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Accessing School: Teaching Struggling Readers to Achieve Academic and Personal Success
This book, though focused on one teacher in one school with one group of students, shows all teachers what can be accomplished. While the collective voice gives us community, it is the individual voice that gives us strength. Jim's voice gives us much strength, much strength indeed.
-Kylene Beers, author of When Kids Can't Read-What Teachers Can Do How can we make the tools and habits of academic literacy available to every student? Jim Burke answered this question by creating ACCESS, a program for struggling students he began five years ago at Burlingame High School-a program where seventy percent of incoming ninth graders go on to college. In ACCESSing School , Burke examines academic success initiatives around the country, identifying their key components, then detailing how their practices apply to ACCESS so that you can adapt its principles to meet your school's unique needs. ACCESSing School offers a reading-intensive alternative to ineffective remedial courses. It synthesizes the findings of recent studies with both the insight Jim has gleaned from teaching ACCESS classes and the "Four Cs of Academic Success" he identified in School Smarts . ACCESSing School offers a model for all schools, complete How can you help every student learn to "do school?" By providing an opportunity for them to acquire the habits, motivation, and language they need in a curriculum that is structured and experiential, guided but flexible, personally meaningful but academically effective. How do you take the first step? By reading ACCESSing School , and discovering more about the ideas and practices that can help your students succeed both in school and after graduation. For purchasers of the book, reproducibles can be downloaded at .
-Kylene Beers, author of When Kids Can't Read-What Teachers Can Do How can we make the tools and habits of academic literacy available to every student? Jim Burke answered this question by creating ACCESS, a program for struggling students he began five years ago at Burlingame High School-a program where seventy percent of incoming ninth graders go on to college. In ACCESSing School , Burke examines academic success initiatives around the country, identifying their key components, then detailing how their practices apply to ACCESS so that you can adapt its principles to meet your school's unique needs. ACCESSing School offers a reading-intensive alternative to ineffective remedial courses. It synthesizes the findings of recent studies with both the insight Jim has gleaned from teaching ACCESS classes and the "Four Cs of Academic Success" he identified in School Smarts . ACCESSing School offers a model for all schools, complete How can you help every student learn to "do school?" By providing an opportunity for them to acquire the habits, motivation, and language they need in a curriculum that is structured and experiential, guided but flexible, personally meaningful but academically effective. How do you take the first step? By reading ACCESSing School , and discovering more about the ideas and practices that can help your students succeed both in school and after graduation. For purchasers of the book, reproducibles can be downloaded at .
224 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2005
10 people want to read
About the author
Jim Burke
147 books51 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
A longtime English teacher, Jim Burke is the author of more than 20 books and senior consultant for the Holt McDougal Literature program. Jim has received several awards, including the 2000 NCTE Exemplary English Leadership Award. In 2009, he created the English Companion Ning―the largest online community of English teachers in the world. More recently, Jim has served on the AP English Course and Exam Review Commission and the PARCC Consortium.
A longtime English teacher, Jim Burke is the author of more than 20 books and senior consultant for the Holt McDougal Literature program. Jim has received several awards, including the 2000 NCTE Exemplary English Leadership Award. In 2009, he created the English Companion Ning―the largest online community of English teachers in the world. More recently, Jim has served on the AP English Course and Exam Review Commission and the PARCC Consortium.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 14, 2025
A very readable book. It had several good takeaways for me as a parent looking for ways to help my individual kid
- the emphasis on sustained silent reading every day.
- the academic skills matrix (although that seems virtually gone from the internet, bizarrely! Was there an upgrade at some point?)
- the reading process, with accompanying examples of graphic organizers (I found his book “reading reminders, tools, tips and techniques” to get more!)
- the self assessment reading scale
- the need for test taking strategies to be taught explicitly
- reading reminders bookmark
- the emphasis on sustained silent reading every day.
- the academic skills matrix (although that seems virtually gone from the internet, bizarrely! Was there an upgrade at some point?)
- the reading process, with accompanying examples of graphic organizers (I found his book “reading reminders, tools, tips and techniques” to get more!)
- the self assessment reading scale
- the need for test taking strategies to be taught explicitly
- reading reminders bookmark
Displaying 1 of 1 review