authors clearly explain all concepts and techniques to provide maximum understanding of the subject, avoiding confusing scientific jargon and excessive detail wherever possible. Each chapter concludes with a summary, references, and review questions. Ideally suited as a text for third- and fourth-year undergraduates as well as graduate students, this book is also an excellent reference for health professionals, scientists, engineers, or attorneys interested in biotechnology.

    Building on their experience as professional systems analysts and award-winning teachers, authors Dennis, Wixom, and Roth capture the experience of developing and analyzing systems in a way that students can understand and apply.With Systems Analysis and Design, 4th edition , students will leave the course with experience that is a rich foundation for further work as a systems analyst.

    With an increasing number of graduate and business school applicants and an increasing number of GRE test-takers—now a complete test overhaul by the test-maker—a high GRE score is critical to set yourself apart from the competition.New GRE 2011-2012 Premier with CD-ROM is a comprehensive package that includes a book, CD-ROM, and online companion with in-depth strategies, test information, and practice questions to help students score higher on the new GRE Revised General Test. New GRE 2011-2012 Premier with CD-ROM is fully updated and revised with 75 percent all-new content covering the revised and expanded Verbal, Quantitative, and Analytical Writing Assessment Test sections, including 50 percent new practice questions and brand new strategies for each of the new question types.New GRE 2011-2012 Premier with CD-ROM features:6 full-length practice tests (1 in the book, 5 online)400 practice questions and answer explanations on the CD-ROMA detailed overview of the test changesKey strategies for all New GRE question typesDetails and practice sets for the Verbal and Quantitative sectionsDiagnostic tool in end-of-chapter practice sets for even more targeted practiceAdvice for the graduate school application processKaplan guarantees that readers will score higher on the GRE Revised General Test using our guide—or get their money back.

    It is a book for everybody who wants to learn how to write or who needs to do some writing to get through the day, as almost everybody does in the age of e-mail and the Internet. Whether you want to write about people or places, science and technology, business, sports, the arts or about yourself in the increasingly popular memoir genre, On Writing Well offers you fundamental priciples as well as the insights of a distinguished writer and teacher. With more than a million copies sold, this volume has stood the test of time and remains a valuable resource for writers and would-be writers.

    The field of Second language acquisition (SLA, for short) investigates the human capacity to learn additional languages in late childhood, adolescence, or adulthood, after the first language -in the case of monolinguals- or languages -in the case of bilinguals- have already been acquired. Understanding Second Language Acquisition offers a wide-encompassing survey of this burgeoning field, its accumulated findings and proposed theories, its developed research paradigms, and its pending questions for the future. The book zooms in and out of universal, individual, and social forces, in each case evaluating the research findings that have been generated across diverse naturalistic and formal contexts for second language acquisition. It assumes no background in SLA and provides helpful chapter-by-chapter summaries and suggestions for further reading.Ideal as a textbook for students of applied linguistics, foreign language education, TESOL, and education, it is also recommended for students of linguistics, developmental psycholinguistics, psychology, and cognitive science.

    The Official LSAT SuperPrep

    The book has special interest for aspiring writers, students of literature and language, and anyone who finds joy in reading and writing.". . . Artful Sentences: Syntax as Style, generally recognized as the best study of sentence style." Brooks Landon, University of Iowa, in Building Useful Sentences, page 122.

    It contains a collection of imaginative and interesting grammar practice activities suitable for a wide range of levels and ages. Part one provides: * a detailed introduction to grammar teaching * guidelines for the design of activities * practical hints on effective classroom presentation. Part two contains: * almost 200 game-like activities for practising important or problematical aspects of English grammar, with detailed descriptions of procedure * sample texts and visuals which may be photocopied for immediate use.

    Engineering professor Barbara Oakley knows firsthand how it feels to struggle with math. She flunked her way through high school math and science courses, before enlisting in the army immediately after graduation. When she saw how her lack of mathematical and technical savvy severely limited her options—both to rise in the military and to explore other careers—she returned to school with a newfound determination to re-tool her brain to master the very subjects that had given her so much trouble throughout her entire life. In A Mind for Numbers, Dr. Oakley lets us in on the secrets to effectively learning math and science—secrets that even dedicated and successful students wish they’d known earlier. Contrary to popular belief, math requires creative, as well as analytical, thinking. Most people think that there’s only one way to do a problem, when in actuality, there are often a number of different solutions—you just need the creativity to see them. For example, there are more than three hundred different known proofs of the Pythagorean Theorem. In short, studying a problem in a laser-focused way until you reach a solution is not an effective way to learn math. Rather, it involves taking the time to step away from a problem and allow the more relaxed and creative part of the brain to take over. A Mind for Numbers shows us that we all have what it takes to excel in math, and learning it is not as painful as some might think!

    In addition to explaining the basic moves, this book provides writing templates that show students explicitly how to make these moves in their own writing.