This book has a number of useful and effective features that allow teachers to assess the ability of their students as well as to gauge their improvement. Here is a list of the books' features:
1. The book offers diagnostic tests that teachers may wish to use as pre-tests. These tests come at the beginning of sections. Use these diagnostic tests to see what students know and what skills in particular they need to improve.
2. In addition to diagnostic tests, the book offers post tests. Students should improve as they cover the concepts in the section, and their post test scores should be higher than their pretest scores. If not, it is time for remediation.
3. There are a number of exercises that can be used for daily assignments as well as for remediation.
4. Explanations are clearly and concisely written, except for a simplistic explanation of who/whom. Students just do not seem to understand this concept as this text explains it.
5. The book covers reading and writing skills as well as strategies that students can use to improve their reading skills and writing skills.
6. The book contains review exercises that students can complete own their own.
7. The teacher book comes with all kinds of enrichment activities and resource materials.
8.The books can be used with English I (9th grade students) as well as with English IV students (12th grade students). Regardless of the grade level, the books are organized into the same sections so locating information is easy for teachers if they teach different grade levels.
9. The books have a table of contents as well as a glossary that have cross references which make locating specific concepts extremely easy.
10. The books are brightly colored so that if you teach mutliple grade levels, you will be able to locate your book and ensure that you have the correct book. The tenth grade book is purple while the senior book is bright orange. You can't misplace your senior English grammar text--neither can students. It might even glow in the dark!
