PRAISE

PRAISE FOR HOUSE OF COMPREHENSION

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2014
The House of Comprehension has been reviewed by Dr. Robert Williams in The Virginia English Journal. He says, "Constance Casserly’s The House of Comprehension: Teaching Students the Elements of Literature should be on most language arts teachers’ bookshelves for its clear, linear style and emphatic appeal to reflective instruction. The text is filled with highly useful activities and insights into how teachers can motivate and engage with learners as readers, while satisfying administration’s call for documentation and planning." Click here to read the entire review.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 9, 2014
The Busy Educator Newsletter has picked The House of Comprehension, by Constance D. Casserly, as one of their features for January. Check it out!

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2013
Northern Virginia Magazine has written a splendid article about Constance D. Casserly and her book, The House of Comprehension. Click here to read it.

EXCERPT
Constance Casserly’s “The House of Comprehension,” a practical guide to teaching literature, features graphics of a big bad wolf who menaces little pigs as they labor to build a sturdy shelter. The playful illustrations enliven the book’s stated objective—to empower students in secondary grades to build a “house of comprehension,” Casserly’s metaphor for the durable skill-set possessed by strong readers and writers.

The wolf, she says, might be the ubiquitous standardized test, or a school system obsessed with data collection, or a principal who micromanages teachers—in short, any of the forces currently bedeviling America’s educational climate, threatening to blow creativity and critical thinking skills, not to mention love of learning, to smithereens.

A 25-year veteran of Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) who retired in 2011, Casserly frequently devotes her weekly teaching blog to the various ripple effects of the testing frenzy that has evolved in recent years, ever since phrases like No Child Left Behind and Adequate Yearly Progress found their way into the educational lexicon. She is especially concerned about the dwindling morale of good teachers and fears they will slam the door on a profession that desperately needs them. Casserly herself resigned two years before she would have become eligible for full retirement benefits because she was fed up, a decision that she says had “nothing to do with kids or the classroom and everything to do with bureaucracy.”

Click here to read more at www.northernvirginiamag.com.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2013
Addie Williams gives The House of Comprehension two thumbs up on her blog, Teacher Talk. Click here to check it out!

The House of Comprehension

By Constance D. Casserly

Published by Compass,
an imprint of Brigantine Media

Buy the Book, at www.brigantinemedia.com/compass

An imprint of Brigantine Media