School Smarts: The Four Cs of Academic Success

by Jim Burke

This is a book about success. A book about what effective learners do to succeed in school and how you can help all of your students achieve similar results. It's based upon a five-year study in which Jim Burke investigated the essential skills and abilities effective learners use to succeed in academic classes. His results are so groundbreaking, so powerful that they will forever change the way you view learning.

Genres: Teaching

176 pages, Paperback

First published July 16, 2004

About the author

Librarian 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.

Reviews

[Amy Gonzalez · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got this book because it is the Summer book club selection for #Engchat on Twitter. Every Monday at 7pm, English teachers have been getting together to tweet their thoughts about the book and respond to questions initially posted by the founder of Engchat (fellow goodreads friend and NWP teacher, Meenoo Rami) and the host, Jim Burke. I actually participated only once this Summer so far and have not been able to do it again, but I do always read the archive or check out tweets afterwards. Since this discussion is ongoing, I am not going to go into a lot of details here about what I thought of the book.

I will only say that this will not take any experienced teachers by surprise. The four C's are: Commitment, Content, Competency, and Capacity. I think teachers can argue what other factors of success beginning with C would be even more appropriate ( I like, "Creativity") In fact, I felt a growing frustration on wanting more specifics about how to address specific aspects for each "C." For example, to get students to feel committed to the work they have to have a solid sense of academic identity, allies, and engagement. Well I believe that, but I want more specifics on HOW to increase that engagement and how to foster that identity. At 142 pages, it feels like it skims the surface but Burke does reference many authors and books to draw from for more information. Also, I admire that he addresses skills that are not only school based but can be transferred to outside life.

[Glenda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm reading this in conjunction w/ the #engchat book discussion. Although Jim would probably appreciate selling more books, you don't have to have read it to get value from and contribute to the discussion. I just got my copy Monday. I wonder if others could tell I hadn't read any of the book prior to that! :-)