Beyond Monet: The Artful Science of Instructional Integration

by Barrie Bennett, Carol Rolheiser

Innovative teaching strategies, sample lessons, cooperative learning.

Genres: Education, Teaching

388 pages, Spiral-bound

First published June 1, 2001

Reviews

[Niall Cooke · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book's power is to be found unfortunately, as an addendum to attending professional development with Barrie Bennett. For me, having had that opportunity, I personally refer back to this book often. I'm no publisher, but the criticism that the book is poorly designed and thematically disorganized is perhaps justified, however. Valuable, nonetheless.

[David Bass · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read this book ten years ago. I last read it last week. I dip into it often and take away material to think about.

I've done a lot of workshops with Barrie and he is an amazing educator whose processes are replicable. There is a conundrum with his workshops and published material I've noticed over the years. He constantly says "don't trust another to do your thinking for you", but then he publishes a book.

The way his books are designed, they deliberately give you 90% you have to open the last 10% yourself. Don't worry though, he gives you the key, you just have to realise it.

To open the content, you need Concept Attainment theory (David Perkins) Bloom's taxonomy (levels of thinking) and an understanding of Types of Thinking (Inductive, Deductive mostly).

Without these you won't be able to be as effective as you could be, so I understand some of the criticisms I just don't accept them.

He's updated it through a project with the SSTUWA (State School Teachers Union of Western Australia), contact them to see how you can get a copy of the book he wrote for them.

[Kari · Rating 1 out of 5]

Really hard organization to follow, so bad formatting; and it's almost like there's no points ever made, everything that's said seems to be leading up to a thing or two and then the subject is changed. I was only really glancing at this to see what it was, and so it would be hard to be disappointed, but I still was. At one point they say something like, "don't read this next bit unless you've just drunk three expressos and are very alert." Well, I'm alert perfectly fine, and this still doesn't make any sense. The whole book is that way; they should have put that caveat on page one.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had some great explanations of instructional tactics, graphic organizers, and cooperative learning structures with sample lessons interweaving the different ideas. Although a little disorganized in format, the book got me thinking and concerned about some gaps in my own knowledge. For instance, how come multiplying 2 negative integers yields a positive number? What real life example illustrates this?

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book as part of a book study. I have read chapters 1, 3 and 4. They were probably my least favourite chapters. Bennett give you lots to think about when planning a lesson. There are great lesson strategies and ideas within it. I would say it is a good book for teachers at any stage in their career.

[Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

not well written I felt, but a great resource for lesson plans